Last night, I made a favorite meal of mine.  I was completely beat after 5 miles of treadmill speedwork and a core session and had a hankering for something substantial.  Healthy Chicken Parm to the rescue!

Here’s how it went down:

Preheat the oven to 400.  Slice chicken breasts in half like a book to make sure they cook quick enough.  Douse them with some lemon, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Separate out an egg white in a shallow dish with a splash of milk

In another shallow dish, mix panko breadcrumbs, a TBS or so of freshly grated parmigiano reggiano, italian seasoning, cayenne, salt, pepper

Dunk the breasts in the egg, then the crumbs and push ‘em on real good.

Spray a pie plate with some olive oil spray, but the breasts in there and then spray the top real quick and put them in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Mix about 1/2 cup of low fat ricotta cheese with garlic (minced or powder), fresh basil if you’ve got it, salt, pepper, a little lemon zest and about a TBS more of fresh parm.  This is probably when you want to put your whole wheat pasta on to cook, as well.

When the tops of the chicken start to brown, top them with the ricotta cheese mixture and dump some healthy tomato sauce around the edges and over the top.  (Last night, I used Muir Glen Tomato Basil sauce.)  Crank up the heat to 500 or so and put it back in to bake for about another 10 minutes or so until the cheese gets melty and the edges of the chicken start to gooify with the sauce.

Meanwhile, sautee up whatever veggies you have in the house- I used zucchini (green and yellow) and bell pepper, and then dump the remaining pasta sauce with about a cup of water (swish it around in the jar to get all the goodness out) and simmer with whatever herbs (and dried red chili!) you want to add while waiting for the chicken to finish.

Plate up a serving of pasta (measure it, people!), top with the veggie sauce and one of the ooey, gooey chicken breasts and, if you’re like me, maybe some more crushed red pepper.  Enjoy!

Ps.  This is exactly the kind of meal that is perfect for making in a double batch and putting a few servings in the freezer for lunches!