A week of dinners and new recipes!

Here is another 101 off my list. Last week I made dinner for D at least twice that week. It was actually 4 days that week…Sunday to Thursday, but that works too.

Monday I tried out a new recipe…Almond crusted chicken with Balsamic honey glaze. D.E.L.I.S.H….times 10.

Really fabulous. I found it here at one of my new favorite sites, Loves to Eat. She has a ton of totally yummy dinners, desserts and everything else! I found this recipe in the Light and Healthy section.

She used these fancy type of bread crumbs called Panko crumbs. I had heard of them before but never tried them. But I plan on buying them from now on. They were really great. I like them by far over regular bread crumbs and even Oven Fry. I will used these as a substitute from now on.

So the recipe calls for:
4 chicken boneless, skinless, slightly beaten chicken breasts
¼ cup Panko Crumbs (which I found was not nearly enough, so I just poured in about ½ the container)
Egg beaters (I guess you could also use egg whites)
Some seasonings
¼ slivered, diced almonds (I just bought a pack of slivered almonds in the baking section and rough chopped them up again to get them smaller).

Get your eggs in one bowl, chicken ready to rock, and all other ingredients ready in another bowl and set up your assembly line!

I first dipped my chicken into the eggs, then into the crumb mixture coating each side. Then they went to a Pammed and foil linde cookies sheet and into the over they went.

While that was cooking I started my glaze. I was a little skeptical about the glaze because it was made out of vinegar and vinegar has such a strong sent to it. But hey, I gave it a go.

Glaze
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
½ cup orange juice
1 1/2 tbs honey

Mix all glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil to reduce sauce by half. Spoon over finished chicken.

The sauce was ok I thought, and I can probably do with out. It made a TON, so next time I will do just a half batch because D did really enjoy it. He said he was real crazy about the almonds in the chicken coating. So I served it up with a salad and some mashed taters.

Tuesday night I made another dish off here called Lightened up Chicken Parm. Again really fabulous and super simple.

4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 tbs tomato paste
Fresh herbs
Mozzarella cheese (shredded or sliced)
Panko crumbs (I bought the Italian seasoned kind)
Dijon mustard
Whole wheat penne pasta (or your choice of whole wheat pasta)
½ chopped white onion
1 green bell pepper, chopped
Olive oil

Get your oven all warm and toasty and a baking sheet coated with Pam. Take your olive oil, onions and peppers and throw them in a medium skillet that has a lid to fit. Cook them so that the onions become soft and translucent. Next add your crushed tomatoes and paste. Let that come to a simmer over about 20 minutes.

Next get your assembly line of Panko, chicken and mustard ready and dip, dip and place on sheet. Throw those in the oven when you are done.

Meanwhile, have your pasta water going so that you can time it all together. The chicken takes about 20 minutes all together and your pasta shouldn’t take more than 15.

During the last few minutes of baking, remove your chicken and spoon on some of your homemade pasta sauce, just on the top. And then place your mozzarella on top (I used slices since that is what I already had and I used ½ slice on each piece). Return to the over for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, place on bed of drained pasta and pasta sauce. Viola….done!

Wednesday I made that amazing lemon spaghetti like I did 2 weeks ago from here but this time I used shrimp instead of chicken. Not so crazy about the shrimp. I mean I love shrimp, but it just didn’t hold up enough of the flavor like the chicken did. D agreed with me on that fact too, so from now on, that is strictly a chicken kind of recipe.

Thursday night we did a very low key dinner with D grilling steaks and me making some homemade steak fries. Very simple, very good.

So that is my week of dinners for D as well as a new recipe for the month of August!