Baked Chicken Parmesan

I want to preface this post with a couple of things:
1. I am not a foodie. As a college student on a budget, I don't have the time, or the burning desire to make everything from scratch. I'll use canned tomato sauce instead of making my own, use premixed seasonings like garlic and herb seasoning because it's easier, faster and I honestly don't care enough to make my own.
2. As I said, I'm a college student on a budget, so a lot of my ingredients and substitutions are going to be because that's simply what was in my pantry or refrigerator that day, or was on sale at the supermarket that week. So by all means, if you have better ingredients, please use them! I'm sure it'll come out a lot better than my creations.
3. I'm not a good cook. Not terrible, but not great. I am definitely not pretending I know how to do anything in the kitchen, haha.
4. I suck at taking pictures of the food I make, help!

Okay, so last week, following in the Italian vein, I made chicken parmesan, adapted from the recipe found here.

I modified this recipe modified from an America's Test Kitchen recipe mostly because I used what I had instead of trekking out to the supermarket in the cold. Lazy, I know. Directions are as follows!

Ingredients:

- two boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 1 cup Progresso Garlic & Herb breadcrumbs

- 2 egg whites

- 1 teaspoon water

- 1/2 cup flour

- 2 teaspoons garlic salt

- 1 cup tomato sauce

- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella 

- salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Place chicken breasts on cutting board and cut the breast horizontally to create two thinner cutlets. Pushing down on the breast with your other hand (the one without the knife) tends to help evenly cut the meat in half.

2. Lay out 3 shallow bowls - here I just use plates. In the first, mix salt, pepper, garlic salt and flour. Mix well to make sure there aren't spots of salty regret. In the second, beat the two egg whites with 1 tsp water until it becomes homogeneous and frothy. Lastly, in the third, lay out a nice even layer of breadcrumbs.

3. Pat each chicken cutlet dry, then dip in flour, egg and breadcrumbs in that order. Make sure to shake off excess flour before dipping in the egg mixture to create a lighter crust. 

4. Place chicken onto a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet. Bake at 475ºF for 10 minutes. Then top each piece with a spoonful of tomato sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

5. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Serve on a bed of spaghetti if desired.