Chicken Parmesan -- new recipe review

A lot of people in our church bring their lunches and stay to eat and fellowship after the meeting. The last time we were able to join them, a friend brought a humongous plate of incredible chicken Parmesan. My husband was jealous (we had only brought leftover's from the previous night's dinner :) and immediately asked if I would make some very soon! So I looked at a bunch of recipes online and tried my own version. We all really enjoyed it, especially the girls. I was planning to serve leftovers the next night, but we didn't have any!

Ingredients:
1 Tbs. butter, coconut oil, or olive oil
4 big chicken breasts
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs ( I just crumbled some day old bread that I had made)
2/3 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tsp Italian seasoning mix
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Mozzarella cheese
Marinara Sauce
angel hair pasta or spaghetti squash

Directions: Melt olive oil, butter, or coconut oil in a sauce pan on med. heat. In a bowl, combine salt, pepper, and flour. Beat the 2 eggs in a different bowl. In a third bowl, combine Parmesan, bread crumbs, and Italian seasoning. Dip chicken in each bowl, coating thoroughly. Fry in a pan until a nice, crunchy coating has formed. Place chicken breasts in a buttered dish. Cover with marinara sauce and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Serve over pasta or spaghetti squash.

Make-Ahead Meatballs -- new recipe review

This recipe caught my eye because it mentioned using cooked brown rice instead of bread crumbs or crackers as a filler. Although I ought to, I haven't started making my own bread crumbs and didn't want to buy a processed kind with mysterious ingredients :) I love Food Renegade's recipes because they contain "real" ingredients instead of processed food. These meatballs were very flavorful and everyone in my family enjoyed them. My 1-year old really surprised me: I gave her a piece of one right after they came out of the oven, and every few minutes she would toddle back over to me, signing, "please" because she wanted more. She ate a ridiculous amount of meatballs that day! I'll be using this recipe from now on!

• 3 eggs from pastured hens
• 1 small onion, chopped (or half a large one)
• 1 1/3 C. bread crumbs (or cooked brown rice)
• 2 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp. Italian herb blend
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 3 lbs. grass-fed ground beef

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the next six ingredients and mix well. Finally, add the beef and mix well. Shape the meatballs into one inch balls (should make approximate 100 meatballs). Place in single layers on ungreased 1-inch deep baking pans and bake at 400F for 10 minutes, until done.

Drain the fats and store for later use or (heaven forbid!) discard.

Once the meatballs and pans have cooled to the touch, place the meatballs (tray and all) into your freezer to “flash freeze” them. After they’ve frozen, remove the meatballs from the trays and transfer to plastic freezer storage bags or other freezer storage.

Keep stored in freezer and remove only as many meatballs as you need at a time. You can thank the flash freezing for that. It helps each meatball hold its individual shape and not stick to the other meatballs around it. This way, you can remove as few or as many meatballs as you need for whatever you’re serving up.

Reheat make ahead frozen meatballs on the stove, in sauces, or in the oven (350F for 20 minutes).

Enjoy!

Salmon Pesto Pasta -- new recipe review

As you know, I've been trying to incorporate more seafood into my diet (even though I spent my first 26 years refusing it,ha, ha :) Salmon seems to be the only winner in my book so far. I liked this recipe because it was super easy and the strong pesto and parmesan flavor covered up most of the "fishy" flavor. My husband liked it just fine, so I will probably add it to my dinner list. I got it from AllRecipes.com. (Note: we usually just slice up a salmon fillet instead of eating the canned kind :)


Ingredients

* 1 (8 ounce) package uncooked spaghetti
* 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 cup chopped sweet onions
* 3 green onions, finely chopped
* 2 tablespoons prepared basil pesto
* 2 (6 ounce) cans salmon, drained and flaked
* 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions, green onions, and pesto. Cook until tender. Mix in salmon, and cook until heated through. Stir in 1/2 the Parmesan cheese, and continue cooking 5 minutes. Toss with the cooked pasta, and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese to serve.