Spinach and Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Photo curteosy for 5dollardinners.com

This was easy, good and cheap. Really, how much better can you get?

I only used 2 chicken breasts since that's what I had after I broke down a whole chicken. You could also use other cuts though -- like boneless thighs or something.

Here's the recipe and then what I did a little differently is below that.

Spinach and Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts
by Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom on January 19, 2011

Ingredients
■1 box frozen spinach
■1 Tbsp olive oil
■1 tomato, diced (or 1 15 oz can drained diced tomatoes)
■4 garlic cloves, crushed
■Sprinkles of dried basil, salt and pepper
■3-4 chicken breasts, depending on size…about 1.3 lb.
■About 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
■1 6 oz can tomato paste
■About 1 tsp Italian seasonings

Directions
■Cook the spinach as directed on the package and drain well. And by well, I mean well.
■In a large skillet, add the olive oil, well drained spinach, diced tomato and crushed garlic. Add a few sprinkles of basil and salt and pepper. Saute for 5-7 minutes, or until fairly dry and liquid has steamed off.
■Pound out the chicken breasts and place into a slightly greased baking dish. Spoon the spinach and tomato mixture into the chicken breasts. Top with some shredded mozzarella cheese and roll up. Repeat for all the chicken breasts. Spoon any remaining spinach around the chicken in the baking dish. Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes, or until cooked through.
■While the chicken is baking, make some red sauce with the tomato paste. Spoon the tomato paste into a small saucepan and add 2.5 cans worth of water. Whisk and add some Italian seasonings and let simmer over low heat until the chicken is finished baking. Spoon the sauce over the chicken pieves (You could also use tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes or spaghetti sauce!)

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So I basically followed the directions exactly. I only used 2 chicken breasts though, so I cut down on the spinach and used only 1/2 a bag of frozen spinach. I don't know why you would need frozen spinach though. You could totally use fresh spinach and ust let it wilt down in the pan with the tomatoes.

For the mozzarella -- use whatever you have or whatever is on sale. Shredded, sliced, string cheese....whatever.

I made her "red sauce" but honestly, it wasn't the greatest. Next time I'd rather just use some pasta sauce or some jazzed up tomato sauce. The sauce made from the tomato paste wasn't bad...it just wasn't great. I had to add sugar and ketchup and spices and what not to make it alright. And even still...it just lacked depth. I dunno...

After the chicken was done, I topped it with the red sauce and then put more mozzarella on top of that, then stuck it under the broiler for 2-3 minutes until the cheese was nice, golden and bubbly. This was a HUGE bonus. It made it REALLY good. I think it kind of took the dish from 3.5 stars to 4.5 stars. DO THIS! :)

Savory Pork Roast, Brussels Sprouts and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

This was our dinner tonight. Savory Pork Roast, Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. YUM! All the recipes came from Allrecipes.com . Click on the name of the dish to be directed to the recipe on All Recipes.

Savory Pork Roast

1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 (4 pound) boneless pork loin roast

Directions
1.Combine the seasonings; rub over roast. Place on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

*** I only used a 1.3 lbs pork roast but I kept the amount of seasonings the same. I like a punch. :) I also mixed in a little bit of olive oil to make the rub into more of a paste.


Roasted Brussels Sprouts
1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and yellow leaves removed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
2.Place trimmed Brussels sprouts, olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper in a large resealable plastic bag. Seal tightly, and shake to coat. Pour onto a baking sheet, and place on center oven rack.
3.Roast in the preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes, shaking pan every 5 to 7 minutes for even browning. Reduce heat when necessary to prevent burning. Brussels sprouts should be darkest brown, almost black, when done. Adjust seasoning with kosher salt, if necessary. Serve immediately.

***I quartered them first (wanted to make them a little more "bite size"), then par-boiled them for about 2 minutes. Let it sit in a colander for a couple minutes to drain while you're doing other things. Then toss with oil and seasoning, spread out on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven! Overall- pretty good. It was a little salty. But not too bad. I don't normally do Brussels Sprouts since it has the whole "taste like feet" reputation. But I'm really trying to branch out and try different things. It was pretty good. Didn't taste like feet, so that's a plus! :) We ate them all.


Garlic Mashed Potatoes
I don't have a "recipe" for this but here's what I did. I first cut off the top of a whole head of garlic, drizzled olive oil over the top with a touch of salt, wrapped it in foil and stuck it in the oven with the pork -- I let it roast for about 45 minutes or so--not really sure how long. Basically I just let it cook until I was ready to mash the potatoes. Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork tender, drain, return potatoes to pot, cover and let sit until you're almost ready to serve dinner. When we're about 5-10 minutes from serving everything, I take out the garlic, unwrap it and using a fork or knife, pop out each clove of garlic (ok....and taste some too...yum). Then turn on the flame to low, pour in some milk and add butter (whatever looks good - remember you can always add more but you can't take out, so start small). Using a large whisk (or potato masher, or fork or ..whatever) mash and mix everything together. Add in garlic cloves and shredded Parm cheese along with salt and pepper to taste. Stir and taste until it's good. :)

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So I catagorized this under "Cheap Meals" because once I added it all up - it was PRETTY CHEAP! I spent less than $5 on this entire meal (which had leftovers!). Here's the breakdown:

Pork Roast -- 1.3 lbs (on sale) 1.99/lb --$2.59 --**I already had all spices and olive oil on hand**

Brussel Sprouts -- 1 lbs -- 1.99/lb --$1 -- **already on hand: seasonings and olive oil**

Mashed Potatoes -- One 5lb bag (15 potatoes) was $0.69. I used 4 potatoes which came out to be about $0.20 ; Parm Cheese - the container was $3.11. I used just a couple of handfuls, so I'm guestimating about $0.50 for the Parm Cheese. **I already had milk and butter on hand.**

I also made a packet of gravy b/c I had that in the pantry. However if you bought one it would probably be about $1. Let's just throw that in there for the fun of it.

TOTAL = $5.29

Greek Salad

I was at the grocery store today and saw some pre-made Greek Salad at the deli counter. It looked great but was, of course, overpriced. I already had over half of the needed ingredients at home, so I grabbed what I still needed and tonight I made our own Greek Salad (and for a lot cheaper). It was ahhhh-maz-ing. Hit the spot for an evening snack and is healthy to boot!! :)

Cucumbers, Roma Tomatoes, Red Onions, Kamalta Olives -- cut them all up (however much you want of each) and mix together with salt and pepper. Squeeze over some lemon juice and red wine vinegar. Top with feta cheese.

yum yum yum! :)

Crockpot Chuck Roast

I bought a 2 lbs beef chuck roast on sale but had no clue how to cook it. I knew that the crockpot would be my "safety" - so I looked for different recipes. I found several and decided to kind of combine some stuff. It turned out GREAT! The Gravy it made was a dark gravy and was really good. The meat was uber-tender too. I served it with mashed potatoes and a salad. Will definitely make this one again!

Ingredients:
2 lbs (ish) Chuck Roast
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can of Dr. Pepper (or any dark soda I think will do)
1 packet of Lipton Onion Soup Mix (dry)
Salt, Pepper, Parsley to taste



Directions:

Season the meat with salt, pepper and parsley. Put it in the crockpot.

Dump cream of soup, soda and onion soup mix on top.... kind of stir to combine. (You could also do this in a separate bowl and then dump it all on top. Whichever you like)

Cook on low for 6 hours or so

Pork Chop Delight

A friend of mine fowarded me an e-mail FULL of crockpot recipes! I recently bought some pork chops on sale and thought that I'd take one of the recipes to cook up my chops. This was a GREAT meal, easy and really good. I actually made this the day before, then things happened and we never were able to eat it - so, instead of putting in the sour cream, I stuck it in a tupperware dish and popped it in the fridge. The next day, I just dumped the entire contents into a deep pan, let it heat up, then added the sour cream/flour mixture to cook for 15-20 minutes. It turned out just fine! We had our brother and sister over and they liked it too! The pork was nice and tender and the sauce it made was really good. I would either make rice (or mashed potatoes if you want something heavier) and veggies with it. The only FYI I would say to remember is, as with any kind of meat with bones you put in the crockpot - the meat falls offthe bone very easily. Which means bones mix in with the meat and sauce. So just be careful or maybe try to fish out the bones before you serve. It wasn't that big of a deal, but I don't want to have to wory that I'll bite down into a bone when eating!

Anywho - here it is!

http://www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/crockpot/pkchpdel.html

From the Kitchen of: Pepper
4 - 6


boneless pork chops

seasoned flour for dredging (add salt, pepper, etc. to flour)
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 lg. onion, sliced
2 c. chicken broth
2 tbsp. flour
8 oz. sour cream

Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Dredge pork chops in seasoned flour and brown in skillet, turning to brown both sides.

Layer chops in Crockery Pot with onion slices. Pour chicken broth over layers. Cover and cook on low 7 - 8 hours.

Stir the 2 tablespoons of flour into the sour cream until smooth. Stir sour cream into the Crockery Pot and blend into the cooking juices. Raise the Crockery Pot to high for 15 - 30 minutes or until the liquid has thickened.

Serve the chops and sauce over rice or noodles.

Crunchy Beef Bake

This recipe is from my cousin Ali Adema who got it from Taste of Home magazine. Sounds good, easy and uses "normal" stuff that you may already have in stock.

"This isn't some fancy schmancy gormet meal or anything, but it was good! I made it for the first time for dinner tonight, and I really liked it. Lukas said he did too. I always like getting new recipies because I hate being in a "cooking rut", so I thought I'd share this with anyone who'd like another recipe. I got it from a Taste of Home magazine. Again, it's nothing special and it probably isn't the most unique meal out there (whatever), but it was easy and tasted good. =)"

Crunchy Beef Bake - yield 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked spiral or macaroni pasta (I used large macaroni)

1 pound ground beef

3/4 cup chopped green pepper

1 garlic clove, minced1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained (I had a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies already, so I used that instead. I think it added some good flavor.)

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 can (2.8 oz) french-fried onions

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, cook the beef, green pepper and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and pepper is tender; drain.

2. Drain pasta; add to the beef mixture with the tomatoes, soup, cheese, and salt.

3. Transfer to a greased (oops, just realized I forgot that part, haha) 2 qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with onions and bake for another 5 minutes.

Orange Chicken

I was hungry for orange chicken today so I did some internet searches and came up with something really good! The main recipe is from Melissa d'Arabian's new show "Ten Dollar Dinners" on the Food Network. It's actually REALLY good and super easy. Here's her recipe and then below I explained my changes. FYI - my version is actually a bit easier and cooks up really quickly:

Crispy-Skinned Chicken a l'Orange

Ingredients:
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 skin-on bone-in chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
4 tablespoons honey

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Liberally salt and pepper the chicken breast halves. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat and sear the chicken, skin side only, until brown and beginning to crisp, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the orange glaze: In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice concentrate, honey, and salt and pepper, to taste, over medium heat, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Turn the chicken over and brush each piece with the glaze. Turn the chicken skin side up and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 160 to 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, brushing on more glaze halfway through, about 15 minutes in total.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes on a cutting board. Remove the chicken breast from the bone and slice the meat on the bias. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and serve.

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My changes:

I just took skinless boneless chicken and cut it into strips (like chicken tenders). I browned them on both sides, made the glaze (added a splash of soy sauce) and then poured the glaze into the chicken skillet. I let it simmer, covered, for about 5-7 minutes or until cooked completely. Then poured it all over the rice. This would be great served with broccoli too.


I do want to try her recipe, her way, though. I think the crispy skin would be a great addition for the flavor and texture. Let me know if you try her recipe with the skin on!

Caprese Lasagna

Otherwise known as Basil, Tomato and Mozzerella Lasagna! This was taken from Rachel Ray's show as part of her "Meals for a Steal" segment. It feeds 4 and came in for less than $9. I haven't made it yet, but I put it up here because I don't want to forget about it! :)

Check it out here and even watch her do the segment: http://rachelrayshow.com/food/recipes/caprese-lasagna/

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
A few grates fresh nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Half a bunch (about 30 leaves) basil, chopped
4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

Preperation

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Place a large saucepot over medium-heat and melt the butter. Add garlic to pan and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and garlic, and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk the milk into the butter-flour mixture and bring up to a bubble. Add the nutmeg, season with salt and ground black pepper, and simmer until thickened, 3-4 minutes.

Assemble the lasagna by ladling a small amount (about 1/4 cup, just eyeball it) of the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish and laying 3 lasagna noodles over the sauce. Top the noodles with a third of the sliced tomatoes, a third of the basil, 1/4 cup of sauce and a third of the shredded cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used up, topping the lasagna off with a final layer of sauce and shredded cheese.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake the lasagna for 30 minutes. Remove the foil from the baking dish and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. When ready to serve, top with remaining chopped basil leaves.