New Year's Kick-off Competition Winner Announced!!!

WINNER ANNOUNCED!!!

Thank you to everyone who entered to win the New Year's Kick-Off Give-Away Olive Garden Gift Card.

It was a really great kick-off to 2011 and I am really excited to announce the winner; using a random number generator, the winner is...

Number 18 "Newmani_rgv".

Congratulations to Newmani_rgv for being the very first winner of 2011 and the very first winner of my very first competition with Cooking With Leyla!

I will be contacting you directly to get your information to send you your Gift Card.

New competitions will be run throughout 2011, so make sure that you are connected with me on Google Friend Connect, a fan on Facebook, and following me on Twitter; as well, check back here often for details.

Happy Cooking, Happy Eating!

Macadamia Crusted Chicken Breast

New Year's Day dinner was supposed to be homemade meatballs from an old, and time-honoured family recipe; only to find that the ground beef we had in the fridge had gone off. In a moment of panic, I rifled through the fridge trying to find a quick substitute for dinner. I found a packet of chicken breasts. I had been drying some bread to make breadcrumbs and thought to make breaded chicken breasts. But c'mon, its New Year's Day dinner, and I wanted to do something just a little more "special" for dinner. I remembered I had some macadamia nuts in the freezer (I always keep nuts in the freezer to give them a longer shelf life), and so my brain began churning.

The results were amazing. The only thing that I would change is next time to look for ground macadamia nuts in the supermarket rather than trying to grind them myself, which actually turns into a butter. But it did work out very well, regardless.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts, thawed
3 cups breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp Middle Eastern 7 Spices
3 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 cup ground macadamia nuts
2 eggs
1-2 TBSP water

1. Mix together the breadcrumbs, spices, and ground macadamia nuts very well, set aside

2.Beat eggs with enough water to thin and set aside

3. "Bathe" chicken breasts in the egg wash and then place in the breadcrumbs mix, coat very well to make a crust. Place in a non-stick, ungreased, baking sheet. Bake in a 395*F oven for 30-35 minutes until cooked through and crust is golden brown.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

Kicking Off The New Year Give-Away
 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

From our family...

To your family!

We wish that 2011 will bring you happy eating, 
tables surrounded loved and dear ones, 

hearts filled to over flow with love, 
health brimming with goodness, 

and wallets busting with dough! 

May 2011 bring you ALL that you desire and hope for!

***  ***  ***

Kicking Off the New Year Give-Away!

We're right at the end of 2010 and as we're about to start a brand new year, I have finally gotten around to creating a Facebook profile page, as well as a Twitter page for my blog. In honour of that, I wanted to do something really exciting to jump-start 2011, so I am holding my very first competition and giving away something that I just know you will love.

If you love Olive Garden as much as I do, you'll understand how excited I am about launching this give-away. If you look closely at my banner, you'll see that it is actually a plate of OG's salad and bread stick. Yes, I love Olive Garden, and I really like that they have so many cost-effective meals. Their lunch special of all-you-can-eat soup and salad for $6.95 is a favourite of my girlfriends and me. It's lovely to sit and chat over delicious bowls of soup, crisp salad, and fresh-from-the-oven breadsticks for such a great price. 

So to kick off 2011, one lucky reader is going to have a chance to win a gift certificate to Olive Garden!

Make sure you join my Facebook page as well as my Twitter page to get regular updates about new recipes, restaurant reviews, and give-aways. 

There are three seperate ways you can enter the competition:

(1) Just leave a comment below telling me what your favorite dish at Olive Garden is!
(For your comment to be counted as an entry, you must be following Cooking With Leyla on Facebook, Twitter and/or Google Friend Connect!)

(2)  Share my blog with your Twitter friends. Just @ reply "CookingWLeyla" and tell your friends to enter this contest give-away.

(3) Update your Facebook status and be sure to tag Cooking With Leyla; of course, share my blog and social profiles with your friends and tell them about this contest.

There is no limit to the number of times you can enter this give-away. 

This giveaway is only open to U.S. residents and will end Monday, January 31st at Midnight (PST). The winner will be chosen randomly and there is no purchase necessary to enter. The winner will be announced here on the blog sometime during that week. Good Luck!