Coconut Crusted Chicken

So, with the days off and in the spirit of living up to some New Year's resolutions, I've been cooking again.

I found a recipe for Skinny Coconut Shrimp, but I modified it to fit with chicken:

Ingredients:

*4 chicken breasts (cut into 3 sections each)

*1/2 cup + 1 tbspn panko crumbs

*1/2 cup + 1 tbspn shredded sweetened coconut

*Flour

*1/4 cup milk

*pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 425˚F and spray baking sheet with cooking spray.

Combine coconut, panko crumbs, and salt in a bowl. Put milk in another bowl. 

Dip chicken into flour, then into milk, then into crumbs/coconut mixture.

Bake 10 minutes on one side and then flip over and bake 10 minutes on the other side.

The results just came out of the oven and I can't wait to try it. 

Happy Christmas

This year, Christmas has felt different from every other year. 
In November, there were possibilities. And wishes. And the hope of change.

December brought me back to reality. 

There was a final project to do (creating an entire website is HARD work)... and the need to get an "A" so that I could earn that reimbursement. (Which I did get, by the way. Monday I can submit my paperwork to get that reimbursement back!)

There was a Relief Society Christmas party at which I had to play the guitar. And my nimble little fingers have stopped working correctly when it comes to the guitar (AKA I'm rusty).

There was a Relief Society Christmas lesson to prepare (and how I tried to prepare. I wish I had spent time at the temple, that might have made the difference). 

There was a Christmas concert to get prepared for, get tickets for, sit in meetings for, and then invite my family to so that maybe I could capture some of that Christmas spirit back, even though we weren't going to be in California. Unfortunately, those kinds of events bring out the worst in my family and show me how opinionated, argumentative, and frustrated I can be. No Christmas Spirit.

There was a Ward Talent Show to help my friend with. I happily volunteer to accompany when I'm not the one in the spotlight. 

There is now a guy in my life (I went to write "boy" but I realized that it's not appropriate since he's older than me). I'm not sure how long he's staying. We're on a trial run. I'm confused, bewildered, and generally over-analyzing every day my feelings towards him as well as his feelings towards me (and really... I'm looking at his feelings based on how I analyze his actions towards me so they're already a bit skewed). It's a ridiculous situation that makes me laugh if I actually consider only looking at the situation itself, but for now, I'm grateful that there IS a possibility in my life. Some guy wants to be a part of my story. I'll take it.

See... different. There's no plane to catch. No time off to just sleep. In fact, there have been late nights full of escapades of the Argyle Brigade that included my first experience toilet papering someone's house (Yes... I admit that at a month and a week shy of 29, I finally teepee'd someone's house). Christmas is just different.

And now I'm sitting here in my empty apartment, having opened the three presents under my tree, having read Luke 2 again, and thinking back on the conversation I had with the Guy on our last date about how Christmas isn't about the gifts. Maybe I have been more focused on the being with family part of Christmas--having fun with the people I see maybe once or twice a year. Worried about the little traditions that I have--reading the advent book that my sister-in-law made us a few years ago--or reading the Christmas stories I read on my mission. Maybe I never really understood Christmas at all. And maybe my lesson from a week ago has finally made its' mark. Maybe it's finally time for me to bring the Savior back into Christmas and to my year. 

Happy Christmas! (Yes... I'm still trying to be a bit British. It's only been three and a half months since I left!)

Recipes

With my final project being turned in on Saturday, I had some time on Sunday to do some serious cooking. First time in awhile since I've been able to do that (let's not mention the fact that I could've spent that time working on my lesson for next week... oh well!)

I'm pretty pleased with my recipes... so I thought I'd share them.

For dinner (and my lunches for this week):

Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce

1 cup milk

1 cup Italian bread crums

4 chicken breast cut into halves (8 pieces)

1/4 cup butter

1 cup chicken broth

2 cups whipping cream

1 tsp dried basil

1/8 tsp pepper

1 cup grated parmesan cheese.

Place milk and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls. Dip chicken in milk, then coat with crumbs. In a skillet over medium heat cook chicken in butter until browned on both sides. Remove chicken from skilled and keep in a 9x13 pan in the oven on warm.

Add chicken broth to skillet and stir to loosen up browned bits from pan. Stir in cream, basil, and pepper and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and whisk in parmesan cheese. Pour suace over the chicken and serve.

That with this:

Lemon Rice

4 Tbspn butter

1/3 cup green onions, chopped

1 1/2 cups white rice, uncooke

3/4 cup celery, diced

2 1/4 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 Tbspn fresh lemon juice

1 Tbspn lemon zest

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1 bay leaf

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add green onion until softened. Add rice and stir to coat. Add celery, chicken broth, lemon juice, zest, pepper, and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Once rice is boiling, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Toss rice and let stand for 5 minutes.

Maybe Not The Best Idea Ever...

Someone put a gun in my hand on Friday night.

I'm dead serious.

Apparently, I need to learn how to shoot. It's something that everyone living in Utah should know how to do (or so I've been told). Let's not mention the fact that I still have a California Driver's License and will be returning to said state in January to renew my driver's license. (I'm a little sad because I'm finally going to have to get a glasses restriction on my license. Dang!)

But Friday night found me in between two boys as they showed me handguns, bolt action rifles, and two other kind of rifles. All were unloaded. They made me practice "unloading the shell" in the bolt action (again... nothing was in there) and then they had me hold a handgun.

Have I ever mentioned that I've never held a gun before in my life?

I squirmed. I made excuses... I TRIED to not have to hold that gun. But those boys were persistent. One said that it was all in my head. I'm still in recovery mode. 

I'm still trying to decide which was more ridiculous: being terrified to hold an empty gun or the fact that someone actually gave ME a gun to hold.

The result: Apparently the next lesson involves me and a shooting range.

Luckily, we're waiting until it gets warmer.

Oh, dear.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

It may not be a white Christmas yet, but I still convinced a bunch of my girl friends to trek down to BYU and see White Christmas at the HFAC down there.

First we went to Malawi's Pizza and got some delicious pizza. And then we went to the play. We all agreed to dress up and make a night of it. 

The play was amazing. Made me want to sing and dance... both of which we all know are disastrous. And I may have fallen in love with the lead male-meant-to-be-Bing character. It happens every single time. 

But now, NOW, I'm ready for Christmas. December is going to be good.