I have a new kitchen toy!! This time my new kitchen appliance is a food scale.

Please ignore my dirty stove, this was (scary enough) the cleanest available surface in my kitchen. Anyways. This is a digital food scale that I bought at Aldi’s for $20. So far I LOVE it. I’m following the weight watchers program, and this has been great for portioning out things for my meals… the amount of turkey for my sandwich, pasta to cook, etc. I also used it to perfectly portion out various snacks into convenient one-portion snack-sized baggies!

There you can see my pile of pretzels, baked Cheetos, animal crackers, and Baked Tositos. Incidentally, the Weight Watchers thing is part of why I haven’t been cooking a lot lately… all of the things I know how to cook are fattening and unhealthy! Hmm… maybe that’s how *I* got fat and unhealthy in the first place.
Ah well, hopefully there will be more (perfectly portioned) recipes featured here in the near future!

Lately, all the more cooking I’ve been doing is heating up soup or microwaving lean cuisines. A couple of weeks ago though, I did invite family over for lunch and I made White Chicken Parmesan. I got the recipe from Colleen, and it’s a yummy, very filling meal that seems fussy but is impossibly easy to make.
I first made this for Mother’s Day last year, and I was seriously intimidated because not only had I never cooked with raw chicken before, I’d never even cooked spaghetti noodles! Now I have done both, on multiple occasions. But onto the recipe!
The first step is to mix one egg and 1/2 cup of milk. In a separate bowl/plate/whatever suits your fancy, mix 1 cup dried breadcrumbs, 4 tbs parmesan cheese, 1 tsp of oregano, dash of garlic power, and a dash of pepper.

Next you’re going to take your two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast and dunk them into the egg/milk mixture, and then into your bread crumb mixture. Make sure the chicken gets nice and coated and then transfer it to a 13×9″ baking pan.

There were four of us, so I made five chicken breasts so that we’d each have one and I’d still have some leftover. There were plenty of bread crumbs left so this could be easily scaled up or down. When you’ve got all your chicken ready, slide your pan into the oven and back at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, combine two cans of cream of mushroom soup, and 1/2 cup of milk. (You can add more milk if your sauce is too thick).

After your chicken bakes for thirty minutes, remove it from the oven, pour your mushroom soup mixture on top. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the whole thing, and return to the oven for another 30 minutes.

While you’re waiting, you can cook up some spaghetti, and I always mix up some extra soup and milk mixture to spoon over the top. I also made more parmesan cheese available to sprinkle over the finished product, and served salads on the side.

I only wish I’d have gotten a picture of my plate made up with the chicken and spaghetti on it, but I was eager to sit down with my family and start enjoying what I’d been working on!!

The Recipe:
White Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:
1 cup dried breadcrumbs
4 tbs parmesan cheese
1 tsp of oregano
dash of garlic power
dash of pepper
1 egg
2 lbs of boneless / skinless chix breasts
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 cup of milk

In one bowl, combine egg and 1/2 cup of milk. In separate bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, oregano, garlic powder and pepper. Dip chicken into egg mixture, and then into dry mixture to coat. Place in 13×9″ pan and bake at 400F for 30 minutes.
Combine two cans of soup, and 1/2 cup of milk. May add up to an additional 1/2 cup milk if sauce is too thick. Pour over chicken, and return to oven for another 30 minutes. Serve over spaghetti, and enjoy!

I found the recipe in a small brochure from Kraft Foods that came along with one of my Taste of Home magazine subscriptions. As you may recall, I attempted to make this pie once before, with disastrous results. I went back and got more ingredients (the proper ones this time), and just before Christmas, it was time to try again.

I was so focused on getting everything right that I don’t have all the step by step pictures that I’d like to have, so I’ll share what I’ve got! First you’ll need to get all the ingredients together.

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. caramel ice cream topping, divided
1 graham cracker pie crust
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. pecan pieces, divided
1 cup cold milk
2 pkg. (4-serving size each) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

Now, if you’re like me, you’re going to skip the nutmeg and use just the cinnamon so you can go ahead and cross that off. (Thanks mom!) At this point, I’d like to remind you to check and make sure your pudding is INSTANT and not cook and serve. Cook and serve simply will not work. Trust me, I know.
First, take your pie crust, and pour in 1/4 cup of the caramel topping. Make sure your caramel spreads out in the bottom of the crust. Then you want to sprinkle 1/2 cup of pecan pieces onto the caramel.

Set that aside for a minute, and mix together your pie filling. Take the milk, pudding, pumpkin, cinnamon, and 1 1/2 cups of the whipped topping and mix it all together. When all the ingredients are well mixed and incorporated, you’re ready to spoon it into your prepared pie crust.

If you’re like me, you’ll play with smoothing the top for awhile…

You can see some of the caramel peeking out the sides of the pie… this may be due to the fact that I accidentally used 1/3 cup of caramel in the bottom instead of 1/4. Come on, after how badly I botched the first one, did you really think the second would go off without a hitch?

Anyways. Then your pie needs to set in the fridge for about an hour. When it’s ready, bring it out and spread the rest of your cool whip on top of the pie filling. Feel free to play with the design on the cool whip as well.

Finally, use a fork (or a spoon, or your fingers) to drizzle caramel topping over the top of your pie. Sprinkle with pecans, and admire. And get made fun of by your mother for your precise placement of pecans for picture taking purposes.

And enjoy!!

It was a very good pie, and everyone enjoyed it, but it was almost TOO rich. I don’t think anyone finished their piece of pie. I don’t know how much of this can be contributed to the richness of the pie, and how much should be contributed to the fact that we’d just finished stuffing ourselves with beef and noodles and mashed potatoes and scalloped corn and my favorite salad, and various other deliciousness.