Clean Crispy Chicken Parm w/Squoodles + Weekend Recap

Monday, August 18, 2014

Happy Monday! Big surprise this week- I'm on top of my game enough to have a post out on Monday!


We had friends over for dinner the other night and Harrison and I came up with this awesomely crispy chicken parm. I've never been a big chicken parm person but this was good, and we were able to throw it together pretty quickly.

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
  • 1.5 lbs chicken breasts, thawed (we flattened our's out with a meat tenderizer then sliced each one into about 9 strips) ($6.00)
  • 3 eggs, whisked ($.50)
  • 1/2 cup corn starch  ($.40)
  • 2/3 cup ground flaxseed (PS I found ground flaxseed at Trader Joe's for the best price)
  • 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning 
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 medium sized squashes, sliced into strips with a Mandolin  
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil 
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • 2 cups of your choice of spaghetti sauce (I use garlic & basil sauce from Trader Joe's)
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Set up your stations: 1 medium sized bowl with the corn starch, 1 medium bowl with the eggs, 1 medium bowl with the ground flaxseed mixed with the Italian seasoning and garlic powder, and a non-stick baking sheet.

Dip each chicken strip into the corn starch, then the egg, then the flaxseed/seasoning mix, then set on the baking sheet. Do this for all the chicken strips. Bake for 25 minutes. While chicken is baking, cook the squoodles . After 25 minutes, remove from the oven and glob 3 spoonfuls of the sauce onto each chicken strip, then sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top. Put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Top the squoodles with the chicken. We served it with my friend Allie's caprese salad and it. was. banginnnn.


So on to  the weekend recap. If you read this blog you may or may not have picked up on the fact that I am nerd alert central: I get my rocks off crunching numbers in Excel, making charts and graphs, learning new statistical methods, reading studies, and all things NPR. So when I found out that you can go on TOURS OF NPR'S HEADQUARTERS I booked that immediately. We did it Friday and OMG:



When you're listening to Morning Edition and other national NPR programs, this is where the producers sit:


We got to sit in the actual sound studios, put on headphones, play with microphones, nerd out big time. Fun fact: NPR listeners on the West Coast hear the best quality shows because of the 3 hour delay- producers can go back and fix little things they don't like by the time it airs in California, but here on the East Coast we have a mere 3 minute delay so there's not that kind of time. Crazy huh? Or is that just me?


We hit up the Building Museum to see the giant human maze  and I had a panic attack just looking at it:



That evening we went to Jazz in the Garden, then tried out a new restaurant rooftop called 1905 for a friend's bday (def recommend- food menu looked good and great beer and cocktail options):


Saturday I went on a Boomerang Tubing Tour (we decided to do a redneck theme for our party) for a friend's bday we loaded a coach bus with booze and food and rode 2 hours to the Shenandoah valley..beautiful and so fun!


Nothing says redneck like temporary tats and lime-a-ritas. I don't even want to talk about how hard I scrubbed my arm to get my tats off before church the next morning...


Sunday we hit up a new DC brewery called Right Proper Brewing Company and they had this super funky mural that I am obsessed with:



Linking up today with Biana- come play!


21 comments :

  1. Sounds like a fun weekend - that maze looks fun/scary all at the same time!! I am a huge fan of chicken parm...going to need to try your recipe out for sure!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love that recipe. Sounds yummy! A booze bus for a bday sounds like a heck of a time. Glad you had a good weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That chicken looks delish!!! And I still can't look at the maze, did you do it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such a fun weekend! I think mazes are the worst things ever! Mostly because they terrify me and bring back horrible memories of corn mazes. I'm so excited you went to NPR. Lucky lady :) I'm a nerd too and I love that stuff

    ReplyDelete
  5. omg that food looks amazing!
    seriously just looking at that maze made my stomach drop. no thank you!
    booze bus? where was my invite?! lol jk

    ReplyDelete
  6. I bet I can get my husband on board with that recipe, he loves chicken parm!!!!!

    Well look at you having fun this weekend! I am with Kristen, where was my invite?!?!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I seriously need to try the zucchini noodles! Looks like a fun weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am totally saving your recipe and adding it to my meal prep. Looks like you had such a fun weekend! You finally got to do some stuff in DC!!!

    BTW did you know that there is this advertisement box that pops up and it takes up a good chunk of your page? I tried "opting out" last time but I see it's still there. Hmph!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yum that chicken looks delicious. And I love NPR, the building museum, and jazz in the garden so maybe I'm a huge need too :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow love the pictures thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1905 is great - I had NO idea you could tour the NPR building and I was curious about the human maze!

    ReplyDelete
  12. tasty treats and an amazing weekend! go you!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Shanendoah is beautiful! I listen to NPR everyday to and from work. Looks like SUCH a fun weekend!

    ~Ashley @ A Cute Angle
    acutelifestyle.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. That chicken looks bomb! We have an area here where we can take a bus to the river and tube down it -with booze and food but I am pretty sure we always forgot the food and only had the beer!

    That museum looks cool.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Man you have the best weekends :) I am so living vicariously through you right now!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. 3 Researches PROVE How Coconut Oil Kills Waist Fat.

    The meaning of this is that you literally kill fat by eating coconut fats (including coconut milk, coconut cream and coconut oil).

    These 3 studies from big medical journals are sure to turn the traditional nutrition world around!

    ReplyDelete

Love to hear your thoughts and opinions, let's chat!