Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast with Pasta

Hello All!
      How are things going? My week has been good so far. I have a new nephew and he is a beautiful baby. I want to congratulate my brother and sister in law. Little Joshua is adorable and I can't wait to meet him! It is always nice when you can focus on happy events instead of bad. To celebrate the arrival of my new nephew I decided to make a new chicken dish. After the success of my last attempt at recipe writing I wanted to create something else new. I am always trying to find new ways to cook chicken because lets face it, chicken can taste blah some times. I, myself, am not a huge fan of it. Give me a steak or fish any day.
      This is a little time consuming but so worth it. My hubby loved it and already asked for it again which means I can count it as a win. Yay for me!

 

Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast with Pasta

 

Ingredients

For the Filling

1.  1/2 c of ricotta cheese
2. 1 tsp. of Italian seasoning
3. 1/8 tsp. salt
4. 1/4 tsp. black pepper
5. 1 c spinach leaves chopped
6. 2 T of parmesan cheese
7. 1/4 c mozzarella cheese

 

Breading

 

1. 1/4 c parmesan cheese
2. 1 c Italian bread crumbs
3. 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
4. salt and pepper
5. 1/2 c of flour

 

Additional Ingredients

 

1. 2 chicken breasts butterflied and pounded thin
2. 4 pieces of kitchen twine
3. 4 T of olive oil
4. 1/2 lb. of pasta
5. 2 eggs beaten
6. favorite marinara sauce
7. 2 slices of Havarti cheese or your favorite white cheese

 

Directions

 

• Preheat oven to 400
• Combine all of the filling ingredients and set aside
• Cook the pasta according to package directions and set aside. I like to butter the pasta after it comes out so it does not stick together.
• If you have not pounded out the chicken, pound it thin, and then sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.
• 
   
• Spread half the filling on each chicken breast and roll it together to seal.
• 
   
• Take the kitchen twine and wrap around the chicken to seal the filling inside.
• 
   
• Dip the chicken in the egg, followed by the flour, back into the egg, and then into the breadcrumbs mixture.
• Heat oil in the pan and brown the chicken on both sides, about 5 minutes per side
• Transfer to baking dish, cover with foil and bake about 20 - 25 minutes until cooked through
• Remove foil after 15 minutes otherwise it will be a little soggy on the bottom
• 
   
• Top with cheese and melt
• 
   
• Serve over pasta topped with the marinara sauce. I made my own but it needs a little tweaking before I share it.
• Sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese if desired.
• Enjoy.
• 
  
   

 

      I love how this turned out. It was delicious and definitely did not taste like another boring chicken dinner. I think next time I will add a little bit of red pepper flakes to give it a little kick but you can bet I will be making this again. I hope you give it a try and love it as much as we did. On a side note it was a little difficult to find the twine under the breading but once you do cut it off carefully so you don't lose much of the goodness topped on the chicken. I hope you have a good rest of the week and I will talk to you soon.

 

 



Pound Cake topped with Strawberries

Hello All!
      I hope you had a great weekend. My weekend was good but work was very busy. We did not have any major issues there so I will count it as a win.  I will say, I can't wait until next weekend because I actually have a Saturday off. Yay! I finally get to spend some time with the hubby and not just an hour for once. I'm sure we will fill our day with fun stuff. Who am I kidding? We will probably just do stuff around the house and go grocery shopping. HaHa. Once thing is for sure, I will get to play around in the kitchen. I always look forward to that activity and I get quite a few requests for desserts from my co-workers because I use them a lot of time as my guinea pigs. They love it, I love it. It is definitely a win win situation. 
     Even though I was not able to spend a lot of time with the hubby it did not stop his request for a dessert this week. He mentioned he would like to have strawberry shortcake since we had some really pretty strawberries in the fridge. Have you seen all of the beautiful strawberries in the stores lately? They are a sign that spring has begun. I love this time of the year almost as much as I like the fall when the leaves change. I digress again. Back to the topic at hand. I do not like the sponge cake cups they sell in the produce section so I started thinking what I could make that would be better than those. I finally decided on pound cake. I think it is delicious and the perfect vehicle for the strawberries to sit on. I also wanted to jazz up the strawberries and I added Grand Marnier to them while they macerated in sugar. Let me tell you, it made it that much better. I think this will be my new thing. Oh, and the hubby loves it. The cake itself is very easy to make and it was very good in my opinion. I used a recipe out of the cookbook I have been using lately, Lick the Bowl Good, by Monica Holland. So far, I am really liking this book. The recipes are easy to make and they turn out pretty good. I think a couple of them I have tried need just a little tweaking to make them that much better. I guess that is how I goes, always looking for ways to improve recipes. Anyway, this is becoming a very long post so on with the recipe.

 

Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

by Monica Holland

 

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of all purpose flour
2. 1 tsp. of baking powder
3. 1/4 tsp. baking soda
4. 1/2 tsp. salt
5. 3/4 c of unsalted butter, room temperature
6. 1 1/2 c of granulated sugar
7. 2 large eggs
8. 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract and 1/2 of a vanilla bean with seed extracted
9. 3/4 c buttermilk

 

Directions

 

• Preheat oven to 325
• Prepare a 9X5 loaf pan - grease, flour, or spray and line with parchment paper
• In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk together
• In a mixing bowl cream butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar and blend for about 4 minutes.
• 
   
• Add eggs one at a time until fully combined. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add the vanilla and the vanilla beans.
• 
   
• On low speed as 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by 1/2 of the buttermilk, and repeat until both are mixed in.
• Add the mixture to the baking pan and bake for 75- 80 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Mine took about 70 minutes.
• 
   
• Cool in pan for about 15 minutes, remove and cool completely on rack.
• 
   
• For Strawberry topping use 3/4 of a pound of sliced strawberries and add 3 T of sugar to it and 1 T of Grand Marnier. Stir it and let it sit at room temperature for at least an hour so the strawberries can release their juices. Put on top of pound cake and enjoy. Top with whip cream if desired

 

        Overall, I think this is a very good and simple dessert perfect for spring or summer. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I hope you have a good week and I will talk to you soon.

 



Friday Ramblings

Happy Friday All!
      It is a beautiful day in Arizona. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and most importantly.....It's not too hot!! Today is April Fool's Day and I hope there are not a lot of pranks played at work. I know, not in the spirit of the day but I think pranks are mean. I'm weird that way. I hope you have had a good week. Mine has been pretty good. I actually got to go out to lunch with one of my friends for sushi. We got to pig out and drink and just have a good time. This is a rare occurrence. It took us about 6 months to finally be able to get together. Sad but true. Since it is the beginning of a new month I thought I would share my March Favorites with you. You may find this boring but hopefully you like it. On a side note, my cat is laying on my left arm so I am typing with my right hand only. If you have a cat you know they always want to lay where it is totally inconvenient for you. They are funny little creatures. Back to March favorites.

       March Favorites

1. My favorite song this month is Lukas Graham's  Seven Years - I have been loving this song and every time it comes on the radio I have to sing along and very loudly. I am sure people who pull up next to me probably stare and laugh but I don't care.
2. Beautiful weather - this month the weather has been nice and the produce selection at the store has been getting better.
3. Favorite eye shadow palette - Too Faced Chocolate Bar - this is my go to palette. I love the colors and I also appreciate the smell of cocoa powder every time I use it.
4. Favorite television show is Chopped. I admire all of the chefs who compete on the show. The time constraints and the basket items would probably drive me insane. I would be the one in the back crying.
5. Favorite cook book - Lick the Bowl Good by Monica Holland. I have already made 4 recipes from this book and 3 out of 4 turned out well. The fourth one I think I can tweak to make a winner. I will be making more recipes out of this book in the next month and when I finish I will give an honest review of the book.

 

      These are 5 of my favorite things this month. I have also been loving the beautiful flowers blooming this season. I am going to try and buy fresh flowers more often to brighten up my house. I am also going to take some me time. Whether I read a book, play with new makeup, or create new items in the kitchen, I think it is important to take time for myself and reboot. On that note I want to share with you this, in the next week or so the Sephora VIB sale should be happening and also I received my 20% off coupon on my entire purchase from Ulta. This means I will be getting some new makeup and I definitely will be purchasing those two palettes I have been coveting for the last month. Yay! I will share thoughts and swatches with you. I can't wait.
       I am also determined to cook more recipes with liquor I am excited to experiment with this. I also want to try new wines and beer. I love trying new things. Speaking of trying new things, I tried dandelion leaves in my salad and let me tell you not a fan. It was very bitter. Do you remember the commercials with the bitter beer face. I imagine that is what I looked like after trying it. I received it my CSA this week amongst other things like Swiss chard and kale. Maybe if I sauté these vegetables with garlic and olive oil they will be delicious but right now on their own I think they are very bitter. I will let you know what I think later.
     This is the end of my Friday ramblings. I hope you have a good weekend and I will talk to you later. I will leave you this picture of my cat, Angel, my trouble maker.

Chicken in Crown Royal Cream Sauce

Hello All!
      I hope you had a wonderful Easter. I spent mine at work but that was okay it was still a good day. I gave up candy for Lent this year and for people who know me know I love candy. It was a long 40 days but I persevered. I will tell you the first thing I did on Easter was buy like 2lbs of sour gummy worms and eat them. No, not all of them. Don't worry, I was nice enough to share with my fellow coworkers. Next year I am thinking of giving up maybe French fries but that's going to be really rough. I love fries more than I love candy. I may try but I promise nothing. Hehe.
     This past week I have been trying out some recipes as well as brainstorming new recipes. First I started thinking what proteins I had in my house to cook. I decided on chicken but I didn't want just boring old chicken. I wanted something with pizazz, something to wake up my tired taste buds. Something that made me want to eat more than four bites. What can I say I eat chicken frequently and usually its either baked, poached, or grilled. Chicken is usually my go to meat in salads. Any way, I am rambling. I was also in the mood for pasta and then I thought about what I had in my fridge that needed to be used. I had half and half and parmesan cheese. I also had some Crown in my liquor cabinet and thought hey, why not try it in a dish? I have been wanting to cook with more alcohol to see how it affects the taste of the meal. So, be prepared to see more recipes featuring alcohol as an ingredient.
      I am really pleased with how this dish turned out. It was creamy and delicious and I will definitely make it again. Next time, I will try a different liquor, maybe Jack Daniels. This meal was easy to make and it did not take a lot of time so it is a good week night dinner. The most time was spent on prep. I hope this dinner appeals to your senses enough to make you want to try it.

 

Chicken in a Crown Royal Cream Sauce

 

Ingredients

 

1. 1 lb. of chicken cubed
2. 3 cloves of garlic minced
3. 8 oz. of mushrooms
4. 8 oz. of broccoli
5. 1 yellow pepper
6. 2 tsp. Italian Seasonings
7. 1 tsp. of salt
8. 5 T of salted butter divided
9. 16 oz. of 1/2 and 1/2
10. 1 T of olive oil
11. 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
12. 1/2 tsp. black pepper
13. 1/3 c. of Crown Royal
14. 1/4 c/ shaved parmesan
15. 1 lb. of favorite pasta ( I used penne)

 

Directions

 

• Melt 2 T of butter with olive oil over medium high heat
• Cook chicken until brown and almost cooked through -  about 6 minutes
• 
   
• Set chicken aside
• Cook pasta according to package directions in well salted water
• Add 1 T of butter to same pan you cooked the chicken in and melt, add peppers and broccoli with salt, pepper, and garlic powder for about 5 minutes or until they start to soften
• 
• Add mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes and then add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant
• 
• Add the Crown and cook until most of the liquid cooks off
• 
• Add the 1/2 and 1/2 and 2 T of butter and bring to simmer and cook until sauce starts to thicken
• 
• Add parmesan and toss together with pasta
• Serve with garlic bread if desired
• Enjoy
• 

 

     I think the Crown add depth to the flavor of the pasta. It was not just alfredo but better. The Crown took it to another level. I think next time I will add a little bit of red pepper flakes to give it a little bite. I am glad I experimented with the liquor it makes me want to cook with it more often. I am already thinking of other things to use it in like desserts. Sorbet maybe? I hope you are having a good week and I will talk to you later.

Friday Ramblings

       Hello all!
Another week has passed and Spring has officially begun. This is one of my most favorite times of the year because everything is blooming and its not too hot yet. This week the weather has been so beautiful I just want to spend all my time outside. I also love spring because I feel like it is a time of rejuvenation and new beginnings. I am getting ready to start all of my spring cleaning and finally get rid of the clutter in my house. I really want to get new furniture because I am tired of the old drab furniture we currently possess. Baby steps I know.
      I am really excited about all of the new makeup being released. There are at least two eye shadow palettes I have been coveting and I would also like some new lipstick. The Too Faced Peach Palette looks beautiful and will be released on April 9th. I am hoping to get my hands on it because I know it is limited edition. I don't know why but when I hear limited edition it automatically fills me with a sense of urgency. I must get it. Haha.  One thing to know about me is I love eye shadow. Some people are lipstick junkies I am an eye shadow junkie. Speaking of eye shadow, did you know Mac has lowered the price of their refill pans from $10 to $6? I see an order in my future.
       Another thing I am excited about is taking a cake decorating class. I have always wanted to know how to decorate cakes on a more advanced level. This class should be fun and also help me with my decorating skills. The best part is my husband is going to take it with me. Can you believe he actually wants to take it with me? I know, unbelievable. I will keep you updated with our progression.  Anyway, I hope you have a fun and exciting weekend and a Happy Easter. I hope you spend it with loved ones and make great memories. I will talk to you soon.