Pretty Little Apron

boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Sticky Sesame Apricot Chicken

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Apricot Chicken Recipe


This may not seem very interesting to most people, but something really epic happened to me today. I FINALLY found maternity jeans that I don’t hate. AND… I got new shoes. 3 pairs! AND… a new bra. AND… a few other nice shirts to get me through the rest of my pregnancy. Life is good. I look like a normal human being again. It feels good!

If anyone ever tells you a new pair of jeans that fit right isn’t life changing, please have them reference this. IT IS. This baby bump and Mama are so happy!

When I arrived home from my epic shopping adventure, food was necessary. Walking around the mall is exhausting when it feels like there is a bowling ball, that may or may not pop out at any time, between your legs. So I put together this Sticky Sesame Apricot Chicken and sat down!

Apricot Chicken Recipe

What I really love about this Sticky Sesame Apricot Chicken recipe is it combines so many flavors. The apricot preserves I used are a bit tart. Mix that with the sweetness of brown sugar, and the saltiness of soy sauce….and you have the perfect combination! I’ve mentioned my Jasmine Rice cravings, and this recipe did not  disappoint! It goes great over a giant heap of perfectly cooked Jasmine Rice, and some additional soy sauce on top. 🙂

Sticky Sesame Apricot Chicken

Recipe Tips

  1. I mentioned this in my Honey Mustard Garlic Chicken recipe as well, but when coating chicken it really helps to get everything in place before you start so you don’t have to continually wash your hands and then reach for the forgotten items. I’ve only done this a million times before I started telling myself over and over again to get everything in place before starting!
  2. Use one hand to dip in the egg, and then the other to coat in cornstarch. If you try to use the same hand you will have a hot mess! After working in restaurants and coating about a million pieces of chicken, sometimes this still isn’t second nature to me. The temptation to dip with the same hand is still there! haha
  3. This is a base recipe. If you like more salty, add more soy sauce! If you like more sweet, add more brown sugar!

Sesame Apricot Chicken

 

 

 

 

Sticky Honey Mustard Garlic Chicken

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Hello! Welcome to my first post in 2018, and my first post under a brand spankin’ new name! This Sticky Honey Mustard Garlic Chicken is the perfect way to start off the new year, but first….


What gives on the name change!?!?!

I’m ready to drop a few truth bombs right now, and it may not be pretty but it is genuine and it is me. I was struggling with the name 3boysunprocessed. Struggling for a very long time. In 2018 one of my goals was to make this blog a more comprehensive look at my life. To do that I desperately needed to change the name and break out of the box of unprocessed eating.

Four years ago, my life was completely different! When I started this blog, I was so passionate about cooking with the least processed ingredients. What you saw was what I was feeding my family. It was fun to me then, it was my own little project that I loved and babied. It grew my love for photography, it gave me a reason to talk about my children and document my life, and it was great. I was stunned when people actually cared. But then….

Life happened. My husband started a new career that took him on the road and away from home 5 days a week, we had another baby (and have another on the way now), I started a photography business, and my wee little babes who would eat anything suddenly didn’t want my whole wheat macaroni and honey sweetened delicious treats anymore. Things were different, my family was growing and changing, and my blog needed to reflect that.

Life can be extremely busy at times. Every time I thought to myself that I’d like to post a new recipe, I realized that it may not fit into the unprocessed box I had put myself into. I want to share my love for food here, and ultimately I have to be true and honest that this is not how I cook anymore. Of course, I am still cooking fresh, homemade meals for my family. However I’ve stopped stressing over certain ingredients such as white pasta and cane sugar. My sanity needed a break from hyper obsessing over my kids going to a birthday party and eating a hotdog bun. So I let go a little, and it feels great!

Looking into 2018, I’m really ready to share more stories about life, my family, my cooking, my Lipsense business, my love for photography, and so much more! I absolutely love looking back at all of my posts from when my boys were all super tiny, and I want to keep sharing the special little details without the stress of being in any kind of box. Cheers to 2018!

Sticky Honey Mustard Garlic Chicken

Now that the cat is out of the bag, shall we move on to this Sticky Honey Mustard Garlic Chicken? It is oozing with delicious Asian inspired flavors, simple ingredients, and my latest pregnancy craving… Jasmine Rice and soy sauce! It combines a few simple ingredients to check off every box on the BEST CHICKEN EVER list… sweet, salty, perfectly crunchy, and smothered in a delicious and easy to make sauce.

THIS IS CHICKEN HEAVEN.

Sticky Honey Mustard Garlic Chicken

The Recipe

One of my favorite way to make takeout inspired chicken is to dip it in egg, coat it with cornstarch, and then cook it on the stovetop. It gives a deep fried texture without actually deep frying or ordering takeout from a place that may or may not be using trans fats to fry their food. I love me some Panda Express, but I hate the way I feel after eating mystery ingredients. This is the perfect way to make it at home and know exactly what you are eating.

The most important step when cooking this Sticky Honey Mustard Garlic Chicken is to make sure your meat is properly seasoned. Don’t forget to season your chicken before you bread it. I always use coarse Kosher salt to season meats, it has never let me down! A sprinkle over all of your chicken chunks will work wonders.

Coating the chicken is easy, but can be messy! One thing I learned while working in restaurants and coating millions of pieces of chicken is to get everything where you need it before you start, and use one hand to dip and the other to coat. No matter how bad you want to just go right from the egg to the cornstarch with the same hand… DON’T DO IT or your hands will be a hot mess.

The sauce is super easy to put together! Cook the garlic, then add the rest of the ingredients and viola! It is super versatile, so if you like it a little more sweet, add more honey. If you like it a little more salty, add more soy sauce! If you don’t have whole grain mustard, use dijon! The sky is the limit here, this is really just a base recipe.

Also, apparently is is really easy to burn Jasmine rice. That is all I’m going to say about that. HAHA

Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken & Guac

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Grab your tortilla chips and get prepared for some fresh guacamole and perfectly grilled chicken! This Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken & Guac does not disappoint in the flavor department and takes only a few minutes to prepare. Weeknight grilling for the win!

Truth: I’m trying to fit more fruits, veggies, healthy fats, and lean protein into my diet. All winter I wasn’t taking into consideration what I was eating, and I found myself mostly snacking on carbs all day. In my Balsamic Glazed Grilled Chicken recipe, I discussed prepping meals ahead of time to try to balance my diet a bit more. So far it is working great, except when my husband comes home and eats all of the portions I made in advance. Meal prep fail! His job is super labor intensive, so I guess he gets a pass to go on this one. 🙂

Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken

Cilantro is super popular, but I feel it is so underrated! Every time I purchase a bunch of cilantro at the grocery store I:

  1. Immediately smell it 1,000 times
  2. Make a gorgeous salad with a cilantro lime dressing
  3. Make fresh guac, of course
  4. Start putting it on everything until it goes bad

But for real, this Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken & Guac is one of my favorite uses for it. You just can’t beat a perfectly grilled piece of chicken, seasoned to perfection, bursting with bold flavors, and perfect for leftovers! I mentioned meal prepping earlier and this chicken made awesome salads the rest of the week for me. I tossed it with some dark leafy greens, a few tortilla chips as croutons, fresh avocado, cherry tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and my favorite ranch dressing. Yum!

Grilling Tips

I have a few grilling tips I’ve repeated here about 1,000 times but here goes again! I suggest generously seasoning your meat with coarse kosher salt and black pepper beforehand. This is an important part of this recipe because bland chicken is no good! Next, I would suggest using thin cut chicken breasts, or filleting and pounding your chicken breasts flat with a meat tenderizer. This also makes a huge difference in how your chicken grills, and eliminates that super fat part that contributes to uneven grilling and a bland end product.

Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken & Guac

 

Meal Prep: Balsamic Glazed Grilled Chicken

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Happy first day of Spring! My heart is happy!


What better way to welcome the first day of spring then to do some healthy meal prep with this Balsamic Glazed Grilled Chicken! This is an easy, simple, and delicious way to not complicate eating healthy. With just a few ingredients you can have meals for the week, which means plenty of time to get outside and enjoy the Spring weather!

 

Meal Prep Balsamic Chicken

Truth: Everyone can meal prep. EVERYONE. You don’t need to be a super healthy, fitness guru to meal prep. You can be a Mommy like me who is tired of eating your children’s leftovers for lunch. You could also be a working 20-something who is sick and tired of spending so much money on eating out. Or a middle aged man who takes lunch to the office. There are a million scenarios here, and the bottom line is everyone can meal prep to make their lives easier.

For me personally, I need structure to my eating habits to maintain my healthy eating goals. If I have an open-ended day with no plan, sure enough I find myself snacking on everything in sight. I’m not “dieting,” rather I’m just trying to find a nice balance between foods I really love, and foods I should be eating more of.

Should be eating more of = greens, lean protein, fruits

Foods I love = Mac n cheese, cheese fries, cheeseburgers, anything with sugar

See how this could turn into a serious problem!?! Creating a balance for me is just making plans, like this Balsamic Glazed Grilled Chicken. It took me less than 45 minutes from start to finish. 45 minutes! Now I have lunch for the rest of the week. That means no reaching snacks to fill me up. I am armed and ready with a plan of filling half of my plate with these beautiful greens and fruit, and the other with a protein.

Meal Prep Chicken

LunchBots for Storing Meals

I mentioned on my Planetbox vs. LunchBots review that I love these little boxes! What I love the most is that they are not plastic. Secondly, they are super easy to load your food in, and stack up in the refrigerator to store without taking up a ton of space. For this meal I would suggest using the uno or duo. I used both and they worked like a charm! Amazon has a nice variety of their products, so here is the link to the uno that I used. For a larger portion, they also have their Bento line, which is fabulous too! If you don’t have any reservations about plastics, there are also a ton of meal prep containers on Amazon that work just like the LunchBots.

Products from Amazon.com

The Recipe

The best part of this recipe by far is the balsamic glaze! It is simply just balsamic vinegar and a bit of sugar reduced to a thick glaze. This takes about 15 minutes and will make your entire house smell like vinegar (warning). It is so good though, I didn’t even care!

When the chicken was just about done grilling, I brushed each piece with the glaze, then removed from the heat. The glaze will run off of the chicken when it is piping hot, but after it cooled a bit, I re-brushed with glaze to make sure it was nice and glaze-y.

Each container contains:

  • 1 grilled chicken breast
  • 2 cups dark leafy greens
  • 1/2-1 cup strawberries/grapes
  • 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • additional balsamic glaze for drizzling

If I were packing this to-go, I would use a LunchBots dips container for dressing or additional glaze.

Balsamic Chicken Meal Prep

 

Pepperoni Pizza Panko Chicken

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Pepperoni Pizza Panko Chicken

Pepperoni Pizza Panko Chicken. Say that a few times really fast! This is an easy, kid friendly recipe that screams weeknight meal to me! It combines panko and parmesan crusted chicken, pizza sauce,  Applegate Pepperoni, and melty mozzarella cheese to make a delicious main dish.


Truth…I am not a huge pepperoni person, and never have been. Growing up I was just an extra cheese kind of girl. I have ventured out a bit since those days, but my ideal slice of pizza is still extra cheese. Cheese = Life.

My children, on the other hand, love pepperoni. They have been known to completely abandon a slice of pizza after eating just the pepperoni off of the top.

WHO. DOES. THAT.

Despite not being a super duper pepperoni lover, I saw this Applegate Naturals pepperoni at the grocery store and thought it looked brilliant. It was huge. It was massive. It deserved to sit atop a chicken breast with melty mozzerella cheese and fresh basil on top. I needed this pepperoni in my life to show my children that I, in fact, can be a pepperoni person too.

Here is my husband pretending to be tall, dark, handsome, and mysterious while showing off this wonderful Applegate Naturals Pepperoni! He attempted to give me several pointers on how to get this shot. I didn’t listen to any of them! 

Pepperoni Pizza Panko Chicken

Ingredients and Tips

I have been mentioning this a lot here lately, and here I go again. Target is really killing it with their organic, non-GMO, and better ingredient oriented grocery selection lately! I am so impressed with their organic selection, sometimes I forget I’m even at Target. As I browsed the isles, or ran through them with a screaming baby, I picked up a jar of their Simply Balanced organic pizza sauce for $1.29!

$1.29!!!! I thought it was a steal. 🙂

I also used  Kikkoman panko bread crumbs, grated parmesan cheese, shredded mozzarella cheese, and thin cut chicken breasts. If your chicken breasts are thicker, I highly suggest filleting them first (cutting them in half length-wise), and pounding them thin with a meat tenderizer.

When I sauté chicken, temperature and enough olive oil is key to getting those perfectly crisp panko crumbs on the outside. I had my burner on a steady medium-low the whole time. I knew I did not want to crank it up too high, as to not burn the olive oil or the panko bread crumbs. I think the crucial part to getting perfectly crisp and browned breadcrumbs is 100% the amount of oil in your pan. So before you put each piece of chicken in your skillet, make sure there is a generous dash of oil waiting for those breadcrumbs!

Pepperoni Pizza Panko Chicken

Pepperoni Pizza Chicken

 

Grilled Greek Chicken

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Confession: It took me approximately 22 years to try feta cheese. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember my parents ever purchasing feta cheese, and I never even heard of it until the first time I tried it. Living under a big ol’ food rock, no?


The first time I tried it, I actually just tried a hunk of it plain. Like why?!?! Why didn’t I understand it needed to be paired with other delicious foods of either the salty or sweet caliber to live up to it’s full feta potential? Not a great first impression but thankfully it wasn’t my last.

Fast forward a bit, I started working at a Greek restaurant and quickly realized I needed to give feta cheese another chance. I have not looked back since! This Grilled Greek Chicken is a fabulous recipe that pairs feta with other savory, salty food to bring out how awesome it is! You take the salty feta, the perfectly seasoned chicken, and the crisp tomato to tone it down a bit and you have the perfect bite!

Speaking of crisp tomatoes, this Grilled Greek Chicken is such a versatile recipe in terms of how you can mix it up and make it your own! The first day I made the chicken I ate it with a ton of tomatoes drizzled with olive oil, salt, and feta cheese. The weather here has been super warm here, so getting out and grilling and eating a light and refreshing side made me dream of the summer nights that are just around the corner. The next day I used the same chicken in a Greek salad. It was the perfect protein to throw onto a bed of greens, add a few croutons, tomatoes, and dressing and have a quick and easy lunch.

Meal preppers.. This is a great one for you!

Grilling The Chicken

I know this sounds so much like a cooking 101 class but the first step to this recipe is preparing the chicken the right way. I’ve given everyone this run down over and over again, however I know I get new traffic from Pinterest every single day. So hello new readers and listen up… preparing your chicken correctly is the key to every chicken recipe! 🙂

I’ve talked extensively about this on my Fiesta Grilled Chicken recipe but here I go again because I’m super passionate about helping people understand how to cook delicious food at home! If your chicken breasts are super thick, you will want to filet them (cut them lengthwise in half). Your knife skills do not have to be perfect to do this and rest assured, some of my chicken breasts look very butchered up when I do it too! Just keep practicing!

After you filet your breasts you will want to pound flat any super thick parts with a meat tenderizer. This ensures that every bite will be seasoned correctly and your chicken will grill evenly! There is nothing I hate more then biting into thick chicken that tastes bland. This will solve that problem! Simply place a piece of plastic over your chicken breast and pound. I like to this it is stress therapy and cooking all in one! haha

The next step. Course. Kosher. Salt. I’ve also talked about this ingredient extensively, but again, it is important so I’m saying it again. When seasoning meat I always use course kosher salt. You certainly don’t have to go overboard because it is strong and totally possible to over season but it can take a piece of chicken from zero to hero in just a pinch!

I have a $100 grill from Amazon.So by all means it is nothing fancy but it gets the job done. I put one side on medium, and one size on low. I start each piece on the hotter side, get nice grill marks by moving each piece after a few minutes, then I flip the chicken breast to the lower side to finish it.

Fiesta Grilled Chicken

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*This Fiesta Grilled Chicken is the perfect grill recipe for all of my Tex-Mex people! You will love everything about this grilled chicken that is rubbed with a ton of spices and grilled to perfection. The best part? Topping it with fresh cilantro, cheese, avocado, and sour cream! You may grill this so much eventually your family will hate you, just like I did! 🙂
Fiesta Grilled Chicken || Grilled chicken rubbed with a ton of spices and flavor, then topped with fresh cilantro, cheese and sour cream. Need I say more? || www.3boysunprocessed.com

There are a few recipes I’ve made so many times my wonderful husband just flat out hates now. Shouldn’t he just be happy that he has a wife that is cooking for him? I think so, I really really do!


*Side note: Mac n cheese is the other recipe he could do without me ever making again. Honestly I’m wondering what is wrong with that man. HA! I’m on a quest to produce the perfect mac n cheese, so he better suck it up and continue to taste test!

It occurred to me the other day that my family totally over-did this recipe at the beginning of the summer. We had just purchased a grill (holla at that cheapo $100 grill from Amazon!!) and we were grilling EVERY-SINGLE-DAY. Now, you have to realize, there is a very good reason for us to be over grilling. At our previous residence we couldn’t have a grill. It killed me a little bit inside every time we drove by someone’s house that smelled like sweet delicious summer time grilling. I hated the place we were living at a little more every time I had to smell that smell knowing that the grill master in me needed an outlet.  I had in my mind that when we finally got a grill we had somehow “made it.” Yes, it was like my Benz. Only it was a grill, and I needed it in my life.

Newsflash: WE MADE IT. 🙂

Fiesta Grilled Chicken || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Now that that really emotional and sentimental news has been broadcast all over the internet I think we shall move on.

One thing about grilling chicken that is a MUST for me is making sure your chicken isn’t too thick in any spots. I never grill chicken without pounding it first because there is nothing I hate more then when grilled chicken has a really fat side that takes forever and a day to cook through. If you have ever been at a restaurant and wondered why their grilled chicken that is seemingly so simple was 1,000 times better then your at home grilled chicken it is probably that their chicken was nice and even, with no super thick parts to take away from the yummy seasoning. My point: Flat chicken rocks!

The way I pound chicken (that may be obvious to some and totally new to others) is very simple:

  • Mise en place: Translation… Get everything out before you start because once you have raw chicken on your hands you don’t want to have to go back to get your stuff out!
  • Things you will need: Meat tenderizer aka keep my hubby in line hammer (totally just kidding don’t send me hate mail), cutting board, piece of plastic wrap or press n seal, chef knife, large bowl.
  • I always filet my chicken first by cutting it in half length wise. This isn’t rocket science and yes, sometimes I end up with a few pieces that are extra thin and that’s totally fine with me!
  • Place chicken on cutting board, put piece of plastic over chicken to ensure you don’t splatter everything you own with raw chicken bacteria.
  • Using the meat tenderizer lightly pound chicken as flat as desired. Don’t be shy, yet don’t go ape shit on it. Unless of course you are looking to get some aggression out. 🙂

Fiesta Grilled Chicken || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Serving Suggestions

  • With flour tortillas (check those for trans fats! partially hydrogenated oil always seems to be lurking in these products) wrapped up with all the yummy toppings.
  • With grilled peppers and onions.
  • With a side of cilantro lime brown rice.
  • And of course with as much cheese on top as humanly possible. Oh and sour cream, because you can’t have one without the other!

Fiesta Grilled Chicken || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Fiesta Grilled Chicken || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Fiesta Grilled Chicken || Perfectly grilled chicken coated in a ton of yummy spices and topped with cheese, fresh cilantro, and avocado. Summer time grilling at its finest!

 

Chicken, Bacon, and Broccoli Pasta

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Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta


One. More. Week. Just one more week of summer vacation left. Have you seen the video of the mom singing “Bye, Bye, Bye” as the bus leaves on the first day of school? Yeah, that’s me right now. I’m ready to see that bus pull away (ok, we don’t have busses but if we did….) and I’m ready to get back to the “school year” schedule. Don’t get me wrong, I love my oldest son dearly. It is just that I’m 36 weeks pregnant, FAT as ever, out of energy, can’t bend over, and have exhausted all of our summer plans. But here I am making this Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta anyway!

I never thought I would be ready for summer to be over, but today when it hit me that next Tuesday is the first day of school I was kind of excited! Maybe it is because I really am just tired of adulting, or maybe it is because I have been telling myself over and over again that at the end of summer I will have a new baby. Which ever the case I’m just not so sad to see summer go this year.

Speaking of adulting, I did a little bit of it today and whipped up some brownies PLUS this delicious, cheesy, and somewhat indulgent pasta. Who doesn’t love a pasta dish like this one? Cheesy..check. Creamy..check. Bacony..check. Carb-o-licious..check. Oh and then there is the broccoli that I threw in there to convince myself I was being healthy..check. 🙂 This dinner is a win-win in the ingredient department, but even better is that it takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish! With back to school schedules in full swing I know I will be needing meals like this to get me through the week (and keep my kids from complaining).

Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta

 

Recipe Tips:

  • I used thin sliced chicken breasts for this recipe, as I always do. If you pick up regular chicken breasts at the grocery store, you can easily slice them in half lengthwise before slicing into strips, or use a meat tenderizer to flatten them a bit before slicing into strips. There is something really gross about biting into a super thick and chunky piece of meat so I always recommend thinner pieces.
  • I only cook the broccoli for a minute or two when I first put it in because it will continue cooking. When your broccoli brightens up in color you are good to add the rest of your ingredients.
  • Additional salt and pepper to taste can make or break a recipe. The cheese in this recipe is pretty salty, so you probably won’t need to add too much additional seasoning if you do.
  • When cooking your bacon you may notice some residue on the bottom of your pot. THIS IS GOOD. When you stir in your milk go ahead and scrape that residue off the bottom of your pan for extra flavor.
  • As always when cooking I keep my burner at a medium temperature. Often times I feel like people want to crank up the heat but this can easily ruin a recipe. A steady low-medium is where I do most of my cooking!
  • Recipe Update: I have made this recipe a couple times and have found that I like cooking the bacon separate from the rest for a crispier result. I just throw my bacon in the oven. When it is cooked I diced it up and mixed it in at the end.

 

Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta

Chicken Bacon Broccoli Pasta

Chicken Parmesan Alfredo

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Chicken Parmesan Alfredo: Two classic Italian dishes combined to create a simple dinner your whole family will enjoy! || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Have I told you lately how much I LOVE my cast iron skillet? Yes, it’s true. A few years ago I traded in my non-stick cookware for all stainless steel and cast iron. It did take me a while to get used to not burning stuff to the bottom of them like EVERYTIME but after adjusting my heat (much lower!) I realized I didn’t need those chemical laden pots and pans after all! 🙂


Today I’m sharing this chicken parmesan recipe that goes to a whole new level by adding a super yummy Alfredo sauce to the pasta and lots of mozzarella cheese before baking it in the oven to get that nice, crusty mozzarella we all love. The best part is I used my wonderful cast iron skillet to get a nice, crispy piece of chicken without a deep fryer or any unhealthy oils. If you don’t own a cast iron skillet no worries, you can do this in just about any sauté pan, however I do love the results I get from my cast iron. Just take a look and you’ll understand! Now that’s a piece of chicken to be proud of!

Chicken Parmesan Alfredo: Two classic Italian dishes combined to create a simple dinner your whole family will love! || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Another thing I love about his recipe is the versatility. If you are short on time and don’t feel like taking the extra steps to make the Alfredo sauce you can absolutely toss your pasta in extra red sauce and call it a day. Sometimes I go the red sauce route, sometimes I go the Alfredo route. Sometimes I even toss my pasta in extra red sauce AND ricotta cheese and that is delicious too. Either way you will end up with a dinner your family will love!

Whenever I use a convenience product like the panko bread crumbs I used in this recipe I always caution folks to READ INGREDIENTS!  These are the products most notorious for adding a bunch of crappy ingredients that don’t need to be there just for the sake of keeping the product on a shelf for years without it going bad. I get so frustrated with brands like Progresso who willingly put profit and production above ethics. When it comes down to it, there should be no reason any breadcrumb product contains ingredients like partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. When I started reading labels one of the first products I immediately threw away were the breadcrumbs that had been lingering in the back of my pantry forever. That alone should have indicated to me that something just wasn’t right with the product to begin with. Since that time I’ve experimented with making my own breadcrumbs (which works wonderful too!) but this time I opted for an organic panko product I’ve found in most mainstream grocery stores (check their organic section).

Here’s the product I used as well as my favorite cast iron skillet! 🙂

*This is a bulk listing.

Chicken Parmesan Alfredo: Two of my favorite Italian favorites combined to create a delicious dinner your whole family will love!

 

Cheesy Stuffed Garlic and Herb Chicken

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Simply Organic Garlic and Herb Chicken

**To check out more about Simply Organic’s Steam Gourmet Line and to help me win the Win @ Blogging Grand Prize (a ton of blogging goodies that will help me bring you more recipes this year) PLUS be entered to win prizes for YOURSELF follow this link: http://bit.ly/19msUDo. Simply Organic is giving away prizes until the end of February so head on over to vote!

Hello EASY and delicious dinner, cooked in 1 parchment paper bag (sides and all!), with minimal cleanup. Is this real life?? Yes! With Simply Organic’s new Steam Gourmet line this can happen in your kitchen in 40 minutes. 🙂


When the folks over at Simply Organic reached out to me to try their new product, it was an obvious win-win situation for me! I get to work with a brand that I already know and love, AND I get to bring their new product to your attention so you can try it as well. Since I was already familiar with some of their products I was confident this would be something that my family would enjoy because it is a simple, easy way to get a healthy dinner on the table. With baseball season right around the corner, I’m going to need minimal effort, maximum flavor meals that I can have prepared when my son gets home from school. Enter this glorious product that requires little to no brain power when you have nothing left to give on a busy day when you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off, trying to get your child dressed for a game, while looking for hats/gloves/other baseball related items that are seemingly right in front of your face. Whew! I know. Been there, done that! Did I mention easy, delicious, no brain power?

Cheesy Stuffed Garlic and Herb Chicken

Cheesy Stuffed Garlic and Herb Chicken

I have to admit, I did really enjoy the Cheesy Stuffed Garlic and Herb Chicken that I cooked up for a few reasons:

  1. No potentially harmful plastic bags that other seasoning kits often come with.
  2. My sides were cooked in the bag too, allowing the seasoning packet to season the whole meal.
  3. A protein/veggie/starch meal all in 40 minutes!
  4. After preparing this I only had two dishes to wash. TWO!!!! (cutting board, glass baking pan that was almost clean already)
  5. Organic seasoning packets contain mostly 100% spices, and very little sodium. Most of the time you’ll find companies using an array of random, unpronounceable ingredients in seasoning packets, with LOADS of sodium. After I started reading ingredient labels I got rid of all of those packets I may have used before because I realized the main ingredients weren’t spices at all. Something just didn’t seem right about that. Simply Organic hit the nail on the head by using real spices, and you can definitely taste the difference.
  6. There is no need to add any extra fats or oils to your parchment bag, so if you are looking to cut calories or are on a diet the Steam Gourmet line would be an awesome addition to your weekly meal prep.

When I was asked to create a recipe using one of their new products, I really wanted to keep the integrity of what the product was. Simple, EASY, quick, real. I didn’t want to add a bunch of extra steps because I felt that took away from the whole concept. What better way to do that then stuff a little cheese inside the chicken breast and Viola! Done! So I grabbed the Garlic and Herb Steam Gourmet box, pulled out one seasoning packet and one parchment bag (each kit comes with two of each) and added two slices of provolone cheese to each breast after they were seasoned. Truth: I even used a paper plate to dip the chicken in the seasoning. Gahhhh! Seriously I don’t have a dishwasher and dishes are my worst enemy. Please don’t judge. 🙂

So I threw everything in the parchment bag, folded that baby up and about 10 minutes later a glorious smell filled my kitchen. Then I had to wait another 30 minutes to actually taste it. Perhaps a con? A small one but yes!

Cheesy Stuffed Garlic and Herb Chicken

Why yes that is cheese and seasoning on those green beans! 🙂

Cheesy Garlic and Herb Stuffed Chicken featuring Simply Organic's Garlic and Herb Steam Gourmet || www.3boysunprocessed.com

 

**To check out more about Simply Organic’s Steam Gourmet Line and to help me win the Win @ Blogging Grand Prize (a ton of blogging goodies that will help me bring you more recipes this year) PLUS be entered to win prizes for YOURSELF follow this link: http://bit.ly/19msUDo. Simply Organic is giving away prizes until the end of February so head on over to vote!

Greek Kale and Orzo Salad

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Greek Kale and Orzo Salad with from scratch, EASY dressing || www.3boysunprocessed.com


New Year, New You? Right? 🙂

Here we are… two weeks into the new year and I’m wondering who is still sticking to their “let’s get healthy” resolution? If you’ve fallen off the resolution train already, don’t worry! One calendar day means nothing, however a new attitude about food means everything! Forgetting about that mark on your calendar might be the best “should-have-been resolution” out there because every day is a new day to change how you eat. Every grocery store trip, every meal is a new chance to check ingredient lists and care about what you are putting into your body. Yes, there are times when I eat things that I know aren’t in the game plan, but I don’t dwell on it for too long because I have new meals coming up that can and will be healthy.

I have to start this with a story about my mom. She’s been on diet after diet after diet her whole life and I think she might be beginning to understand that she NEEDS to check ingredient lists for everything. It doesn’t matter if it says “light” or “natural” because chances are it probably isn’t. She was telling me all about her new eating plan, yet mentioned she was still using a bottled dressing. Now, don’t get me wrong, we are all going to fall short somewhere. If 95% of your diet consists of unprocessed foods, then you are doing really great! However, bottled dressings just make me want to throw something. They are so counterproductive it is just upsetting. Big pile of delicious veggies? Here, let’s pour some unhealthy GMO soybean oil and MSG on it! Unhealthy fats, gimmicky lies on the front of the bottles, addictive ingredients, tons of sodium, artificial colors, preservatives, I mean I could write a book about this crap.

At the end of the conversation I told my mom “Listen.. it is all about seasoning your food. Even if it is a salad it needs salt and pepper. Olive oil, vinegar, spices, salt, pepper. That’s all it takes to make your own dressing that you will love to eat. But the key ingredients are salt and pepper. Nobody wants to eat food that is bland, and this is the key to making your own dressing that actually tastes good. TRUTH! 🙂

Greek Kale and Orzo Salad || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Other then the obvious health benefits kale is an awesome green to use in make ahead salads because it doesn’t wilt. That’s right, you can dress this salad the night before and you will still have a crisp and fresh green to take for lunch or enjoy at home. Kale can be a little rougher then spinach/romaine so I’d suggest chopping you kale thinly.

Greek Kale and Orzo Salad with a fresh and easy homemade dressing || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Crispy Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta

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Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta. A delicious, creamy pasta topped with blacked chicken and broccoli.


First, who else is watching The Voice right now? All of these guys are so amazing!

And second, a big Happy Birthday to my first born baby, who turns 8 today! I know, I know, shouldn’t I be posting a cupcake or something? Well, those babies were all finished up last night around…..11:30 PM. Every procrastinating parent has been there, right? Luckily my cupcake game is on point and his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cupcakes made it to school without anything tragic happening! 🙂

So after I completely turned my kitchen upside down last night and left the mess to deal with this morning I didn’t really feel like putting something super special together for dinner. You know, when you’ve spent your entire morning with a bottle of bleach in your hands, cleaning up your kitchen and, oh yeah….the pee around the toilet (that whole boy thing is no joke), and you have little energy left for dinner? Sure, it happens to the best of us. And then we make some super easy and delicious Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta and all is well! Not bragging or anything but my husband totally tasted this and said “Chik-fil-a doesn’t have anything on Mommy.” Score!

Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta. A delcious, creamy pasta topped with blackened chicken and broccoli. || www.3boysunprocessed.com

Ok so yeah, that’s a flax seed in that picture. It has nothing to do with this recipe. Opppps!

This is a two step recipe that involves just one pan. I’m going to quickly sum this up to make this real simple and easy (full recipe below):

1) Coat your chix (restaurant lingo for chicken) in seasoning, dip in breadcrumbs, BAM!

2) Into EVOO drenched and heated pan for some sizzlin’ action. POW!

3) Remove the chix when it is nice and crispy. Deglaze pan with some chicken stock to get all the goodies off the bottom. WOW!

4) Add some butter lovin’ and some flour, then liquids (stock, milk), pasta, and cheese, and simmer that goodness until pasta is about half-way cooked. Add broccoli, allow to cook, and DONE!

Is it just me, or was that really exciting? 🙂 What I love most about this is the ease of cooking the chicken. No annoying waste of an egg to coat your chicken, no 3 step flour, egg, seasoning mess, just an easy cut, coat, and cook method that delivers the crispiest pan “fried” chicken ever!

*For this recipe, I used a store-bought organic breadcrumb. Although these are not 100% whole wheat, they are a great convenience product that doesn’t include any unnecessary ingredients like hydrogenated oils, HFCS, MSG, etc.  Here’s a link if your interested!

Blackened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta. A delicious, creamy pasta topped with blackened chicken and broccoli. || www.3boysunprocessed.com

 

 

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Popper Mac

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Ever want to just throw your hand up in the air and say “I GIVE UP!!!”


That was me, this week. All week it has been raining here. Rain, rain, more rain. No sun, none. Not even a little. Now if you know anything about taking pictures of food you might know that natural light = better pictures. I can’t take pictures of food with a flash, or a light in a room. It HAS to be natural. Hence, my frustration when the sun decided to go away for the past 4 days. Somehow, it peeked out just for a minute for me to snap these pictures. Now it’s gone again and I’m back to wondering if I’ll be able to take any pictures tomorrow, or if the sun will be hiding again. Please come back sun!! 🙂

Remember when I confessed that throughout my life I’ve kind of had an obsession with all foods that involve hot sauce? If you haven’t seen my Buffalo Chicken with Creamy Ranch Slaw post, I explain it there! I’m pretty sure I lived on hot sauce dumped on everything for a good portion of my teenage years. I can’t for the life of me figure out why, but for some reason it was the cool thing to do! Then again, teenagers are really awkward and they do lots of weird, unexplainable things.

On to this wonderful crockpot creation, because seriously I can’t be the only person who still loves a bit of nostalgia sometimes! It brings me back to those high school pizza shop days, in a creamy and delicious way. Something about the cream cheese, the hot sauce, and the jalapenos make this sooooo good I just can’t stop.

I should also mention that when it comes to hot sauce, I always check ingredients! I’ve found some brands like to sneak in Polysorbate 80. Even Frank’s includes that in their wing sauce version, but not their original hot sauce. Figure that one out?!?! I stick to the basic stuff to eliminate the unnecessary ingredients, and I’ve always liked Frank’s original the most anyway!

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The jalapenos in this creamy/spicy madness are completely optional. The first time I made it I used 2, the second time I used 3. Both times had just a bit of spice. Actually, the perfect amount for a family. My kids ate it, and so did my husband and I and nobody complained of too much spiciness. My toddler is notorious for saying “This is too spicy” about foods that have absolutely NO spice in them, and he ate this with no issues. If you really want to bump this baby up, use 1/2 cup of hot sauce instead of 1/4 cup.

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Crockpot Buffalo Chicken with Creamy Ranch Slaw

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Yes, I just said Crockpot. You know, that ancient thing in my closet that I kind of hate? Yeah. That thing.


I know, I know, I said this was never going to happen. I let down all the new moms who need Crockpot meals, and the busy people who work all day and just want to come home to a good meal. But now, I can sleep easy at night knowing my blog is newly equipped with a Crockpot meal. Not just any Crockpot meal… the Crockpot meal of all Crockpot meals… Buffalo Chicken with Creamy Ranch Slaw!

Once upon a time I was a new mom too. A new mom who was just trying to get some food in my face because my life consisted of sitting on couch with a baby on a boobie. Every time I tried to get the baby off the boobie chaos erupted, crying happened, and I was again faced with the fact that I may never eat again. Then I had a genius idea, I’d use the Crockpot that I hated to make everyone happy and get a meal on the table. I happily searched for recipes and BAM! Buffalo Chicken in the Crockpot appeared and I thought my life was now complete. Being a new mom I had a sudden lapse in judgment because then I proceeded to use A RANCH PACKET in this concoction and wow… what was I thinking?!?! MSG much anyone??

You know the drill by now peeps so let’s hop on the “MSG is bad” train and take a little ride through Hidden-Valley-Sucks Ville while we go over the ingredients in these seemingly harmless packets. They seem so innocent, right? Just a few spices, right?

Wrong. These packets contain Malodextrin AS THE FIRST INGREDIENT. We know from my Taco Night Freezer Corn recipe that you will see this in a lot of spice packets. Malodextrin is a highly processed, likely GMO product that comes from corn. However Hidden Valley doesn’t stop there. They also throw in a little MSG and some “natural flavors.” Moral of the story, forget all that crap and add the spices yo’ self. That’s right. We don’t need their MSG and GMO corn to make Buffalo Chicken in the Crockpot because we have our very own spices! *High five for real spices*

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Now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s talk about Creamy Ranch Slaw. Yes, this is a thing now, and yes it is as good as it sounds! So delish, so creamy, so crunchy, so PERFECT to top a spicy Buffalo Chicken. The cream, the crunch, the spice… oh my! You need this in your life if you are a Buffalo Chicken lover. I promise as a former Buffalo Chicken addict myself I would not lead you astray with this one. I’ve had it all… Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Buffalo Wings, Buffalo Chicken Subs, Buffalo Chicken Fries (you know when I was 18 and didn’t care about ingredients in all of this crap!) ALL OF IT! You name it, I’ve slapped some hot sauce and ranch on it, fo’ real. Now let me tell you, this real food version rivals all of that crap and holds it’s own. You will not miss the deep fried crap slathered with hot sauce with a little MSG thrown on top. No, no. You don’t need that no mo’. You’ve got real stuff and it is delish!

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Creamy Ranch Slaw

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups veggie slaw (cabbage, broccoli, or any other variety)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/8 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/8 tsp onion salt
  • 1/8 tsp mustard powder
  • 1/8 tsp paprika
  • 1/8 tsp celery salt
  • black pepper to taste

Directions: Mix spices and sour cream, then combine with slaw and enjoy over a bed of Buffalo Chicken or between some buns.