Easy Chicken Parmesan

I have been craving chicken parmesan for so long and NONE of the restaurants around here have it. Can you believe that? Disgusting. So I decided to make it myself and I was blown away by how easy it really is. I'm not sure I'll ever order it again when I know I can make such a good version at home! Here's the thing though: I didn't make my own marinara, I just enhanced a store bought jar. Whatever, I'm hungry, get over it.

Flipping Chicken

Ingredients: 

Sauce

• 1 cup marinara sauce - I prefer Prego 
• 1/4 c. onion - diced
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• chili pepper flakes to taste 
• 1 clove garlic
• splash of red wine

Chicken

• 2 (8 oz) bonless skinless chicken breasts (I just defrosted some frozen ones)
• 1/2 c. mozzerella cheese - shredded
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 c. parmesan cheese - grated
• 1/2 c. bread crumbs - I used a generic brand with Italian seasonings 
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• a couple leaves of fresh basil (optional)

Enhancing Store Bought Sacue

                  

How To Cook It

For the sauce, I just whip all the ingredients together mix them evenly and let simmer, I think it's a little obvious that I like my sauce flavorful. I should also note that I don't use a ton of sauce, I prefer not to drown the chicken so we never use all of it. 

• preheat broiler setting on your oven
• whisk together the egg and flower 
• in a seperate, shallow dish toss together the parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, garlic powder, oregano, and black pepper
• coat the chicken in the egg/flour mixture
• transfer to the bread crumb mixture and coat both sides, press gently so the bread crumbs stick
• pour the oil into a skillet and heat over medium high heat 
• once the oil is hot add the coated chicken
• fry until the breadcrumbs are a golden brown, then flip the chicken and repeat
• place chicken on an oven safe dish and top with mozzarella cheese
• place in oven for 2 - 5 minutes, but keep a close eye on it
• remove from oven, top with marinara and (if desired) more mozzarella cheese and fresh basil

Closet

Denim Jacket: American Eagle

Tank Top: American Eagle

Maxi Skirt: TJ Maxx

Candy Corn Fall Cookes

Fall Festivity Extravaganzaaaa (installment 5) continues!! I made these cookies last year and fell in love. The best part about them is that 1 batch makes like, a million cookies! So I can give them out to all my friends or neighbors or whatever. I love that they are bite-sized and not too sugary.... well, they don't taste  too sugary. Anyway, to the recipe....

Don't forget your baking glass of wine!

Ingredients: 

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3 cups flour
• yellow food dye
• red food dye 

How To Cook It: 

• beat the butter and sugar together until creamy
• add egg, lemon juice and salt
• add flour and baking soda, beat until mixed thoroughly
• divide the dough into thirds
• press one third of the dough flat into the bottom of a loaf pan
• mix one third of the dough with only yellow food dye
• mix the final third of the dough with yellow and red food dye until you get a nice orange
• place the orange dough evenly over the white dough; repeat with the yellow dough
• cover and freeze for 30 minutes
• once chilled, remove your dough from the pan and cut into strips starting at the short end
• trim the edges if necessary and cut into triangles
• place 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheet
• bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes (I baked mine for only 7 minutes and they came out perfectly)

Fall Hike

Fall Festivity Extravaganza continues! Over the weekend, Husband and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went on a bike and hike. We biked about 3 miles out of town and climbed Bald Hill, the views that day were amazing. I couldn't get over it. Here's a peak at our day.

Above is our very first view once we reached the top. This is facing South East, if I had turned just a little to my left, I could have seen Reser Stadium in the distance. 

Below you can see how bright the sun was, here we are headed directly west. West is my favorite view because there is almost no city, just farm land. 

The tree colors are so beautiful this time of year, I love fall! Here is the west view zoomed in.

Below is a wider view of the west, I love Oregon. 

Then Husband reminded me that I have panorama on my phone so I took another (I'm a little obsessed). 

Hiking back down we had some pretty views too. On the left we are facing due North and on the right is an open air barn that is absolutely gorgeous. 

And here at the bottom of the hill facing East: 

Overall, we biked about 6 miles and hiked around 3 miles. The gym can get boring so some days I like to just hang out in nature... I was pretty dead afterwards, though, so we had microwave tamales for dinner. 

Closet

We had an absolutely beautiful weekend. I had to take advantage of the last remaining warm days. It didn't last long, I had to change once the sun went down. (Also please excuse my random coupons on the ground...)

Dress: TJ Maxx

Scarf: TJ Maxx

Belt: Forever 21

Boots: Nordstrom

Watch: Charlotte Russe

Bracelets: Forever 21

Easy Breakfast Eggs

During football season, we have a lot of overnight guests. We live close to the stadium and a lot of our friends live out of town so we have a lot of traffic in the fall. Being the mother hen that I am, I always like to make sure that my friends eat before drinking game day. This little beauty has been a life/time saver.

Ingredients:

• eggs
• meat (this can be any kind of cooked meat, I used turkey breast but you can use ham or even precooked bacon)
• green onion
• cheese (again, your choice, I like Parmesan) 

How To Cook It

• preset oven to 400 degrees
• coat inside of muffin tin with cooking spray (or similar)
• place your meat in muffin tin, use a layer or two to make sure the egg doesn't run out
• place in oven for ~12 minutes
• remove from oven and garnish with scallions and cheese

House Warming Present

My cousin, Heidi, recently bought a house. We saw it a couple of weeks ago and it is like, the best thing I've ever seen in my life! She already has raised beds and tomatoes growing in the garden. I am so jealous out of my freaking mind happy for her!!! Having lived with roommates for a while, however, she didn't have a few essentials so I picked out a few things for her and made a house warming gift basket:

Included in the basked were:

• salt and pepper grinders
• tongs
• salad tongs
• serving/cooking/wooden spoons
• hot pads
• dish towels
• a drying mat
• WINE!
• 2 cookie sheets (she loooooves to bake)
• colander 

I used the colander as a basket and placed everything inside. Then I picked up a shrinky-dink bag at the dollar store (I don't know what they are really called). These things are awesome. It's a huge plastic bag that you place your item in, tie the top, and used a blow dryer to shrink it down and mold around you gift. They make it look so professional and it's super easy (just make sure you don't shrink up the top part above the bow, then it looks like a big mess...).

Closet

Cardigan: Forever 21

Green Top: Nordstrom Rack

Pants: Nordstrom Rack

Boots: Nordstrom

Watch: Charlotte Russe

Bracelet and Necklace: Forever 21

Pumpkin Pie from Scratch

Okay I lied, it's not from scratch. We bought frozen pie crust, but I promise this is still really good. And it's pumpkin pie from a pumpkin - not from a can, so buckle up!

Welcome to installment 3 of Fall Festivity Extravaganzaaaaa! I'm not a huge pumpkin pie fan but I have always wanted to make one from scratch, like, with a real pumpkin. And since a couple of my girlfriends are obsessed with fall in the same way I am, they were all about the experience with me. So here goes!

Ingredients: 

• pie crust (again, I bought a frozen one, sorry)
• 2 "pumpkin pie" pumpkins (they will be small and have less ridges, our were labeled "pie pumpkins") 
• 1 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1 c. hot water

How To Cook It:

• cut the stem off the pumpkin and then cut it in half and scoop out the innards (our pumpkins also had seeds for roasting so double score!)
• face cut side down on foil lined baking sheets, cover in foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours (or until tender)
• let cool
• scoop out the flesh of the pumpkin and mash in a mixer (or hand mixer, or potato masher) until smooth
• drain the mash if it's watery
• in a large bowl combine 1 1/3 c. pumpkin mash and the rest of the ingredients, mix until smooth
• pour mixture into a 9" pie shell
• bake at 375 degrees for 55 to 65 minutes (the center will still be a bit jiggly)
• let cool and serve! 

Closet

Tank Top: American Eagle

Aztec Sweater: Urban Outfitters

Pants: Nordstrom

Boots: Roxy

Necklace: Forever 21

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Like I said, Fall Festivity Extravaganzaaaaa! We went to the pumpkin patch this week and ended up with some awesome pumpkin seed pumpkins! I'm obsessed with pumpkin seeds, I could eat them all day every day. They are amazing. Every fall I usually end up with around 3 pumpkins because of my obsession.... is that weird? Anyway, if you don't know how, here's how to cook them.

Ingredients

• freshly scooped pumpkin seeds
• salt
• gourmet garlic pepper
• cajun spice
• seasoning salt
• 1 tbsp. olive oil

How To Cook It

• scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin (I find it's easiest to do this with my hands, that way you grip the seeds and the stringy guts slide through
• pull any extra guts off the seeds before placing them in the bowl (I don't mind a little bit of gut because when you bake them, this crisps up and I think it tastes good!)
• preheat oven to 350 degrees
• rinse the seeds (optional) again, I like a bit of that pumpkin taste
• now, many sites tell you to pat them dry with paper towels but EVERY time I do that, I get 900 seeds stuck to paper towels and maybe 15 seeds that are ready to go, so I skip this step too
• toss the seeds in olive oil until coated
• season your seeds to taste (again, this is a process you kind of have to perfect yourself; I know people do cinnamon and sugar seeds, crazy spicy seeds, the whole gamut) 
• place seeds on a cookie sheet and spread them as thin as possible
• place in the oven for around 30 minutes but stir every 10 minutes, this prevents sticking and burning
• again, all seeds are different so you kind of just have to trial and error for when they are "done" they will sound dry when you stir them and they are done and they will be crunchy
  
  
  
  

Closet

Ugh. I need a real camera...

Scarf: TJ Maxx

Shirt: Love Culture

Pants: Nordstrom Rack 

Boots: Nordstrom / Steven by Steve Madden

Watch and Bracelet: Charlotte Russe

Homemade Apple Sauce

This post is going to kick off my fall festivity extravaganzaaaaaa!!! No but seriously, I. Love. Fall. ILOVEIT! I love the changing of the leaves, and football season, and pumpkin carving and the smells, and Halloween and everything! It's great, so buckle up!

This weekend a couple girlfriends and I went to a local farm and bought home grown apples. I love farm apples because there's no modifications and they are bigger and juicier and more delicious - and cheaper! I bought 12 mondo sized apples for like 3 bucks! Awesome. We came back to my house, lit a pumpkin spiced candle and settled in for a Halloween movie marathon while the apples cooked.... If you're wondering, we watched Clue, Double Double Toil and Trouble, Casper, and Hocus Pocus (wellll, we didn't watch all of them, we chatted and drank wine while they played in the background).

Here's the recipe for homemade applesauce:

Ingredients:

• 10 large cooking apples
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 tsp. cinnamon 
• 1/2 c. sugar

How To Cook It

• peel and core the apples
• add all ingredients into a crock pot
• cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours

It's that frackin' EASY!! 

Closet

Fall has arrived!

Sweater: Forever 21

Scarf: H&M (Men's section)

Pants: Nordstrom Rack

Boots: Nordstrom 

Chicken Quinoa Soup

It has been pissing rain here the last couple of days! Sorry for the swear but we've had 4 inches in the last 3 days so I stand by it: pissing rain. I don't know about you but when it rains, I prefer a warm soup. Nothing feels better than stripping off sopping wet clothes, putting on your fuzziest slippers, and eating a warm cup of soup.

This is probably one of the first recipes I ever "created". I used to buy those Progresso "chunky" soups or whatever and then I realized how easy and cheap it is to make your own. So I did. And it wasn't rocket science: carrots, celary, chicken, noodles. Bam! But then I discovered how good quinoa is for you and how easy it is to switch that for the nutrition-less noodles. Anyway, enough blabbing. Here's the recipe. 

Sauteing Veggies

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 summer squash, chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1/2 c. quinoa
• 2 pkgs organic chicken stock
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp paprika
• parsley to taste
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

Bringing to a boil

 How To Cook It

• in a large stock pot, heat olive oil and saute veggies until tender (about 5 to 10 minutes)
• stir in the paprika and cook for another minute
• carefully add the chicken stock
• add chicken, quinoa, salt, pepper and parsley; bring to a boil
• reduce heat and cover, let simmer for around 30 minutes