Chicken Schmarmesan

Now that you have clipped your coupons - or maybe just thought about it - let's make a meal! Do you think it's too expensive to have friends over for dinner? Lies. Bold. Faced. Lies. How about dinner for 4? Tonight, I made dinner for Zell, Chuck and myself. (And someone gets leftovers for lunch tomorrow!) Did I mention it only cost $1.80 a person? I ate this a lot growing up and I have since deemed it Chicken Schmarmesan. A poor man's version of Chicken Parmesan, this is both delicious and easy to make.

For this meal you need the following ingredients:

- 4 Chicken Patties
- 1/2 bag of Pasta
- 1 can spaghetti sauce
- Shredded Mozzarella
- 1 bag broccoli

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Make sure to check that there isn't already anything in there. Some people just keep pans in there for storage. But once, in high school I didn't check and someone had put one of those grocery store roasted chickens in there. By turning the oven on, I managed to melt the damn container. My house smelled like burnt melted plastic for about a week and a half. And lest we forget, Carrie Bradshaw uses hers for her sweaters. And no one wants baked cashmere.

2. Place Chicken Patties on cookie sheet. Bake them for 15 - 20 minutes, flipping 1/2 way through.

3. About 5-7 minutes into baking the chicken, put a pot of water on to boil. Once boiling add pasta. Once pasta is cooked, make sure to drain. Spaghetti soup would be gross.

4. At some point you should heat the sauce. This can be done in a sauce pan or the microwave. I put mine on simmer when I put my pasta water on to boil. I would advise you not to heat your sauce on high. This creates little volcanic eruptions in the sauce which get all over the stove. And unless your stove is marinara colored, this is annoying.

5. After you flip your chicken patties, make the broccoli. I cheated and made mine in the microwave. And you couldn't even tell.

6. About 5 minutes before the chicken is done, open the oven and spoon sauce onto each patty. Then sprinkle cheese on top of the sauce. Now, close the oven. Bake 5ish minutes or until cheese is brown.

7. Now your meal is done! Serve on plates and make sure all burners are off.




COST BREAKDOWN
*note: This meal may have been cheaper if I had gone generic, but I was feeling super classy today.

1 Box Frozen Tyson Chicken Patties $3.20
- Originally $4.49 (Ralph's Card - $.49, - $.40 coupon/Doubled)

4 oz Kraft Shredded Mozzarella Cheese $.99
- 8 oz bag $1.98 at Walmart

1/2 bag of Pasta $.50
- 1 small bag of pasta $1.00 at 99 cent store

1 can (26.5 oz) Del Monte 4 cheese Pasta Sauce $1.00
- At 99 cent Store

1 bag (16 oz) of Ralph's Brand Frozen Broccoli $1.50

$3.20
$ .99
$ .50
$ 1.00
+ $ 1.50
__________
= $7.19 total/4 = $1.80 a person


Responses from the Critics backslash Dinner Guests:

"This is neither 'the wrong stuff' or 'garbage'. This is frozen food, and yet, delicious!" - Zell

"Parmesanerific? If that's even a word..." - Chuck