Cream Cheese and Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts and Broccoli Puff

Those who follow me on Twitter know that yesterday I mentioned I had boneless skinless chicken breasts out for dinner but wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with them.  I 'tweeted' that I was thinking of feta stuffed breasts... and that is indeed what we had.

This is a photo from my files of a previous time I made a bacon wrapped chicken breast but as it's a dish we have often, there isn't much sense in me taking numerous photos of the same thing!  Last night's version included this;



Feta and Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 package bacon (12 or 16 oz. doesn't matter.  You just need about 3 strips for each breast)
4 oz. cream cheese
2 oz. feta cheese
salt and pepper

Pound the chicken breasts to flatten them uniformly.   Cube the cream cheese into equal parts.  Do the same with the feta.  Wrap a cube of feta and of cream cheese in each breast.  Lay on a sprayed or foil lined baking sheet, seam side down.  Wrap or lay slices of bacon on each.  You can either wrap them completely (as pictured) or you can slice the bacon in half and simply lay it over top the chicken breasts to cover.  This is not only for flavor and taste, but helps keep the chicken moist and tender.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  Bake at 350 for about 45 - 60 minutes or until your chicken is done and golden crispy.

Pound the chicken flat to make it easy to fill and roll up

I served last night's chicken with a simple broccoli puff casserole side dish that I didn't use a recipe for, but just threw together.  It's an old classic your Grandmother probably made in some form in the past.

Broccoli Puff

16 oz. pkg. frozen broccoli
4 oz. cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 c mayonnaise
1/2 c cheddar cheese
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup (low fat is fine)

Cook the broccoli in the microwave until just barely tender.  Drain.  Place in greased baking dish.  Mix together the soup, cream cheese, egg and mayonnaise.  Pour over the broccoli and top with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese.  Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes if your broccoli was very tender or an hour if it was still partially frozen or uncooked.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Lemon Garlic Pork Filet with Rosemary Baby Potatoes (Pork by Hormel)

A couple years ago, I was grocery shopping and going to purchase a pork loin to marinate for dinner.  While looking over my choices, I realized a pre-marinated Hormel product was on sale that week and a better deal than buying a plain pork loin and spices and marinating it myself.  This also cut down the time needed to prepare dinner as I didn't have to hurry to get it seasoned and add in the wait time.

Our first Hormel product to try was the Mesquite Barbecue version, which I served that evening with mashed potatoes and green beans.  Huge hit with the whole family.  Since then I've bought this product every 6 months or so - usually when it goes on sale of course.

The flavors our family has enjoyed;

• Citrus Filet
• Honey Mustard Filet
• Lemon Garlic Filet
• Mesquite Barbecue Filet

This is a meal you can prepare within 5 minutes prep time, bake for an hour and be proud to serve as if you worked for 2 hours on it. 

Lemon Garlic Pork Filet with Rosemary Baby Potatoes 

1 Lemon Garlic Pork Filet (Pork by Hormel)
1 small bag baby potatoes (my photo is of the tri-colored, red, white and blue variety)
Olive Oil
Rosemary
Salt and Pepper

In a shallow baking pan, add about 1/2 cup olive oil.  Add the baby potatoes and shake the pan gently back and forth to cover the baby potatoes with oil.  Cut the pork filet package open and place it in the center of the pan, surrounded by the potatoes.  Top the potatoes with rosemary sprigs, fresh cracked black pepper, and salt to flavor.  Bake at 350 degrees about 1 hour.  Serve with a nice green vegetable like green beans for great presentation and taste. This will serve about 4 -5. 

Home Fried Fish (a delicious batter not only for fish, but try it for chicken and shrimp too!)

If you were to ask me what my favorite 'food' is, it might be onions.  However, if you were to ask me what my favorite type of food is, it would be seafood.  It doesn't matter if it's crab, lobster, shrimp, fish, oysters, mussels or anything in between.  Seafood in some form, three times a week would be about perfect for me.  And this fried fish batter?  One of my favorites.  This is a recipe I originally posted back in 2008 but a lot of you might not have been a reader back then.  It is not only so very good, but you can use cod fillets, which are very affordable!

Home Fried Fish

1 c self rising flour
5 t prepared mustard
2 t sugar
2 t salt
1 egg
1 c water
1/2 t onion powder
2 lbs. fresh or frozen/thawed Cod filets or chicken strips, etc.

Mix everything but the fish/chicken.  Heat a container of oil (3-4 cups) to about 350-400 degree's.  Dip each filet into the batter and quickly place in the hot oil.  Cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes.  Drain on paper towels.

Here is a close up of some of the fish fillet's in the batter

Homemade Salted Nut Rolls (Similar to Pay Day Candy Bars)

I've had this recipe in my files for about 16 years already.  It's one I typically only make at Christmas however, because I hate making any candy I have to 'dip'.  I don't have the patience for the dipping process nor the mess.  However, this year, after I got tired of making them into the traditional 2 inch logs like you purchase at the store, I cut them into bit sized balls.  So... you can make them into the little 'logs' that you are familiar with if you eat this kind of candy, or you make them into little bites.  Completely up to you.  Play with your food!

Homemade Salted Nut Rolls

3 c powdered sugar

1 - 7 oz. jar marshmallow creme

1 t vanilla

1/4 t almond

1 - 14 oz. bag caramels, unwrapped

3 T water

3 c salted peanuts and/or cashews, chopped

Combine the powdered sugar, marshmallow creme, vanilla and almond and knead until smooth.  This will be a very dry mixture at first until it's incorporated.  If you have a KitchenAid or other heavy duty mixer with a dough hook, it's a lifesaver!  When it forms a ball, continue kneading by hand with extra powdered sugar so it's smooth and not too sticky.  Shape into logs (about 8 - 10 of them) that are about 1/2 inch thick and 5-6 inches long.  Wrap in wax paper and freeze.  Melt the caramels with the water in a saucepan over low heat.  Stir until smooth.  Remove the logs from the freezer and dip each into the caramel and then into the salted, chopped nuts.  Roll back in the wax paper and refrigerate for at least an hour to harden the caramel.  Slice into 1/3 slices.

This year I took the logs from the freezer, but cut them into bite sized pieces before dipping into the caramel and then into the nuts and lightly and quickly rolling them by hand and placing them on the wax paper.   

Southwestern Seasoned Pork Chops (using Mrs. Dash)

Ready to go into the oven!

Those of you following me on Twitter already know what today's recipe was going to be.  It's what we had for dinner last night!  Although my daughter and I love our pork chops with a yummy chive sauce or other 'something' on it, my husband likes his pork chops baked or grilled with no sauce at all.  Just a dry rub.

This was an improvised recipe by simply opening my cupboards to see what we had on hand.  You can do this too!  Start with some basic bread crumbs, add some seasoning and bake for about 30 minutes.  You can't go wrong.

Southwestern Seasoned Pork Chops

4 boneless pork chops
1/2 c Plain bread crumbs (bought or make your own by crumbling bread in a food processor)
4-5 teaspoons of your favorite Pork Rub
4-5 teaspoons Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle

Place the dry bread crumbs in a flat dish.  Add about a teaspoon per pork chop of each of the two seasonings.  Heavier if you like a lot of flavor or lighter if you don't care for heavy seasoning or are feeding small children.  Mix.  Dredge each pork chop into the dry mix and press gently on each side.  Lay each chop on a heavily greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until done and golden brown and crispy.

**You can use almost any favorite seasonings.   
Instead of Mrs. Dash and dry rubs, try;

• a couple teaspoons of a dry package Italian Salad Dressing Mix
• or a mixture of garlic pepper or garlic lemon seasoning
• onion powder, a bit of Lawry's Salt and a dash of garlic powder
• a couple teaspoons of dry Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
• a mixture of chili powder, cayenne pepper and cumin
• a couple teaspoons dry taco seasoning mix