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!