Easy, Quick Home Cooked Supper- Tomatoes, Zuchini, Chicken

Dear Friend,
Sometimes for me deciding what to fix for supper is the toughest part. So this letter isn't just a recipe, but a meal plan recipe. Hope this is of interest to you. There is a cooking show on the Food network that is somewhat like this. It's called Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee.

Let's talk about roasted chicken with broiled tomatoes and my husband's zuchini parmesean strips with ice cream or peach yogurt for dessert. Imagine this plate with red tomatoes, browned chicken and zuchini that is golden brown with touches of green. This can be a very pretty meal and we like pretty meals. On my way home for supper, I stop at the grocery store and pick up a roasted chicken in our favorite flavor. That much is done and inexpensive compared to many take out meals.

When I buy my groceries for the week, tomatoes and zuchini are always a part of my list right now. They are things that we really enjoy and have many ways to fix. I always have a little bit of parmesean somewhere in the refrigerator and I always have eggs, seasoned bread crumbs, olive oil and Italian seasoning. So the ingredients other than the roasted chicken for this dinner are in the pantry or refrigerator already.

Zuchini Parmesean Strips (That's not my photograph but one of a similar recipe.)

Turn the oven on - set for 450 degrees.
These will resemble fried in appearance and taste.

4 washed, small zuchini quartered or sliced thinly length wise.
1 egg or egg substitute to equal 1 egg
1/4 cup finely grated parmesean cheese
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Italian seasoning of your choice
salt and pepper

I crack my egg onto a plate and stir or whip with a fork for a few seconds.
I mix parmesean cheese, bread crumbs, salt and pepper on a piece of waxed paper.

Now dip those zuchini strips in the egg, roll in the parmesean mixture and place on a nonstick baking sheet or one that has been sprayed with a touch of olive oil.

Bake at 450 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Should be golden brown.

Broiled Tomatoes

This is so easy and so good . Cooking enriches the acidic taste of store bought tomatoes so that they more closely taste like picked-right-off-the-vine tomatoes than the raw tomatoes we taste in our salads.

Sometimes I fix 2 halves per person and sometimes one half. Depends of course, on the size of my tomatoes and what we had for lunch or how hungry we are.

Simply slice your tomatoes in half and brush or sprinkle olive oil or butter on top, add salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Set aside until about 10 minutes before eating.

Pop under the broiler (even a toaster oven works) for about 10 minutes depending on distance from heat source. I put mine on the top shelf of my real oven. ( When the kitchen isn't being remodeled.)

Let's see we've assembled the roasted chicken, we've got broiled tomatoes and delicious zuchini, now all we need to do is put it on the plate and enjoy.

Just in care you are a dessert fan - or someone who really likes something sweet at the end of every meal -
For dessert I often have a flavored light nonfat yogurt like peach or strawberry. Occasionally we take a very small wine glass - after dinner drink glass or something similar in size and put just a taste of ice cream in it and that is dessert. The new stemless wineglasses - the small size - would be quite attractive with your favorite ice cream in them.

I hope this page is a keeper for you or that you simply enjoyed reading it. I enjoy reading cookbooks and recipes.

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame