nom nom: easy chicken parmesan

Some days, you just don't want to turn on the oven. Today was one of those days. The weather was beautiful and as spring is coming, no one wants to turn on the hot oven! Joe and I both got home at around 9:30 PM and had decided to wait to do dinner together. He went to a car show with some friends and I went for a walk with some girlfriends so an easy quick late night dinner was the plan. Easy Chicken Parmesan is just that - quick and easy and ready in 20 minutes.

This version of Chicken Parmesan skips the breading but keeps the cheesy mozzerella. Instead of baking the chicken, it's cooked right in the sauce so that it stays juicy and tender. Topped with mozzerella, you do have to turn on the broiler and get the cheese nice and melty. Simple go-to meal for those late night dinners.

Easy Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:
4 chicken tenders
Olive Oil
Salt-free seasoning (I used 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's)
2 cups of marinara sauce 
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried italian seasoning (or basil)
4 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
4 servings pasta, any kind (I used brown rice penne pasta)

Directions:

1. If you have the time, marinate the chicken tenders in olive oil and salt-free seasoning. 1/2 hour is plenty. Overnight is great. 
2. Get the water boiling for the pasta. 
3. If there is no time to marinate, brush the chicken tenders with olive oil and season with salt-free seasoning.  Heat a large, oven-safe skillet over medium. Spray with non-stick spray and add chicken. Cook until golden brown but not all the way cooked through - about 6 minutes total. 
4. Remove the chicken from heat and put on a plate. Let the skillet cool down.
5. Return skillet to medium heat. Add marinara sauce to skillet, mix in italian seasoning and parmasan cheese. Put the chicken tenders into the sauce mixture and place lid on top. Cook for 10 minutes. 
6. During this 10 minutes, cook the pasta (the water should be plenty boiling at this point)
7. Once the chicken is cooked through, top each chicken with some sliced fresh mozzerella. Broil until golden brown and bubbly - about 5 minutes. 
8. Serve the chicken over each serving of pasta. Enjoy!

weekend snapshots

 

 

this weekend, we said goodbye to Joe's grandpa + took a road trip to wisconsin to see our friend Anna.

the boys played football in the park and i sat in the grass, enjoyed the sun and read my book.  

in this kitchen

in this kitchen, we would eat thai steak lettuce wraps 

loving these bright colors for a the springtime, whenever it decides to come! That kitchen's beautiful mosaic backsplash is just amazing and it reminds me that I really need to get started on fixing up our kitchen. I'm slackin'! 

nom nom :: skillet lasagna

Hate to say it but I have been slaaaaacking the last couple of weeks to get some blog posts up. But even when I wasn't updating, I did try and do my best to snap some photos of the meals we've been cooking up and I will slowly make my way to posting them here. The last couple of weeks have been plenty busy: celebrating a bride-to-be, basketball games, friends visiting, getting sick (ew) and some much needed shopping! Yes, after twelve weeks of no shopping, I finally was able to make a few purchases to add to my spring wardrobe! Win for me (and my wallet).

Another new year's resolution was to cook more at home and spend less meals dining out. I thought we were actually doing a pretty good job of this until I started tracking my spending and realized we spent a ridiculous amount of dollars out on the town. The number was up there, and I was a little disappointed that it was so high but I learned alot from monitoring my budget -- this month's goals is to stick to my budget (yay for being an adult).

That being said, when I came home from work yesterday, cooking dinner was not on my mind. I had all the ingredients ready and had even did some prepwork the night before, but all Joe and I both wanted to do was head to Costco, grab a few things and  get cheap Costco hotdogs. And we werethisclose to doing just that but decided we shouldn't waste a meal pre-prepped and to be good and eat at home. So Skillet Lasagna it was. Comfort food, a delicious meal and easily cooked in less than 30 minutes!

Skillet Lasagna

1 tbsp olive oil

1 jar pasta sauce

1 lb ground turkey

4 lasagna noodles 

6 oz fresh mozzerella, sliced

1 cup cottage cheese

2 tsp dried parsley

heat oven to 425 degrees F.

1. In a medium-large oven safe skillet, brown ground turkey with dried parsley  salt and pepper in the olive oil. Cook until brown, 6-7 minutes. Drain excess liquid.

2. In a separate pot, prepare water for pasta and bring to boil. Once water is boiling, drop in the lasagna noodles. You can break them apart but I left them whole. 

3. Now that the turkey is cooked through, pour in the jar of pasta sauce and heat until bubbly. 

4. At this point, noodles should be cooked. Remove from the water and set aside. 

5. Scoop half of the warm sauce mixture into another bowl. 

6. Time to assemble the lasagna  Add two lasagna noodles over the remaining sauce mixture. Spoon scoops of cottage cheese and half of your sliced mozzarella on top of the noodles. Cover with the remaining two noodles. Take the rest of the sauce and pour over the noodles. Add more sliced mozzarella on top. 

7. Bake for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes and serve!