I have a confession

Just as the famous chef, Paula Dean had a confession, (she has diabetes), I too have a confession.  I had a doctor visit last week and was told "Your BAD cholestrol is up and you NEED to get that number back down".  So I'm going to try to plan healthier meals for hubby and me.  As you know if you saw my blog post from last weekend we love to cook.  Good ole southern cooking, which I guess I'm going to have to keep to a minimum.  So I got out my cookbooks and starting looking for something that looked a little healthier than last weekend.  This is what I came up with.  It may not be perfect but it's a start in the right direction.......

Saturday morning Hubby made this for breakfast

Buttered toast and soft boiled eggs

OK, there is a piece of bacon hidden under the toast.

We had a few pieces in the fridge and one must not waste!!

This got us off to a good start for the day.  It was a beautiful day so we went out and gathered all the fallen limbs and branches from our many oak trees and started a fire in our burn pile. 

We have a temporary lift on our burn ban.  Needless to say we got our share of exercise.  Pixie supervised and made sure we did it right!! 

Oh yea, we also bombed gopher holes!  Got to love country living!

After all that work we had a good appetite so we headed in to cook our dinner.

Classic Lemon Chicken with Sauteed Spinach

2 lemons

4 Chicken cutlets, pounded thinly into scallopini

salt and pepper

Flour, for dredging

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

5 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, peeled

16 caper berries

10 large green olives

1/2 cup dry white wine

 ( I used white cooking wine, found at your local grocery store)

1 cup chicken broth

Squeeze the juice from one and a half lemons and reserve.  Cut the remaining half lemon into very thin slices.  Remove seeds and set the lemon slices aside.

Season the chicken scallopini with salt and pepper.  Dredge in flour, coating both sides, and tap the excess flour off.  Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add as many scallopini into the pan that will fit without touching, and cook until golden brown, approximately 3 minutes.  Flip and cook second side until light browned, about 2 minutes.  Remove scallopini and drain on paper towel.

When done with the scallopni, wipe off the fat from the skillet with paper towels,.  Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil, butter, garlic and lemon juice and slices to the skillet.  Cook, scraping the bottom until garlic is golden brown, about 3 minutes.  Scoop out the lemon slices and set aside.  Add the capers, olives and cook, stirring gently for about 4 -5 minutes  Pour in wine and bring to a boil.  Cook until the wine is reduced by half.  Add the chicken stock and boil until slightly syrupy.  Return the scallopini to the skillet and coat each piece in the sauce.

Divide scallopini onto separate plates.  Spoon the sauce over, and add the capers and olives around scallopini.   If you want to you can top with reserved lemon slices.

Serve with Sauteed Spinach

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

5 cloves garlic, peeled

2 pounds spinach

salt and pepper.

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Crush garlic cloves with the side of the knife and add to the oil.  Cook until golden brown, approximately 2 minutes.  Add the spinach by handfuls and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Cover pan and cook until spinach releases its liquid.  Uncover pan, and cook stirring until spinach is wilted and water has evaporated.  Taste and season with additional salt and pepper.

I cut this reciepe in half for us and only used 1 bag of spinach- approx 1 lb.

I decided a can of white northern beans would compliment this meal nicely.

And for dessert

We all know this is good for us, right?????



Yes, healthy can be delicous!

Tonight we are having Baked Ziti w/ a salad.

If you want the reciepe let me know and I'll post it.

Bon Apetit!