Easy Parmesan Chicken & Grilled Asparagus

I got this delicious recipe for Parmesan Chicken from my best friend, Diane! She made it when I went to visit last spring and it has been a staple in our house ever since!

Easy Parmesan Chicken

Preheat oven to 350F.
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1 cupgrated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp dried parsley
8 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless


In a shallow bowl, combine the butter, Worchestershire, and garlic powder.

In another shallow bowl, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan, and parsley.

Dip each chicken piece into the butter mixture, then into the crumb mixture.

Place the chicken in a single layer in a baking pan.

(I drizzled the remaining butter mixture on top)

Bake for about an hour, or until no longer pink inside. Because my chicken breasts were more like tenders, I baked the chicken on 300 degrees for about 40 minutes, and then 400 degrees for 5 minutes to give a nice crust to the breading.

Grilled Asparagus

First, wash & break of the bottoms of the asparagus.

Drizzle with olive oil and season generously with lemon pepper seasoning.

 Cook on medium/medium-low heat until asparagus become bright green and have slight grill marks. Be sure the flip the asparagus over several time during the cooking process.

Homemade Pizza

This is by far the most frequently made meal in our house. I got the recipe for the crust during my time in a ladies mentoring bible study, Apples of Gold, where I also got the recipe for Stinky Chicken. Also, I used to be afraid of yeast before this recipe...fear no more!

Homemade Pizza Crust

1 pkg or 1 tablespoon yeast (quick rising or regular - I use regular)

1 cup warm (NOT hot) water (if you get the water too hot, it will kill the yeast and your dough won't rise)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons oil (I use olive oil)

2 1/2 cups flour (I use about half whole wheat and half white flour)

Mix yeast and water and let stand until yeast dissolves (just a few minutes). Add sugar, salt, and oil and stir well. Gradually add flour and stir until ball forms of dough. Cover bowl with towel and put in warm place to let rise for approximately 30 minutes (I use regular yeast, so this time is sometimes longer) *quick hint* turn oven on for no more than 30 seconds and turn off, place the bowl of dough in the oven and shut the door* Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread dough on one large pizza pan and let rise uncovered until desired thickness (usually about 15 more minutes). 

*quick hint* after letting dough rise an additional 15 minutes, put the dough in the oven (before adding toppings) for about 5 minutes to begin the cooking process* 

Top with your favorite toppings and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Chicken Tetrazzini

(I will add a terrible phone quality picture when I get it off my phone)

The very first meal [at least that I remember] I had when I visited Brian's family for one of the first times was Chicken Tetrazzini. It was an instant favorite and I now consider it one of my comfort foods. Before I was learning new recipes and trying to create variety (LONG before morning sickness), this was a meal that I made at least twice a month - when I was single, it served me lunch & dinner for almost a whole week! This is a great meal to take to friends when babies are born!

Chicken Tetrazzini

2 tablespoons onion
1 tablespoon butter
10 3/4 ounces cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cooked chicken, deboned & chopped (Rotisserie chickens from HEB are THE BEST)
3 cups cooked spaghetti (I don't actually measure the spaghetti, I usually cook about half to three-fourths a box of spaghetti)
2 tablespoons parsley (I use dried parsley, so I usually only use 1 tbs)
2 ounces chopped pimiento
4 ounces mushrooms, canned & drained 

Cook onion in butter until tender. Add soup, water, and cheese; heat & stir until cheese melts. In buttered casserole dish, combine chicken, spaghetti, parsley, pimiento, and mushrooms. Add soup mixture. Top with extra shredded cheese. Bake, covered, at 350 F. for 20 minutes or until bubbly.If mixture seems too dry, add a little milk.

The recipe doesn't call for this, and I have no idea why, but I add a small can of sliced black olives. I think it just gives the meal a little extra flavor and I'm a big black olive fan!

Enjoy! It is one of my favorites and I know your family will love it, too!

Bad pictures, Good food

Warning -- my camera batteries were dead and I didn't really feel like looking for Brian's amazing camera, so I pulled out my Kodak Playsport which takes decent but not wonderful still pictures. Now as far as video goes, it's amazing! AND waterproof! Highly recommend :-)

On to the point of this post. Dinner tonight was a long time favorite of my family's. I started "Full Teach Week" today and after a long night was pretty exhausted when I got home. This meal is PERFECT for a quick preparation meal -- it does take about an hour to cook/simmer, but seriously about 10 minutes to prep. AMAZING!

We used to eat pork chops all the time when I was younger. Silly me -- I seriously thought it was because we were tight with money when we were younger and I thought pork chops were cheap. They're really not "cheaper" by the pound, except for the fact that you use less pounds of pork to make a meal so in all, it really is cheaper. I'm very picky about eating pork chops and this is actually the only meal I can think of that I will eat pork chops besides grilled pork chops -- which I haven't had since I was about 12 years old. We maybe she try that soon!

Enough chitter-chatter -- on to the show!

Saucy Pork Chops

Ingredients

6 pork chops (I used 8)

1 med onion, thinly sliced

1 10 1/2 oz can condensed cream of chicken/mushroom soup

1/4 cup catsup

3 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Season pork chops with salt and pepper.

In skillet, brown chops on both sides in small amount of hot oil (about 30 seconds on each side). 

At this point I removed the pork chops from the skillet and turned off the burner until everything else was ready. Top chops with onion slices.  Combine remaining ingredients in bowl. Place pork chops in bottom of skillet and pour liquid ingredients over chops. 

(It does not look like there will be enough liquid in the skillet at first, but with the onions releasing so much water, it gets more liquid-like within about 15 minutes. Make sure your burner is on low.)

Cover; simmer 45 to 60 minutes, or till done (when the onions are translucent). 

Normally this is served over egg noodles or mashed potatoes -- I was out of egg noodles and forgot I had potatoes in the pantry so I put it over spiral noodles. Same concept, still delicious! I got created with the frozen vegetables and combined sweet corn with broccoli -- delicious choice!

This meal is relatively healthy when using the healthy soup and whole wheat pasta. Great for large families -- seeing as how one pork chop, some pasta, and vegetables does a great job of filling! 

Enjoy!! 

Sarah