Luv Ashland Recipe: Herb Mediterranean Chicken over Zucchini Noodles

As part of my “Treat Yourself” theme, I am excited to share this recipe that my Mom and I created the other day that is not only super delicious, but also low carb. Growing up, my family (like most families) would have a pizza night and on those nights throughout my teenage years we would get take-and-bake pizza from Papa Murphy’s. This is where my Mom and I found our obsession with the Papa Murphy’s Herb Chicken Mediterranean pizza. Seriously, if you have not tried it and you are a fan of pizza, you need to go find your closest Papa Murphy’s and treat yourself. It is an artisan thin crust pizza topped with olive oil, chopped garlic, whole milk mozzarella, grilled chicken (raised without antibiotics), fresh spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, zesty herbs and finished with feta cheese… YUM! I am not kidding when I say my Mom and I probably treated ourselves to this pizza once or twice a month. We would get this pizza and dip it in ranch or even use balsamic glaze dressing as a dipping sauce; just writing this makes me want to go order it.

As much as I would like to pig out on this pizza everyday, I do know that there needs to be a balance with ALL foods and I need to treat it like a holiday; to enjoy it every now and then, but to celebrate the hell out of it.

My Mom and I have been living the low-carb lifestyle for the New Year to get back in shape and to overall feel good. With that being said, my Mom and I were enjoying coffee together one morning at her house and said “you know what I am craving right now? … That pizza from Papa…” and before she could finish the statement I interrupted with, “YES!!! The Mediterranean pizza!” We then put our creative hats on to think about how we could fulfill this craving while still eating low carb. That’s when we got into the car and headed to my personal favorite grocery store, Aldi’s. (I plan to do a whole post about Aldi’s and how I fell in love with it and how it hasn’t drained my wallet as an “on-budget” Mama… stay tuned.)

After shopping through Aldi’s we were able to find ALL the ingredients for our recipe MINUS the sundried tomatoes, which Aldi’s let me know that they are hoping to sell them soon in their stores (so keep checking). We ended up heading to Costco to get the massive jar of sundried tomatoes (we like to add extra and put it on our salads)… yum!

We were able to remake this recipe and place it over zoodles (A.K.A. zucchini noodles) and keep it at 9 net carbs. We hope you enjoy this rich low carb recipes for a dinner where you want to treat yourself and stay somewhat low carb.

Herb Chicken Mediterranean over Zoodles

Servings: 10

Net Carbs: 9

(All ingredients minus sun dried tomatoes can be found at Aldi’s)

Ingredients:

1 bag of frozen chicken breast (you can also buy fresh)
2 jars of artichoke hearts (check the carb count)
2 boxes of zoodles OR 6 zucchinis (if you plan to zoodle them yourself)
2 cups of sun dried tomatoes
1 package of cream cheese
1 package of Italian seasoning dressing (or Italian seasoning, if you have it in your pantry already)
1 tbsp of red pepper flakes
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of minced garlic (1 tbsp for zoodles and 1 for chicken)
3 cups of fresh spinach
1 cup of whole milk mozzarella
1 cup of feta cheese
2 tbsp. of Pesto (check the carbs, and if you cannot find a low carb one you can make your own with macadamia nuts – homemade pesto recipe coming soon.)
Basil leaves for garnish
Parmesan at end as needed.

Directions:

Thaw chicken and cut into cubes. Place chicken in crockpot with package of Italian dressing seasoning, 1 tbsp. of minced garlic and cream cheese. Cook on high for 4 hours.
One hour before the chicken is done, start preparing the zucchini noodles by heating it with the olive oil and minced garlic. Once zucchini is turned into noodles, place olive oil in skillet and start warming the noodles. Add pesto sauce and cook until noodles are soft enough to your liking. Keep warm.
20 minutes before the crock-pot finishes, add artichokes, sun dried tomato’s, spinach and red pepper flakes.
5 minutes before finished, add mozzarella and let melt.
When finished place the chicken in a serving bowl and top with feta cheese, parmesan and basil for garnish.
Place zoodles in separate bowl, start serving and enjoy!