Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast

I was pleasantly surprised by this dish. Honest truth, I was thinking that we had way too much cheese on the menu, and that this cheesy entree would be overkill. It wasn't - in fact, it was a very satisfying meal in one since it had protein, dairy, and vegetables in it! (Okay, it's probably not THAT healthy.) It tasted great! The broccoli cut through the heaviness of the cheese, and the panko crusting on the chicken kept it light as well. Also, I love that it presents well; I'll be adding this to my "fit for guests" recipe stash. :) Enjoy! The recipe below is for 8-9 people, so you should halve it if you're feeding less.

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts

2 eggs

4 cups of broccoli florets

6 ounces of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs or Panko crumbs

7 slices of cheddar cheese (can substitute with Swiss or other preferred cheese)

½ cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Toothpicks (to hold the rolled up breast together)

Baking tray with aluminum foil

Method:

1. Steam broccoli for about 5 minutes, remove, and rinse with cold water (to retain green color). Chop the broccoli into small pieces.

2. Beat eggs in a bowl. Fill a second bowl with the breadcrumbs.

3. Preheat oven to 350°. Butterfly the chicken to get thin cutlets: press down firmly on the breast with one hand, and use the knife to slice parallel to the cutting board all the way through.

4. For each cutlet, lay it out flat and put half a slice of cheddar in the middle. Add chopped broccoli bits on top. Sprinkle some Monterey Jack cheese on top. Tightly roll the the breast together with the broccoli and cheese inside. Use toothpicks to secure the rolled breast. Dip the rolled breast into the egg. Then dip it into the breadcrumbs, rolling it around for an even coating. Once finished, place the rolled breast onto the baking tray.

5. Once all cutlets have been prepared and placed onto the baking tray, bake the chicken for about 30-35 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Serve warm.

Blue Cheese Deviled Eggs

Creamy, smooth, and slightly addictive with the distinctive blue cheese taste. I was afraid the blue cheese would overpower the egg, but instead it was the perfect complement to the yolk. This was a fairly simple recipe to follow. You can just boil the eggs straight without any fancy business, but I was reading this deviled eggs recipe book the other day; did you know that there are things you can do to make sure the yolk is perfectly centered in the egg?? Crazy. Things like putting your egg carton on its side the night before so that the eggs are lying on their sides. Anyway, I won't go into a dissertation on deviled eggs, but if you follow this recipe, you'll get some fine tasting ones. We decided to play around with "decorations" and added some seaweed sprinkles to some for a more Asian taste, and we added Cajun seasoning to others. To be honest, the decorations didn't really do much in terms of enhancing the taste, but they were fun. :)

Ingredients:

12 eggs

½ cup blue cheese (crumbled)

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

Tabasco sauce, to taste

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Paprika (optional)

Method:

1. Boil the eggs. We basically laid the eggs on their sides in a large pot, filled it up with water, and turned on the stove. Let the water boil, wait about 10-15 minutes, and you should have boiled eggs from that. If the eggs are floating on the surface, then they are boiled.

2. Remove the eggs and immediately rinse them with cold water. (This keeps the yolk from turning green.) Peel the eggs and slice them in half, length-wise.

3. Scoop the yolks into a mixing bowl and set the whites aside. Mash the yolks with the blue cheese, mayonnaise, Tabasco sauce, salt, pepper, and paprika. Make sure the mixture is smooth before moving to the next step.

4. Spoon (or pipe) the filling back into the egg whites. Optionally sprinkle with paprika for a bit of color. Cover and refrigerate before serving. (We didn't refrigerate though; we were too hungry to wait!)

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

I don't know if we were super hungry or it were just too darn tasty (or perhaps both!), but this dip lasted maybe 10 minutes once it came out of the oven. I've always been a huge fan of a good spinach-artichoke dip, and this recipe makes it easy for me to have it everyday if I wanted! (That is probably not a good idea if I were keeping an eye on my girlish figure.) Give this one a try. Too bad my picture of it is so poor - it really is quite marvelous!

Ingredients:

1 bunch of spinach (make sure to rinse before steaming)

1 ½ cups of frozen or canned artichoke hearts (make sure to rinse before steaming)

6 oz. cream cheese (reduced fat is fine)

¼ cup sour cream (lite is fine)

¼ cup mayonnaise (lite is fine)

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

½ tablespoon red pepper flakes (it really does need this to add flavor; you can't really taste the spiciness)

4 cloves of garlic, minced

Tabasco sauce (optional)

Salt, to taste

Method:

1. Steam spinach and artichokes until cooked (drain any water). Once the spinach leaves are limp, remove both, and cut them up. You can leave them chunky or chop them up finely.

2. Sauté garlic with red pepper flakes and a bit of oil over medium heat. Don’t allow the garlic to brown; you’re just trying to take out the raw bite of the garlic.

3. Preheat the oven to 350°.

4. Soften the cream cheese by heating it in the microwave. Once heated, stir in the spinach, artichoke hearts, the sautéed garlic and red pepper flakes, the sour cream, mayonnaise, about 8/10 of the Parmesan cheese, and Tabasco sauce, in an oven-safe dish. The Tabasco sauce doesn’t make it spicy as much as it adds an interesting tang to the dip. At this time, you’ll also want to taste test and see if the dip requires some salt. Add salt to taste. Once the taste has been adjusted, sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese on top.

5. Bake the dish for about 10 minutes to warm the dip. We didn’t do this next step, but I would recommend turning the oven setting to broil for another 2-3 minutes while leaving the oven door open a crack. I think that would brown the Parmesan cheese on top and add a nice crust to it.

6. Serve with chips or crusty baguette bread. Delicious!