"Bite-sized cheddar fish-shape crackers"

So the whole cooking a new meal every week hasn't exactly happened the way I thought it would! So it's been a little while but last night I made something new out of my cookbook once again! I was in a big rush, so I chose from the "convenience cooking" section of the book and found a fun recipe called "Crunchy chicken strips"

Since I already had some frozen chicken breasts, I chose this recipe. The other ingredients were also on hand--the first being "bite-size cheddar fish-shape crackers." This made me laugh! What a great description of goldfish when you can't use their name for trademark issues! The other ingredient was ranch dressing.

I crushed the crackers, and dipped the chicken in a shallow bowl of the ranch before dipping them in the bowl of crackers.

And that was all I had to do! I baked them in the oven at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes (the recipe called for 10-15 minutes)

It actually tasted really good, and was so easy! So even though it was a quick rushed meal, it was still something from my cookbook, and something new :)

Learning to Cook!

I was given a Better Homes and Garden cookbook recently as a "welcome to Campus Outreach staff" gift, and so I decided (along with the other younger single staff) to cook something from the cookbook every week!

We all decided that we really need to learn to cook, and since we are all in our early 20's, now would be the time! :) 

So for our first recipe and week one of this new tradition, I decided to make "Citrus-herd marinated chicken" since I already had frozen chicken breasts in the freezer. 

I thawed the chicken breasts overnight.

Then I worked on making the marinade:

1/3 cup lemon juice (or orange juice)

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon snipped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed

1 tablespoon snipped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot (which I learned are green onions!)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

 Then I put the chicken breasts in a plastic ziploc and poured the marinade in, and mixed it around. I let the chicken marinate for about 3 hours in the fridge (the recipe called for 2-4 hours)

 Once marinated, I put the chicken on tin foil on a baking sheet (the recipe called for a broiling pan, so we made do with what we had)

We also cooked up some asparagus as our side, using olive oil, salt, and pepper on the stove top

We broiled the chicken for 6 minutes, then turned them and put more marinade on them and let them broil another 9 minutes.

We topped our asparagus with some parmesan cheese also.

It was actually much easier than I thought, and I enjoyed making something so tasty! Everyone loved it :) 

I'm excited to see how many things I am able to make after this year with my single staff friends!