Simple Italian Dinner- Healthy Chicken Parm

I've started planning out our meals weekly (at least more regularly) thanks to a great menu planner/shopping list (second PDF shown) I found via Pinterest. Along with being great way to figure out shopping, it also gives me more flexibility to switch meals around as needed. For instance, I was feeling a bit drained and didn't feel like cooking a whole big dinner on Thursday so we had leftovers instead of my planned chicken parm meal. This was no big deal, but I had bought fresh Italian bread to go with the meal and I feared it would get stale by the time we had the chicken parmesan (tonight, Saturday). In a stroke of genius, I decided to use it to make homemade garlic bread. I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com and I modified it a little bit. Below is my modified recipe, along with how I made my chicken parmesan (healthy version) and Italian roasted potatoes. They're all very simple and very tasty (at least in my opinion!).

Garlic Bread
Ingredients:

• 1 load of Italian bread
• 1/2 cup butter (softened)
• 1 1/2 to 2 bulbs of garlic (NOT cloves- whole bulbs!)
• 1 tsp of Italian seasoning
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 to 2 Tbsp of shredded cheese (I used Sargento 6 Cheese Italian mix)

Preheat oven to 350. Slice the tops off the garlic bulbs. Place them on a cookie sheet or on a mini sheet (made of a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil) and drizzle with the olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes or until garlic is soft.

Slice the bread in half, horizontally and set on a cookie sheet, sliced sides up.

Squeeze garlic out of its skin and combine with butter. I found it easiest to use my little food processor for this because the garlic was soft but not very willing to be broken out of its clove form.

Spread the garlic butter paste over the 2 halves of bread, sprinkle the Italian seasoning and shredded cheese over top.

Set your oven to "Broil" and broil the bread until it is nice and toasted! Allow to cool a bit and slice it up!

Italian Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients:

• 4-5 medium to large potatoes
• Olive Oil
• Garlic salt
• Italian seasoning

Preheat your oven to 500. Dice your potatoes into roughly 1" square pieces. Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil (this will make clean up A LOT easier). Spray the foil with Pam or another non-stick spray.

Place the potatoes in a single layer over the sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Generously sprinkle garlic salt and Italian seasoning over the potatoes. Bake for 25 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown.


Before baking



After baking- golden brown & yummy!

 For me, the potatoes are the first thing to be finished so here's a trick to keep them warm until dinner time.

Take a ceramic bowl (I use my Corning ware) and run very hot water over the inside until it feels warm even after you take it away from the water. Dry it out and transfer the potatoes. To keep the heat in without having the potatoes get mushy, place a paper towel to absorb the steam over the potatoes before covering.



Healthy Chicken Parmesan



Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Traditional Tomato Sauce (I use Prego Traditional- close to heresy in my Italian family, but I use it infrequently enough that I can't justify the time to make a huge vat of spaghetti sauce like my mom.)
• Shredded Italian Cheese (Sargento 6 Cheese Italian mix is my preferred cheese because the variety gives it a lot of flavor)

I find that it speeds up the cooking process if the chicken breasts are tenderized and flattened a bit. To contain the chicken juices I place the breasts in a freezer bag, seal it, then tenderize it.

Once that's done, I trim the excess fat and cut the breasts in half to make smaller portion sizes.

For super easy grilling, I use my George Foreman grill, but a grill pan over the stove will work just as nicely. Grill the chicken until thoroughly cooked through.

Transfer the grilled chicken breasts over to a cookie sheet (I used the same foil-covered sheet that I used for the potatoes to save on clean up time). Spoon sauce over each piece and generously sprinkle the cheese over top of it.

Broil the chicken until the cheese is melted and golden brown.

Enjoy your meal with a nice glass of wine and toast to a dinner well made!