Hey there! Happy Sunday! Hope everyone has survived Nemo. I went out with some friends last night to celebrate surviving the storm (how dramatic, right?) and therefore had a liiitle bit of a slow start today.  Finally, after some quality couch time, I did get motivated to go for a snow shoe – 40 minutes and 1.5 miles later, I felt like a new person!

One of my favorite things about Sundays is meal planning and grocery shopping (I know, it’s weird- we all love grocery shopping in our family.).  I always try to plan a healthy meal to make on Sundays so I can finish the weekend on a good note and also have leftovers for the week.  I teach classes after work on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and often do not get home until 8:30, so having healthy meals readily available to quickly reheat when I get home is key for me.

Chicken Parmesan is always a go-to favorite in our house.  Our mom makes the BEST chicken parm, but I have to say that this healthier variation that I made tonight is a close runner-up!

Healthier Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:

• Boneless chicken breasts
• Panko
• 2-3 eggs
• Flour
• Italian herbs and seasoning
• Olive oil
• 1 medium spaghetti squash
• Pasta sauce
• Provolone cheese

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350* and bring a big pot of water to a boil- the pot needs to be big enough to fit the spaghetti squash. Cut open the spaghetti squash and clean out the seeds.  Place both halves of the spaghetti squash into the water and boil until the squash is soft (Usually about 20 mins).

2. While the squash is cooking, set up your dipping stations: 1 bowl for flour, 1 bowl for eggs and 1 bowl for the Panko. Tip from mom: add in some Italian herbs and seasonings to the Panko. This gives the chicken a little extra flavor. Take each chicken breast and coat with flour, then egg and then Panko.

3. Heat a pan with a little olive oil. Once pan is warm, transfer the coated chicken breasts to the pan and sear each side for 3-4 minutes. After both sides have been browned, move them to a cookie sheet or baking stone, coat with a layer of sauce and a piece of cheese and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked.

4. At this point, the spaghetti squash should be ready to remove from the water. Let the squash cool for a little bit until you are able to hold it without burning your fingers off!  Use a fork and run it lengthwise down the inside of each side of the squash to make the “spaghetti”. Keep this in a bowl until it’s time to take the chicken out of the oven.

5. Top a bowl of spaghetti squash with chicken and extra sauce, if desired. I also ended up making some asparagus I just coated them with a little EVOO, salt, pepper and garlic nuggets and baked for about 30 mins.  Totally a great addition to the meal!

Using spaghetti squash instead of regular spaghetti is a nice, healthy change-up in this meal and everything re-heats really well; I can’t wait for left overs! Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

I am still trying to figure out my posting schedule during the week, but I hope to pop in at least a few times to fill you in on my week and classes and workouts. Here is a glimpse of this week:

Monday- Work, then heading to the Oak Square YMCA where I’ll have time to get in the first part of my workout (usually some machine cardio followed by some lifting) before teaching Dynamax Boot Camp- my FAVORITE class of the week!

Tuesday- This is the only day during the week that I don’t teach so it ends up being my rest day AND a day where I get home before 8pm and it makes me so happy!

Wednesday- Work, then I head over to the Central Square BSC (Boston Sports Club) to teach UXF Burn (I’ll post more on that later!).  I usually have time to fit in some cardio before teaching, too.

Thursday- Work, then I head over to the Central Square BSC again where I teach Cardio Kickboxing.

Friday- TGIF! I work from home on Fridays since I teach over at the Allston BSC at 5:30pm.  It’s the nicest feeling to wake up and know I can just head downstairs to work instead of making the trek into the city! I teach UXF Burn at night.

Saturday- Until March, I teach a Total Body Conditioning class at the Allston BSC.  Once March arrives, I will be teaching Cardio Kickboxing over at the Oak Square YMCA every other Saturday instead of TBC at Allston. I am really looking forward to this change!

Phew! If you made it to this part of the post, nice work and thanks for sticking with me:)

Questions for you! What do your Sunday’s look like? Do you prep meals for the week? What are your workouts going to be this week?