Comfort food doesn't have to be bad for you!

Sundays are usually lazy day filled with laundry and homework. This past Sunday my roommate and I had three of our friends over, one has four legs and played with Charlie and Ellie. While the puppies played around we had a cozy low-sodium "healthy" chicken parmigiana! Fair warning- I am not Italian so this may not be the "correct" way of making this dish, but this is just an easy way to make it!

I am not a huge fan of breaded anything so when I make chicken parmigiana I season the chicken breasts with Mrs. Dash garlic & herb seasoning and since I was making this meal low sodium, I didn't add salt to my seasoning. By adding lots of flavor with this seasoning you don't even miss the salt! I use my handy little misto olive oil sprayer to spray a small frying pan and saute the chicken briefly, just a minute or two on each side.

While the chicken is in the frying pan, I cover the bottom of a baking dish with whatever type of marinara sauce I have at home. I then place the "cooked" chicken in the baking dish and place it in a preheated oven at 350°F  for about 15 minutes, all ovens are different so just keep an eye on it and check the internal temperature of the chicken if you want to be sure its cooked all the way. You want to check the chicken towards the end of your time so you don't puncture your chicken multiple times and let all the juices flow out. For chicken you want an internal temperature of 165 °F. By sauteing the chicken before hand it takes some time away from cooking it in the oven!
When the chicken  is about half way done I add some more sauce to the top of it and allow it to cook all the way. Right before I take it to the table is when I sprinkle the cheese on top. I didn't have shredded parmigiana cheese at home so I cheated and used two slices of provolone for four chicken breasts.

To along with that I made some high fiber whole wheat spaghetti from Trader Joe's and tossed it off with some of the sauce I used on the chicken. I once heard that you should "salt the water like the Mediterranean" when you make pasta, so I usually do that, but since I was being sodium conscious I didn't salt the water as much as I usually do!

Overall we had a nice relaxing Sunday eating good food and watching the puppies play :)