Chicken and Roasted Veggie Shawarma

How many of you have felt like they have fallen in a rut with your eating habits? It happens to all of us from time to time. I’ve been doing a lot more cooking lately. I realized before I started the Clean, Burn, Shape Challenge that I was going out to eat a lot more than I thought. My bank account confirmed that for me. I felt that I was losing connection to my purpose. My stomach was feeling upset from all the heavy food I was eating. But that’s okay. We all fall off the wagon sometimes, and it’s in our control whether or not to get back on. For me, the constant bloating was enough to make a shift in my eating habits. I went back off gluten and dairy and since then, I have been feeling way better. My stomach feels lighter and I feel more connected with nature. Throughout the 10 days of the challenge, I made 100% of my meals from home and I felt like a bad ass! It feels so good for me to feel a connection with my food because this is my gift I get to share with the world, and I am so grateful for that!

When I went abroad a few years ago to Israel, one of my favorite dishes that we got to eat was Shawarma.  Let me tell you, it was way better over there than you can find at any “fast food” Mediterranean restaurant. Yeah, they may seem “healthy”, but I read the ingredients on what they use at Naf Naf Grill and Roti Mediterranean Grill. I was extremely disappointed that both of them use soybean oil in all of their meat and some of their vegetables because it is one of the unhealthiest and most processed oils aside from rapeseed oil. But that’s another story that I will save for another time. I almost went there to save some time from all the meal prepping on Clean, Burn, Shape until I found this out. Luckily, I found a really simple homemade alternative that tastes wonderful. The best part is that it contains all clean ingredients including my homemade roasted red pepper hummus from my most recent cooking demo. I’m super excited to share with you my Homemade Chicken and Roasted Veggie Shawarma.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs

• ½ red cabbage, thinly sliced

• ½ jar of bread and butter pickle chips, chopped

• 4 oz portobello mushrooms, chopped

• ½ yellow onion, chopped

• 10 oz spinach, wilted

• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil divided

• 3-4 large cloves garlic, minced

• 2 tsp cumin

• 2 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp allspice

• 3/4 tsp turmeric

• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

•  1/4 tsp cinnamon

• 1 pinch cayenne

• Salt and black pepper

• ·Nonstick cooking spray

• ** One batch of roasted red pepper hummus (homemade or store bought)

** Recipe for my homemade hummus can be found here or check out my cooking demo here

** Note: I put the Shawarma seasonings on my vegetables, but you can put it on your chicken as well. If you decide to season your chicken, marinate them in a plastic Ziploc bag with the same seasonings listed above with 2-3 Tbsp. olive oil for 2-3 hours before cooking.

Directions:

1)      Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F. Chop your veggies (except the spinach) plus your garlic and put them on a foiled baking sheet with 2-3 Tbsp. olive oil. Pour seasoning on the veggies and mix well.

2)      Spray the baking sheet with nonstick cooking oil and place your chicken on a separate foiled baking sheet with hummus (I like to crust my chicken with it).

3)      Bake for 30-35 minutes until chicken is cooked through and veggies are slightly browned

4)      Once done, cut the chicken into small pieces and sauté for 3-5 minutes (although I skipped that step for time’s sake).

5)      In a separate pan, wilt your spinach and season with some salt and pepper.

6)      Combine veggies, chicken, and spinach into one pan and stir for 2-3 minutes.

7)      Top with more hummus if desired and enjoy!