Van Mommy on the Run....in HEELS!: What do we do since we can't run to Olive Garden?!!

I went to school in Oregon and on Sunday late afternoons after a weekend of too much....ummm....studying my Alpha Chi sisters and I would head out to the Olive Garden for all you can eat breadsticks, soups, and salad. Later, when headed to the Mainland for trips there was always a stop at the Olive Garden for their Chicken Parmigiana. Always so delicious and priced right! Like every other local, I wish that Olive Garden would make it to Hawaii. Their food is priced right, portions generous, and the dishes are tasty!

But, since we don't have an Olive Garden I have had to take matters into my own hands. Today was a special day and we celebrated my little girl's birthday so I wanted to make something special for our Sunday Family Dinner. We got up early, went to the Farmer's Market to buy some local produce and supplemented what we got from our own garden.

Sunday Mililani Farmer's Market

The Backyard Jungle

Italian Parsely, Oregano, Basil

The recipe that I use is one by Bobby Flay:
Click here for Chicken Parmigiana Recipe
I know there are many easier ways to make this dish but there's something about this labor of love that makes it all the more yummy. I've tweaked this recipe a bit to my own liking by adding my own fresh herbs and tomatoes. I often pair this dish with buttered pasta and tonight I also added steamed broccoli and a Caprese Salad. In the past I've also made it with eggplant instead of chicken and it has turned out great!

Here are a few pictures of the work in progress:

The sauce: So much better than the canned off the shelf! I add freshly diced tomatoes and some sugar because I like my sauce sweet, as well as the herbs above from our garden and the Farmer's Market. Just throw everything in and let it simmer on the stove. If I am making a spaghetti sauce I add mushrooms, sausages or ground beef.

When frying the chicken: 1) Flour Mixture (add your favorite seasonings), 2) egg, 3) panko..then pan fry.

The frying is the messiest and takes the most energy...but you can always just use a breaded patty if you choose. Tyson makes one. :)

After frying, top the chicken with some sauce and mozzarella cheese and bake in the oven.

Before:

After:

I love this dish with a Caprese salad. I have no idea how many calories the salad is and I don't care (Okay, so I am a little tempted to google it...but for tonight I won't even log it on my loseit.com account [will explain in a future post]). The home-grown basil from our garden gives this dish such a fresh taste! As a note this basil bush came from a live herb I bought at Safeway one day. After I pulled the leaves I needed I planted it in a pot. Now it's growing pretty good even though I keep forgetting to pinch off the flowers (you're supposed to do this to keep the plant "young"). I really need to get some large tomatoes growing in the garden--currently we only have cherry tomatoes but I just don't got the time to get that going. Anyway, after layering the tomatoes (make sure they are chilled and firm) with the fresh mozzarella (Costco's two pack is the BEST deal!), sprinkle with basil that you've chiffonade'd (google the term if you need to) then drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar over it just before serving.

And this is how all the dishes look plated! De-lish huh? Who needs Olive Garden? Well, I do especially on busy weekends like this one. Would have been much easier to load the family int he van and have someone else cook for us...but since we don't got the funds or the desire to load the monsters on a plane, this will have to do. Dinner was soo delicious and the little birthday girl loved it. Big daddy had two servings (and I only ate what's on the plate below--don't tell me that that's 2000 calories --and it really doesn't matter because I ran 5 miles in preparation for this meal)!!! I'll go back on the diet tomorrow!