Grilled Chicken Breast with Tomato and Basil

Served with Green Vegetables 

Ingredients: (serves 4):

• 4 chicken breasts or 8 chicken thigh fillets.
• 1 (brown) onion, finely chopped.
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped.
• 2 stems of fresh basil leaves, finely chopped or  6 teaspoons basil paste or Pesto sauce.
• A little vegetable oil. Virgin olive oil is good, but any will do.
• A selection of vegetables, such as, spinach, broccoli, baby marrow (zucchini), squash, fresh green french or runner beans, mushrooms, sweet green pepper and cabbage. Chop these into bite size pieces. You can pretty much eat as much of these as your family can stand. Choose whatever you have available.
• 1 small sweet potato cut into 1cm slices – 125 gram per serve.
• 1 can tomatoes ( should have no added sugar). 

Method:

1. Gently brown the chicken for 5 to 10 minutes in a frying pan with a little oil. Season with salt and black pepper. Don’t cook all the way through. Remove from the frying pan and put to one side.
2. In the same pan, fry the onion and garlic gently, until golden brown. 
3. Add the basil leaves and canned tomatoes and put the chicken back into the frying pan. Simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 10- 15 mins. Cut through a piece of chicken to check if it is done.
4. In a separate frying pan, add  a little vegetable oil, a clove of chopped garlic and the  vegetables(not sweet potato) and fry gently until just tender.(If you prefer a milder garlic flavour, then brown the garlic before adding vegetables.) Salt and pepper to taste.
5. In small saucepan, add a little water and heat until boiling.
6. Add the sweet potato pieces and simmer approx 7 minutes until tender. (Or in a microwave proof dish, cook sweet potato on high for about 5 mins, until soft.)
7. Serve and enjoy!

Green vegetables and canned tomatoes are all very low gi. Sweet potato is medium gi, so that’s why you weigh that serve. Chicken has no glycemic response, so eat enough to get your protein requirement for the day.