(I don't think I could go clear through the Month of Daily Phase One recipes without featuring this Easy Baked Pesto Chicken from 2010, which is without a doubt one of the most popular Phase One recipes on the blog. It's delicious even with purchased pesto from the store, but if you make your own pesto and keep it in the freezer, that will make this dish even better!)

I stumbled on to this recipe for Baked Pesto Chicken when I was looking in The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook for a recipe my friend Bonnie had recommended. At my house there's fresh basil on the counter, I'm freezing basil for winter, and I've now made two batches of Basil Pesto with Lemon, so it's not really surprising that a recipe using pesto would catch my eye. If you don't have any basil growing, you can certainly make this ultra-easy main dish with purchased basil pesto, which is what the recipe in the book called for. If you have more fresh basil, or more basil pesto left in your jar after you make this, look after the recipe for some other ideas using pesto.