Mediterranean Couscous with Beans & Avocado

Buy this kind of couscous:

Cook according to box instructions.

Add avocado, black beans, and whichever other mix ins you desire.

I added some asparagus today.

Enjoy.

Quick and Easy Tomato Sauce for Pasta

This is the sauce I used in my Avocado Chicken Parmigiana.

It was really simple and did not take much time at all.

We did not add wine, and only added salt and garlic to season.

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ medium onion, minced (optional)
• 1 14-ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste (optional)
• ¼ cup red wine (optional)
• Salt, pepper, other seasonings to taste

Heat the oil over medium-low. Saute the garlic and and onion until golden. You can add other aromatics at this point, like mushrooms, carrots, celery, peppers or chiles, if you like.

Add the tomatoes.

If you want a thicker sauce, stir in tomato paste. What do you do with that leftover tomato paste? Spoon it out on wax paper by the tablespoon and freeze. Once it’s frozen, store it in freezer bags, and you’ll have pre-measured tomato paste whenever you need it. 

Add the wine to the sauce if you desire.  Season — an Italian dried herb mix comes in handy right about now.

Raise the heat to medium and simmer until it starts to look “saucy,” about 10 minutes (long enough to cook the pasta) or up to 45 minutes, if you so choose. Taste the sauce frequently while it’s cooking. If it tastes too acidic, stir in a little sugar. Leave it chunky or puree if you want and serve over pasta.

Update: If you have a lot of fresh tomatoes on hand, you can also make this sauce with fresh tomatoes for immediate eating or freezing, in order to preserve your tomatoes after the growing season. About 16 roma tomatoes will make about 1 cup of sauce. The tomatoes should be peeled and chopped before cooking. I usually eliminate the onion, tomato paste and wine, especially if I’m freezing the sauce, as I can add more flavors during reheating — but the garlic is essential. Fresh tomatoes usually require only 10 minutes of cooking to break down into a thick sauce.

From: http://simplycooking.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/tomato-sauce/ 

Avocado Chicken Parmigiana

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and it was really good.  A keeper and I will make again. The blog it comes from is found at http://ellenaguan.blogspot.com/2011/11/avocado-chicken-parmigiana.html 

2 things I did different- 

a.) Used homemade pasta sauce, which I will post the recipe for. I think this made a big difference, and 

b.) I felt weird about only cooking it at 200F, so for the final cooking, I upped the temp to 350F and cooked a while longer than instructed.

Ingredients:
2 Chicken Breast Fillets, halved lengthways
1/2 Cup Plain Flour
2 Tablespoons Fresh Milk
2 Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Dried Breadcrumbs
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil/Cooking Spray
1/2 Cup Tomato Pasta Sauce
2 Avocado, Sliced
1/2 Cup Grated Mozzarella Cheese 
Salad Green, to serve

1. Place chicken breast in a clear plastic bag(alternatively between 2 sheets plastic wrap), using a rolling pin or meat mallet pound until 0.5cm thick.

2. Place flour and breadcrumbs on two separate plate and lightly whisk milk and egg together in a shallow bowl. 

3. Coat 1 piece of chicken breast in flour(shaking off excess), dip in egg mixture then coat in breadcrumbs using your fingertips pressing on to secure.

4. Place on prepared baking tray lay with foil or baking paper, repeat the same process with the remaining chicken breast with flour, egg and etc.

5. Lightly spray or brush the prepared chicken with oil, bake for 8 minutes(turning after 4 minutes to have evenly colours on the breadcrumbs) in preheated 200 degree Celsius(392°Fahrenheit) fan-forced oven. 

6. Remove from oven and spread each chicken breast with 1 heaped tablespoon of pasta sauce. Arrange avocado slices over sauce and sprinkle with decent amount of mozzarella cheese.

7. Return to oven and bake for another 5 - 7 minutes or until golden and chicken is cooked through.

8. Serve with either garden salad or use it as a main topping on cooked pasta.