Easy No-Bake Chicken Parmesan, LEAP DAY!

Happy Leap Day, everyone! To celebrate this rare occasion I present to you a quick and simple no-bake Chicken Parmesan dish.

You will need:

• 3-4 thin chicken cutlets
• 2 cups flour
• 2 TBSP lemon pepper
• 2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 1 TSP salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 16 oz. box of Ziti pasta
• tomato sauce
• grated Parmesan cheese to garnish

Be it store bought or homemade, you'll need some sort of tomato sauce to smother your cheesy, chicken concoction.

Rinse off the chicken cutlets and place them on a paper towel to dry. Season the cutlets with salt. Combine the flour, lemon pepper, and salt in a large Ziplock or plastic grocery bag.


Heat the vegetable oil in a medium sized skillet on medium-high heat. Wait until the oil has a chance to get hot. When that chicken hits the oil, you want it to sizzle!

Take a chicken cutlet and drop it in the flour mixture and shake it up. You're going to want to keep a firm grasp on that bag so you don't get flour all over your kitchen. Make sure the cutlet is totally covered in flour. Place it in the hot oil. Repeat with each cutlet. Let them cook for about 4 minutes on each side. Remove them from the oil and let them dry on a bed of fresh paper towels. These will soak up the extra oil.

While the cutlets are still hot, sprinkle on the Mozzarella cheese and smother them with tomato sauce. Serve with a side of pasta. Don't forget, it wouldn't be Chicken Parmesan without some Parmesan cheese on top!

YUM! Enjoy-a this-s simple-a recipe-a, from-a me to-a you! That's my Italian accent. ENOY!

Love,

Liz

Lemon Garlic Lamb Chops

I never cooked with lamb until tonight and OH MY, GOD. These are so freaking fantastic. And easy AND cheap which is also important.

Ok, so, I got these three pretty good sized lamb chops for about $5, and the ears of corn were 3 for $1, and the Rice-A-Roni was something like $2-3. So that's a $7-8 meal with leftovers because there's no way you can finish all that Rice-A-Roni in one sitting by yourself.

Now for the recipe!

You Will Need:

• lamb chops
• garlic powder
• lemon pepper
• salt
• black pepper
• olive oil
• a lemon
  

Just take the lamb chops out of the packaging and plop 'em down on a cutting board. Cover each side with an even spread of garlic powder, lemon pepper, black pepper, and salt.

While you're seasoning the chops, get out a frying pan and pour some extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of the pan. I didn't measure anything in this recipe since I was flying by the seat of my pants, but I'd say about 3-4 TBSP of olive oil will do it. Set the heat on medium or medium-high.

Now, take your lemon and roll it around on the counter with the palm of your hand. Press kind of firmly. This with smoosh the lemon and make it more juicy. Cut it in half and squeeze it into the oil.

When the oil is hot, gently place the lamb chops into the frying pan. If you just plop them in there, the hot oil my fly up and burn you. I had to learn that the hard way and now I have a scar on my chin!
In this photo, they're not fully cooked, for me anyway. I don't really like my meat to be bloody. The time it takes to cook really depends on how rare you like your meat:


Rare: 3-4 minutes on each side
Medium-Rare: 5-6 minutes on each side
Medium: 7-8 minutes on each side
Well Done: 9-10 minutes on each side


Mmm, yummy. I ate one of the lamb chops while I was waiting for the corn and rice to cook. But, so, yeah, this was a very filling meal, my friends. And it was soooo good! I was actually startled at how good it came out so I hope you'll like this recipe, too.


Oh, by the way, to boil corn: boil the water first, duh, then corn. Boil for 3-4 minutes. Smother with butter and salt because that's the way it's done. Scrumpty!

Love,

Liz