Crispy Baked Chicken Parmesan

When I think of my favorite comfort foods, there seems to be a few reoccurring themes. Evidently I really like cheese and fried goodness. This recipe for my Crispy Baked Chicken Parmesan skips right over the bad fried part and goes straight to the melty, cheesy goodness. I love this meal because I can get it to the dinner table in about a 1/2 hour and I feel like I'm getting a really indulgent meal with out a lot of effort in the kitchen or miles to run afterward.

Here is what you'll need for chicken:
1/2c Plain or whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tbsp dry parsley
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4c Egg substitute or 1 egg, well beaten
1c pasta sauce. I like Wild Oats Organic Sauces
1c Part-skim Mozzarella cheese
1lb Chicken breast strips or thin sliced chicken breasts

For Salad:
6 c Shredded Iceberg Lettuce
1tsp olive oil
1tsp apple cider vinegar
1tsp stone ground mustard
2tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp minced garlic
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste

For zucchini:
3 medium zucchini
1tbsp olive oil
1 tsp finely minced garlic (I like Spice World Minced "squeeze" garlic)
Salt and pepper to taste

Here's how to make the recipe:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Set up your breading station: Line a pan with parchment paper or foil. Next, place the beaten egg or egg substitute in one bowl and the bread crumbs in another. Add garlic, parsley and 1/4tsp salt and 1/4tsp pepper to the bread crumbs and mix.

2. Dip each piece of chicken or breast strip in to the egg and let excess drip off. Next dip into bread crumbs, lightly pressing to help crumbs stick. Place on baking sheet.

3. Place the baking sheet in the oven. For these strips, the cooking time is approximately 20 minutes. For a larger breast, allow upwards of 30 minutes.

4. While the chicken cooks you'll want to prep your side dishes. For the zucchini:
Rough chop the zucchini while you heat olive oil in a saute pan. Add zucchini, garlic and salt and pepper to the pan and toss to coat with the olive oil. Cook until tender, 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. For the salad: Add lettuce to a large bowl with a tight lid. In a small bowl, mix oil, vinegar, lemon juice and seasonings and mix well. Add salad dressing to the bowl and place lid on the container. Shake to distribute the dressing. Immediately divide into serving bowls and top with black pepper.

6. After your chicken is fully cooked, remove from oven and set oven to broil. For these strips I grouped 3 strips together and topped each serving with about 1/4c of mozzarella.

7. Return the chicken to the oven and broil for 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted and begins to brown.

8. Heat sauce in a small sauce pan or microwave. Move each portion to a plate and top with 1/4 of the warmed sauce.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as our family does. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions!

Guilt-free Shrimp and Grits

I was raised in the South, but somehow I can't remember a single time that shrimp and grits ever made it onto our dinner table. I can't even remember grits being on the menu at all for that matter. Cream of Wheat, yes. Grits, no. I blame that one on having parents raised far closer to Canada than Mexico. And yes, I said blame because its a shame we weren't eating this more often. Its so good!

This recipe requires you to pay a little more attention than most of my recipes, mostly because of the shrimp. They overcook quickly if you aren't watching what's happening in the pan. However, the extra effort is so worth it. The creamy, cheesy cheddar grits are perfect with the heat of the shrimp and the crispy, salty bacon adds...who am I kidding...its bacon. It makes everything awesome.

Here is what your'll need:
1lb Large or Jumbo shrimp, raw, shelled, de-veined
3/4c quick grits (not instant)
1 14oz can chicken broth
1c water
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2c sharp cheddar cheese
2 strips of bacon
1/2 a large yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 a green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp garlic, finely chopped
1/4c fat free half and half
1 tsp Tabasco sauce (optional, omit for non-spicy shrimp and grits)


Here's how to make the recipe:

1. In a sauce pan bring 1c chicken broth and 1c water to boil and whisk in grits and black pepper. Cook according to the package directions.

2. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, fry bacon until crispy. Remove bacon from pan and transfer it to a paper towel, leaving he residual bacon fat in the pan. 

3. Add finely chopped onion to sauté pan and cook until translucent, 3-4 minutes. Add finely chopped bell pepper and garlic and continue to cook until peppers are soft, 2-3 more minutes.

4. Push onions, peppers and garlic to the outer edge of the pan and add shrimp in a single layer in the center of the pan and lightly season with salt and pepper. The shrimp cooks quickly. It only needs about 2 minutes (or less) on each side. You want to cook it until it is no longer pink and translucent, but is still tender.

5. As soon as shrimp is cooked through, lower the heat to simmer and stir in half and half, being sure to scrape up all the tasty bits of bacon and veggies off the bottom of the pan. Add Tabasco sauce, if desired. I loved the spicy kick, but I removed the kid's shrimp from the pan before I added the Tabasco sauce.

6. Turn your attention back to your grits. Give them a good stir. I like my grits to be a little looser, so I ended up stirring in the remaining chicken broth, about 1c of additional broth. Add cheddar cheese and mix well.Continue to stir until cheddar is melted. Season as needed with salt and pepper.

7. Divide grits into serving bowls and top with shrimp and sauce. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

I served ours with a side of zucchini. It is just two rough chopped zucchini sauteed with 1/2tbsp olive oil and 1tsp minced garlic with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until tender, about 5-7 min.

I’d love to hear what you thought of the recipe. Please feel free to leave comments!

Creamy Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats

If you follow me via Instagram, you've probably witnessed firsthand my current obsession with Creamy Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats. I've been eating them for breakfast for so many days in a row now that I don't even post pictures of it anymore.

Breakfast is absolutely my favorite meal of the day. Sadly, so many of the things that come to mind when we think of amazing breakfast foods are not so good for you. These oats give me that "wow, these are delicious" feeling of eating something warm and satisfying without downing a giant-sized calorie-bomb of a cinnamon roll.

In fact, since I don't want to give these up, I've resorted to eating my other favorites as "breakfast" for lunch and "breakfast" for dinner. I remember as a kid thinking it was such a treat when my mom would come home from work and declare it a Breakfast For Dinner night. It's all just food, right? Eggs for dinner aren't really any different than a chicken breast for breakfast if that's really what sounds good, but those were some magic words in my seven-year-old mind. So that being said...feel free to have some overnight oats for dinner tonight!

Here's the recipe:
1/3c Old Fashioned Oats (not quick or instant oats)
1/2 scoop of Cinnamon or Vanilla Whey protein powder (optional, but recommended. I like About Time Cinnamon Swirl)
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
1tbsp Chia seeds
1/4c low fat cottage cheese
1/4c unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of choice)
1/4tsp vanilla extract
1/4c pumpkin puree
1-2tbsp Maple sryup or sugar-free maple sryup
(Reserved) 1tbsp natural peanut butter or nut butter of choice (top warm oatmeal with peanut butter just before serving)

Mix all ingredients well in a air-tight container and store in refrigerator overnight. In the morning, remove the lid and microwave for 1 minute. Stir thoroughly and microwave for an additional 30 seconds or until the cottage cheese is melted and oatmeal takes on a creamier texture. Top with peanut butter and chow down.

***Quick disclaimer: If cottage cheese is not your thing, you should still give these a try. Once the oatmeal is warm, you'd never know its in there! It makes these oats creamy and packs a good protein and calcium punch.

I make five servings at a time to last the week. It is just as good the first day as it is the last. Just make sure to choose air-tight containers to keep your oats fresh.

I hope you love this easy, healthy breakfast as much as I do. Its the perfect start to your Fall morning, plus with only 10 minutes of prep involved in making an entire week's worth of healthy breakfasts, you'll have plenty of time left to squeeze in a walk around the block or get a jump start on your meal plan for next week. Enjoy!

Oven Baked "Cookie" Chicken

I'm guessing the name of this recipe has you wondering...oh gross, she breaded that chicken in crushed cookies, but come on. Would I do that? Now that I think about it...maybe. But not today. I called it "cookie" chicken because the most amazing thing happened when I baked it. My house smelled just like chocolate chip cookies. And I don't mean the flaxseed, avocado chocolate chip cookies my house smells like all the time. I mean full on Toll House goodness. When my husband got home from work he gave me this weird look and then got really excited that I was baking "real" cookies. I had to let him down that it was our dinner, but once we sat down to eat he was over the disappointment. This chicken is so good. Our daughter even asked if we could have it again tomorrow which is about the highest compliment she gives when it comes to food. She even chose to eat the chicken over the fruit on her plate. That's big stuff in our house.

The secret ingredient in this recipe is...Fiber One Honey Squares.

Start by crushing 1cup of Fiber One Honey Squares in a ziploc bag. I used my rolling pin. You want it pretty finely crushed, but not pulverized. Next line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Now set up your breading station. You will need two bowls, one for your egg whites and one for the crushed Fiber One. I added a few twists of the black pepper grinder and a few twists of the sea salt grinder to the egg whites before I dipped the chicken. 

The cereal needs a little help sticking but not a ton. I think it works best to dip the chicken in the egg whites on both sides and then hold it over the bowl for a few seconds and let the excess drip off. Then lay it into crushed cereal and press gently. Flip the chicken over and repeat with all your chicken. I had a very tiny amount of cereal left so I just sprinkled it on the chicken anywhere it needed a little more. Don't waste the sweet stuff.

If you let a lot the excess egg drip into your dry cereal it will glob up, get soggy and not stick to your chicken, which is sad.

The main problem I have with most chicken recipes that claim to be both baked and crunchy is that they never actually get crunchy. That is just the nature of the beast. If you want real crunch, you have to fry. If you fry all the time your pants get too small. Bake people, bake. I wanted to get this as crispy as I could. I decided to experiment. I was trying to figure out how to get some caramelization on the top of the chicken. A tiny drizzle of agave nectar did the trick. It only takes a tiny bit. I have the recipe calling for 1 tbsp, but I didn't use quite all of it. Close, but not all.

 

As you can see, it's just a very slight drizzle of agave

Lastly, pop it in a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes. You may need to adjust cooking time if the chicken breasts you are using are really thick. 40 minutes is usually sufficient for most packaged fresh chicken. If you choose to use chicken tenders you'll want to reduce the time to between 20-30 minutes.

My whole family loved this recipe, plus it's super easy so I'm sure it will become part of our rotation. I can totally see the leftover chicken on top of a spinach salad with strawberries and goat cheese for lunch this weekend. Yum!

Enjoy guys. This is a good one.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Oven Baked "Cookie" Chicken:
1lb chicken breasts (worked perfectly with 4 smaller breasts)
1/4c egg whites
1c Fiber One Honey Squares, Crushed
1tbsp Agave Nectar
salt and pepper to taste

Mini Meatloafs or Meatballs

One of the things I haven't been willing to give up for the sake of a healthy diet is comfort food. I still want to eat mac n' cheese and brownies and basically any and all kinds of fried goodness. While it would be wonderful to do that everyday, I have to rein it in and look at the bigger picture. Those thing are fine for an occasional meal, but for your run of the mill dinner a few healthy substitutions can take the classics you love right into health-ville with just a few changes. Enter meatloaf...I didn't serve it with the mac n' cheese I would have loved, but the baked maple cinnamon sweet potato fries and roasted asparagus weren't anything to complain about. I'll post those recipes soon!

So here we go with the meatloaf recipe. This makes a lot...like twelve mini loafs. It is usually enough for two dinners and a lunch or two, which I like but you could cut the recipe in half if it just seems like an overwhelming amount for you. This week I got a little more creative with my meal planning and knocked out two dinners with this one batch by baking up half the recipe as mini meatloafs and half as meatballs for my favorite zucchini noodle pasta instead of using ground beef.

Also, I really like these meatloafs kind of spicy. I'll give you two variations on the recipe in case you aren't a fan of "hot". The way I like them tends to be too spicy for my kids. The second variation uses more spices I would consider to be "Italian" flavors, but you can mix and match any spices your like. You really can't mess it up. My husband likes these REALLY spicy so he dips them in Siracha. It's good, but just a warning...if you do that, a little goes a long way.

This recipe couldn't be easier. I prefer to use a stand mixer, but if you don't have one you can just mix well with your hands. So, in the bowl of the stand mixer add...everything. I told you it was easy.

Once you have it all in there, turn on the mixer on but go slow. The bowl will be pretty full and you don't want to send raw turkey flying everywhere. Yuck, lesson learned.

Next line a baking sheet with foil to keep clean up easy. To make mini meatloafs roll the mixture into 12 baseball sized loaves. To make a meat loaf dinner and a meatball dinner, roll the mixture into six baseball sized loaves and use the remaining mixture to make 16 meatballs, approximately the size of a golf ball. You can put them pretty much side by side. These are just very spread out since I was only making six of them. I was able to fit all 16 meatballs on one baking sheet.

Now pop those guys in the oven and bake at 375. It takes 40 minutes for the meatloafs and 30 minutes to bake the meatballs. I baked them at the same time by just waiting 10 minutes to put in the meatballs. They are come out nice and brown. Yum!

Meatloaf

Meatballs

 

I really wish I had thought to take a picture of the plates when we had the meatloaf. The kids were screaming. You know, like they wanted to be fed or something and I forgot. Anyway, here are the meatballs in the zucchini noodle pasta before I stirred it up.

Preheat oven to 375

Cook time Meatloaf: 40min 

Cook time Meatballs: 30min

 Spicy Meatloafs:

2 lbs ground lean turkey

3 egg whites or 2 whole eggs (I prefer egg whites only)

1 cup quick oats

1 medium zucchini, grated

1 tsp sea salt (Optional)

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp dry thyme

1.5 tbsp dry mustard

2 tbsp ground black pepper

2 tsp dry chipotle pepper or chili powder

2 tbsp garlic powder

1 small onion, about a cup

1 6oz can 100% natural tomato paste

Italian Meatloafs:

2 lbs ground lean turkey

3 egg whites or 2 whole eggs (I prefer egg whites only)

1 cup quick oats

1 medium zucchini, grated

1 tsp sea salt (Optional)

1/2 tsp cumin

1.5 tbsp dry mustard

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp dry parsley

1 tbsp dry oregano

1 tbsp dry basil

2 tbsp garlic powder

1 small onion, about a cup

1 6oz can 100% natural tomato paste