Recipe/Tutorial: Chicken Parmesan Bake (No breading or deep frying)

Hi everyone! Yeah.. it's kind of been months since my last post... I came home from NY to LA and trying to straighten my life out. I get into my dream school, only to realize I can't afford it. I would have never believed money would be the reason to put my dreams at a halt. I was blessed since I was young and my family has always been financially stable, up until about 2 years ago. My father got laid off from work, and everything went downhill from there. Even the ridiculously large mansion sized home we had invested in ended up in nothing, because the of the house market crash here in southern California.

Oh man, this is rather depressing! T~T So as of right now, I'm re-applying to colleges for a transfer. My dream school ended up being not exactly what I'd imagined, and now that I can't afford it, I have to change up my plans a bit. Applications, supplemental items (transcripts from hs/college, statements, essays), and last but definitely not least.. my recorded repertoire. Just the thought of school makes me really nauseous and I can never finish an application LOL. I just stare into the screen and end up having to lay down. HAHA. Things are so stressful at home, and it baffles me to how stupid I was when I was in NY not knowing how bad things were at home--living carelessly sometimes skipping classes (which my parents were breaking their backs to pay for), going out with my friends all the time, going shopping.. it just absolutely disgusts me how childish I was.

Let's just say since May, i've finally become an adult. I thought I was grown up, but boy was I wrong.

----------------------end of babbling-------------------------

Now, onto our newest recipe! :) This recipe is NOT mine, and belong to Chef John from Foodwishes. I've made so many of his recipes and love every single one of them. He's hillarious, and a great cook!

Chicken Parmesan Bake Recipe:
Ingredients:
-2 tbsp Olive Oil
-2 cloves of Garlic, crushed (I used about 2 tsp)
-Hot red pepper flakes
-4-6 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
-2-4 cups Marinara sauce (I used Barilla Marinara)
-1/4 cup chopped Basil
-8oz. Mozzarella, shredded
-4oz. Parmesan, grated
-1 package of Garlic Croutons

Alright let's get started! :)

Gather your ingredients!

Take any sort of casserole dish, spread your oil (I used grapeseed), garlic, and red pepper! I added in a little bit of sea salt and black pepper just in case the chicken was going to be bland (since there's no seasoning for it).


Chop up that basil! :) my kitchen smelled divine afterwards.

I used a pre-packaged set of basil and I got much more than I thought..

Save some for later! I love pasta, so I'll use it up quick :P

Take your chicken, and make light knife marks/slices just to help the cooking process a bit... I forgot to let my chicken defrost before I started, so I threw the package into a large mixing bowl of hot water LOL.

Toss it in!

I used 4 breasts.

This one is my absolute favorite simple marinara sauces. Barilla makes the best!

Just pour it over! Chef John only asks for 2 cups, but I used the entire jar--due to the size of the dish/I wanted it covering the chicken.


Throw on your basil...

Your Mozzarella...


And your Parmesan! Chicken Parm isn't Chicken Parm without the Parm! LOL. A lot of people just use Mozzarella..

I didn't use nearly as much as the recipe called for.. I just grated some along the top!

I picked up two packages just in case :P

One package ended up being enough :)

This is to substitute the breading/frying! :) Def a much healthier option.. but I warn you, don't over-do the croutons! I did, and it dried out my dish a bit. Really soaks up the sauce!

And.. a final coating of Mozzarella!

Thow into your oven at 350 Degrees Fahrenheit. I just placed it in the middle of the racks.

I took it out after 35 minutes and it looked something like this.


But when I scooped one breast out and cut it, it was still pink inside, so I threw it in for another 10-15 min.

Much better :)

And we're finished! Enjoy :D

Tips:
-Don't over-do on the croutons! It soaks up a lot of the sauce and doesn't contribute much to the "crunchy" factor instead of the deep-frying.
-It doesn't hurt to season the chicken just a tad before putting it in the dish--some garlic powder/cayenne, & salt and pepper would do nice :)
-Me over-doing the garlic was rather nice! It was actually really feint lol.
-Don't go crazy with the Mozzarella on the last top layer--it doesn't melt very well and just becomes that stiff baked dish.

I know i've been gone for so long, and my crazy period of college applications (again) isn't over till Dec. 1st, I will try my best to update :) I really love blogging, and can't believe the support I get from all of you guys. Thankyou all so much! I have a ton of posts ready! I take soooo many pictures everyday--including this one; my Dad fell asleep in my room and asked me to take off his socks, so I put them on Seba :P


Oh, guess what? I've cured my acne. NBD or anything. :P I'll do a big post on that too! (partly why I was away for so long). I also never did a final results post from my lemonade diet.. should get on that..

Happy Hump Day! :D Get through the week y'all!

Love,
Jinna

MBC 위대한탄생 2 "Birth of a Star" LA Audition, Mini-Haul, and LDD Day 3-4

Hiya everyone! :) Just in case anyone here doesn't follow my sister's blog.. I'll have a little intro for her: Her name is Eujean, age 20, bio major, hopes of going to med school and becoming a doctor! ayooooo. Strange enough.. she has a hidden talent! She can sing! She previously auditioned for JYP and had gotten accepted to the next round, but because it required her to travel to NY, [and Asian parents] her dreams were brought to a halt. SO! There's a show in Korea called 위대한탄생, which pretty much is an American Idol. They're doing auditions this year in Los Angeles! My sister signed up immediately, and on Saturday, we went over to the Sheraton Hotel in downtown in LA.

Here are some pics!

tis Eujean!

She may not exactly look like one of those stereotypical tall, skinny, HUGE eyes, TALL nose, SHARP V line neck, or LONG legs; but her talent will outshine it all!

Our order in line...

You can't really see, but the line was insane. It hugged the walls of Sheraton, and extended around and around wayyy past the building! X__X

After a few hours of the film crew trying to get shots of everyone "excited" in line.. we've finally made it in the building!


I taught my mom how to play Bejeweled on my phone! ...which died because she played so much -___-

Sitting in for the big introduction and orientation!


The three previous winners: David Oh, Taekwon Lee, and another girl.. can't remember her name;; came out and sang a short song to liven up the mood so people wouldn't be so nervous. They were all so sweet!

Mini-Haul:
So~ a couple weeks back, I saw this polka dotted dress from F21 when I was just browsing around with my BFFs :) I told myself I didn't need to spend money, but I gave in and went back a couple days ago with my sister to get it!

I really like the detailing! It's chiffon, light and airy, has ruffling detail on the chest area, an elastic waistband embedded into the dress and a ribbon tie that is connected to the collar!

I wore it out to church yesterday with the bold.. Morange by MAC!

I also picked up this really cute flannel shirt :)

tada! lashes! They were only about $2.50 each! scoreeee! They're both the same price, but one of them as two pairs! sneaky sneaky~ :p

On a side note.. I got a haircut! The first since last December! >< My hair was disgustingly long... so I cut about 5 inches. yeah.. it was a LOT but for some reason, it doesn't even feel like I got it cut! haha~ The trendy haircut right now in korea is: no bangs, long hair, no layers. So as much as I am going to miss hiding my acne with my bangs, I've decided to grow em out! ..it's going to take forever!!

I've also changed my hair to a center part.. but I don't think my fringe is long enough to be a center part!

Oh, and excuse the skin please.. this was at the end of the day, so my makeup had all melted off :p

LDD DAY 3:
Already my third day! :) I'm super psyched i'm almost halfway done! -____-; ..not. The hunger pulls today are by far the worst! I'm craving anything and everything possible! Everytime I feed my dog, I seriously start to drool. HAHA... I mix a bit of squash, and random leftover pieces of meat with his doggy food.. and when I'm cooking it? oh dear. I am soo tempted to eat it! Oh dear. How the lack of food has turned me into a monster!
My sister Eujean has decided to join me on the detox! puhahaha. Someone to share my pain with! She's constantly saying, "Oh man, I can't do this anymore, I really need to eat something.." But she hasn't pulled out of the game yet!
I realized something today... we spend so much time out of our day to eat! All day, I'm constantly asking myself, "so, what now? what should I do now?" I have so much free time now that I'm not eating! I've also realized that before I started, whenever I would get super hungry, I thought I'd die if I didn't eat right away. But looking back, I feel almost.. disgusted at myself for even thinking that way. There are unimaginable numbers of people in other countries living in poverty and famine.. at least I can eat when I want to! They want to eat, but have nothing to. I feel so blessed to be born into such a comfortable life.
It's night time. I'm craving so much food, I think I'm going to die!

LDD DAY 4:
"omg, I can't believe it's day 4 already!" Is what most people said... but; THE HELL, IT'S ONLY DAY FOUR?!--is what I want to say. I'm starving, but whenever I watch SNSD "Girls Generation" a Kpop group's music video, like their new one, "Hoot" I get all motivated looking at their legs! LOLLL.
And.. I have quite the surprise to share with you all.. I weighed myself for the first time today since I've started.. you guys will never believe it! I've lost more than 10lbs LOLOLOLOLOL I couldn't believe it I went on the scale over and over again laughing like a psychopath. My mom was so happy too we stood there high-fiving for literally 2 minutes straight. hahaha!
I've been avoiding the salt-water flush for awhile now.. because I didn't think I could do it... so I've been taking the detox tea in the mornings as well instead. Well, turns out that the un-iodized salt water is what irritates your stomach and creates diarrhea to empty out all the nasty stuff. Looks like I'm going to start on that first thing in the morning...T^T
I've so become a pro at making this "lemonade"! Not too much maple syrup.. just enough to make it not too sour--don't need all that sugar and carbs anyway! I was avoiding putting a lot of the cayenne pepper, but turns out that's what keeps your metabolism going and not stopping! The batch I'm making tonight for tomorrow, I'm going to be putting more that in now!

The best thing by far that has happened for me is my acne clearing up.. I can't believe this is happening. I always read and heard when people stressed the importance of what you eat is what you are, but I truly didn't understand it till now.


And as usual, ending it with a picture of Seba :)
Sorry for such a long post! Just have so many things to fill in..
-Jinna

Lemonade Detox Diet Start! :)

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of the update -__-;; My mom and I switched computers this past week because mine is so crappy I can't play [brace yourself] World of Warcraft. Yes yes, I'm an asian nerd -.-

Besides that! If you remember, I posted the recipe for the Lemonade Detox Diet about a week ago. Now that I've finished all the perishable items in the fridge... I've started! If you want the recipe, refer to that post Here.


Gather your ingredients!


Roll the lemon and give it a few squeezes before cutting them. This breaks open some of the hard to reach pulp and more of the juice comes out.

Slice them in Half~

I'm using a juicer :) If you don't have one, you can always just use your hands or something cheaper.

If you give it a squeeze like this once no more juice comes out, you can check if there's any leftover.

This actually took longer than I thought..

tada!

For some reason, when I made this again the next day, I ended up with wayy more juice than I did this day.. I guess it really depends on the lemons..

I split the lemon juice evenly to 2 containers, and added 5 cups of water each. (total 10 cups for the day)

Add a couple pinches of Cayenne Pepper! I put wayyy too much (following someone else's recipe -___-;) Most people said just put a pinch everytime you pour yourself a cup.. but I thought that was a hassle and just put it in here.

Add the Maple Syrup.. as usual, as first timers, I put wayyyy too much -___- The recipe I found was a total dud! I had to accommodate it myself. Just add 2 Tbs per cup.

Wisk it all together..

And safely into the fridge it goes! As you can see.. it's rather dark! It's not supposed to be this concentrated!! X__X

Okay, so it was my first time making it... and I figured out what to put more in of, and less of. But because I made it, I ended up drinking it all just for this day, and kept telling myself it was only going to get easier from here since I'd make it better each time.

LDD DAY 1:
Okay. So I sort of underestimated this whole procedure. It didn't exactly start off the way I wanted to! I ended up making a super concentrated first batch and made serious faces every time I drank it. Oh well, it'll get better.. Anyway! So first thing was first. Because I can't bring myself to drink 1 quart of salt water every day, I decided to take the detox tea in the morning as well as night. People said this was an alternative since they initially did the same thing.
So let me say this.. I love to eat. I love food. I like all types: crunchy, mushy.. you name it. [unfortunately I really like starch foods like Ramen and pasta..] So to stop eating all the sudden is kind of hard! I totally pigged out the day before with so much food! hahaha :p Anyway, getting through the first day wasn't all that bad.. I had to avoid everyone who was eating, or hide in my room while my family ate dinner...T^T my room is next to the kitchen, so it was a bit painful! Anyways, the day finally ended, and I didn't have to try so hard to finish the entire mixture even though I made enough for 10 cups instead of 6-8. I just kept drinking it whenever I would crave foods, or feel I had an empty stomach.
At the end of the day, I had my cup of detox tea.. WHICH IS SOOOOOO GROSS!!!! uaghghsdfhsj!!!!! I thought this was going to the best part... but turns out it's the worst! I absolutely HATE HATE HATE HATE everything about this tea. It tastes like dirt brewed with random fallen twigs off the ground, and to top it off, has this certain spice that smells almost like cinnamon. X___X It's pretty much death in a tea form for me. Anyway, I managed to plug my nose and chug it down once it cooled a bit. It took me forever to fall asleep though. I couldn't get the cravings for food out of my head! It was utter torture for someone who loves food so much T^T

LDD DAY 2:
So it's already day 2.. Let me tell you, the first batch I made was such a torture, I'm starting get worried if this is how it's going to taste every day... ahh! But turns out my second batch actually tastes like freshly squeezed lemonade!! YES! Closer to a very very strong lemon water. I can't really taste the cayenne pepper much, only when I get to the bottom of the glass. Tastes great ^___^ But because I had such a long and tough day going to my sister's audition with her it was a bit harder today I have to admit. I did wayyy more physical activities than yesterday, when I was home all day on the computer.
My mom and sister even had lunch before going home, and I waited in the car!! It was torture. They were talking about what food they were going to eat, and it was just plain mean! Everyone is so not supportive! My dad keeps offering me food and candy convinced I'm going to die, and my sister just munches on chips with her mouth open!! aghh! The crunching sounds.. -.- I accidentally fell asleep around 5pm and woke up around 9:30pm, so I have so much of the lemonade to drink!! ahh! I'm soo not going to sleep early today -___-


I'm going to post how my LDD goes day by day attached along with other normal posts so you guys can stay updated with my torture.
But.. one thing I'm noticing right away, and it's only day 2--MY SKIN IS CLEARING UP! Nooooo way! :) I'm super psyched. I'm knocking on wood right now.

Thanks for stopping by!<3
Best,
Jinna