EAT: Chicken Piccata and Homemade Balsamic Dressing Salad

Last night we experimented with a healthy version of Chicken Piccata and it was pretty darn good.

From foodpics

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken
breast halves
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon margarine
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon margarine
8 thin lemon slices
1/4 cup low-salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
**Capers (not in original recipe)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a shallow dish; set aside.
2. Place chicken between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; flatten to 1/4-inch thickness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Lightly coat both sides of chicken with cooking spray; dredge chicken in breadcrumb mixture.
3. Melt margarine in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from skillet. Set aside; keep warm. Add lemon slices to skillet; saute 30 seconds. Add broth, parsley, and lemon juice; cook 1 minute. Spoon sauce over chicken.
YIELD: 4 servings
PREPARATION TIME:15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 12 minutes
NUTRITIONAL INFO
CALORIES 160 (16% from fat); FAT 2.9g (sat 0.6g, mono 0.8g, poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 27.3g; CARB 6.9g; FIBER 0.4g; CHOL 66mg; IRON 1.4mg; SODIUM 115mg; CALC 46mg

Thoughts: Grating the lemon rind was cool…neither one of us had done it before and couldn’t believe how powerful the smell and taste was from this! We agreed to keep our eyes open for more recipes with a lemon rind. Spraying the chicken with PAM doesn’t allow the breadcrumbs to stick terribly well but it was ok. Chicken is very tender when you pound it…..we didn’t have the proper tool so we took a regular hardware hammer and put the chicken breast in a baggie. Then we opened an old magazine, inserted the chicken breast in baggie, closed the magazine on top and then pounded it through the magazine. Worked good enough.

Lindsey cooked the recipe to a T and she even threw in some capers at the end that were not called for. Usually when you order this in a restaurant it is very buttery and very good…..this recipe isn’t as buttery, but it is pretty good considering how healthy it was. We’ll definitely make it again.

From foodpics

HOMEMADE BALSAMIC DRESSING
We also had a salad on mixed greens, tomato, and shredded mozzarella. We topped it with a homemade dressing that you really just feel your way through to taste.


Balsamic Dressing
EVOO
Minced Shallot
Dijon mustard
Splenda

Yes, Splenda. The original recipe I saw of this called for sugar but we didn’t have any so we used what we had and we’ll only use this in the future.

Directions: Add a decent amount of balsamic to a bowl and then throw in some minced shallots….maybe 3 tablespoons worth. Next add some Dijon….maybe a teaspoon to start….then a whole packet of Splenda. Start to mix it with a whisk while slowly drizzling in some EVOO. Stick your finger in and taste…..add more of the ingredients to get it where you want it . End result will be tangy and the Splenda will cut that for you.

Drizzle over salad and enjoy.

Serenity

Any beach weekend is great as there is something that can't be put into words what the beach does to the soul. We just got back from a loooong weekend at Lindsey's family beachhouse. It's a great place that they built in 1981 I think?? It has remained essentially unchanged since then and still is TV/Internet free. If you aren't into sitting on the beach, you won't last long here.



We left Atlanta just after 5pm on Thursday and headed straight for Tallahassee to pick up Lindsey's mother. After the pick up we landed at the beach just after 1am. Took us about an hour to "open up" the house...turn on the water, electricity, etc.


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Friday evening, Lindsey's sister Katie, her husband Matt, and son Eli joined us and her other sister Kristie came up Saturday morning. Friday and Saturday were spent lounging on the beach were you were only interrupted to make a sandwich or use the bathroom. It was fairly windy all weekend so the high 80 temps felt awesome....never scorching hot.

Friday night we went to a local guy and bought a few lbs of shrimp, boiled it, and then feasted on peel-N-eat and salad. Some late night beer drinking with Katie and Matt kept us up until about 2.

Saturday we had a few beers on the beach, played some Cornhole (fun beach game for those not in the know), and read books. Man, I am really into Corona lately!

We decided to do surf and turf for dinner Saturday night so it was more shrimp and we did burgers too. As we prepped the dinner, I decided to introduce some Birkett guacamole to the Snyders.....HUGE HIT! Hard to go wrong with a massive bowl of delicious guac when you have hungry people right?

Matt C and I did our best to create some awesome burgers....marinated in Dale's sauce, topped with thick extra sharp cheddar, fresh jalapenos, fresh cut bacon, and guac of course.....really, really good!

A great trip! Enjoy the pics.....pretty boring as I didn't get many with humans in them.

They Really do work!

Ever see those camera's in the sky that hover above traffic lights? Yup, me too....and I have never actually heard of someone getting busted until I received the following pics in the mail. No points on the license because they can't prove "I" was driving......$70 lesson to remember to not run reds!

Great Lake Swimmers

A few weeks ago I told Lindsey I had a surprise. She is a big fan of a small band called Great Lake Swimmers from Toronto. They have been around for a few years but still haven't really caught on with public radio. So I saw that they were coming to Atlanta and playing at a tiny bar....tickets were only $16 each!
So I grabbed two and we showed up along with only about 130 other people....needless to say we were standing 1st row and closer than anyone else.

EAT: Mushroom Pork Chops

Mushroom Pork Chops

• 4 pork chops
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Garlic Cloves
  
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 2 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• Pinch of ground tyme
• Sherry wine/white wine
• Milk
  

Smell: 4

Ease:2

Overall:3.5

PREP TIME 5 Min COOK TIME 35 Min READY IN 40 Min

DIRECTIONS

1. Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic salt to taste.
2. In a large skillet, brown the chops over medium-high heat. Add the onion and mushrooms, and saute for one minute. Pour cream of mushroom soup over chops. Cover skillet, and reduce temperature to medium-low. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes, or until chops are cooked through.

Very easy to make. I browned the pork in a swirl of EVOO on med high heat for about 3 minutes a side….could still see almost pink in the middle (I didn’t cut it, just used my eyeballs!) when I took the pork off the heat and let rest on a plate. Browning both sides but allowing the meat to actually cook in the sauce allows it to be very tender when it’s time to eat.

I then sautéed onion and mushrooms scraping up the remains of the pork as it cooked. For the last two minutes I added 2 minced garlic cloves.

Next, I stirred in 2 cans of cream of mushroom and eyeballed some Sherry wine though any white wine will do. I would say I added around a ¼ cup. I splashed in about a ¼ cup of milk as well. I added a pinch of thyme, some more pepper and then put the lid on and cooked just above a simmer for 30 minutes.

I cooked some Wild Grain Brown rice while the chicken cooked and ladled the gravy and chicken ontop.

Overall this is a nice dinner. Nothing incredible you’ll tell your co-workers about, but it’s good.