Recipe: Chicken Medallions with Capers

This Pampered Chef recipe combines some of my favorite ingredients: capers and pasta!

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 T. all purpose flour

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. coarsely ground ground pepper

1 T. olive oil

2 T butter, divided

1 garlic clove

1 shallot, finely chopped

1/2 c. dry white wine

2 t. capers & 1 t. caper juice

2 plum tomatoes, seeded & diced

2 t. fresh oregano

Cut chicken into medallion-size pieces and flatten.  I like to put the chicken in a plastic bag and flatten it with the smooth side of the meat tenderizer.

Combine flour, salt, and black pepper in shallow dish.  Dredge chicken lightly in flour mixture and shake off excess.

Heat oil and 1 T. butter in skillet over med-high heat. Place chicken in skillet and saute 6 minutes or until browned and cooked through.  Remove chicken from skillet and cover to keep warm.

Add garlic and shallot to skillet.  I substituted half an onion for the shallot since I had that on hand.  Cook 1 minute or until tender.  Remove skillet from heat.  Add wine and stir to loosen browned bits.  Return to heat and simmer 1 minute.  Add capers, caper juice, and tomatoes.  Stir until heated through.  Remove skillet from heat and stir in remaining 1 T. butter and 1 t. oregano.  Return chicken to skillet and coat well with sauce.

Serve over spaghetti and sprinkle with remaining oregano. Enjoy!

Frugal Friday: Totally Target

Did you know that you can use two coupons on one product at Target?  As long as one coupon is a manufacturer's coupon and one is a Target store coupon, you can use both, or stack them.  That makes for some awesome deals!  I was able to everything below for a mere $3.08.

Check out Totally Target, a blog that does all the hard work and lets you know what coupons are available for your Target run.  It's well worth looking at, and a blog I use on a weekly basis to plan my shopping trips.

Necessities

A close look into our budget the other day made me think about my eating habits.  Here are the top ten foods I could not live without, in no particular order:

1. Bread
2. Pasta
3. Cheese
4. Blue Bell ice cream
5. McDonald's chicken nuggets with sweet & sour sauce
6. McDonald's fries
7. Sour cream
8. Fried chicken
9. Mangos
10. Ramen noodles

I don't know what this list says about me.  Probably that I will die of a heart attack if I keep it up.

Wordless Wednesday

Nick Vujicic's Story

The story of Nick Vujicic is amazing, and I'm looking forward to reading his book, Unstoppable (coming out in October). Below is a short video about his remarkable story. Look for a review in the near future!



Updated Blog

So I finally got around to editing my blog and sprucing it up a bit.  Most of the designs are the same (because I have a hard time dealing with change), but the dimensions are a bit different, so I apologize if previous posts and pictures look a little weird.  I love the graphics and tutorials from Shabby Blogs...thanks to them for all the downloads!

Book Review: 90 Days of God's Goodness (Alcorn)

There are many books out there that address the problem of evil and seek to answer why difficult things happen.  90 Days of God’s Goodness not only addresses the theological implications spot on but is an amazing tool for a hurting person.  Grief usually lasts much longer than the time allotted to read a book on loss.  Alcorn breaks this book into ninety easy to read segments that allow a person a minimum of three months to process if they read one section a day.  What I like about this book is that it walks along with the reader as they slowly work through the feelings and questions related to the problem of evil.  I found this format encouraging to a hurting soul, allowing the reader time to read, digest, feel, and fight through what is true about God. Alcorn empathizes and allows room to ask questions and feel, but he does not shy away from the truth.   90 Days of God’s Goodness is a patient, but challenging process book, rather than a quick fix book.  As a counselor, I appreciate this perspective, as I believe grief and sanctification are processes.

"Truth matters.  To touch us at the heart level – and to keep touching us over days, months, years, and decades – truth must work its way into our minds.  Never seek comfort by ignoring truth.” (p. 12)

A theme that Alcorn weaves throughout all of his books is the idea of having an eternal perspective on life here on earth.  90 Days of God’s Goodness picks up on this theme, forging a way for the reader to understand (as much as we humanly can) how God sees His big story unfolding on earth and in our lives.  Alcorn continually points back to God’s glory shown through the Gospel as the ultimate backdrop.

“The Cross is God’s answer to the question, ‘Why don’t you do something about evil?’  God did do something…and what he did was so great and unprecedented that it shook the angelic realm’s foundation.  It ripped in half, from the top down, not only the temple curtain but the fabric of the universe itself…Evil and suffering formed the crucible in which God demonstrated his love to humankind.  His love comes to us soaked in divine blood.” (p. 75)

“Whenever you feel tempted to ask God, ‘Why did you do this to me?’ look at the cross and ask, ‘Why did you do that for me?’” (p. 92)

Alcorn also upholds who God is throughout the book and helps the reader wrap his mind around the problem of evil with God’s attributes at the center.  He never minimizes who God is or His attributes to attempt to explain suffering from the human perspective.  Alcorn is able to insert truth appropriately and point the reader to Scripture.  Overall, I would highly recommend this book to someone who is experiencing loss or to someone who wants to help a friend through it.  Alcorn does an amazing job of speaking heartfelt truth in these pages.


(Waterbrook Multomah Publishers/Blogging for Books provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes.)