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A New Twist on Chicken Caesar!

13 Jan

This was one of those things that I came up with out of sheer, “I don’t know what to make for dinner!!!” (And I just kinda had some random stuff in my fridge.)

Frankly, that’s also kind of how I feel about this post…”I don’t know what I’m going to write!”

Except this was yummy. And D remarked that if his nephews had been around, they would have loved it too…so it’s also kid friendly! And easy. This is a quick and easy meal. And yummy. Did I say that already?

This recipe might not be too precise because I kind of just threw it together.

Parmesan Chicken Strips with Griddled Romaine
1-1 1/2 lbs of chicken breast – (I had one of those packs of breast meat from the grocery store)
1 1/2 cups flour
2-3 eggs, beaten
2 cups breadcrumbs (I used panko)
Salt and black pepper
Finely grated parmesan cheese (That Kraft stuff in the green can is good for this because it’s powdery, but feel free to get fancy with it!)
A couple hearts of romaine
Olive Oil
Caesar dressing

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cut chicken breasts into strips – about 1/4 in thick.
3. Mix breadcrumbs with parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. With egg in one bowl, flour in another, and breadcrumb mix in a third, coat the chicken strips in flour, then egg, and then roll in the breadcrumb mix. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
4. Bake breaded strips in oven 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. (I’ve found if you don’t get a nice brown color, slightly less time in the oven, followed by a minute or two in the broiler does the trick.)
5. Meanwhile, place a pan on med-high heat and drizzle with olive oil. Halve your hearts of romaine. When the pan is hot, place your romaine flat side down and cook until the leaves get a little bit wilty, and the edges take on a nice caramelization. This shouldn’t take too long.
6. Plate your romaine with a couple of the chicken strips and drizzle with Caesar dressing. Enjoy!

Note: You can serve this with a side for a heartier meal – I have it pictured here with a little bit of quinoa, which I just threw together with some dill, a little lemon juice, salt and pepper. Easy peasy.

Also, this particular recipe makes a LOT of chicken strips, which was awesome because I love leftovers. I made wraps the next day!! :)

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Puerto Rican Inspired Seafood Stew

23 Nov

I LOVE this time of year – when it starts getting cold and you stay inside with a good book and a cup of hot tea when it rains, and have a warm, comforting bowl of soup for dinner. Yep, it’s soup season! This seafood stew is delicious and hearty, and the recipe as I made it is EASY and resulted in a ton of food! Yay leftovers! It means less work for me later. Another added bonus? D LOVED this stew. That always feels nice. :)

1/2 lb. peeled shrimp
1/2 lb. small scallops
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon pureed cilantro
3 or 4 cloves garlic, pureed
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomato
1 cup of short grain rice
4 cups fish stock
1/2 cup white wine
2 tsp of capers
12 or so pimento stuffed olives sliced
1 red and 1 green bell pepper, diced
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
2 lemons
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Pre-prep: Rice needs to be soaked for one hour before starting the soup.

In a stock pot heat olive oil to medium temperature add the cilantro and garlic purees and tomato sauce. Cook 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the fish stock, wine, rice, diced tomatoes, capers, olives, bell peppers and 3/4s of the chopped cilantro. Reserve the rest of the cilantro. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon and add the vinegar. Cook at medium heat for 20 minutes until rice is tender.

Add the shrimp to the pot then add the scallops and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the shrimp turns pink and the scallops are opaque and the stew takes on a “gumbo-like” consistency.

Serve in a bowl using the reserved chopped cilantro as garnish and with a lemon wedge on the side.

Bedroom Boredom

31 Oct

I’ve struggled with the status of my bedroom for awhile now. I had some cheapy furniture when I moved in, like this awful dresser from Target that didn’t have enough space, constantly had dressers coming off the rails, the bottoms of the drawers falling out, and just generally pissed me off:

It was also serving the function of being my TV stand for the bedroom. Next to it I had a small cube shelf that was holding various belongings and just generally looking like it was in complete disarray. So I started by replacing it with the dresser I made over and shared with you guys in a previous post. Well that took care of some of the storage issue, but I still needed some more storage and somewhere to put the TV! And then I came across the armoire on Craigslist.  I mean, really, Craigslist is just freaking amazing!!!! For next to nothing, I got a solid wood, beautifully painted armoire:

Conveniently enough, the color matches my bed PERFECTLY, which until recently was the only thing about my bedroom that I really liked:

Pardon my messy bed…

So with the dresser and the armoire, the room is finally starting to feel more put together. At the time I was putting this together, there were still no window treatments, and the walls look pretty bare. Although that lamp next to the armoire? I’m obsessed with it. I had another floor lamp but for some reason it just snapped in half when I tried to move it. It was a hand me down, so I wasn’t too upset, but still, what kind of lamp just snaps in half?!

Anyway, I got a little punchy while putting my new lamp together:

Yeah…

Anyway, I still have a few more things to take care of, but I promise to share with you when I manage to get the room to something resembling “done.” :)

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