Joy of Cooking.... Baked Chicken

Now that I'm doing a week's worth of cooking each Sunday, I'm going to try to use this time to do some more recipes from the Joy of Cooking cookbook.  Sure would be nice to cross something else off my list!  The first weekend I did my whole week's cooking, I bought some chicken breasts to do baked chicken using some leftover breading I had made before.  Once I got home, I realized that I had thrown out the baggie with the breading when I last cleaned out my pantry.  WHOOPS!  Luckily, Joy of Cooking has umpteen baked chicken recipes, so it was easy to find one that sounded appealing and I had all of the ingredients for.  Check out the recipe for Baked Mustard Chicken.

THE RECIPE

Preheat oven to 350

Get your stuff ready!

Coat chicken in Dijon mustard

Whoops...my spicy brown mustard was a little past date.  Oh well, it tasted fine, and I didn't die.  Guess I'll keep using it!

Mix together all your dry ingredients

Coat chicken in breading

Place chicken breasts on baking dish covered in foil for easy clean-up

Bake for 30-40 minutes (or until chicken is no longer pink inside)

Yum!

I meant to take a picture of my chicken looking nice on a plate with some side items (egg noodles and zucchini fries in my case), but I forgot.  So instead, you get this ugly picture of my chicken fresh from the oven.  I promise it was tasty!

Mustard Baked Chicken
Chicken breasts
1/3 cup Dijohn mustard
2 cups dry unseasoned bread crumbs (I used Panko)
1/4 cup parsley
2 T melted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t salt
1/2 t black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. Brush the chicken pieces liberally with the Dijon mustard
3. In a wide, shallow bowl combine breadcrumbs, parsley, melted butter, garlic, salt, and pepper.
4. Coat each piece of chicken with the crumb mixture, patting with your fingers to make sure the crumbs adhere.
5. Place the chicken on the baking sheet.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink inside.
7. Enjoy with your favorite sides!

Project 365

School has started, which means I have accomplished very little outside of my work life.  Now that we're two weeks in, I'm hoping to start getting on a routine so I can have a life other than teaching.  No luck so far!  Tonight I'm babysitting, and the kids are asleep, so I figured this was as good a time as any to get the blog updated.

Day 144: I won a Target gift card from a blog giveaway!  Go me!

Day 145: My dog-themed classroom is coming along quite nicely

Day 146: I was enjoying filling up my new vintage canisters until the bottom fell off one, dumping brown sugar all over my counter

Day 147: This is what time I left work today.  This wouldn't be so bad if my hours didn't technically end 2 hours and 8 minutes before this.  Gotta get ready for open house

Day 148: My house got hit by lightning in the storm yesterday.  Hit the phone box, grounded out through the fence, burned a couple holes in the yard, and split a fence post.  Luckily not terrible damage except a few blown outlets inside and the cable/Internet is out.

Day 149: Turns out Paul doesn't like grape cold medicine

Day 150: Cooked meals for the whole week this morning.  Dinner choices include chicken and veggie fajitas; ham, broccoli, and spinach quiche; or baked chicken with pasta and zucchini fries.  Figured not having to cook would make my first week back to school a little easier!

Day 151: Love my new lunchbox.  Tomorrow's lunch includes cucumbers with homemade Greek yogurt ranch, honeydew, Trader Joe's falafel chips with hummus, and a Babybel cheese

Day 152: Milo and Gigi wrestling

Day 153: Beautiful sunset tonight 

Day 154: Enjoying working on Etsy projects again

Day 155: Flowers from my husband to celebrate my first week of school

Day 156: Braves game with the fam for (late) Father's Day

Day 157: Another week's worth of meals ready to go.. honeydew, zucchini fries, homemade ranch, sweet potato burgers, cucumbers, rice, and tilapia

Day 158: I swear I could eat this whole bowl of honeydew melon

Day 159: Love my new shoes but hate having to buy from the men's section.  Stupid big feet.

Day 160: Sweet Baby Micah's birth announcement is up on my fridge

Day 161: Math games with my 3rd graders

Parade of Nations Progressive Dinner

For the Olympic opening ceremonies, several of us decided to have a progressive dinner, where each stop would be themed around a different country.  We figured we only had time for three stops if we were going to make it to Laura's in time for the opening ceremonies.  We also figured drinks shouldn't be its own stop since we had to drive from house to house, so that simplified things a little bit.  We ultimately decided on Christina's house for drinks and appetizers, my house for a main course, and then Laura A.'s house for dessert and actually watching the show.  Laura P. contributed to a side item for the main course, since we didn't actually stop at her house.  Check out the pictures of our fun dinner below!  Also, make sure to notice the kickass homemade Olympic shirts (hand-created by Laura P.).

We started off the evening with Greek appetizers at Christina's house

The bruschetta was delicious!

I could have eaten this whole bowl of feta dip by myself

It was even better with a glass of homemade Sangria

Laura and Christina

Since Laura and I didn't have husbands that could join in the fun, we wore matching shirts (not sure how those  things are related....but just go with it)

On to my house for tacos.  I wanted to do something a little more ethnic, but this was a group of picky eaters and I didn't want to make a new recipe if 5 other people have to suffer through it

My beautifully set dining room table

At the table

Milo wanted to join in the fun

On to Laura's house for French crepes.  Laura wins the award for best  cultural souvenirs

Some more France accessories

All the crepe fillings

Getting the last of the crepe fillings ready

Cooking crepes

The finished product

Filling crepes with deliciousness such as Nutella, peanut butter, butterscotch, strawberries, and bananas

The Pricketts work together to make the most delicious crepes

Enjoying crepe #1

Enjoying crepe #2

And then we actually watched the Olympics, and the Queen looked THIS happy!