Asparagus Prosciutto Wraps & easy "Chicken Parmesan"

Friday night's dinner consisted of asparagus prosciutto wraps, "chicken parmesan," and pasta w/ peas and mushrooms. This dinner took me about 45 minutes to prepare by going in this order: boil water for pasta, peel asparagus, throw pasta in while preparing the chicken, wrap the prosciutto while cooking the chicken, cook the peas and mushrooms last.

Asparagus Prosciutto Wraps

Prosciutto will make almost anything taste good. This appetizer/side dish looks and tastes fancy, but is extremely easy.

Asparagus stalks

Thinly sliced prosciutto, cut in half lengthwise (1 halved slice per asparagus stalk)

Olive oil

salt

pepper


While the oven heats up to 450 degrees, was the asparagus and cut only about 1 centimeter off the bottom. Peel the bottom half of each asparagus stalk to get rid of the bitter taste, but keep the length of the stalk. Line the asparagus up on a baking sheet or foil and spray with olive oil using a mister. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss. Wrap each asparagus with 1 piece of prosciutto (mostly in the middle of the stalk) and place in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Easy "Chicken Parmesan"

This is a simplified and healthier version (sans mozzarella and breaded layer) of an already simplified chicken parm recipe.

4 chicken cutlets
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
parsley
sage
thyme
salt
pepper
3/4 cup marinara sauce
5 teaspoons parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put some olive oil in the skillet and sprinkle in about 1/2 teaspoon of each of the parsley, sage and thyme into the oil and stir. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and place in heated skillet. Cook skillets until brown on each side, about 3-5 min. each side, depending on thickness of the cutlets. Add the marinara sauce (I used Healthy Choice to save a few calories) over and around the chicken. Sprinkle the parmesan over each chicken cutlet. Place the skillet in the oven for about 8 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Fusilli with peas and mushrooms

This recipe is super fast since peas and mushrooms cook very quickly and you can save even more time by using frozen peas and pre-cut mushrooms.

Olive oil
6 oz. sliced mushrooms
10 oz. frozen peas
Salt
Pepper
1/2 lb. -1 lb. rotini pasta (depends on how much you want the veggies to stand out)

While your pasta is cooking in the water, spray some olive oil into a small skillet with a mister. Add the mushrooms in first and heat until almost fully cooked (they start to look slightly brown), then add the frozen peas. Add a generous amount of pepper, a pinch of salt, and spray with olive oil. Continue stirring until peas are cooked through (about 2 minutes) and set aside. Drain the pasta and stir in the peas and mushrooms. If you want a little added flavor, sprinkle some parmesan cheese.

Touch Catering

I ended up going to an event at the Miami Beach Community Church that was catered by Touch Catering (same owners as Touch restaurant on Lincoln Rd.) and the food was soooooo good. It was a promotional event for wedding catering, so there were specialty drinks called "Runaway Groom" (bombay sapphire w/ grenadine) and bride bellinis (w/ a fresh rasberry) and some other drink with a rose petal...all very yummy.

The food was awesome...most memorable were the cupcakes with lots of frosting on top and a mushy icing type center and the lamb chops.

Obviously, I didn't cook tonight thanks to www.touchcatering.com

However, I feel inspired to try cooking something other than chicken and fish....maybe lamb chops are next on my menu. I've really got to get over being squeamish about meat!

After the catering promo I went to the German bar on Lincoln Rd. and had a 1/2 liter of Hef Weisen...nice! No boot of beer for me though =)

breakfast

Dinner was uneventful last night since I was tired and it was publix shopping night. I went with a frozen paella dinner which wasn't too bad.

So this morning I took some effort and make bagel egg sandwiches...toasted same seed bagel with scrambled eggs, salt and pepper. I also made a protein strawberry banana smoothie with ground flax seeds-yum!

I haven't decided on dinner yet, but I bought some prosciutto, so it might be interesting!

Naan Pizza

Tonight's dinner consisted of naan pizza, green salad with sliced almonds and vinaigrette, and angel food cake with California Strawberry Champagne and fresh strawberries. Yum!

The first day back to work after a vacation is tough and I spent most of the day writing a post-hearing brief. No fun. So, I decided I deserved a delicious and easy to make dinner to help me get back into the swing of things.

Naan pizza. I admit, I got the idea from Nigella Express, but it now has my own twist to make it spicy. I used garlic naan, slathered a mushroom bruschetta topping, then added a layer of garlic and herb pasta sauce, added some cubes of fontina cheese, some slices of the rotisserie chicken from last night, and finished it with a generous sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Since the pizza really only requires some heating, I stuck in the oven for about 10 minutes. The salad was simple--a mix of leaves, halved sweet grape tomatoes, sliced almonds, and a balsamic vinaigrette. The pizza and salad took a whopping 20 minutes to make!

The angel food cake looked fancy, but was extremely easy and quick. I stopped by Norman Brothers for the naan and the angel food cake was fresh and they just happened to have California Strawberry Champagne (a strawberry sauce). I felt inspired to prepare a dessert. I sliced up some strawberries and arranged them around a slice of the angel food cake and then drizzled the strawberry champagne over it. Easy, eye-catching, and oh so satisfying.

In addition to dinner, I considered baking some ginger pear muffins for my firm's celebration of Administrative Professionals Day tomorrow, but I decided to be lazy and bought some orange cranberry scones. The muffins would require some effort in the packaging and presentation, which is way too much to do at this point. All the women in the office are on a diet anyway (although Pizza Hut was ordered for lunch). Instead of food, I opted for herbal teas in really neat looking tin cans, lavender aromatherapy foaming salts, and lavender satchets. At least the office will smell good tomorrow.

The Cooking Lawyer

Welcome! I'm a young lawyer living on South Beach who loves cooking and eating good food. One of my goals after graduating from law school was to learn how to cook. I've set pots and towels on fire and turned food into charcoal...but I've graduated to chicken saltimbocca, snapper a la veracruzana, ginger pear muffins, biscotti, and pannettone bread pudding.

One of my goals with this blog is to share my attempt to meet billable hours then come home and cook a good dinner with limited utensils.

New Orleans = good food. I've been eating gumbo, jambalaya, muffaletta, crawfish etouffee, pralines, and beignets for the last 4 days in New Orleans. I bought the Brennan's cookbook and am determined to learn how to cook some of these amazing dishes and, for the first time ever, cook with boyfriend, "Mr. M."