Italian Herb Breaded Chicken Parmesean w/ Pasta

Serves 2
Gadgets and cooking needs: Baking pan/Oven for baking, Deep Pot for boiling, cutting board, cutting knife
Ingredients:

• Pasta for 2 servings, use box for portion indicators
• Tomato Sauce- In this dish I am using "Newman's Own" Marinara Sauce, 3 cups
• Black Pepper-4 dashes
• Oregano-1 teaspoon
• Basil and or Parsley-1 teaspoon of each
• Olive oil-2 tablespoons
• 2 Chicken Breast-Marinated in 1/2 lemon juice trimmed and cut into 4 slices per breast (can serve 2-3 people)
• 1 egg-beaten in a bowl
• Bread Crumbs: For this dish I am using Kraft, I enjoy their "Country Style" bread crumbs, highly recommended to get the same flavor as this dish
• Italian Herb Philadelphia cream cheese for cooking-1 tablespoon
• Reduced fat Mozzarella Cheese 1 cup grated
• Parmesan Cheese

Instructions: Bring your oven to heat up to 400degrees and also Bring a pot of Water to a boil.  I use about 8 cups of water for the pot.

Mix the Italian Herb Cooking cream cheese with the egg, then start coating each piece of chicken in the egg, immediately coating it with bread crumbs, patting it on both sides and placing aside on the baking sheet or pan. Tip:  allow the breadcrumbs it to set for 15 min. before cooking or do not turn it until the very end and the bread crumbs should not peel off.

Once the water is boiling in the pot, add all the herbs in the pot including 1 tblspoon of Olive Oil; this will give the pasta some extra flavor instead of using salt; use (Black pepper, Oregano, Basil and or Parsley), allow to simmer now reducing your heat to medium high.
Start baking the chicken and leave it for 20-25 minutes.  In the last 10 minutes start cooking your pasta for 10 min. until it is tender with a hint of Al dente. Check the Pasta box for more details.

In the last 5 minutes before the chicken is ready add 1 cup tomato sauce and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese only in the middle of the chicken to keep it crispy and finish cooking until the cheese is melted. At this time I would start making Garlic bread from my Gluten free Italian Loaf. And I would begin heating up the rest of the tomato sauce in a microwave for about 1 minute. Don't forget to stir the pasta.
So by now your pasta is ready to be drained, and served, and the chicken is ready as well. Add Tomato Sauce, whatever extra Mozzarella cheese is left over on Pasta and arrange with chicken, and sprinkling with Parmesan cheese along the way. This is a great meal for any season, but especially great during chilly dinner nights. Let the cold melt away!



Italian- Herb Chicken Parmesan w/ Pasta

So this is the second dish in our Sending off the Winter Series, not so spicy, but still very warming and comforting. I'm thinking, you probably have your own way of making it, and kudos to you. Here are a few changes I make for mine that I have found enhances the flavor of this very popular dish. Not to mention adding Mozzarella turns your body into a fat burning machine. Change your usual pasta to wholegrain (we used Barilla) and I promise you won't regret it. Also try to buy a Gluten free bread for your Garlic bread which you can now purchase at almost any Giant Supermarket or online. If you haven't' done so already, check out my article 101 "Fat burning" foods explained with a complete shopping list you can use.