Guest Post at Blissful and Domestic

I'm so excited to share this link with all of you! I was a guest poster over at Blissful and Domestic today. Go check it out here!

Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken

Do you remember when KFC was actually called Kentucky Fried Chicken? I remember it being a real treat to get KFC, go to the park, and have a huge picnic with my family. My dad loves fried chicken from the deli and we had a lot of summer picnics with fried chicken.

Fried chicken also always look so good on TV...everytime I watch "Man vs. Food" going to some place that makes fried chicken it makes me want to buy a deep fryer for my kitchen. That will probably never happen, so here is an enlightened, but delicious version of fried chicken.

Another hit from Cooking Light, this recipe uses cracker meal for the breading which is genius. This is a hit with bone-in chicken but you can also use boneless skinless chicken breasts if that's all you have on hand. This is a delicious "fried" chicken you can feel pretty awesome about serving since it is briefly pan-fried and then baked to perfection in the oven. The chicken tastes like the real-deal fried chicken without all the fat. I served mine with a green salad and roasted carrots with rosemary.

 Ingredients:
1 cup lowfat buttermilk (Make your own with 1 C milk, and 1 tbsp vinegar OR lemon juice, let stand 10 min)
4 bone-in chicken breast halves, skin removed, about 8 ounces each
1/3 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C cracker meal made by food processoring (or ziploc bag and roller pinning them) about 10 saltine crackers until finely ground
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 425

2. To prepare chicken, combine buttermilk and chicken in a shallow dish, turning to coat.

3. Combine flour and cracker meal in a shallow dish. Transfer chicken from buttermilk to a work surface. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1/2 tsp salt and pepper. Working with one chicken breast half at a time, dredge chicken in flour mixture, shaking off excess; set aside. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken and flour mixture.

4. Melt butter in a large ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan, meat side down; cook 4 minutes or until golden brown. Turn chicken over, and bake at 425 for 32 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165. If you don't have an oven proof skillet, just transfer the chicken to a baking dish for the oven cooking step. Serves 4.

Printable Version

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash

Hi friends! My name is Stephanie and I have a little food blog called Part-Time Hippy.  I consider myself a part-time hippy and a full-time foodie. I'm very excited to introduce myself and share a recipe here for Danielle. 

I'm originally from Idaho and currently live in Salt Lake City with my husband Dan. I recently switched from running a piano and voice studio to working as an enrollment counselor for a university. In the little spare time I have, I love hiking, backpacking, biking, thrifting, finding vintage treasures, and of course, eating delicious food. 

I love food, pure and simple. I love blogging about everything from super healthy food to food full of butter and sugar. I'm so excited to share this post here on Blissful and Domestic. I have this awesome cookbook from the 80's that says "Updated for the 90's" on the front cover. It's called "Recipes to lower your fat thermostat." Who doesn't want to do that??? 

This recipe is wholesome, filling, tasty, and very inexpensive to make. This Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash is a great way to use up squash from your garden that's been sitting all alone on your counter.The filling reminds me of Thanksgiving stuffing and can be made with Quinoa or brown rice. Besides the baking process, this came together in about 10 minutes.

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash, serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C cooked quinoa or brown rice (Quinoa cooks like rice- simply rinse your quinoa, add 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, turn down to a simmer and cover for about 20 minutes. The quinoa will be transparent and glassy when it is cooked)
• 1/2 C dried whole wheat seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 egg whites, slightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 2 tsp parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 3 acorn squash

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients except squash.
2. Cut squash in half. Clean out seeds and discard them.
3. Fill each squash half with quinoa or rice mixture, heaping slightly.
4. Place squash in a nonstick casserole dish. Seal with foil. Bake at 350 until squash is tender, about 1 hour. Serve.

You might also like my blueberry blue cheese spinach salad, Chicken Roll Ups, Black Bean Flourless Brownies, Red Velvet Brownies, Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken, or my Warm Quinoa Salad with Tofu and Asparagus.
 Printable Version

Thanks again for letting me share today on Blissful and Domestic!