Crispy Chicken Parm
  with Arugula and Pear Salad

      

Beloved, let us love one another. 1 John 4:7

For the Palate

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 eggs

1 cup Italian breadcrumbs

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese 

1/4 cup olive oil

2 large Roma tomatoes, sliced

4 thick slices of mozzarella cheese

Fresh arugula

1 medium avocado

1 medium pear

Ribboned parmesan cheese

Fresh chopped basil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 small lemon

Drizzle of olive oil 

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350F

Pat your chicken dry. Salt and pepper both sides to taste. Whisk two eggs in a shallow bowl and set aside. Put your breadcrumbs and shredded parmesan cheese in another shallow bowl and mix together.

Prepare you sauté pan by putting it on heat at medium high. Once your pan is hot, add your oil. Dip your chicken breasts in the egg mixture on both sides. Then you want to drag it in the breadcrumb mixture, covering both sides. Add to pan and cook until brown and crispy on both sides. 

Get an oven proof baking dish and put your chicken in the dish. Do not spray your baking dish. Place your sliced tomatoes on the top of your chicken breasts. Salt and pepper the tomatoes. Place your mozzarella cheese on top of your tomatoes.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until eternal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Once chicken is done take out of oven.

Prepare your salad while chicken rests. Add the arugula, avocado, pear and shavings of parmesan cheese in a bowl. Squeeze juice of one lemon all over your arugula. Drizzle with olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss your salad and plate it. Add your crispy chicken on top of your arugula. Top with fresh chopped basil.

Tasty to the Palate!

For the Soul

I grew up loving the song "What the World Needs Now is Love" recorded by Jackie DeShannon. I don't know how the lyrics came about, but my guess would be that Hal David (the artist that wrote the lyrics) was probably looking around and seeing that our country truly needed more love and less hate, hostility, bigotry, racism, corruption, and the list goes on.

60 years later and the lyrics to Mr. David's song sing just as true today! But even more, we can look back over 2,000 years ago and know we learn that this 'lack of love' is nothing new under the sun. In the Bible, 1 John 4:7 says; "Beloved, let us love one another." A simple six word statement that is so difficult for us humans to grasp and allow to transform our hearts and minds, which would change our actions and teach us to become more loving towards others. 

Why is it so difficult to love others? No matter how many songs are written, they aren't going to change our hearts and transform us into loving people. Loving others is difficult because we are all human, sinful, broken individuals that carry around our own preconceived ideas about what love is, how we know what love is and what love looks like.

If we continue reading 1 John chapter 4 we find that there is truly only one reason for love and it is that "We love others, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). We can't learn to love the sinful and broken until we learn to love the One that gave us love to begin with. God's love is the only perfect love that there is and when we get to know Him we start to realize that we can learn to love others regardless of all of our differences. We are here on Earth for just a short time, and the closer we grow towards our Lord, the more we will find ourselves loving others.

Once we get the basic principle that we love others because God loves us, we then can truly learn to love one another. C.S. Lewis the great theologian said "Do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor, just act as if you do."  I have actually put Mr. Lewis' advice to the test, and applied this advice to my life when I find it difficult to love others, and guess what....it works! Miraculously, not of my own doing, but of God's love in me, my heart begins to melt and I find myself loving the unlovable. 

I don't believe that we will be able to completely change the world and suddenly everyone will start loving each other, but I do believe that we need to recognize that it starts somewhere. So why not start with you and me? "What the world needs now is love sweet love, it's the only thing that there's just too little of." Nothing changes unless we allow God's love to transform our hearts so that we can reach out in love toward others. 

Satisfying to the Soul!