Lightened Up Chicken Milanese

Hello, hello friends! Monday Milanese was on the menu for tonight. Its one of our favorite go-to meals and takes just about 40 minutes total from prep to cook time. Since John and I went for a walk this evening we figured it would be a quick enough meal to throw together. It was in the high 50's so we tossed on our sneaks and power chatted/walked for about an hour. Its always nice to put the everyday wear and tear behind you from the work day and catch up with one another. Sometimes its not always easy to do that while sitting in front of the TV or searching the web, so it was nice to get out, walk and catch up on each others day.

After our walk, John continued to run for a little longer and I decided to start dinner while I had the kitchen to myself. This recipe is so darn good and leaves us satisfied. Protein and veggies always does the body good and keeps us nice and filled. Chicken Milanese typically calls for fried chicken cutlets, but we save on the calories and fat and bake em' right up. Start off with a lemon/olive oil mixture and dredge your cutlets into the mixture then into your panko and grated cheese mix. I love Progresso's Italian Style Panko. Its the bomb dot com and the consistency is really nice for breading any meats.

 

While you prepare your chicken cutlets, take two baking sheets and spray with nonstick spray. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Once the oven is hot stick your pans in and allow to warm up for about 5 minutes. Once the pans are heated enough place the cutlets on top and bake for a total of 15 minutes turning once half way through. I like a crispy cutlet so sometimes I will leave baking for a total of 20 minutes. 

While the cutlets are baking I like to slice some grape tomatoes into threes and drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and some garlic powder then roast in the oven until they are nicely browned on both ends. They are a sweet little addition to top our arugala salad with. You can use any type of greens you like for your salad, but I like to use baby arugala or mixed baby lettuce. We slice up some red onion, add in the tomatoes and top our chicken with a heaping pile of salad. We like to use some Italian dressing to top it off.

Ingredients

For the Salad:

• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 
• Italian dressing mix
• 15 grape tomatoes
• 1/4 small red onion, sliced thin
• kosher salt and pepper to taste
• 6 cups baby arugula or any green you like

For the chicken:

• 24 oz (3) boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half lengthwise
• 3/4 cup Italian seasoned panko
• 1/3 cup grated Romano cheese (or parmesan)
• 1 lemon, juice of
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• kosher salt
• fresh cracked black pepper
• nonstick cooking spray 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°.  Place a large baking pan in the oven to get hot. Combine breadcrumbs and grated cheese in one bowl. In another bowl combine olive oil, lemon juice and pepper. Make sure to use thinly sliced cutlets. Wash and dry cutlets well with paper towels; season with salt and pepper.
Dredge cutlets into lemon/oil mixture then into breadcrumbs, pressing firmly to adhere. Remove the baking pan from the oven and spray with cooking spray. Bake chicken, turning once halfway through for about 15-20 minutes total, or until chicken is golden. Remove from the oven and top with arugula and tomato salad on top.

For tomatoes, slice into threes, throw onto a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder and bake for about 10-15 minutes until they are soft and browned. Throw tomatoes onto arugala, add onions and dressing. 


A friend of mine recently decided to try Team Beach Body's 21-day fix and she's been kickin' ass if I say so myself! Eating super clean, working out daily and getting her mind and body right. Seeing her Facebook posts and then finally seeing her in the office on Friday made me really consider trying it. She looks fabulous and seems to be having a ton of fun on the program. So, I decided to order mine today. But don't fret W+A readers, I will be posting all of my delicious and healthy meals that I will be making daily. Its pretty much the same "eating plan" I follow now, but with a few more restrictions. It will be a challenge, substituting normal things I use for more healthier options, but I think know I can do it! We have a lot to look forward to this summer and I am really excited about feeling and looking great for our honeymoon this July. And, sharing this with all of you will help to hold me accountable on how I am doing. I'll let you all know once I receive everything in the mail, but I've already chatted a bit with my coach and she seems extremely motivating and excited to have some East Coasters following the plan with her. To be continued friends...

Well, John and I DVRed The Royals and we are curious to see how the show plays out. But before we do so, I kinda suckered John into watching The Voice (which is like WAY better than American Idol so cut me some slack) and now I think he actually likes it. I guess its the least he can do since I watch every Islanders game with him :) While wrapping up my post, my mom text me pictures from the new NY&CO catalog. I typically don't shop there often, but oh my gosh their summer line is SO adorbs. I love chatting with my mom, she always knows how to put me in a good mood, especially when she sends pictures of outfits captioned, "I like this for you, when you come here next week we will go look. I will buy it for you." Don't know how I got so lucky, but I just love my mama :) Enough rambling, can you tell I'm a bit delirious tonight? Until tomorrow friends... xo