Baked Pesto Chicken and Skillet Chicken Breast Aglio e Olio

After a long day of traveling, working and schedule rearranging I came home to the friendliest face on the planet yesterday. Bailey! It was my puppy's 7th birthday yesterday! I can't believe how fast the last 7 years flew by. Matt and I brought Bailey home when he was just 8 weeks old. He's so grown up now! I can't even remember my life before Bailey and Matt. I think I'm the luckiest wife and mom on the planet!





Bailey makes everything all better! In addition to Bailey though I had an easy dinner planned. Last night I made Baked Pesto Chicken and put it over a bowl of seasoned whole wheat pasta. I got this recipe a couple of year's ago from one of Matt's old co-workers.

Lauren's review: Easy and delicious!
Matt's review: If I had been home I'm sure I would have enjoyed it.
Final decision: Keeper!

The best part was that with one chicken breast I had enough for dinner last night and for leftovers.


I decided to put the leftovers on top of a salad for lunch today. Speaking of lunches, I decided that for Lent I am going to give up buying lunch. Matt and I will have brown bag lunches for the next 40 days. Today's lunch was a delicious start! Pesto chicken salad and a pear.


Tonight I remade one of my recipes for the first time since I started this project. I didn't have a chance to run to the grocery store for the week yet but I had all the ingredients for Skillet Chicken Breast Aglio e Olio. It was one of my favorite meals so far so I figured it would make a good dinner plus more leftovers for another salad this week. In addition to the chicken I roasted up a medley of potatoes, beets, parsnips, onions and garlic.

Now I'm off to bed. I try to get to bed early when I have the house to myself but I haven't been successful so far this week.

Enjoy the Baked Pesto Chicken recipe:

Baked Pesto Chicken

Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/3 c pesto with basil (Buitoni recommended)
3 plum tomatoes, sliced
1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat chicken with pesto and put on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes (until chicken is not pink in the center). Top with tomatoes and cheese. Bake for an additional 3 - 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Serves 4

The story of my life between Chicken and Asparagus in White Wine Sauce and Baked Pesto Chicken to be posted tomorrow.