Garlic Pepper Chicken w/ tomato basil salad and sliced baked potato

It's certainly been a while since I've posted anything, rest assured I've been cooking! I made this simple yet amazingly delicious lunch for the fiance and he requested that it be a blog post.  So here it is: garlic pepper chicken with tomato basil salad and a sliced up baked potato.

Sorry for the lack of close ups. I forgot take some. Either way, these recipes are easy and fool proof (probably). The following serves two.

Baked potato ~
I put this recipe first because it takes the longest. While it's cooking you can prepare everything else.

You'll need:
- 2 medium sized baking potatoes
- Rosemary (fresh or dry)
- Olive oil
- Chives

Prep time: 10 minutes. Cooking time: 40 minutes
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Wash potatoes, dry. Start slicing the potatoes but not all the way through. Chop up rosemary if fresh. "Stuff" rosemary between the slices of the potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes.  Half way through, baste the potatoes with the oil in the pan.  When serving top with chopped chives.

Garlic pepper chicken ~
You'll need:
- 2 chicken breasts
- Garlic pepper
- Paprika
- Salt
- Olive oil for cooking

Prep time: 10 minutes. Cooking time: 10 minutes
Use a meat tenderizer and pound the chicken to about 1/2 inch thick.  Season both sides with garlic pepper, salt and paprika to your liking.  On medium heat, pour some olive oil in the pan, you don't need a lot, you're not deep frying the chicken.  Cook chicken 5 minutes on each side.

<--- My choice of garlic pepper. My friend LO also enjoys it on cottage cheese.

My choice of salad dressing. Who doesn't love some garlicky goodness? --->

Tomato-Basil Salad ~

You'll need:

- 3 good sized tomatoes

- 2 tablespoons of a vinaigrette type salad dressing

- half a small handful of sweet or regular basil

- sea salt to taste

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cut up tomatoes into small cubes. Thinnly slice basil. Toss together in with salad dressing and sea salt.  You don't need very much salad dressing since you don't want it to take away from the flavors of the tomato and fresh basil.

A note on tomatoes: I try to only buy my tomatoes from farmers markets or Whole Foods. Farmers market to support local economy. Whole Foods because they pay one extra penny per pound and the money goes directly to the tomato pickers, making sure they receive a decent wage. http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/09/08/how-the-modern-day-tomato-came-to-be/?iref=allsearch

OK, off my soapbox, time to enjoy lunch!