Being new on the health bandwagon has meant continuous learning and improvement for me. There are so many recipes where you just need to tweak the ingredients or the method of cooking to make it healthy and these chicken and spinach roll ups is one of those. What started out as an experiment has become a staple ..... must have once a week meal. And these may look a bit complicated but do it a couple of times and you'll be ready to experiment more and more.

The recipe involves pounding the chicken into a thin even layer that is stuffed with chopped cooked spinach and rolled up like a pinwheel. This is then cooked in a sauce/gravy/broth.Once the chicken is cooked, remove, from the sauce, let rest for 5 minutes. then cut it vertically to cut into pinwheel shapes. Serve this with a serving of fresh steamed vegetables and you have a very satisfying and flavorful meal. To add back carbs to this meal, serve with a side of garlic bread or brown rice.

There are a few tips to getting this right. The chicken needs to be pounded to an even thickness. This will ensure the meat cooks evenly all the way through. The mushrooms should be cooked in a wide pan over medium high heat. This will ensure that the mushrooms are cooked to a golden brown without releasing water. This will give the sauce a very deep mushroom taste. Adding garlic and thyme to the mushrooms enhances the flavor further. To cook the chicken, keep the sauce at a medium-low to low flame. This will ensure the chicken is tender even after it is sliced. To cook vegetables with flavor, sprinkle some salt/spice mix on the vegetables before steaming them. This helps the salt and spices to stick to the vegetables as they steam and they don't need to be seasoned additionally.

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts, tenderloin removed

1 cup spinach (chopped and lightly sauted)

Salt and pepper to taste

Pizza spice mix/any other spice mix of choice

For the sauce:

2 cups white mushrooms (sliced)

2 cloves garlic chopped

1/4 cup onion finely chopped

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp dry thyme or 1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme

salt and pepper to taste

prepared chicken gravy/stock (gravy can be prepared by dissolving gravy granules in hot water also)

1 tablespoon fresh cream

Method:

1. Lay the chicken breast pieces on a piece of plastic wrap, cover with another layer and pound it into 1/4 inch thin pieces. Do the same with the tenderloins as well and set them aside.

2. In a bowl combine the spinach, salt, spice mix. Depending on personal preferences, 1-2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese can also be added to the spinach.

3. Divide the spinach among the pounded chicken breasts and spread it evenly on each piece, leaving some room around the edges of the chicken breasts. Roll the chicken pieces along the length to make a log. Secure the ends of the chicken with toothpicks or with butcher's twine, making sure it does not open up during cooking.

4. Place the gravy/stock in a medium pan and add the rolled chicken to it. Cook over medium low heat for 7-10 minutes or till the chicken is fully cooked through. Remove the chicken pieces and set aside for a few minutes. Reserve the gravy/stock on the side.

5. For the mushroom sauce, put half of the olive oil in a pan over medium high heat and when it is hot, add half the mushrooms and cook till mushrooms are brown on both sides. Repeat with the remaining olive oil and mushrooms. When this is done, add the previously cooked mushrooms, garlic and onion, sprinkle some thyme, salt and pepper and let it cook over medium low heat till the onions and garlic become soft.

6. Add the reserved gravy/stock to this mixture and let it come to a boil. Add the fresh cream to it and season to taste. Cook till the sauce reaches the desired consistency. If you want to thicken the sauce fast, add some cornstarch dissolved in room temperature water. Turn off the heat on the sauce.

7. Remove toothpicks from the cooked chicken and cut vertically to reveal pinwheel pieces. Arrange the sliced chicken pieces in a serving dish/platter along with some steamed vegetables, pour the sauce over it and serve.