Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini and Mozzarella

This dish is probably one of the most exotic I have made in my entire life...so fasten your seatbelt. A Pinterest inspired meal that should have had left-overs, but didn't.

Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini and Mozzarella

Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 1/2 cups (1 medium) zucchini, shredded - more zucchini than less, and food processors work great!

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Romano Cheese (or parmesan) - I used shredded parmesan

3 ox part skim shredded mozzarella

salt and pepper to taste

8 thin chicken cutlets, 3 oz each - try to get nice wide flat cutlets

1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

1 lemon, juice of (I just used lemon juice, about 1/4 cup)

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and fresh pepper

olive oil non-stick spray

Preheat oven to 450°. Lightlyspray a baking dish with non-stick spray.

Warm up a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add oil when hot then saute garlic a minute, or until golden. Add zucchini, 1/4 cup Romano cheese (or in my case parmesan), salt and pepper and saute about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool. When cool, add mozzarella cheese and mix to combine.

Lay chicken cutlets down on a working surface and spread a generous amount (3 tbsp was recommended, but I found I could not get that much to stay packed in) of zucchini-cheese mixture on each cutlet. Loosely roll each one and keep seam side down.

Combine breadcrumbs and grated cheese (more parmesan for me!) in one bowl; in a second bowl combine olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper in another bowl.

Dip chicken in lemon-oil mixture, then in breadcrumbs and place seam side down in a baking dish (no toothpicks needed). Repeat with the remaining chicken. When finished, lightly spraywith oil spray. 

Bake 25 - 30 minutes.

Now, as nice as these little guys turned out, I couldn't help but think of how lonely they would look on a plate, so I cooked up some tasty taters!

First I started with caramelizing some red onions...

*Caramelized Red Onions*

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 -1/2 large red onion chopped (love my vidalia chopper!)

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Optional: 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Melt butter with olive oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook until deep golden brown, stirring frequently, about 30 minutes. Stir in vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Remove from heat. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium heat before serving.) Stir in chives.

And THAT is the way to make delicious caramelized red onions....although in the directions when it says "remove from heat" if you are making spectacular cooked potatoes, do not "remove from heat". Dump in your previously peeled and cubed (bite-size) potatoes -- prepare while onions are caramelizing -- then cover and let cook for an additional 15-25 min, depending on how soft you like your potatoes. I like mine soft so I left mine on for a while, although you want to stir every few minutes. Serve and enjoy with ketchup, ranch dressing, or just with your tasty Chicken Rollatini and a tossed salad! These two dishes are an awesome combo because the two actually can cook rather well in synchronization, use the oven and stove and the timing is almost perfect!

Is 3 really a crowd?

Yes it is. Yes it is, my third blog today, (what can I say, I have been doing some serious cooking as of late!) and yes, it is as good as it looks.

What is it, you ask...besides being my husband's favorite meal I have made since being married (9 months, that is) what you behold here is the mother-casserole, a recipe from my sister-in-law Jessica (yep, another sister-in-law), which mostly likely has already been made available on her blog, click
here to check it out.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake

Ingredients


1 package surfing mix
1 can (10.5 oz) cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp pepper
3-4 slices of deli ham, cubed
2 cup combination of swiss and cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cooked chicken breasts (I used shredded)


Prepare stuffing mix according to directions on box. Meanwhile in a bowl, combine soup and mild. Put chicken in a greased 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with pepper. Layer with ham, half of the cheese, soup mixture and stuffing. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 10-15 minutes longer.

To make into a freezer meal, I would recommend preparing this in two separate smaller pans (especially if you are a small family). Prepare both pans until ready to bake in oven and then stick one in the freezer for later!!

**needless to say...we cooked the whole thing, and ate the whole thing for dinner and lunch the next day!

ENJOY! And.... compliments to the chef!

2 for 1 today

I am not very good a blogging. I blog like I race... all out in a short time and stop for a while then all out again. Need to fix that. But I need to get these pictures off the camera and out in the open for all to enjoy!!

Also, what I just noticed is that I just barely posted a recipe from my sister-in-law Annie... well here is another one!! And just like the Tortilla Soup recipe (found below...check it out, it rocks) this one is quick, can feed an entire civilization (when wanted--but I guess so can any recipe technically), annnd is DELISH!

(Annie never gave me a name...so Annie, forgive me if I mis-name this divine dish)

Broiled Deli-Delux Half-wich

Ingredients

2 loaves of fresh french bread

1 cup Mayonnaise (Miracle Whip is fine too)

Green Onions thinly sliced

Hot Spice (I used Cayenne Pepper and Chili Powder)

3 Avocados

2 Tomatoes

Deli meat of choice (I bought ham for the hub and Turkey for moi)

Cheese of choice

Slice french bread to desired thickness, combine mayo some green onion slices and your hot spice in a small bowl, mix well. Then spread mayo mixture over bread slices (go easy on the spread, trust me) then layer on a slice of meat, cheese, tomato, and avocado!! Stick in the oven on broil for roughly 5 minutes. Need a fast meal? Here you go.

This was our first batch (we ran out of avocado)

Raise your hand if you love quick tasty meals with avocado!!

IDEA: After our first avocado ran out ....

(We actually used 2, that is why I wrote 3 on the recipe) 

I mashed the avocado for the second batch.

 Goes WAY further and covers the entire half-wich! Excellent thinking Chandra.

THANKS AGAIN ANNIE!

I am a soup girl.

I'm behind!! Who would have thought I could ever cook so much that I couldn't keep up with it!

My family went on a vacation this summer to Las Vegas and split up the meals, so each individual family/couple was in charge of a meal. Roland and I had to head back to Provo early so we didn't get to experience the recipe my sister-in-law Annie made which apparently was the "talk" of the trip. Kind of weird we talk about food on our trips? I don't think so. Annie made Tortilla Soup...and so did I, and it was fabulous! Although my husband isn't much a soup-er (one who thoroughly enjoys soup) I sure am!! Can you say, Zupas tomato basil?!? Every. Single. Time.

So here's the recipe!

Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

4 cans (10.5 oz) chicken with rice condensed soup

2 soup cans of water

1-12.5 oz. can chopped chicken (drained)

1 larger can white homony w/ juice

1 1/3 c. pace chuncky salsa

hot sauce if desired

Heat up on stove and serve with tortilla strips, cheese, chopped green onions, cilantro, avocados, tomatoes, olives, tortillas...etc. whatever you want.

Instead of 4 small cans I bought 2 of the huge cans of chicken with rice condensed soup. (tends to be cheaper, and less can opening-which isn't my favorite) I also did not add hot sauce, but Roland did to his individual servings and loved it! Great QUICK recipe!

**A warning for those of you who would love to make this for a small family...say, you and a spouse...HALF IT! I seriously didn't realize how much soup this recipe makes. I don't know why I didn't figure it out with the ingredients sitting in front of me, but I ended up having to use two pots!! And this soup lasted over a week!

Chicken Pot-Pie

I tried to think of a clever little name, failed miserably.  Although I decided that sometimes it is nice to know what you are reading about prior to jumping in and reading.  I made chicken pot pie and loved it! I feel like I say that I loved every recipe I try, but I don't, I promise I don't. I made this weird healthy brownie thing last night, did not love it (although Roland and I ate the entire thing...recipe is not blog-worthy...yet).  Sooooo I will get straight to the point, this is one of the recipes that Tara sent me!! Highly recommend it.  I didn't have a pie tin, so I snagged one at DI--and then ventured around and found that they actually have really nice pie tins at the dollar store, so if you don't have a pie tin, and need one (because you will need one after you see the pictures of how delicious my pot pie looks) hit up a local dollar store!
Also, one more thing before I post the recipe, this meal is an awesome "newly wed" meal, or if you are cooking for two (maybe 3, if you don't eat like me)--just cook it up and grab a couple forks!

(To-die) Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients

1 pkg pie crust (for anyone like me, this can be found by the pillsburry stuff)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/4 c. milk

1 small bag of mixed frozen veggies (put about 3/4 of the bag in or however much you want)

1 russet potato - peal and chop into cubes and then microwave for 5 minutes to soften

1/4 c. sour cream

1 Tbs. mayo 

1/4 c. diced onion 

1 big can of diced white chicken breast (drain it)

Directions:

Combine soups, milk, mayo, and sour cream in a bowl. Add everything else into soup mixture. Add salt and pepper. Lightly spray a 9-inch pie dish (you can buy an aluminum one if you don't have a regular one). Put one shell on the bottom and form to pan. Add filling - there will be extra, don't use it all or it will overflow and crack the top of pie. (use most but not all). Then put the top pie shell over everything and seal the edges really good. Poke center of top three times with a fork to vent.

** So a few alterations to the recipe/directions that I did were first, I used miracle whip instead of mayo (the husband only eats mw) and it tasted fine. Then, when I was given the recipe my sister told me that she hadn't sealed the edges of the pie really well, so when I put the pie crusts on, I didn't remove any of it (the directions on the pie crust package say to cut off excess dough), I pinched both the top and the bottom crust together super well and then kind of rolled up the edge so it puffed up, to make a tasty crust (see pictures below) I don't know about you, but I LOVE the crust with the pot pie, and get kind of sad when it is gone. This made for extra dipping and a really tasty pie! Worked out great! 

Voila! And yes, it tasted as good as it looks.

So I seriously stuffed that pie FULL of the pie filling, but still had a little bit left over and decided to try wrapping it up with pillsburry croissants.  I wasn't sure how this would turn out so I only did a few (I absolutely love pillsburry croissants and didn't want to potentially ruin a whole package with my experimenting) to my surprise/delight it worked out very nicely! I just did a spoonful in the center and gently wrapped up the croissant, it was awesome! I would suggest this idea for left over sauce, or as a meal for larger parties! (this might help with portion control as well) Since we loved the combination so much we ended up dipping the plain croissants in the rest of the left over sauce! Needless to say, we don't have any sauce left over. All gone! AND 2 meals!

Thank you Katie

Pinterest once again inspired my amateur-cookin this past week. I stumbled across a seriously amazing blog. For anyone who really works hard to eat healthy while struggling with the conflicting condition of sweet-tooth-itis like I do -- http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com -- you can thank me later.

We play games with another couple in our ward every Sunday and it has quickly become tradition that we both bring a treat, I knew it the second I laid eyes on that post that this was to be my treat this past week, we ate the entire thing. I served it with graham crackers to dip in it, boy was it AWESOME!

Cookie-Dough-Dip

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained) (250g)

1/8 tsp plus 1/16 tsp salt

tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda

2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup nut butter (You can get away with using only 3 T. If you use peanut butter, it’ll have a very-slight   “pb cookie dough” taste, so if you don’t want this, you can sub oil.)

up to 1/4 cup milk of choice (Start with 1 T, and add more as needed)

Sweetener

1/3 cup chocolate chips
2 to 3 T oats (or flaxmeal) (you can omit, but also omit the milk if you do)

• • Add all ingredients (except for chocolate chips) to a food processor, and blend until very smooth. Then mix in the chocolate chips.

• • • • 
        

• • So I decided to try to make this blog short and "sweet" this time, less yacking more "snacking"... When making this I found the salt amounts a little odd, so I just did 1/4 tsp just a little under-filled. Also, I didn't have actual nut butter on hand, so I used 1/4 c peanut butter, it did taste a little peanut-buttery, but who doesn't like peanut butter? For the sweetener, the blog has multiple options--you could go and check out other options (I bought some stevia today and I want to try it) but I just used brown sugar, only did 3 Tbs and it was fine! Also, I chose to put oats in mine, loved it! 
    
    
    
    
    

Blogging my house-wifing attempts

So I made a blog. Hopefully I can live up to the title of "blogger", I guess we shall see.

After discovering the beautiful website called Pinterest.com (feel free to follow me, I do enough pinning for everyone) I decided I needed some place to record what I find/try from Pinterest, what better than a blog!? So, this blog is mostly dedicated to cool or complicated recipes I discover, not only from Pinterest, but recipe books, other's blogs, or maybe even make up on my own (if I get feeling daring).

I also have this weird faddish with healthy things, especially for healthy desserts, even ask my husband--it is almost out of control. So the majority of the recipes I try will hopefully be lower calorie or short on sugar and fat. 

So, let's cut to the chase, BLOG #1... hopefully of many.

Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread

paired with
Carrabaa's dipping Herbs/Spices

My sister Tara sent me an email with 5 recipes to try. I decided, like any good sister would, to make an effort to try making all of them. Not all at once of course, but over time. Yes, I know, 5 recipes? I could do that in a week! But if you know me at all, you know that I eat in fads. Maybe fads isn't the right word, but I get a meal and eat it for weeks and weeks and then switch. It's weird I know. Last Spring semester I had spinach wraps for lunch for 5 weeks straight--using different dressings of course--but you get the point.

So last week on Thursday, January 19 I made my first of these 5 recipes, the Rosemary Bread! And again, if you know me at all you know that I would start with the bread, I have a serious weakness for carbs. So here is the recipe, complete with pictures of my tasty creation, of which my husband and I loved so much I made it again 3 days later!

Rosemary Bread

Ingredients

1 T. yeast

1 T. sugar

1 c. warm water

2.5 c. flour

1 t. salt

1 T. rosemary

1 T. butter

Directions:
Place yeast, sugar, and water in bowl of mixer. Wait about 5 minutes to let it get bubbly. Mix in 1 Tbs. butter, salt, and 2 c. flour.
Add 1 Tbs. of the rosemary. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes by bread mixer. until smooth and elastic. Add more flour if necessary.

Oil a bowl, put dough in bowl and cover with a towel. Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour or until doubled. Punch down dough and divide in half. Let dough rest about 5 minutes. Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray (I use my stone for this) Shape the dough into 2 small rounded oval loaves. 

Brush loaves with remaining 1 Tbs. butter and sprinkle remaining 1 Tbs. rosemary over loaves and sprinkle with sea salt. Let loaves raise again until doubled (about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 and bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned. 

can you say, best smelling kitchen ever

While I was cooking up these tasty loaves I mixed up some spices for dipping with olive oil and balsamic vinegar! If you haven't had fresh bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, you definitely need to get our more... or just try it. So here is the recipe. (Found this one on Pinterest, which was pinned from macaroniandcheesecake.com, which apparently stole it from recipelink.com--maybe check them out for other ideas?)

Dipping Spices

Ingredients

2 T. chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
1 T. minced garlic
1 t. dried thyme
1 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. dried basil (or 1 tbsp. fresh-if using fresh reduce parsley to 1 tbsp.)
1/8 t. dried rosemary (or 1/2 tsp. fresh)
1 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/8 t. ground red pepper (or 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes)
1/2 t. extra virgin olive oil
1/8 t. fresh lemon juice

*This is the recipe, although I didn't have any garlic on hand so I used garlic powder, I think it worked just fine. Also, I didn't have ground red pepper so I just didn't add any. First time we made it I also didn't add the olive oil and lemon juice, didn't really notice a difference when I did add them the second time.

Perfect drowning in olive oil and balsamic vinegar! I suggest not using a black plate, the majority of people won't have that problem, but it is nice to see how much vinegar you have (I LOVE vinegar) and a black plate makes it a tad difficult.

There it is folks, the first blog! Enjoy. I know will, again and again!