Chicken Breast stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese

I know that it has been a while. But I am starting anew tonight with some yummy meals each day this week. My first goal this week is to make all three meals and all snacks with the food I have already in my house. I did go to the store and get some milk and eggs and veggies but everything else I am going to try and use whats in my house. So tonight for dinner is Chicken stuffed with spinach and goat cheese. Except that I am using feta cheese because that is what I have in my fridge. I served it with a spinach salad with red wine vinaigrette.

Frugality: Everything was in my house so very frugal.

Waistline: This recipe comes from my South Beach Diet cook book. And it's a Phase 1 recipe which is very waistline conscious. Per serving: 280 calories, 10g fat, 42g protein, 3g carb, 1g dietary fiber, 390 mg sodium.

Recipe:
4 t evoo
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1/2 pound) bunch spinach, tough stems removed
4 (6 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 ounces low-fat goat cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper

You'll also need wooden toothpicks

Heat oven to 400.
Heat 2 teaspoons of oil int a large ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in spinach and cook, stirring constantly, until spinach is wilted and liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate. Wipe skillet dry with paper towels.
Slice your chicken breast open like a pita bread. Open each pocket and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then fill evenly with goat cheese and spinach. Seal each with two toothpicks and season outside with salt and pepper.
Heat remaining oil in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning once until well browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. -- Note -- I actually cooked them for about 5 minutes each side. I have a thing about making sure my chicken is thoroughly cooked. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until juices run clear. For me I cooked it for about 15-18 minutes. The recipe says 8 minutes. That's not long enough for me. The chicken was still pink in the middle.

Tonight for dinner is Tortilla Soup. I used this recipe: Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup Recipe except I didn't put the salsa in. I don't like canned salsa. And I didn't add the chilis because I didn't have any and I didn't want to go to the store. I added a packet of reduced sodium taco seasoning instead.

Waistline: Not bad. Skinless chicken. Black beans. Tomatoes. All good. I didn't add the chips or the cheese so quite healthy right? Maybe too much sodium though.

Frugality: I had every ingredient in my cupboards/freezer. Which is always so nice.

Food Storage Calculator

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Cauliflower Soup and French Bread

So tonight for dinner I found this yummy looking recipe. I love soup and especially in the fall. It was quite easy to make, just took some time. But with lots of vegetables you can't go wrong. And half and half. Oh my. I love half and half. Real cream too. Growing up my mom used to put half and half or sometimes real cream on our cereal. Yum! When I was pregnant with my darling daughter I used to buy fat free half and half and have it on my honey nut cherrios every morning. Delightful. But I digress. I didn't serve meat with this dish because I asked my carnivorous husband what I should serve with it and he said I didn't need to add anything to it. That's easy enough for me. But I did buy some fresh french bread, which my kids love.

Waistline: Not too bad. The sour cream and the half and half aren't very good but I figure the veggies counter-act that. (I know they really don't but it makes me feel better to say it.)

Frugality: The vegetables were cheap and so were the half and half and sour cream and the bread wasn't bad. Everything else I had on hand.

Sunday Ham, Sour Cream Potatoes and Cobb Salad

So I'm back. Sunday dinner is always my favorite meal. For some reason I like to go all out. But I have to say that cooking dinner while fasting is NOT my favorite thing. So we had yummy ham and sour cream potatoes (funeral potatoes) and cobb salad (minus chicken). They were all very good.

Frugality: I had the ham in my freezer. I had all of the ingredients for the potatoes already. I had to buy avocados and tomatoes for the salad, but I had everything else. So very little out of pocket for this meal.

Waistline: The ham isn't horrible in calories if you don't eat too much. The potatoes, let's be real. They are full of fat and calories. So not so good there. But the cobb salad was healthy.

Then I had a hankering for some sweets (when don't I?) so I made these yummy brownies. I got the recipe here...


Ooey Gooey Peanut Butter Fudge Brownies
Batter Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. sugar
½ c. butter (1 stick) softened
½ c. oil
1 T. vanilla
3 eggs
1 ¼ c. flour
¾ c. cocoa powder
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Filling Ingredients:
1 c. creamy peanut butter
2 T. vegetable oil
1/3 c. sugar
2 T. flour
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla

Frosting:
¾ of a bag of milk chocolate chips
3 T. creamy peanut butter
1 c. powdered sugar
¼ c. water
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt

Batter: Preheat oven to 350 and spray 9x13-inch pan. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add oil and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt - blend well. While beating, gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture – mix well. Evenly spread batter into pan.

Filling: In a small bowl cream together peanut butter and oil. Add sugar and flour – blend well. Add eggs and vanilla – beat until smooth. Carefully spread filling over batter in pan. Gently cut through layers to create marble effect throughout brownies. Bake for 30 minutes – do NOT over bake.

Frosting: While baking, in a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate and peanut butter over LOW heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients – mix until smooth. If frosting is too thick, add 1-3 T. water. Spread frosting over brownies immediately after baking. Cool in pan 2-3 hours before serving. Can top brownies with chopped peanut butter cups.

It's my birthday and I'll eat out if I want to...

I know that I've been doing this blog for a long time. So I need to take a break. (Tongue in cheek.) Actually it's my birthday today and so I decided to celebrate it all weekend. (Hee hee.) My darling friends took me out to dinner last night. Tonight Chad and I are doing dinner. And tomorrow night we are going with some our are friends to Benihana. Yummy! My mouth waters just thinking about it. I love sushi!

Spaghetti

Tonight for dinner we had Spaghetti and Ceaser Salad. This is by far my kids favorite meal. My daughter begs for it every week. My kids actually ate seconds. My daughter ate thirds. And again, I had all of the ingredients needed in my freezer/pantry. So no money out of the food budget for the week. Super simple yummy dinner.

Waistline: The noodles are whole wheat noodles. And I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. My kids have actually never had white noodles because I only make wheat. And they've never had ground beef in Spaghetti because again, I only use ground turkey in all of my recipes that call for ground beef. BTW: Jennie-O ground turkey is on sale at Smith's this week for $2.79 per 1.25 lb package which is an amazing deal.