Chicken Parmigiana

I will admit that I've never been a real fan of the chicken parmigiana. In restaurants it's always oily and has too much cheese, plus they throw it on top of chips/fries, which go soggy! Not my idea of a good meal.

Andrew, my husband, however - loves it. So I thought I'd give it a go.
We had enough for 3 dinner serves, plus some leftovers for Andrew for work tomorrow. Probably if you want enough for 4 full dinner serves, use a bit extra chicken.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
4 slices bread
garlic
1 onion, diced
2 cans diced tomatoes
italian herbs - fresh or dried
sugar or ketchup
jar of plain tomato pasta sauce (eg dolmio)
vegies to serve with
pasta/spaghetti
cheese
2 eggs


Slice the chicken thinly into 2 or 3 slices. Even is good, but no matter if they aren't. Whiz up your bread in the blender to make breadcrumbs and add a bit of garlic at the end. You can also add some parmesan cheese, but I couldn't find mine! Throw your eggs in a bowl and beat them up so they are nicely mixed with a fork.
Dip your chicken into the egg and then into the breadcrumbs. Coat them well.

Put them aside - in the fridge is good here.


In a saucepan, fry up the onion and some garlic. Then add your cans of tomatoes. I also added half a jar of dolmio tomato pasta sauce. This isn't necessary but helped give it a nice round flavour. Let it simmer for a while, and add some mixed Italian herbs. Also add a squirt of ketchup or a teaspoon of sugar. This will help the sauce not be too bitter as it can get from lots of tomatoes.

Once your sauce is cooked and has simmered for a while, get a frying pan and coat it with a decent amount of oil. I used olive oil but vegetable oil is fine. Get it to a good heat so you can shallow fry the chicken. Not too hot so as to burn them though!
Fry the chicken pieces for a few minutes each side. If they aren't fully cooked, that's ok as they will be going in the oven. Place each cooked piece on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle some sauce and a sprinkling of cheese on each one. I used a tiny bit each of parmesan (yeah, I managed to find it), regular cheese and mozzerella. Don't use too much cheese you don't want it oily and icky.

Whack that in the oven at 180C for 15 mins or so.
Cook your spaghetti according to packet directions, which usually takes around 10 mins. Drain it and stir the sauce through.

Serve on a plate with a nice amount of pasta, with the chicken on top and some greens around the side. I used green beans and carrots tonight.

Sorry I forgot to take a photo, but it was delicious!!!!!!!

Then we had chocolate pudding for dessert with fudge sauce and that was awesome!!!

yummy pretty cake

Well I saw this cake here and I was inspired. The original cake was an almond cake with cherry filling but I didn't like the idea of that, so I made it choc/vanilla/choc with the same icing.

I used a packet mix, just a cheap home brand one. 2 x choc and 1 x vanilla. I think any plain cake that isn't too strong a flavour will work well - from scratch or from a packet mix. Vanilla and choc worked well, probably mud - choc and vanilla would work well too but may be a bit strong in flavour. That's why I like the generic brands as they aren't too strong.

Anyway, make 3 cakes of the same size and let them cool.

Trim the top of the cakes so they can stack on top of each other.

Get your cake stand and put 1 choc cake in the middle. Add some Nestle Caramel Top n Fill as the middle layer, then add the vanilla, more caramel and then the 2nd choc cake.
If you can't get Caramel Top n Fill, use a tin of condensed milk , take off the label, and put in a saucepan filled with water. Make sure the tin is covered. Boil this for 4 hours, let it cool and open it. Voila, you have caramel sauce!

Meanwhile you need to make the buttercream icing!

Whip 4 egg whites in a mixer till light and fluffy. Then mix 1 cup sugar with half a cup of water and heat on the stove and stir till it's dissolved. Once dissolved, let it boil for approx 5 mins till it thickens a little and becomes syruppy. I don't have a candy thermometer, so that's how I did it. Otherwise, till it gets to approx 240F.

Turn on the mixer again and whip the eggwhites, while slowly drizzling in the candy mixture. Do it nice and slowly and it should partially cook the egg from the heat! Once it's all mixed in, add 1 1/2 cups of butter (not margarine) at room temperature, 1tbsp at a time. Mix on medium-high till it's all mixed in then put up to high. It may curdle and look a bit like ricotta cheese, but mix it on high and it will go nice and creamy after a few minutes. You will need to be mixing for about 15 mins all up probably - so an electric stand mixer is best!

Once that's done, ice your cake neatly and wipe off any spills from your platter.

Then you decorate it!
I bought some royal/white icing from the shop and coloured it with food colouring and then cut it out with the cookie cutter. I left them overnight in cupcake trays so they could keep their shape. 2 days is better time to dry as overnight had them dry but soft. Still yummy though.

Decorate to your hearts content!!!