Sometimes Recipes will go Incredibly Right!

My last post was a Pinterest Fail but this post is a BIG FAT Pinterest PASS!  In addition to loving crock pot recipes, I also love simple baking recipes that don't require me to actually have the recipe up in front of me.  If I put the recipe up on my phone I need to keep refreshing so I can see where I am at.  I don't like lugging my laptop into the kitchen because I'm lazy and I don't own an iPad (Blasphemy I know!), so I just prefer things that I can read through once and put together without checking the recipe again.  With that in mind, below is my idea of a GREAT evening meal.  In fact, I am going to make this one again next week when we head over to our friend's house to meet their new baby girl.

Chicken Parmesan Bake
Degree of Difficulty: 2
Mess Factor: 3
Taste: 8
I would highly recommend this recipe for anyone who needs a quick meal, but doesn't have a lot of time to put it all together.  Since that pretty much includes everyone, that means this is a recipe for anyone who likes Italian food!  Below are step by step instructions but as always, I don't have pics for all of the steps.  The prep for this dish went by so quickly, I kept forgetting to take pictures!

This dish requires a total of 7 or 8 ingredients, depending on whether you like red pepper flakes.  Preheat the oven to 350 while you put everything together.  In a 13x9 inch baking dish pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1-2 cloves of garlic.  Spread the olive oil and garlic around the bottom of the pan to ensure you have it all covered then top with red pepper flakes (optional). 

Next put lay in 4-6 chicken breasts and top with half a jar of pasta sauce (can you tell I really do NOT like measuring cups?).  Sprinkle in parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.  The recipe called for 2 oz of parmesan and 4 oz of mozzarella for this part, but I just eyeballed it.  Top the cheese with one 5oz bag of garlic croutons and more cheese (again it called for 2 oz of parmesan and 4oz of mozzarella but I just had fun). 

Place the dish in the oven for 35 minutes and voila!  Obviously check to make your chicken is completely done after 35 minutes and if not, cook longer, but this really shouldn't take much longer to cook. 

This is a pic of the finished product minus one serving.  Below is a close up of the serving on a plate. 

I probably cooked this a little longer than absolutely necessary but the chicken was really moist and I loved the crunch of the cheese and croutons on the top.  I can not recommend this recipe enough.  Please give it a try and leave a note in the comments section letting me know how it goes!

Lori