Cooking with Judy: Quick, clean eating for our busy lives

With back to school for our local districts happening in August, most of us are wondering, where has the summer gone?

Back to school means back to our breathless schedule, back to carpools, and back to getting dinner on the table each night. Oh, and let’s make those dinners healthful, too.

Award-winning dietary nutritionist Michelle Dudash has a solution for that in her revised and expanded cookbook, “Clean Eating for Busy Families” (Fair Winds, $21.99). I met Dudash at Melissa’s Produce in Vernon, where Melissa’s chefs prepared a delicious lunch of recipes from the book.

What is clean eating, we wondered.

“Clean eating is choosing foods in their least processed state,” she explained. “Buy local when possible. And when using packaged foods, look for a simple ingredient list. Unless you plucked that apple off the tree, most foods are processed in some shape or form.

“I don’t see processed as a negative thing, but it’s a continuum,” she said. “As a dietician, I’m looking at what was done to the food. What was removed? Was anything added? And clean eating doesn’t have a lot of added sugar or salt.”

When it comes to convenience foods, make better choices, she advised: “lower sodium soups and canned vegetables, fruit cups with no added sweetener and in 100% fruit juice or water, natural granola or snack bars with fruit, nuts or whole grains listed as the first ingredient, whole grain tortilla chips made with nutritious oils and whole corn, natural microwave popcorn with simple ingredients.”

All this emphasis on health does not spell joyless eating.

“Enjoy every bite,” Dudash writes. “Food not only nourishes and fuels our bodies and minds, it also provides entertainment, encourages curiosity, invites togetherness, and rejuvenates the soul. Food should taste good first and then be good for us. We should feel free to savor flavorful foods until satisfied, rather than eat around cravings and long for something else minutes later.”

Ever mindful of our hectic lives, Dudash streamlined the more elaborate recipes of yesteryear. Case in point, her one-pan chicken parmesan with spinach.

“When I was a private chef, my employer requested a healthier version of chicken parmesan,” she writes. “This recipe became one of my signature dishes and a favorite of the house. Then I super streamlined it for busy us. You can cook the whole thing in an oven–safe skillet or transfer to a baking dish. My family loves it with whole grain thin spaghetti, or served with zoodles or extra spinach.”

Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.

ONE-PAN CHICKEN PARMESAN WITH SPINACH

From “Clean Eating for Busy Families” by Michelle Dudash, R.D.N.

Ingredients:

Sauce:

• 1 (14 ounce) can whole tomatoes

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Chicken:

• 1 (5-ounce) bag microwave–in-bag fresh baby spinach

•  1 1/2 pounds chicken breast or chicken breast fillets

• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

• 3 tablespoons (21grams) almond flour or (24 grams) wheat flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

• 1 tablespoon extra–virgin olive oil

• 1/2 (8 ounce) ball fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into six medallions

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Sauce: Pulse tomatoes and salt in blender or food processor for a chunky sauce.

3. Microwave spinach in bag according to package directions.

4. Chicken: Halve large, thick chicken breasts with sharp knife parallel to cutting board to create thin fillets. Cut chicken into 6 pieces. Pound chicken to 1/4 inch in plastic produce bag or under plastic wrap.

5. Combine Parmesan cheese, flour, salt, pepper, and basil in plastic produce bag or dish. Coat chicken in cheese breading. Place large skillet over medium heat and add oil. When oil is shimmering, add chicken to pan in a single layer and tightly together to cook as many pieces as possible in first batch, pressing down center of each piece. Cook until golden on one side, about 5 minutes. Turn off heat and turn chicken. Poor tomato sauce over chicken, then gently swirl pan to get sauce underneath chicken.

6. Gently squeeze spinach to release water and divide spinach on top of chicken. Place mozzarella on top, and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bake until sauce is bubbling around edges, about 10 to 15 minutes.