All growing up and all through college, even now, my family has always had Sunday Night Dinner.  It is a time when anyone home (friends and family) is able to share dinner,  tell funny stories and  teach my mom something new (and sometimes inappropriate – Cindy!!).   It always worked well in my house because my dad traveled during the week, my mom worked late  some nights and we always had some sort of weeknight activity or sport.  At all college breaks and during summer we would look forward to Sunday Night Dinner with everyone, the more the merrier!

Since we can not partake in the Sunday Night Dinners when we are not in Cleveland, we often have our own!  Sometimes we have friends over, sometimes we go to Brady’s parents, sometimes we just make something cozy at home and get prepped for the week.

Tonight we have a great Sunday Night Dinner.  Our close friends Jen and Duke, and Micca and Josh (and baby Reese) came over!  I wanted to make something easy, healthy and fresh.  It had to be easy and almost ready when they came because we had a 7 month old baby to play with!!  I LOVE babies!  I mean really love them!  If dinner was not almost done, we would have had to get pizza because I would have been distracted!

The menu was inspired by a Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller show I watched earlier in the week.  Here is what I did:

Tomato Basil Chicken over Italian Robusto Quinoa

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts in tomato basil marinade
  • 1 c. skinless garlic
  • 1 c. quinoa
  • 2 c. water
  • 2 chicken boullion cubes
  • 1/2 c. chopped roasted red pepper
  • 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1 c. arugula
  • 1/4 c. fresh parm.
  1. Set oven to 415 degrees and bake chicken for 30 minutes or until it is cooked in all the way through.
  2. Wrap garlic cloves in foil and bake with chicken until tender
  3. In a sauce pot, add water, boullion, and quinoa.
  4. Bring to a boil and then let simmer until quinoa is cooked.
  5. When quinoa is hot and still on the stove, add arugula, garlic, roasted red peppers, parm, and tomatoes.
  6. Stir and heat all together.
  7. Place quinoa on a serving dish and place cooked chicken on top.  Serve together.

This dish was great!  It had a lot of flavors and was very filling, thanks to all the protein and fiber from the chicken and quinoa.

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