Chicken Parmigiana

The past couple weeks Nate and I have tried to be extra healthy. We are back to a regular routine of exercising a few times a week, and we both feel really good about it (in the past 12 days I have ran 8 - I feel awesome.) And along with exercising we decided it helps to eat healthy too. (But eating healthy is really hard for me, as in, I love sweets way too much). But, we can at least try to eat a healthy dinner right?

So this week we decided to cut out most of our carbs, and throughout the week we had garlic sirloin, fish tacos (baked, not fried), and last night we had chicken parmigiana. Although chicken parmigiana would normally be great over noodles, we decided to have it alone, with a side of steamed broccoli instead.

And let me tell you, this was so delicious that our stomachs were not left wanting. Except for maybe wanting more chicken because it was really that good.

To save ourselves from some extra fat, we again baked the meat instead of frying it. Which is what I have always done when making a chicken parmigiana. But this one was just perfect. I don't know if it was the extras I added in the sauce, or the moist chicken, or the hunger in my stomach, but this was AMAZING.

 1 tsp chopped garlic

1 small sweet pepper, diced

1/4 white onion, diced

1 TBS olive oil

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 tsp parsley

1/4 tsp basil

1/4 tsp oregano

**We made this with 2 chicken breasts, cause there's 2 of us, BUT we had sauce left over, so this part of the recipe could be doubled or tripled or whatever, if you need to feed more people.

2 chicken breast

1 egg

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/8 cup Parmesan cheese

2 oz mozzarella cheese 

For the sauce:

1. Saute pepper, onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. (The pepper was from our land lord's garden - yum!)

2. Once vegetables are a little browned, add tomato sauce and spices. (we used our homegrown basil and parsley too)

3. Simmer for a few minutes, or for a while, until you're ready to eat.

For the chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Cut each chicken breast in half (hamburger style, as in how you would fold a piece of paper, hamburger or hotdog)

3. Whip egg in a bowl.

4. Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in another bowl.

5. Dip chicken in egg and then in bread crumb mixture

6. Spray cooking pan with Pam, so it won't stick.

7. Cook chicken for about 25 minutes.

8. Top chicken with shredded or sliced mozzarella and bake for about 5 more minutes. (This is approximately how long we baked it, but we used our meat thermometer to make sure the chicken was thoroughly cooked, and added the mozzarella when the chicken had about 10 degrees to go - this ensured that our chicken was extra moist)

9. Top chicken with sauce and a couple sprinkles of Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy.  

Like I said before, this is great over noodles, or would be good with a side salad to keep it a little lighter. Yum yum.

This is definitely one of my favorite Italian dishes. When I go to Italian restaurants I often order chicken parmigiana, but this was so good, I can make it at home now, and save some money. 

What is your favorite Italian dish?