Staying Organized and Inspired

Wednesday is the day that the food ads come out for the week and since I am unemployed at the moment and have the time, I check the weekly ads for 3 different grocery stores that I like. The first one I check is for Market Street which is the furthest of the 3 stores (less than 5 miles), but my favorite with the best produce, meat and seafood. I then check Kroger which is the grocery store literally (yes, I did say literally on my blog) in my backyard. The other store I check is Sprouts which has really good deals on produce and meats and fish and they are less than 2 miles away. I have found that I need to use Sprouts produce within a day or two however.

I jot down the specials that interest me at each of these stores and then I go to MacGourmet. MacGourmet is a program that I have on my Mac computer that I use constantly to store my favorite recipes. As of today, I have 493 of my favorite recipes on my MacGourmet which eliminates the need to start searching through cookbooks trying to remember which one has the recipe I have in mind. I love MacGourmet! I can search by topic and pull up all my recipes using a particular ingredient.

After I searched the weekly ads today, I planned my dinner menu for the next 7 days just based on proteins that were on sale (except for Meatless Monday). I try to vary the menu based on proteins; tonight we had chicken, tomorrow ground beef in tacos, Friday will be pork chops, etc.

I am keeping track of what I spend on food this week and will tally up at the end of the day on Tuesday. I think we should eat quite well on what I spend, but we'll see.

Tonight's dinner was Chicken Paillard with Caprese Field Salad from Cuisine at Home for Two. I love the simplicity of this recipe. The chicken is pounded thin, seasoned with salt and pepper, dipped in buttermilk and dredged in flour before being sauteed. The salad on top and next to is baby greens with a dressing that is perfect: the tartness of the buttermilk, with the sweetness of the honey, topped with the Parmesan shavings make this the perfect chicken dish. You need to try this!



Chicken Paillard with Caprese Field Salad

For the Chicken:
2 5-oz. boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup all purpose white flour
2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Salad:
4 cups mesclun salad greens 2 oz. (I substituted Baby Salad Greens since I couldn't find the mesclun mix)
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, minced
1/4 cup Honey-Buttermilk Salad Dressing (recipe follows)
Parmesan shavings

For the Dressing:
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
salt and black pepper to taste

For the Dressing: Combine all ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously to blend. Set aside. Store extra dressing in the refrigerate for up to 1 week.

Prepare the chicken by pounding breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap to 1/4-inch thick using a meat mallet. Season with salt and pepper, dip in buttermilk, then dredge in flour.

Saute chicken in oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through and golden, about 3 minutes per side.

Toss greens, tomatoes, herbs and dressing together in a bowl. Top each paillard with salad.

Garnish with Parmesan.


I love this recipe so much that I cooked two extra chicken pieces for us to have for lunch tomorrow. The dressing makes enough for 4 servings so all I will have to do for lunch is pull together another salad while the chicken is warming up.

Gerry and I give this recipe: