0054. Stuffed chicken

My husband hates chicken. Hates. I hate pork. He won't eat a meal without meat. So that leaves us with few options when it comes to dinner. However, there are times when I make chicken anyway because it's delicious and healthy and... well, cheap. As a mother and wife who's in charge of the bookkeeping, I'm definitely okay with cheap. Especially when it's so tasty.

This recipe is one that he actually loves when I make There's two variations that I use - one with spinach and one with jalapeno. He loves spicy food, so when I make the jalapeno version, I make some less spicy versions for Monkey and myself on a different pan.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 ounces cream cheese 

½ cup packed fresh baby spinach, chopped

2 scallions, thinly sliced

3 cloves (1 tablespoon) fresh garlic, minced

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon basil

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

OPTIONAL: bacon, cooked, cooled, and crumbled

1. Place a rack near the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place a piece of parchment paper or a silicone mat in a baking sheet and set aside. If you don't have those, then lightly grease the baking sheet with Pam spray (I use the olive oil version).
2. Butterfly the chicken breast and using a meat mallet or rolling pin, flatten each chicken breast to about a ½ inch. Combine cream cheese, spinach, scallions, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, Parmesan cheese and the optional bacon. Spread a quarter of the mixture onto each chicken breast; carefully roll up the chicken and secure with toothpicks. Place chicken on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake 40-45 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center and the outside is golden brown. Serve warm.

VARIATION: Skip the spinach and use thin slivers of jalapeno. If you're sensitive to heat, make sure you get all the seeds and membrane out before you mix it. But make sure to use the bacon because jalapeno and bacon is the most amazing combination of flavors ever. SO GOOD.

I like to serve this dish with scalloped potatoes and asparagus. The scalloped potatoes don't exactly equal healthy dish, but it's delicious and my favorite way to have potatoes. Noms.

0039. beef, spinach, & potato experiment

I had ground beef, frozen spinach, and potato in the fridge/pantry/freezer, and had no idea what to do with it all. PK isn't a huge fan of spinach by itself, I'm not a fan of frozen spinach by itself, Monkey hates most potatoes, and I'm so freaking sick of meatloaf that I might scream if I eat another bite of it in the next month. So, what was I supposed to do with all this stuff? Dinner had to be made, and those were the only ingredients I had. I called PK up and asked him what to do (he used to run a kitchen way back in the day before we met, so I defer to him when I'm clueless... or my mommy - I love her cooking). His solution? "Mix them together!"

So, I cubed up the potatoes, chopped some onion, threw in some minced garlic, and put about 2 pounds of ground beef into a giant pot. The ground beef was the 73% fatty kind, so it made a LOT of juice. Add that to all the juice from the frozen spinach, and there was plenty of juice to cook the potatoes.

It looks weird, but it tastes pretty good.

If you know nothing about potatoes, then you know that it takes a LOT of spices to flavor a potato. I'm pretty sure I cubed up like 8 small yellow potatoes... maybe 9? Whatever. It's a lot. I also put an entire bag of frozen spinach in there, so I had to add a lot of spices. I don't know how much I actually put in since I eyeball almost everything I cook, so I'm just going to list the ingredients. If you feel comfortable eyeballing it, have at it.

Ingredients:

• small yellow potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 bag frozen spinach
• about 2 pounds ground beef
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• ground sage
• finely chopped dried oregano
• salt
• pepper
• parsley flakes 
• dried red pepper flakes (to add a little heat)