Alright, so the original plan for this blog was to cook one new recipe a week, however, this week I made 2 different dishes. I just couldn't help myself because they both looked so good! So after making the crab cakes on Tuesday night I was on a kick, so I ran with it. Even though Frank had to go do laundry, I brought everything to his mom's house to make dinner. I loved this dish! It's a Mediterranean pizza skillet, and literally, it's a one pan meal.
Of course, we never follow recipes exactly around here, so here's what I did: I used chicken tenders seasoned with Pete's salt, cut them into little chunks and sauteed them with garlic for about 5 minutes. I added 1 can of diced tomatoes flavored with garlic and basil, and 1 can of drained quartered artichoke hearts packed in water. I let that boil for about a minute and then reduced the heat to low. While it was cooking down I sliced medium black olives in half along with some green onion. I tossed just the olives into the pan, leaving the olives for later. I sliced a loaf of soft French bread, put it on a cookie sheet and broiled it on high for about 4 minutes, this way the top gets nice and brown but the bottom stays soft. 
When the bread was done I removed it and let it cool a bit while I added baby spinach to the pan. I rubbed the toasted side of each slice of bread with raw garlic and spread butter over the top and put it back on the pan. Then I put them back in the warm oven until the spinach was wilted. I topped the skillet mixture with the green onions.I placed 2 slices of bread on each plate and topped them with the skillet mixture and a sprinkling of garlic and herb feta cheese.
The result? Good grief! This dish is amazing! It's a one pan wonder and I will most definitely make it again. Total cooking time for the whole skillet is about 20 minutes, and you prepare the bread during that time, too. I served this with a salad and Frank's mom made these delicious cauliflower fritters (another recipe soon to come, don't worry).
My only suggestion would be to leave out the chicken next time and make it a vegetarian dish, OR crumble some Italian sausage and then follow the same recipe. The recipe I had called for kalmata olives rather than black olives, and romaine lettuce or escarole instead of spinach. I had a can of black olives and didn't want to buy the others, and I don't like warm lettuce and escarole is expensive. So I adjusted based on what I know we all like, and it was great. Definitely a 4 star dish!
And now for the more exciting part, tomorrow morning I will join my mom, Frank's mom, a co-worker and some of the women from our Women's Auxiliary Club to walk 3 miles. This group began around this time last year and I joined them in February and the pounds just started melting off, so at the start of this year I took the initiative and contacted all the women and let them know my mom and I wanted to start walking again. Hopefully we'll stay on track (no pun intended) and keep going through out the year. We'll meet at least 2 days a week. Once on Saturdays for a 3 mile walk at Almaden Lake, and once during the week, typically Wednesday, for a 2 mile walk in Campbell. This is the year to get fit... for all of us. I can feel it.
Absolutely,
The Lady
Amen sister...let's do this!
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