I am constantly trying to find more healthy versions of the foods that I love so much. I have a serious soft spot for fried chicken, but the amount of fat and calories in it are enough to give me a heart attack just thinking about. I do always use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but the act of frying them in oil still makes it super unhealthy. I have seen many recipes for coating the chicken in other ingredients besides bread crumbs, but the one that I love the most is a pretzel coated chicken. Coating the chicken breasts in pretzels is unique because there are so many different types of pretzels, and yesterday when I was feeling super healthy, I stumbled across a whole wheat pretzel and decided to give those a try.

This recipe is just as easy to make as regular fried chicken, but it has 83 percent less saturated fat, and 54 percent fewer calories! 

Ingredients

4  4-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, beaten to an even thickness

2 egg whites

2 tablespoons honey mustard

1 1/2 cups pretzels, crushed

pinch of thyme

pinch of ground rosemary

pinch of garlic powder

nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place chicken onto a foil lined baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking sheet. Finally, place baking sheet into the oven for approximately 15 minutes.

 I have been thinking about how to can my Italian red sauce for many years now. It seems that I always make too much sauce so it either goes to waste sitting in the refrigerator, or I freeze it and it just doesn't taste as fresh after being frozen. My husband’s friends always come over for dinner, and beg me to can the sauce so that they can take some home and eat it at their leisure. I would always make some excuse about how I didn't have any Mason Jars, but that I would pick some up the next time I went shopping. In reality, it had nothing to do with not having the jars, it was just pure laziness because I thought that the process would be long and difficult, but how wrong I was.

Recently I got married, and had used mason jars as apart of my centerpieces for the wedding. People took the items that were in them and left the mason jars, so suddenly I had tons of jars laying around that house, and a fridge full of sauce. I took this as a sign and decided to use the jars to save my sauce from the fuzzy things that like to grow on it after sitting in the fridge a little to long, and help it live up to the freshness it deserves! I began researching the process of canning by watching a couple of YouTube videos and reading a ton of articles. This made me see that all my hesitation and procrastination was just utter laziness. I have since done tons of canning, and continue to do more because the jars of sauce have been disappearing from my shelves! :) So without further adieu, here is the process for canning. (don't worry, I promise it's easy)

Canning Process

*items that you will need

Sauce pot of sauce, heated and brought to a simmer

Another pot full of water that is boiling

A ladle

Mason jars

Paper towels

Tongs, or something of the like, that you can use to grab the hot jars and lower them into hot water

An oven mitt

Start off by bringing a sauce pot full of water to boil. The pot should be large enough to cover the jars completely. Then, unscrew the caps on the mason jars and removing the lids. Take just the jar and submerge it into the boiling water. Leave the jar for about 10 minutes to boil, this is sterilizing the jar, as well as heating it up so it doesn't crack when it gets put back in. Once the 10 mins are up, you can take the tongs and remove the jar, dump the water back into the pot. Ladle the warm sauce into the jar, and make sure to wipe off any sauce drippings from the jar and especially around the top of the jar. Put the topper on, and screw on the cap, making sure that it’s tight. Use the oven mits and tongs to lower the jar into the boiling water again, leave it in for about 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes are up, remove the jar and place on counter or towel. After it cools for a bit, press down on the top so seal the jar.

You have now successfully canned...see not difficult at all :)

I am so honored to be writing a blog on iBerkshires.com! I love to share my recipes with others, in hopes that the joy that I find in cooking will find its way to someone who isn't aware of how amazing it is to prepare your own meals. I am a self taught, home cook, who is trying to make a career out of doing what I love. I work a full time job, but try to cook as much as possible, and write about the ups and downs that I face in the kitchen. I read tons of cookbooks and try to create recipes that are inspired by things that I see. 

My husband and I have very different tastes in food. I hardly eat any meat at all, and definitely NO red meat, while he is a meat and potatoes type of guy! I grew up in a family with a very Italian background, so most of my recipes are pasta dishes and sauces. However, now that I cook a lot more for my husband I have been branching out, and he helps to keep my on my toes and challenges my creative side with his thoughts on what he would like for dinner. 

As you read this blog, you will see that every cook creates dishes that just don't work out, and also dishes that are amazing! I try to keep the cooking techniques simple so that people don't get discouraged if they try to re-create my recipes. I want everyone to find the happiness that cooking brings to my life. 

So without further adieu, lets start this blog off right with an Italian Tomato Sauce! I have worked for years to try and perfect this recipe. I grew up have homemade sauce all the time from my mother. I have taken her recipe, and my grandmother's recipe (which I am assuming that she brought over from Italy with her) and enhanced it to make, what I believe, to be a better recipe. 

Italian Red Sauce

1 small yellow onion, chopped finely

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

1 large can crushed tomatoes with basil 

1 regular sized can tomato sauce

1 small can tomato paste

Vegetable stock

6 oz. red or white wine, whatever is on hand

2 tsp sugar (or to taste)

Heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Italian seasoning or spaghetti seasoning 

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp olive oil

Place butter and olive oil in a large sauce pot over medium heat. Melt butter and add in onions. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper over onions and butter, stir occasionally. Once the onions are translucent put in the minced garlic, cook for just a couple of seconds. Add in the whole can of Tomato paste, stirring for approximately 2 minutes. Next put in Vegetable stock until the tomato paste loosens a bit, continue stirring until it starts to re-thicken, then add red wine. Turn the heat down to a simmer and let the alcohol evaporate, stirring occasionally. After a couple of minutes if the sauce is too thick, add more vegetable stock. Stir in tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes and cream. Stir until everything is mixed. The add the remaining ingredients stirring until combined. Simmer for 30 - 45minutes stirring occasionally.