This easy crusted chicken recipe has tons of flavor! You wouldn’t expect it with so few ingredients. But you will love this easy dinner!
So here we go! It’s already day two of my Whole30, only 29 more to go!. I have a pretty nice starter recipe for y’all. Baked Macadamia Nut Crusted Chicken! Doesn’t sound very ‘diet’ does it? This is why I love Whole30! It’s my kinda food!
For those of you who are asking, ‘What is a Whole30‘? It is 30 days of eating real, unprocessed and nutritionally dense food. Which means avoiding all grains, added sugars, soy, dairy, beans, legumes, alcohol or processed foods. It means eating everything from where it comes from. It means reading every label on everything you buy in the grocery store to be sure it is ‘Whole30 Compliant’. Get used to seeing the phrase”Whole30 Compliant” for the next 30 days. A new word for Websters?
I have been stalking this program for about a year. Initially it was to lose weight, that reason has changed dramatically. I had back fusion surgery in September. It has been nothing short of hell my friends. It isn’t that the surgery went awry, in fact it did everything it was supposed to do. But the nerve in my left leg had been compromised by that nasty disc for so long that it is struggling to come back to life. When you put together the word nerve and struggling, it equals pain…and a lot of it! Nerves are slow healers and mine has the length of my entire leg to get through before it’s done. Most of the nerve pain has settled in my calf, ankle and foot and seems to be quite happy just lingering there. It makes every step painful and it likes to come out at night and play. I think of my leg as an ‘it’. A separate part of my body that just does it’s own thing…I have little or no control over.
There are many things that I will never take for granted again. Like hopping in my car to go to the store. Visiting the mall, dining out and at one point even checking the mail. Everything has to be thought out well in advance. How far can I go? How bad will it hurt? How long of a drive? How much can I take? Is there wine when I get there? It is very surprising how much pain a person can really endure. One thing I have learned is we are all a lot stronger than we think.
But before we all start feeling so sorry for Kathi that it ruins your Mac Nut Chicken experience – let me say that I am enjoying my life. I am starting to get out more and more and doing more and more! The recovery is just so terribly slow and I just want it to hurry up already! I’d like my life back please….I miss you!
Whole30 info: A few websites to get you headed in the right direction, should you want to follow along. There are great meal ideas on Pinterest/Whole30 . A few of my favorite websites are The Healthy Foodie.com and Meatified.com and of course Whole30.com. I love reading the forum. All your ‘can I eat this or that‘ questions will be answered there. I have also started a Laughing Spatula Whole30 Pinterest board here that include a few recipes of my own that are Whole30 compliant along with some additional recipes that sounded pretty yummy.
So this is it….it’s show time! Get out your meat cleavers and wash off those veggies and please, please, let me know how you are doing!
Baked Macadamia Nut Crusted Chicken and #Whole30 Start!
Ingredients
- 3-4 chicken breasts
- 1 4.3 oz can of Macadamia Nuts
- tablespoons About 2 homemade mayonaise
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Pat dry chicken breasts and lay on baking sheet.
- Brush top of chicken breasts with a light coating of mayonnaise.
- Coarsely chop macadamia nuts and sprinkle on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until completely cooked through and nuts are lightly brown.
- Serve with a side of mayo and Whole30 dijon mustard for dipping!
Nutrition
Judith says
Five stars. So easy. So delicious. Plan to serve for company. However I split my chicken breasts horizontally and pounded them. With the nuts they are very filling. Not on 30 so served with vegetables. Don’t know if that works with plan or not but love them
Stephanie says
This looks awesome and simple and pretty. Will be trying it next week. Just finishing up a diet that eliminated carbs and sugar. I am just now able to add diary and nuts back in…. sooooo excited. This would even probably be good over a salad the next day with bacon… oh a girl can dream 🙂 Great blog.
Dana says
Great recipe! Love that it’s so simple on the ingredients, but they pack a huge flavor punch. That’s the thing people are most worried about when they start a whole30 – that they’re not going to be able to eat anything good for the whole time!
Sorry to hear about your leg and back problems. It’s great that you’ve decided to try and go a natural route to healing too, to try and stem the inflammation from factors in your diet. Have you heard of the paleo autoimmune protocol? It’s pretty similar to the whole30, just with a few additional foods taken out that have the potential to cause more inflammation in your joints and nerves.
How’s the whole30 going for you so far? Keep it up 🙂
Kathi Kirk says
Hello Dana,
Thanks for your note! So far, so good on the Whole30. 100% compliant but I’d be lying if I said it was easy. I think sticking to it for health and not weight loss is very motivating. I am having some relief in my nerve…finally after 10 days but it’s a long road ahead! Thank you again for your note! Love your blog and plan on visiting often!
Kathi
Suzzanne says
Kathi,
Thank you so much for launching the Whloe30 on your blog! I admire your desire to change the quality of care you give your “whole” body and not just focusing on losing weight. The first week has been tough and I confess to cheating a little bit by enjoying a skinny latte yesterday, but your passion renews my fortitude! I look forward to many more delightful recipies and will let you know if I find any to share as well. Here’s to all of us – we rock!
Kathi Kirk says
Thanks for the encouragement Suzzanne! We can do this! Day 3 went without a hitch but alas still craving a Christmas cookie after dinner! Strawberries sufficed. Go us!
Gina Kimmel says
FYI. Go to Starbucks and order a coconut milk latte with cinimon. Delicious and compliant.
Pat says
I am sorry to hear of all your nerve pain, Kathi….This Whole30 sounds like a drastic diet but sometimes we just have to get drastic to accomplish our goals. I will be watching your progress and hopefully, this will help your pain. You are off to a great start with this delicious looking chicken dish. 🙂
Kathi Kirk says
Thanks Pat. It’s been a bit of a rough road but I am hoping for some improvement. The diet does sound kinda drastic but it’s really just Paleo intensified. Funny thing is. I miss my yogurt! Hope all is well with you! Your blog just keeps getting prettier and prettier!
Alix Chachulski says
I am on Day 7 and am feeling good! My taste sensation is a little off…hoping that comes back to normal soon. So far, day 3 and 4 were the toughest! It was like I was in a foggy daze. Super lethargic, sleepy (I napped twice!) and not in a great mood. But it does seem to get relatively easier day by day. Were now on Day 7 and I find myself enjoying veggies in different variations and I surprisingly don’t really want a bowl of ice cream at the end of the day! That’s a definite positive. Making this chicken this weekend! YUM!!
Kathi Kirk says
Hi Ali, I read where you might want to increase your fat and maybe throw in a baked Potatoe to help with your taste buds being off. You are doing great! It’s a lot of food prep isn’t it? I have just been cooking and chopping double of everything but I still run out of veggies!
Kathi
Rachel Ballard says
Gooooooo Kathy! Kick that Whole30’s butt girl! I’m so sorry about your back. Nerve pain is terrible–and it’s so hard that with all we can do in medicine today that we can’t just make it stop. I wish you a speedy recovery and plenty of sunny days (yes I know where you live!) of encouragement. Keep you head up and just keep cooking. I’m rooting for you!
Kathi Kirk says
What an absolutely wonderful note to get Rachel! Thank you for your encouragement. Day 3 is a challenge. Lethargic and that nerve wants a cookie and a good glass of Cab because it is screaming at me! Thank you again for the pep talk…always needed!
Kathi
Rachel Ballard says
Well you know how it is–you withdraw your body from the sugars and bad stuff and it will want more for a while, but when your 30 days is up, you’ll take a bite and it will taste so sweet you’ll wonder how you ever ate it in the first place. Of course, you’ll get over it, but it will make an impression. I’ve done two major detox diets that were very similar and it’s no laughing (spatula) matter. 🙂 They are hard. And as your body inflames in response to the withdrawal, you may actually see a bit more pain in your back/leg. Just hang on. It should get better soon!