Most of my adult life, I have pretty much stayed away from vegetables when cooking my own meals. Not because I didn't really like them, but I just didn't really know how to use them in recipes. When trying to cook healthy, I had mainly just cooked some sort of a meat and then if I was gonna try and get some servings of veggies in with my meal, it was usually some sort of a canned vegetable and not fresh veggies.
My wife and I have been working out very consistently over the past 20 months and we have seen some pretty incredible results. But one of my goals for the year is to get a six pack, and they are true when they say that six packs are made in the kitchen. We have been eating a lot healthier since we started working out and I have been making most of our meals from scratch, but I still wasn't incorporating as many veggies as we would like.
A few days ago, I was at Costco and I wanted to get an air fryer. With it just being my wife and I in the house now, I don't like to cook in our traditional oven because it heats up the entire house and the summers here get has as hell. I found an air fryer/mini oven made by Ninja and I figured that would be a better thing for us than the traditional air fryer that has the little tub that you cook your food in. This one is basically a little oven that can also be an air fryer, broiler, toaster and a few more things.
It came with a cookbook and had some examples of what you can cook in it. One of those things were sheet pan meals. They are basically meals that you prepare on a single sheet and it all cooks together. Way easier than trying to cook things in different pots or pans while still having to cook your protein in the oven.
For this recipe, we used a pack of chicken tenderloins and coated them in olive oil and then some Cajun seasoning. In a separate bowl, we mixed up some mini potatoes, broccoli, and a green pepper. We added some olive oil, garlic salt, course ground pepper and some pink Himalayan salt.
Then we put it all on the sheet pan and stuck it in the mini oven at 375 for about 28 minutes. Our big oven takes about 10-15 minutes to heat up and I have always thought that was such a waste of electricity. This little thing only took about 45 seconds to heat up, which drastically cuts down the total cooking time. About halfway through cooking, I took it out and mixed it all over and flipped the chicken.
I really need to work on my plating and presentation for these types of photos. I have never been good at taking pictures of food and that is something that I am hoping to begin working more on, because this meal ended up being one of the best meals I have cooked at home. These mini potatoes are so much better than the large ones, especially the little purple ones. They crisped up nicely in the Ninja and the broccoli was delicious because it got a bit crispy. I wish we doubled the broccoli because I was sad when it was gone.
It is going to take a few dinners to really get used to using this. The chicken ended up being pretty dry and overcooked, and I think I am going to add the chicken about 5 minutes after I begin cooking the vegetables. I mixed up some Sriracha and sour cream and it gave this dish a nice zing and added some moisture to the chicken.
All in all, it only took about an hour total to make this dish and it was so easy. I am excited to make some more of these meals because not only are they healthy and full of fresh ingredients, they are super easy as well. Who knew eating clean and healthy was so easy?
