Louisiana Cuisine and a Great Chicken Recipe

A few days ago I was looking for an easy chicken recipe that wouldn't require a lot of preparation or buying a lot of ingredients.  It turns out that many recipe's on the internet that are labeled "simple" are not the case.  I finally found a recipe that didn't require a ton of ingredients and turned out great.

Ranch Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (1/2 inch thick, I bought chicken breast filets which worked great)
1/2 cup of flour
1 egg beaten
2 Tablespoons Powdered Ranch Dressing
1 cup dry bread crumbs
3 Tablespoons Butter
Parsley flakes

Mix 2 tablespoons of powdered ranch dressing with 1 cup bread crumbs
Put bread crumbs on a plate
Put flour on a small plate
Put beaten egg in small bowl
Melt butter or margarine in frying pan over medium heat
Make sure chicken is dry. If not then pat dry with paper towels.
Coat chicken in flour, then dip chicken in egg, then coat chicken in bread crumb mixture
Cook chicken on each side until golden brown and the temperature is at least 160 degrees F.
Add more butter as needed to prevent sticking
Sprinkle with some parsley flakes and serve.

Here is the finished product.  Note that the coating is a little bit burned on some pieces, the other half of the batch turned out fantastic.

On Friday night my boyfriend and I decided to try Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen, a restaurant that all of our friends recommended.  My boyfriend received a gift certificate for his birthday, so we had to check it out.

We started out with Hush Puppies because I never had them before.  They were great, especially with a little bit of honey butter.

For dinner, I had a Shrimp Po' Boy and my boyfriend had Buttermilk Fried Chicken.

Shrimp Po' Boy

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

We finished off with a Banana Foster Bread Pudding, but we ate it all before we thought about taking a picture.  We were completely stuffed from the meal, but it was delicious.  We would definitely go back.

Happy Easter!

Today was a special day for two reasons.  It is Easter Sunday and it is also my boyfriend's birthday.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I decided to make my boyfriend bread pudding for breakfast.  Here is the recipe I used:

Cinnamon Swirl Breakfast Bread Pudding (found in Cosmopolitan magazine)

4 eggs
1½ cups milk
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ loaf day-old bread, cut into cubes
¼ cup pecans, chopped
Nonstick cooking spray
Maple syrup
In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk. Add the brown sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon, and whisk until all the ingredients are completely incorporated. Stir the bread and pecans into the egg mixture. Coat an 8-inch-by-8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour in the bread pudding, and cover with foil. Let sit in the refrigerator at least one hour and up to overnight. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake the bread pudding, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, and bake an additional 10 minutes, until the pudding is browned. Serve hot with maple syrup. 

I mixed the pudding last night, and baked it this morning.

Bread pudding before baking:

Bread pudding after baking:

The pudding turned out very well, and was great with syrup.  I would highly recommend this recipe since it is both simple and yummy.

For another Easter activity, we decided to color Easter eggs using a $2 kit we found at Safeway.  Here is the finished result:

We also decided to make Skittles Vodka.  Using this recipe, we made Strawberry and Lime vodka, as seen below:

Strawberry Skittles Vodka

Lime Skittles Vodka

The great thing about this recipe is that you can still taste the skittles, but the vodka isn't overly sweet.  We will definitely make this again.

Overall, I had a very good Easter.  I am a little bit disappointed that I was unable to find Cadbury Mini Eggs where I live (I eat way too many every Easter) but there is always next year!