Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Ingredients:
1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders
1/4 cup reduced fat, grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbs olive oil

Directions:
Mix cheese, garlic salt and pepper together in a small bowl.  Rub parmesan cheese mixture into both sides of chicken breasts.  Heat oil over medium low heat.  Add chicken breasts and cook for 7 minutes on each side. (depends upon the size and thickness of chicken)

Each serving is around 4 weight watcher points if this is divided into 4 servings..

Dijon Herbed Chicken

Just tried this today, and it was great! It was so easy!

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsp. light Italian salad dressing
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 lb total)

Preparation:

Combine mustard and salad dressing in shallow dish. Mix bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, and basil in another dish. Spread mustard mixture on both sides of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, then pat crumb mixture onto both sides, pressing firmly. Bake at 400 degrees for 19-24 minutes until chicken registers 160 degrees F on an instant-read meat thermometer. 

 

Serves 4.  Each serving is 6 weight watcher points.

Spinach and Cheese Manicotti

This was delicious, but... I'm not going to lie to you....it wasn't a quick, throw-together meal. And it was kind of messy to make. :-) I felt the results were worth it, but you could make it simpler by using jumbo shells which are easier to fill than manicotti noodles. You could also layer the filling in between lasagna noodles. Filling the manicotti was the hardest part.

Ingredients:
1 box frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
14 manicotti shells
3 cups low-fat cottage cheese
1 jar pasta sauce
1/4 cup Kraft reduced-fat parmesan cheese
1 cup Italian blend shredded cheese (I found this at Aldi - it was a mix of parmesan, mozz. and ramano)
1 egg white
1 TBS orgegano
1 TBS basil
1/2 TBS garlic salt
black pepper to taste

Directions:
dd pasta to boiling water and cook for about 9 minutes; drain and set aside to cool.  In a large bowl mix cottage cheese, parmesan, shredded cheese and egg white.  Add spices and 3 TBS of pasta sauce to the cheese mixture; stir well.  Fold in spinach.  Cover the bottom of a baking dish with a thin layer of pasta sauce. Add cheese mixture to a large zip-loc bag and snip off one corner of bag.  Squeeze cheese mixture into each manicotti noodle.  Line filled noddles in the baking dish.  Pour remaining pasta sauce over the filled manicotti. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

2 manicotti are 7 weight watcher points.