In efforts to be mom of the year (or accepting that I’ll never be but trying to get some wins where I can), I try to really do up holidays. One of which being Valentine’s Day. I get my kids a ton of those annoying little presents they love, wrap them up in color coded (based on child) wrapping paper and hide them around the first floor. Feel free to applaud me now. I also try to cook a nice meal. Nice is a relative term of course. Something low cal-ish (not a technical term but low fat) and kid friendly. Tough dynamic.
First I made my mom’s famous vegetable soup. There’s nothing too famous about it across the land, rather my family usually likes it and I make it once a winter but hadn’t yet. No recipe necessary here. I get a big stock pot, throw in a ton of frozen vegetables (I think the brussel sprouts are the key ingredient). Put in a couple cans of diced tomatoes, some seasonings and chicken broth. I also add beans (white beans this time) and barley (although feel free to add whatever grain you’d like). The true secret ingredient is cut up leek. Apparently Julia Child swore by it, and I think what Julia Child thinks…haha!
And then for my main dish…
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups pizza sauce, divided
- 30 slices turkey pepperoni, chopped
- ¼ cup parm cheese
- 1 cup Mozzarella, divided
- 4 chicken breasts, pounded out into thin cutlets
- 8 slices whole turkey pepperoni
- Preheat oven to 350
- In a small bowl mix together onion powder, granulated garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Set seasoning mixture aside.
- In a medium bowl mix together 1 cup pizza sauce, chopped pepperoni, parmesan cheese, and ½ cup mozzarella cheese. Divide the mixture by fourths in the bowl.
- Lay out the chicken cutlets, season with some of the seasoning mixture, and spread ¼ of the pizza sauce mixture onto each cutlet almost to the end. Roll up and place in a casserole dish. Sprinkle with a little more seasoning then pour the last cup of pizza sauce over chicken breast. Sprinkle rest of the mozzarella cheese on top of the chicken breasts. Then top each chicken breast with 2 pieces of pepperoni.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until cooked through. Mine cooked perfectly at 50 minutes. (I used the already thin chicken cutlets which were really thin so I cooked mine for about 30 mins)
I paired it with some spaghetti squash and marinara. It was a big hit! Just look at these cute, but devilish faces to see that…
I'm a mother, wife, daughter, and friend. Until recently I was also an employee. Now that I'm a full time mom, I've decided to make my thoughts, concerns and feelings public.
