Contentment Commitment: My first cooking post! Chicken Parmesan

I will start by saying that this would not have been my first choice to cook and blog about but I was so excited to do a cooking post and this was the next thing I cooked, so I went with it.

I really enjoy cooking. There is nothing that makes me feel better than to see Brandon and Pierce eat my cooking and love it. And when Pierce makes healthy choices regarding food or asks for seconds....it just tickles me to death! I guess it is the southern woman in me! Lol!

Okay. Let's get started.

You can find this recipe here.

Easy Weeknight Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients

8 oz uncooked spaghetti
1/3 cup Progresso® Italian style panko crispy bread crumbs
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, flattened slightly
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (18 oz) Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ fire roasted tomato cooking sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 oz)

I use Great Value whenever possible. That is Wal-Mart's generic name brand. I do almost all of my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. In this recipe the only things that AREN'T Great Value are the Progressive Recipe Starter and the chopped garlic. We are a family of four, living on the salary of one. We get no government help at all. So, I have to save money when and where I can.

First, fill a large pot with water and put it on high until it boils. While you are waiting for it to boil, measure out the noodles. I use fettuccine noodles instead of spaghetti noodles, which is just my preference. And the recipe calls for 8 ozs of noodles but I made 10 ozs because my kids both love noodles so I made extra from them. I weigh out my noodles on my kitchen scale.

Then I put the noodles in a dry, clean, glass just to hold them until the water boils.

Next, thaw out your chicken if it's frozen. I always buy Great Value, Family Size, Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, so mine is always frozen. I just put it on a plate and use the defrost setting on my microwave.

This is a little tip that I saw somewhere recently. To use a hanger with clips to hold your recipe or even your cookbook and hang it on your cabinet door while you cook! SO CLEVER!

While waiting on my water to come to a boil for my noodles, and for my chicken to thaw out, I put 1/3 cup of Great Value Italian Seasoned Panko breadcrumbs and 1/3 cup Great Value Shredded Parmesan cheese in a gallon size Ziploc bag.

Water is finally boiling! Add noodles.

Next, I add about a tablespoon of oil, just to keep my noodles from sticking together. I don't do this with spaghetti noodles because they don't usually stick together but fettuccine noodles do.

Now, my chicken was thawed out so I trimmed it up and got the fat and other gross veins and stuff off of it.

Next, I added them one at a time to the Ziploc bag with my breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese mixture, and shook the bag until each breast was covered with the mixture.

I saved the remaining mixture because the recipe calls for that a little later.

Next, I added 2 tablespoons of oil to my skillet and turned it to medium-high for it to get hot.

The recipe calls for 2 cloves of garlic. That you add to your oil and cook first. I almost never have fresh garlic in the house. I did have a jar of chopped garlic though. I changed this part of the recipe because I made it before using chopped garlic from a jar and I burnt it by putting it in the oil before my chicken. So, this time I decided that I would just add it to the sauce and see if that would turn out any better. I wasn't happy with the way it turned out either though, so the next time I make it, I will be trying it a different way. But I added 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic to my sauce, which is the equivalent of 2 cloves.

This is all that's left to use! The remaining breadcrumb/cheese mixture, the sauce, and the mozzarella cheese!

Now that my oil was hot, I added my chicken breasts.

Here is my recipe hanging from my cabinet door, my noodles boiling away and my chicken breasts browning.

Once my chicken was browned on one side, I flipped them over.

Once both sides were browned, I poured my sauce with the chopped garlic already added to it, around my chicken. AROUND the chicken is important. The first time I made it, I poured it OVER my chicken and that is not what you are supposed to do.

Now, I added the remaining breadcrumb/cheese mixture to the tops of the 4 breasts.

Now I added the 1 cup of mozzarella to the tops of the chicken breasts.

Cover and reduce heat to medium or medium low.

I use a thermometer to test the temperature of the chicken to be sure it is done. Chicken has to be cooked to 165 degrees. I have a sheet that I printed off of the Internet, taped inside the cabinet door above my stove so I always know exactly what temperature to safely cook meat to.