Haney 365 :: January 30- February 5

Haney 365 :: January 23- 29

Haney 365 :: January 16-22

 

Haney 365 :: January 8-15

 

Tarah's Weeknight Chicken Parmesan

I haven't been documenting my meals here lately, but I have been keeping track of them in my planner! At least that's something, right? However, I made Chicken Parmesan tonight and I thought I would share the recipe with you!

I don't have the best memories of Chicken Parmesan because it was one of the first meals that I cooked as a married woman. I picked a Rachael Ray recipe, but it called for about 57 steps and just as many ingredients. It took me forever, partially because of the steps and ingredients and partially because I was a new cook. Because of that, I've probably only made it 4 times in our marriage. That would probably be fine except for the fact that it's one of Tyler's favorite meals. I really need to get better at making it more often because he loves it so much! He asked for it tonight, and I was going to make it in the crock pot, but I remembered that I had an old recipe.

My first college RD, Tarah, is very near and dear to my heart. She was like an older sister to me in college and we've kept in touch over the years. I just love her. I went to visit her after her first baby was born in 2006 and she made this Chicken Parm for me. I'd forgotten about it until Tyler asked for Chicken Parm, so I dug it out of my email archives. It is so simple and great for a weeknight! I adapted it a little bit, but it is so delicious and reminds me of my sweet friend. That's a win-win!

Tarah's Weeknight Chicken Parmesan
serves 4-6

Ingredients 

• Three large boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to an even thickness
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• large jar of pasta sauce (I used Kroger brand Tomato & Basil)
• 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 box whole wheat thin spaghetti

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese in a shallow dish. Add milk to a separate shallow dish.
3. Dip chicken breasts in milk, then coat in breadcrumbs mixture. Place in a 9 x 13 glass dish.
4. Bake for 30 minutes. In the meantime, boil your spaghetti noodles.
5. Remove chicken from oven and pour the jar of pasta sauce over the top.
6. Top each breast with the shredded mozzarella and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 15 more minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, broil on high for 2 minutes, just enough to brown the cheese a bit.
8. Serve hot over spaghetti noodles with extra sauce. We enjoyed ours with sweet peas. Enjoy! 

Note: The chicken breasts I used were GIANT, so we each ate a half of one. We were plenty full!

Haney 365 :: January 1-7, 2013

Menu Monday on Tuesday

If you've spent any time reading my blog, it won't surprise you to know that I love to cook and eat. Cooking for my family and friends is definitely one of my hobbies. 

I thought about starting a recipe journal for 2013 to record what meals we eat, where I found them, and whether we liked the meal or not. Then I remembered I had a blog and that this might be a better place to record those things. I'm going to try to stay somewhat current on my Menu Mondays, but I will be late more often than not. I'm starting out the year on a good foot, considering it's already TUESDAY, but whatever! Here's what we ate this week.

December 31, 2011 :: New Year's Eve

We stayed home, made a nice meal, watched a movie, and went to bed early! See also: we are old. Ha! We started with bacon wrapped water chestnuts as an appetizer and then enjoyed one of our favorite salads: romaine, orange pepper, hard boiled egg, and blue cheese with Garlic Expressions vinaigrette. We rounded out the evening with grilled steaks, Molly's Twice Baked Potatoes, and grilled onions. For dessert, we each had a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich from Trader Joe's. This was a great meal, but how could it have been bad? We went to bed fat and happy!

January 1

I was feeling pretty sick on New Year's Day, so I had a bowl of noodles with butter and garlic salt for dinner. It's one of my favorite easy meals! Tyler ate the leftovers from New Year's Eve.

January 2

Skinnytaste's Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage, and Spinach

The only thing I did differently was that I sliced Trader Joe's Spicy Italian chicken sausage into links and browned it in olive oil (instead of crumbling it). This wasn't our favorite because it didn't have a ton of flavor. However, I attribute it to the fact that I used peeled and chopped frozen squash from Trader Joe's instead of fresh. We definitely want to give this another chance when squash season rolls around. I served it with roasted brussel sprouts and Sister Schubert's mini baguettes. Griffin loved it, especially the sausage!

January 3

Trader Joe's Spinach and Kale Bites with Tomato Basil Marinara and whole wheat thin spaghetti

About a month ago, the sample lady at TJ's was putting out these spinach and kale bites in their tomato basil marinara sauce. Griffin and I both loved them, so I picked them up and served them over thin spaghetti. I baked them in the oven according to package directions, then kept them warm in the sauce while I cooked the pasta. We had this with garlic toast and we loved it! It was a great, low calorie meal that was packed with flavor. If you have a local TJ's, you can find these bites in the freezer section! 

January 4

Ina's Winter Minestrone with Garlic Bruschetta

We always have a pot of soup on Friday nights. I left out the celery because I absolutely hate celery. It was a flavorful, easy soup that we really enjoyed! I halved the recipe and we had plenty to eat plus leftovers. I made the garlic bruschetta and it was the perfect accompaniment to the soup. This was a definite winner!

January 5

Erin's Bow Tie Fiesta

I have seen so many people rave about how good this is and I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to make it! I sent Erin a text asking her a question about making it ahead of time, and when I told her I'd never made it before, she told me she was ashamed of me-- haha! And RIGHTFULLY SO! I am so sad it's taken me a sweet forever to make this because it is SO DANG GOOD. I'm not even going to tell you how much of the pan we ate. The only thing I left out was the jalapenos. We ate it with homemade guacamole and chips. No, the chips were not homemade. Ain't nobody got time for that. (I love Sweet Brown; go look her up on YouTube if you don't know who she is!) This would be the perfect meal to take a new momma.

What about you? Any great meals you've enjoyed lately?