Feta and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts

     Can you really go wrong with the combination of feta and spinach? No, you can't. Don't even try to argue with me because I won't listen. It's a great combo and if you don't like it you are obviously defective. Basically, what I've done is make my version of a fairly ubiquitous recipe. I'm sure there are hundreds of similar recipes floating around the internet. Do you know what separates mine from theirs? Theirs suck. Theirs are not made with love. It is entirely possible that theirs were made by Baby-Eating Fascists. Use my recipe and strike a blow for global peace and understanding. If you're not part of the solution, you're obviously part of the problem. I'll stop now. The recipe is simple and delicious and I promise you'll love it. Unless you don't. And then it's your own fault for listening to me. As always, notes are in blue.

Feta and Spinach
Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• 4 ounces room temperature cream cheese (we use Neufchatel)
• 10 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted and all water squeezed out
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1-1/2 teaspoons Spice House Greek Town seasoning, divided (if you can't get this spice, a mix of salt, pepper, onion powder, oregano and lemon peel. I have no idea what ratios you'd use, so good luck. Or just order the seasoning)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C, Gasmark 5).
2. Split the chicken breasts down the length, being careful to not cut completely into two pieces. You're looking to sort of butterfly the chicken.
3. Mix 1 teaspoon of the spice mix in with the flour. 
4. Dredge the chicken in first in the flour mix, then the egg, then finally the bread crumbs.Set on a baking sheet. 
5. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, spinach, feta and remaining spice mix. Mix well until all ingredients are incorporated. 

   

   You could just take what you have here,
   add some jarred artichokes and you have a hell of an appetizer dip!

6. Fill each piece of chicken with 1/3 cup of the filling.
7. Bake for 35 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

   

   See? Clear. We're all making it out of this meal alive.

   

   Good Times!

Slow Cooker Spinach Artichoke Dip

     Now and again I take requests on what to cook. My only limitation is that I must have the ingredients on hand if I'm going to actually go ahead and cook it. I got lucky this time and had a request for spinach-artichoke dip. I actually had all the ingredients I figured I would need. I was doing this recipe totally from scratch. I had no previous recipe to work from. The end result? Holy shit, was it good. I'm talking restaurant good. I can say with some level of confidence that if you have this recipe on hand, you'll never need to order it in a restaurant again. Unless you want to. See if I care. As always, notes are in blue.

Slow Cooker
Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients

• 1 10-ounce box frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed of excess water
• 1 12-ounce can marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 8 ounces cream cheese (I always use neufchatel to keep the fat down) cubed
• 1 10-ounce can cream of chicken soup
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Directions

1. Load all ingredients into a small slow cooker (we used a 1.5 quart cooker)
2. Cover and cook on LOW 2-3 hours, stirring half way through the cooking and again at the end.

Good times!

Chicken Bacon Pockets

     Every now and then I find a recipe that you can't possibly dislike. Well, I suppose you could, but it probably means you're deficient in some way. This particular recipe combines all sorts of good stuff. It's got chicken, bacon and canned dough. What's not to love? For me, it was the possibility of being bland. The judicious application of barbecue sauce and some green onion fixed that. I'm calling this recipe a winner. This is a super weeknight quick meal. If you make it using crescent rolls, you'll get four. If you use biscuit dough, you should get five, but they'll be a bit smaller. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Chicken Bacon Pockets
via 101 Things To Do With Bacon

Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (as always, we used neufchatel, to keep the fat down)
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 cups cooked, chopped chicken
• 8 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled (and don't you dare throw the grease away. Save it in a jar in the fridge for later. It's a key ingredients in Bootleg Cheddar Bay Biscuits)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup barbecue sauce (not in original recipe, we decided this would be a bit bland without some form of extra kick)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions (also not in the original recipe)
• 2 cans (8 ounces each) refrigerated crescent rolls (we used 1 can of 10 buttermilk biscuits)
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (we used them, but omitting them will not notably change anything)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (177C, Gasmark 4)
2. In a bowl, mix the cream cheese and milk until smooth; add the chicken, bacon and pepper (and barbecue sauce, if using) and stir until combined.
3. Unroll crescent rolls and separate dough into 8 rectangles, pressing along the diagonal to seal, creating 4 "pockets" (we took 2 biscuits at a time and rolled them together into a large disc. You'll get 5 of these discs)
4. Equally divide filling and spoon onto the bottom half of each dough rectangle. Fold dough over the filling, pinch the edges to seal, and crimp the edges with a fork. (we loaded the center of each disc, then pulled the dough up around the filling. We then flipped the entire thing over, so the seam side was down. It looked kind of like a big dumpling)
5. Brush each pocket with melted butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
6. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 4 servings (5 if you use biscuits)

Good times!

Slow-Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken with Broccoli

     I'm glad The Wife is working more in the kitchen. Don't freak out; I'm not making any gender specific claims here. The Wife doesn't work much in the kitchen because that's my job. It's also because she didn't have a tremendous amount of confidence in her cooking. Lately she's been poking through recipes and messing around with the ingredients. Nothing ground-breaking, but she consistently achieves success. Her latest success was a slow cooker recipe she found in one of our many slow cooker recipe books. I was extremely pleased with how this turned out. It had great flavor and was great over pasta, rice or bread. My only complaint was that it was pretty salty, but that was down to the Italian salad dressing mix. She even used almost half of what the recipe called for. She also used half of the requested chicken. Next time I'd say go the full four pounds of chicken, or quarter the seasoning. Either way, I hope she makes this one again! As always, any notes or changes are in blue.

Slow-Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken with Broccoli
via Crock Pot Potluck For All Occasions

Igredients

• 4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (as we are not made of money, she used 2 pounds of chicken)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 package (1-ounce) Italian salad dressing mix (her package was .6 ounces and we felt that was PLENTY)
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 2 cups (8 ounces) sliced mushrooms (she used one 4-ounce can of mushrooms, drained)
• 1 cup chopped onion (she went with 1/2 cup)
• 1 can (10.75 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 1 bag (10 ounces) frozen broccoli florets, thawed 
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, cubed (she used 4 ounces, and as always, Neufchatel was used in place of cream cheese)
• 1/4 cup dry sherry (she used 1/8 cup dry Vermouth)
• Hot cooked pasta (We did serve it over pasta, but I also served it over herbed swirl bread for lunches a couple times)

Directions

1. Toss chicken with oil in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salad dressing mix. Transfer to a slow-cooker. Cover; cook on LOW for 3 hours
2. Coat large skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion; cook 5 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring occasionally (since The Wife used canned mushrooms, she didn't add them until the next step.)
3. Add soup, broccoli, cream cheese and sherry (neufchatel and vermouth in our case), to the pan (hopefully you didn't just throw that stuff into the slow cooker, because if you did, you just screwed up,) cook and stir until heated through. Transfer to the slow-cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 1 hour. Serve over pasta (or bread, or rice, or whatever you want. Don't give in to recipe bullying)

Good Times!

UPDATE: Now there is a video for this recipe:

)

Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

     It's been a while since I've dug into my trusty copy of Taste of Home Every Day Light Meals for something other than a bread recipe. This particular dessert was very rich, closing in on a touch heavy. Don't get me wrong, it was damned good. Just have a glass of milk or bourbon or something to help it on its way. The recipe called for egg whites, but I wasn't feeling that and just used whole eggs. It seemed to work out fine. As always, any changes or notes are in blue.

Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Bars
via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1-1/2 squares (1-1/2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate (we used 2 ounces because I didn't feel like breaking the piece in half. I'm lazy like that)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white (I didn't really want a bunch of leftover yolks, I just omitted this)
• 1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream (we used Greek yogurt)

Cream cheese mixture:

• 1 package (8 ounces) reduced fat cream cheese (as always, we went with Neufchatel)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg white (didn't feel like separating eggs, we just used another entire egg)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (6 ounces) miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, combine water, butter and chocolate. Cook and stir over low heat until melted; stir until smooth. Allow to cool.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Add egg, egg white (if using) and sour cream. Beat on low speed until just combined (I used the Kitchenaid, any electric mixer will do. You can do it by hand if you're feeling particularly industrious). Stir in chocolate mixture until smooth.
3. In another mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg white (or just egg if you're hardcore like me) and vanilla; set aside.
4. Spread chocolate batter into a 15"x10"x1" baking pan coated with non-stick cooking spray. Drop the cream cheese mixture by tablespoonfuls (that doesn't sound right. Tablespoonsful? This is going to bother me) over batter. Cut through batter with a knife to swirl (Protip: read the recipe all the way through. I generally do not. Which is why I ended with a nice layer of cream cheese right across the top of the cake. It still tasted good, though). Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
5. Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes (we went 25 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Good times!

Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Potato Soup

     With winter around the corner, the slow cookers are seeing regular use. One of our standards is a soup for the week, the heartier, the better. We found this recipe in a cookbook we keep forgetting we own: Fix It and Forget It Lightly. This book is a treasure trove of healthier options for the slow cooker. We went with the Cream Cheese Potato Soup. It is a rich and satisfying soup, and with the substitution of neufchatel for cream cheese, fairly low in fat. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Potato Soup
via Fix It and Forget It Lightly

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup ham, diced
• 5 medium-sized potatoes, diced fine
• 8 ounce package fat free cream cheese, cubed (as always, we used Neufchatel)
• Half an onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dill weed
• 1 tablespoon Old Taylor Street Cheese Sprinkle from The Spice House

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker
2. Cover. Cook on high for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are as soft as you like them.
3. Turn to low until ready to serve (We turned ours to warm. YEAH! WHAT NOW?)

Good times!

Pumpkin Cheesebread Muffins

     Once again I have dug into the abyss of Allrecipes. This time it was to find a use for half a can of pumpkin that was in the fridge and threatening to go off. The recipe I found was listed as Pumpkin Cheesebread II: The Reckoning. This Time, It's Personal. Okay, maybe the last part wasn't on there, but it should have been. If you're slapping Roman numerals on your recipe, it needs to have a tagline attached. Just wait until I redo my Shoofly Pie recipe. It's going to be amazing.

"Yippie-Pie-Yay, Motherf****r."

     Anyway, this recipe has you making it in loaf pans. We decided it would be far more amusing and time consuming to do them as muffins. They took just as long to cook as the loaf time, so it's all coming down to a matter of which you prefer. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Pumpkin Cheesebread Muffins
via Allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened (we used neufchatel to keep the fat down)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1-2/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon orange zest (we didn't feel like zesting an orange so we used 1 scant tablespoon of dried orange peel from a jar)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove (I always worry clove will overpower a recipe; we used 1/2 scant teaspoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (I'm hoping that's the same thing that's in the can, because that's what I used)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional) (omitted)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly grease two 8x4 inch loaf pans (we decided, based on a suggestion in the comments to make these in muffin tins.)
2. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 egg and orange zest; beat until smooth (this could have been done by hand but we let the Kitchenaid take care of it), set aside.
3. In another bowl, sift together remaining 1-2/3 cups flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and pumpkin pie spice; set aside.
4. Place pumpkin, vegetable oil, remaining 2 eggs, and remaining 1-1/2 cups sugar in a large bowl; beat well (yes, you're going to have bowls all over the counter. Take a few extra out and just scatter them about the kitchen to complete the scene). Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Fold in pecans (if using). 
5. Pour half the pumpkin batter into the loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of this layer, then pour on remaining batter (if you're doing muffins, you're going to have to eyeball measuring out the batter and cheese. I ended up with a lot of leftover cheese. I just saved it to use as a spread on pumpkin bread I made last week. Don't overfill when making the muffins or they're going to come up over the top and spread about in an alarming fashion. Be on the safe side and put a drip pan on the next rack down to catch any spillover)

   

   Next time I make these as muffins, less batter and more filling.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean (we cooked ours according to the suggested muffin time, which was 25 minutes. No dice. We kept adding time in 5-7 minute intervals and ended up needing about an hour. As always, keep an eye on them; cooking time will vary). Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely. 

Good times!

Raisin Pumpkin Walnut Bread

     As always, last Sunday was all about baking. As I am nothing, if not predictable, I pinched another recipe from Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals. This bread could not be more simple to prepare. I did think the recipe seemed to be missing something so I took it upon myself to chuck some raisins in there. In the end, we ended up with a nice rich bread that is suitable for dessert! It's also good in the morning with a schmear of cream cheese. As always, any changes or notes will be in blue.

Raisin Pumpkin Walnut Bread
via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup egg substitute (we substituted 2 large eggs)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup canola oil (we used corn oil)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. 
2. In another bowl, combine the pumpkin, egg substitute (or 2 large eggs), water and oil. Mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in walnuts. (I'll be honest here. I just loaded the first 8 ingredients into the Kitchenaid mixer bowl and gave them a quick stir. Then I just dumped everything else in and used the beater blade at power level 2 until it was all mixed up. I live on the edge.)
3. Spoon into a 9x5x3" baking dish coated with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350F for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (ours took 65 minutes on the button). Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Good times!

Raisin Breakfast Pretzels

     Eventually the cover is going to fall off my Taste of Home: Everyday Light Meals cookbook. I just can't get enough of the great baking recipes in here. I've been eyeballing a Cranberry Breakfast Pretzel recipe for some time, but had been skipping it because it was a bit labor intensive. I'm glad I finally made it. These are a great quick breakfast, clocking in at only 170 calories a piece. The wife and I were in the process of spreading some cream cheese on these when we realized that this recipe would also make a decent bagel! I think we may do that next time. As always, I'll give you the original recipe with any changes or notes in blue.

Raisin Pretzels
originally Cranberry Breakfast Pretzels
via Taste of Home Everyday Light Meals

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup dried cranberries (I used an equal amount of raisins. You could probably substitute just about any dried fruit you'd like)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce (I used an equal amount of my highly sweetened Bourbon Apple Butter)
• 2 tablespoons of sugar, divided
• 1 package (.25 ounce) active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk (110-115F)
• 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour 
• 2 quarts water

Topping:

• 1 egg white, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Directions

1. In a food processor or blender, place the dried cranberries (raisins), applesauce (apple butter), and 1 tablespoon sugar; cover and process until finely chopped (I just went berserk and let it go until it was a paste.) Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm milk. Add remaining sugar; let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Add the fruit mixture, oil, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough (I used the full 4 cups. The dough is still a bit sticky)Turn out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes (being lazy, I used the Kitchenaid with the dough hook for 7 minutes). Place in a bowl coated with nonstick cooking spray, turning once to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 90 minutes.
4. Punch dough down. Turn onto a floured surface. Divide dough into 15 balls. Roll each ball into a 14" rope and form into a pretzel shape. (A great video showing the process can be found on YouTube from Pastry Chef Online, please note how her pretzels actually look like pretzels whereas mine are more "reminiscent" of pretzels.)
5. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Drop pretzels, one at a time, into water; boil for 10 seconds on each side. Remove with a slotted spoon; drain on paper towels.
6. Place pretzels on baking sheets coated with nonstick cooking spray. Cover and let rise in a warm place until puffy, about 25 minutes. 
7. Brush pretzels with egg white. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over tops of pretzels. Bake at 375F for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown (mine took 20 minutes. Cooking times may vary)
8. Serve with honey or cream cheese if desired

Good times!

Pork Chop Roll-Ups with Cream Cheese and Yellow Squash and Tomato Chutney

     My wife has accused me of having an odd thought process. After coming up with this recipe, I think she's right. I originally started looking at rolled chicken recipes. Then I thought I didn't have any boneless chicken and didn't feel like boning the chicken. So I figured I could use pork instead. Then I started to get goofy. I'm not sure what compelled me to use cream cheese and chutney, but it worked. The flavors all complemented each other. I have no idea how or why, but they did. But who am I to question success?

Pork Chop Roll-Ups with Cream Cheese and
Yellow Squash and Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

• 4 pork chops (trimmed of any bone and fat)
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 4 oz yellow squash and tomato chutney 
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 egg
• melted butter

Directions

1. Pound chops thin with a meat mallet. (I love whacking stuff with the mallet. Just make sure to put a piece of waxed paper over the chop unless you're a big fan of bits of meat and juice flying all over the kitchen. Also make all loose objects are secure, because you're going to be rattling the counter top whaling away on the pork)
2. Spread 1 tablespoon of cream cheese over each chop. Leave a little space around the edge. Spread 1 tablespoon of chutney over the cream cheese.
3. Roll chops up jelly-style 
4. Mix flour and bread crumbs in a bowl; whisk egg in another bowl
5. Dredge roll in flour/crumb mixture, dip roll in egg wash, dredge again in flour/crumb mixture
6. Place rolls on a cookie sheet covered with non-stick cooking spray. 
7. Cook 25 minutes at 375, turning once during cooking. If you see any dry spots on the rolls during cooking, just paint them with some of the melted butter. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Good times!