This is my favorite simple chicken parmesan recipe.  I serve it over whole wheat angel hair pasta.  Pair it with a side salad you have a delicious meal.

I lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded flat

1 jar of favorite pasta sauce or 2-3 cups of homemade pasta sauce

2-3 eggs, beaten

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated.  Fresh is best but you can use the Kraft version.

1 cup Italian style bread crumbs

2-3 cloves of garlic put through a garlic press

salt, pepper and seasonings to taste.

1-2 cups of flour

olive oil

1 large thin slice of mozzarella cheese per breast

Preheat oven to 375º.

In a small bowl combine flour with salt (around 1/2 Tbsp) and a few good grinds of pepper.  In another bowl add the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic and additional seasonings of your choice.  If I’m using flavored bread crumbs I will only add crushed red pepper for taste, if I’m using plain bread crumbs I add oregano and other Italian spices.  Dredge each chicken breast through the flour mixtures, then the egg and finally into the breading mixture.  Make sure the breast is completely coated in breading and set aside.

In a large skillet preheat 2 Tbsp. of olive oil.  Over medium high heat cook the chicken breasts until the chicken is cooked through and the breading is crispy and golden brown.  I usually flip the chicken breasts every 2-3 minutes to keep the crust from burning.

Coat the bottom of a baking dish with a thin layer of pasta sauce.  Place the chicken breast into the baking dish and cover with remaining sauce.  Put 1 slice of mozzarella cheese on each breast.   Since I like mine spicier than the other members of my family I will add additional crushed red pepper to the top of mine at this point so I can tell which is the spicier one once it is cooked.  Cook until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 15-20 minutes.

For dinner last night I pulled the extra Chicken Enchilada pan out of the deep freeze.  I covered it with aluminum foil and cooked it in the oven at 375º for about an hour.  I removed the foil for the last 15 minutes. It tasted exactly the same as when cooked fresh.  I will never just make one pan of the chicken enchiladas again, this made for such a tasty, easy supper.

As a side dish I made corn cake, we went to Don Pablo’s Mexican Restaurant while in Minneapolis and it made me crave corn cake.  It’s a simple recipe and the kids loved it!

CORN CAKE

1 stick softened unsalted butter

4 ears worth of corn removed from the cob (you could also use frozen corn),

1/3 cup Mexican corn flour

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup whipping cream

pinch of kosher salt

2-3 grinds of black pepper

1/2 tsp baking powder

Combine butter, corn flour and water and add in the corn.  In another bowl mix together the remaining ingredients.  Add this mixture to the corn mixture and pour resulting batter into a loaf pan.  Bake at 400º for 60 minutes, keep loaf pan covered with foil for first 45 minutes of baking.  Remove from oven and let sit for 10-15 minutes.  Scoop out and enjoy.

This is a very fast and simple chicken enchilada recipe. This yields two 9″x13″ pans of enchiladas.  I made them last week, cooked one pan and froze the other for a meal to be named later.

2 lbs cooked chicken, shredded

1 lg can enchilada sauce -I prefer spicy but if it’s too hot you can cut the heat by adding a sm. can of tomato sauce

20 tortillas, corn or flour

2-3 cups of shredded Cheese – I use 1/2 colby and 1/2 jack freshly shredded

I can of black olives, diced

1 bunch of scallions, sliced thinly

2 tomatoes, diced

1 onion, finely chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, diced without seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 375

In a mixing bowl combine 1/2 of the cheese, chicken, chopped onion, jalapeno with enough sauce to coat the mixture.

In a sauce pan heat the remaining sauce over low heat.  Using tongs dip a tortilla into the sauce to coat one side.  Fill coated side of the tortilla with the desired amount of the chicken mixture.  Roll up and place into your pan.  Repeat until all tortillas are filled.  I pack them tightly into the pan to keep them from unrolling during cooking.

Pour the remaining sauce in the pan over the enchiladas and top with the remaining sauce.  Combine the black olives, scallions and tomatoes and sprinkle on top of the cheese.

Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 15-20 minutes.  Remove foil and bake until the cheese on top is melted and bubbly.

I ended up making three lasagnas tonight.  The third lasagna did not end up getting as much of the cheese mixture as I would like but it will do.

It really was no more difficult to make three lasagnas than making one.  I had no wasted ingredients at all and I now have at least two more meals prepared and ready to be put in the oven when I need them.  It’s a great feeling.

Based on a suggestion from my brother, Tony (who needs to get a blog!), I will be trying this method out this week with my mom’s delicious chicken enchilada recipe.  At this rate my freezer will full in no time.

As a way to save time and money I’m trying to figure out a way to cook more meals at once.  I’d like to eventually build up a stockpile of meals in our freezer so that when I don’t feel like cooking an entire meal I have something I can pull out, defrost and heat up.  My hope is that having this option will make us less likely to order take-out, plus I will have less wasted produce as I will not be using half of something and then throwing the rest away.  That half ingredient will now go into another meal.

My first foray into this new era of cooking in our home is taking place tomorrow.  I am going to make 2 or 3 lasagnas instead of one.  I will then break them up into meal size portions and put them into our deep freeze in the basement.   Wish me luck!

I was planning on taking Riley on a hike today after school so that I could take some pictures and get some exercise. Mother Nature has different plans. It is cold and rainy with a chance of SNOW tonight. I am done with winter! Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer. Let’s hope.

I guess I will spend the day warm inside my house. I am 150 pages into a fantastic book right now. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. The former Catholic schoolgirl in me feels so wrong reading it, the current me finds that it is hilarious satire. I think I’ve laughed out loud while reading each page. Highly recommended for those who are not easily offended.

Tonight for dinner I am going to make Chicken Parmesan. It’s one of my favorites.

Chicken Parmesan

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded thin

2 eggs

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 cup Italian bread crumbs

3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed

Crushed red pepper to taste

2 cups pasta sauce

1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese

Angel Hair Pasta

Preheat oven to 375

In a bowl combine the Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, garlic and crushed red pepper. In another bowl beat the two eggs with a fork. Dip the chicken into the egg and then into the bread crumb mix. Set aside.

Heat a skillet containing the olive oil and pan fry until the chicken is cooked through. Usually 5 minutes a side. Remove from heat.

Place chicken breasts into a baking dish coated with non-stick spray. Cover with the desired amount of pasta sauce and top with Mozzarella cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Serve over Angel Hair pasta cooked according to package instructions.