Chicken zucchini, where delicious meets healthy

Are you a fan of chicken, veggies and/or cooking on your own?

Recently I found a recipe that is healthy, easy to make and in my opinion, a lot more flavorful than dining hall food.

For this dinner recipe you will need:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breast
• Two zucchini (or other squash-like vegetables)
• One onion
• Hummus (The plain Wild Oats brand at Fresh & Easy worked well for this recipe.)
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Favorite spices
• Red potatoes (optional side dish)

First, preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Chop the vegetables and toss them together with just enough olive oil to lightly coat them. Season with preferred spices (I just used salt and pepper.)

Pour these prepped vegetables into a baking dish in an even layer.

Place your cleaned and cut chicken breasts on top of the layer of vegetables and cover each breast completely with hummus. Sprinkling a pinch or two of spices on top of the chicken and hummus is a good idea as well. (Two baking dishes can be used for this recipe, one for the vegetables and one for the chicken, but if you’re like me, you will try to use the least amount of dishes possible to avoiding prolonging dishwashing later.)

Squeeze lemon juice over the chicken and veggies. The original recipe calls for the juice of an entire lemon, but I found the lemon to be a bit overpowering when it came to the mix of flavors produced. If you really like lemon though, you can even put thin slices of lemon in between the chicken and veggies.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until your chicken is thoroughly cooked and your vegetables are at their desirable level of soft or firmness.

I also decided to pair this dish with a side of roasted red potatoes as it only takes a few minutes to wash and prep them. I washed and roughly chopped mini red potatoes into square and wedge pieces and tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika-again the spices are up to you!

I baked them for probably about 45 minutes at the same oven temp for the chicken, but you can take them out when they reach your preferred level of crispiness!

I recommend you work on homework, learn Mandarin, go for a run or watch an episode of Gossip Girl while you wait. Just a few suggestions. Most importantly, though, let your meal cool just a bit and enjoy a satisfyingly healthy and delicious meal that came straight from your kitchen!

Natalie Laczewski is a freshman majoring in communication. Her column, “Food for Thought,” runs Wednesdays.