This baked chickenparmeseanrecipe is even better than fried. It’s so good and so easy, I make it for my family at least once a week.

There are two key parts to this recipe, one is tenderizing the chicken until it’s as thin as you can get it without completely obliterating it, and the other is coating the chicken in melted butter before breading.

The combination of these techniques makes for a baked chickenparmso crispy it’s hard to believe it’s not fried. Pair this with a vegetable like broccoli or asparagus and you’ve got yourself ahealthyishversion of this favorite Italian dish.

Ingredients:

• 4 Chicken Breasts. (If using larger chicken breasts use 2 and slice them in half)
• 1 Cup Italian Breadcrumbs
• 2 Tbsp Butter
• Mozzarella Cheese Pearl’s
• NewmansOwn Organic Marinara

Instructions:

• Melt 2 Tbsp of butter in a small saucepanPlace the chicken breasts intoziplockbags, (I usually do 2-3 breasts per bag)…

Ingredients

• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 ¼ lbs. chicken tenders or rotisserie chicken shredded
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (25oz.) jar marinara sauce
• 1 ¼ (12oz.) packages cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 lb. pasta, cooked

Directions

1. Place onion, garlic, chicken, salt, pepper, marinara sauce, cream cheese, Italian seasoning, and bay leaves into a slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on HIGH until chicken is tender (3 to 4 hours).
3. Stir sauce to combine and shred chicken. Toss with freshly cooked pasta and serve hot.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 whole carrots diced
• 4 celery stalks diced
• 1 medium onion diced
• 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cans 14.5 ounces each beef broth
• 2 whole bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste I added 1 tsp salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can 15 ounces cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can 15 ounces red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup ditalini pasta uncooked

Directions

1. Add olive oil to a large skillet and add in ground beef. Cook until browned and no longer pink.
2. Place the beef in a slow cooker along with the rest of the ingredients except for the beans and pasta.
3. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. 30 minutes before serving stir in beans and pasta.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Discard bay leaves before serving.
5. Serve immediately while hot.

Yesterday I wrote about our Loco Moco dinner and making this meal at the same time (click for link to original post). What helped me was my meal plan for the month. I could look at it and realize I have a bit of extra time one night and another night with little time to make dinner. I could move meals around to make two meals at once. With a bit of help from my children it was easy and fun for us.

Another tip is if you are cooking meat look at your meal plan and cook enough meat for the rest of the week if you can. Refrigerate (or freeze depending on when you need it) the meat until you need to use it. Making chicken fingers one night? At the same time you can poach or bake extra chicken for casseroles, soup, or stir fries for a…

My mother-in-law used to make queso from a recipe on a Rotel can. She would make it and put it in a small pot over a flame to keep warm and all the kids would love to dip their chips in it almost like a fondue. It was a bit spicy but the family loved it. This recipe reminds me of that dish. It is chicken spaghetti mixed with that queso dip.

Lots of families have some version of this dish. Leave out the tomatoes if you like or if you don’t want it as spicy use mild rotel instead of hot.

Also, this is a great meal for busy days because you can cook the chicken breast a day or two before and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use. I try to cook some extra chicken on days when I have extra time for meals…

This recipe has been all over Pinterest and Facebook for years. I have always resisted trying it or making a twist on it because it is so popular. I am an old-fashioned, easy, home cook. I am not about the popular. Although, I have wanted an Insta Pot to try but we are not quite there yet. My slow cooker and bread maker are good enough for now.

But, I finally broke down after spending almost a week inside looking at cooking videos, Pinterest, and cookbooks. Staying inside during cold winter days makes me want to make homemade bread and casseroles or stews every day! So, I am trying a no buy January – have to pay off those Christmas bills, and need to use what I have on hand. So, Million Dollar Spaghetti it is.

This is also a great dish if you need to have something ready to…

Did you know these terms are NOT interchangeable? Some restaurants serve one yet call it the other. What is the difference? Calzones use ricotta cheese, and strombolis do not.  Calzones usually use a blend of cheeses that almost always incorporates ricotta cheese. And then there is the pizza sauce. Calzones never have tomato sauce inside the dough but can be served on the side to dip in.

I decided to put out all the makings for strombolis or calzones and let the family decide which they wanted. It was fun choosing what you wanted inside.

Verdict:

These were amazing! We were all happy because we could use our own choice of filling. Mine was Mozzarella, Ricotta, Italian Sausage, and onions. Yum! My daughter was mushrooms, pepperoni and ricotta. It is all in what you have on hand and want to stuff them with!

This isn’t a recipe as much as…

Frittatas and us go way back. The proof is in the photo reel.

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I’ve had pasta carbonara in restaurants many times, but had never tried my hand at making it until now. Since I was making it for one, I just tried to figure out the measurements – and I learned a few things in doing so.

Pasta Carbonara has very simple ingredients – pasta, egg, parmesan cheese and pancetta (or bacon – and that’s what I used, because that is all I had). I also added a little bit of salt (not much, as the bacon is salty) and pepper.

I started by chopping 2 pieces of thick cut bacon into small pieces.

Then fry the bacon in a pan.

First lesson learned: Don’t try to fry bacon, when you’re home alone with an adventurous puppy – I got my bacon a little more crisp than I intended to (and have no photographic evidence of frying it) – thanks to Ollie…

The crust makes memorable this simple pie of tomatoes and cheese.

The surplus of cherry tomatoes has finally dwindled at our home to the last few treasures ripening inside. Thursday, we had a 65-degree day, and I let myself think perhaps my struggling cherry tomato plants might offer up something new. This morning? A frost, our first, way later than ever!

Armed with some lovely heirlooms from the farm stand, I decided that I needed to finally say farewell to summer, and that meant tomatoes and basil, with a little fresh mozzarella thrown in for good measure.

So, tomato pie it was –– a baked, one-crust pastry shell, filled with cheese and tomatoes, and warmed though until the cheese melts and the tomatoes soften. Simple, delicious, and always a hit.

I had an extra disc of the herbed pastry because I had just made a sweet pie, and I thought…