Tasty Thursday: Crockpot Chicken Parmigiana

Yum.  I love Chicken Parmigiana.  And when it's in the crockpot, I love it even more.  This recipe does require a bit of prep work, but I promise it's worth it!

The recipe originally come from a website I found with a treasure trove of crockpot recipes.  I modified it a bit, though, to suit our pantry and needs.  

So, you start with a crockpot.  Ours has been lovingly used and abused to the point of the knob falling off.

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 c. bread crumbs

1 1/4 c. butter, melted

1 can (10.5 oz) pizza sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

1 box pasta  

The original recipe only called for a can of pizza sauce.  A few nights before, my hubby accidentally opened a can of diced tomatoes instead of what we were really after.  So I added it in and it worked out just fine. If you like a saucy dinner (other than your own attitude, that is!), then I'd recommend adding in even more sauce.

Okay, so, cut your chicken in half, especially if they're big.  If they're smaller, use a few more chicken breasts.  This isn't an exact science, so just use some chicken.  Beat the egg, salt, and pepper together.  Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, and then in the bread crumbs.  Put the chicken into a saute pan in the butter (you could cut out the butter if you want it to be healthier, but it got so nice and brown and delicious!).

Saute the chicken.  It doesn't have to be cooked all the way through, but at least brown the outside, get it a little crunchy, etc.  I let it simmer 5-10 minutes while I did the dishes.  When that's done, move the chicken into the crock pot and pour the sauces over top.

Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.  Cook shorter if your crockpot runs hot, like ours does.

When it's basically done, sprinkle the mozzarella on top and boil up some pasta.  Add Parmesan on top if you'd like.

Eat!  We had it with our pull-apart dinner rolls and had enough leftovers to come back to multiple times. 

Chicken Parmigiana Rating via Hubby: 8 or 9 (and my own personal note is that he ate it for leftovers frequently, which is always a good sign!) 

Tasty Thursday: Pull-Apart Dinner Rolls

I've decided to dedicate Thursdays to tasty things.  Because I like tasty things much more than un-tasty things.

Anyway, today's recipe is some fabulous pull-apart dinner rolls.  They came to me through Pinterest and Amanda's Cookin.  She deserves the credit, because they're fabulous.

Here's what you need:
1 package quick-acting active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 1/3 cup milk, warmed (roughly 105-115 F)
3 to 3 1/2 c flour (white or wheat work fine)
3 tbsp oil (Amanda calls for olive oil, but I've been using Canola just fine)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp (or more) melted butter
coarse salt

Dissolve the yeast in warm milk and sugar.  Stir in 1 c. flour, the oil, and salt.  Beat until smooth, then stir in enough remaining flour until soft dough forms.  Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, usually about 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 400F.  Punch dough down in center and fold over a few times to remove the air from the dough.  Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.  Divide the dough into 12 equal parts.  For each part, divide into thirds and roll each section into a ball.  Place 3 balls per muffin cup.  Brush rolls with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Bake 15 minutes or  until rolls are golden brown.  If you choose not to use butter rolls may not turn brown on top, but they'll still taste just as good.  Cool the rolls on a wire rack and store loosely covered.

I never get sick of making these rolls, and they don't last long in our house.  I've asked my dearest husband to rate the food I make so I can give you an idea. It's a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being "Please, don't even try this again" and 10 being somewhere around "I want seconds!"  (My husband eats like a bird.  If he wants seconds, it means the food is good.  I mean good.)



Rolls Ratings:  "Can I give it an 11?"

Jesse Tree

So, this year, we decided to make a Jesse tree.  It's somewhat like an Advent calendar, though more historical in nature, working from Jesse and the genealogy up to Jesus' birth.  We thought it sounded like a  great way to truly anticipate Christmas... and a good tradition for us to start!  The main idea is you have a tree, read a daily devotional, and then put up ornaments day by day that are based on the devotional.

I heard about the Jesse tree from Ann Voskamp's blog, A Holy Experience.  She sends out daily e-mails which I love reading and inspire me on days when I need it.  I'm also slowly working through her book, One Thousand Gifts - maybe I'll get to finish it over this Christmas break - that would be lovely.

Anyway, onto the Jesse tree.  We were trying to come up with the best choice for a tree, since we're in a small space and barely had room for a Christmas tree, which can't handle 25+ ornaments hanging from it.

So, to Target we went, and found a wall decal tree for just under $15, which seemed reasonable.  It's supposed to be removable, so we'll see if that's true.  Either way, we like it.  And if it doesn't hold up, we'll come up with a new plan next year.

Here's the tree, put onto our wall. Nick and I had to do this together, and it was slightly more time consuming than I'd expected.  Either way, I really love how it turned out, plus it's a nice change from the quilt we'd had hanging over our bed.

Next came the ornaments. The devotional for the Jesse tree from Ann Voskamp came with ornaments to print and cut out.  So that's what I did - printed on brown card stock, cut them out, labeled them on the back with the dates so I didn't get confused.  But then, I realized if we want to use these year to year, it would really be best to laminate. So, after multiple trips to Target and consequently forgetting to get laminating sheets, they were finally laminated.

Sheepishly, I confess that we should have started our ornaments on November 30th, but they weren't all laminated until December 9th, so the tree became suddenly filled all at once.

Here's the tree with the first 10 or so ornaments.  We just put them on with masking tape and will fill as we go.  

An up close of some of the ornaments - they seem to be holding up well so far!

That's it!  Jesse tree in progress.  Super easy and fun to do - you should be able to find the link on Ann's site if you'd like to give it a try, or I can send you the link myself!

First...

Well, here I am writing yet another blog. Truth be told, I've been trying a lot of new things lately (much in thanks to Pinterest) and have been wanting to share them with whoever will read about it.

So, I've started the blog called "Diversion Creation.". These crafts, recipes, etc. have been much like a diversion to me. You see, I'm nearing the end of my first semester of grad school, and the piles of homework never really seemed to go away. But even then, I needed breathers and ideas of ways to spend my time in between readings and assignments. I've been making a lot of Christmas gifts, which I'll share with you in the new year, after they've been gifted.

Here's one of my first creations this semester, a crocheted afghan made for my husband's cousin and his new wife. I tried to find the pattern I used online, but can't find it back unfortunately!  If I do, I'll update - it was so easy to do!