Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breasts (or plan B - Stuffed Chicken Tender Cups - Coils) with Bacon and Parmesan

Last night I had my phone with me in the kitchen so as I made dinner, I just grabbed it and posted the steps to my Instagram account.  You know, that is a LOT easier than taking photos and uploading or sending them to my blog files and then opening each one to put a water mark on it (because stealing happens - it happened to me) and then typing out the recipe here and posting the darn thing.

Life.  Life is busy.  And running a blog/website takes time.  Time I just haven't had lately, although I'm hopeful that as we get through August, life will maybe slow down a bit and I can give more than a passing quick post to this site again.

So I'm going to cheat a little and give you the photos from my Instagram story AND the text with it, which was the 'recipe' I used - because I didn't use one obviously.  I just whipped this up.  And oh it was good.  SO SO GOOD.  It will be made again soon.


Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breasts or Chicken Tender Coils with Bacon and Parmesan

Fresh Garlic - about a tablespoon
Olive Oil
Garlic Salt - about 1teaspoon or more (taste test)
Onion Powder - 1/2 teaspoon maybe
Spinach - about 10 oz.
Ricotta Cheese - about 1 cup
Salt and Pepper
Chicken Breasts (2-3-4 for this recipe's amount of spinach/cheese mixture - depends on how big the breasts are)
OR Chicken Tenders (which are just sliced up raw chicken breasts)
OPTIONAL:  Parmesan Cheese and a slice or two of bacon


Pour some olive oil in your pan, heat to medium high and add garlic.  Cook for just a minute or so and add the spinach (partially frozen is fine or thawed or even fresh chopped) and add your seasonings.  Cook just a couple minutes until heated through and wilted.  Add the ricotta cheese, turn off the heat and stir until smooth and melted.  Taste test to see if you want to add more salt or garlic salt to your own preferences.

• If you are using chicken breasts, you can either slice along one side, and carefully cut a 'pocket' into the breast, without cutting all the way through.  It will look like a pita pocket - only chicken.  If you happen to cut all the way through, don't sweat it.  Just pile the filling on the breast, top with the upper slice and no one will know or care.  
• If you want to make the chicken coils (or cups) either slice the breasts thin, or use chicken tenders.  Coil them into a large sized muffin tin (use liners if you wish or if you have ugly tins but they aren't needed).  Scoop a large spoonful or two or three into the center of the chicken coiled in the muffin tin.  Depending on how many tenders you have - I got 4 large muffin tins round out of my single package of chicken breast tenders from Sam's Club.  
• Another 'pretty' option is to lay the whole chicken breast flat, and carefully make slices down into the breast, about every 1/2 inch.  Do not cut all the way through though!  Spoon the spinach filling between each 'slice'.

Sprinkle the tops with Parmesan and if you wish (I do) to use bacon, cut up your slice of bacon to dice it and place the raw dices on top of your chicken breasts or coils.

Bake at 400 until your chicken is done and the bacon (if using) is crisp.  The little tender coils take anywhere from 25-35 minutes and the breasts take about 45-55. 






Garlic how I love thee, let me count the ways…

Add 10 ounces of spinach and season with some garlic salt and onion powder and a little salt and pepper…

Add about a cup of ricotta and sister just until it melts into the spinach mixture and remove from heat.

Keeping it real y’all… That moment when you realize you thawed A package of breast tenders and not chicken breasts. So you immediately come up with a Plan B.

Get out a large muffin tin and coil the chicken breast tenders in the cups, fill the centers with the spinach ricotta mixture and sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake at 400° for approximately 20 to 25 minutes until the chicken is done.

Straight from the oven… Spinach and ricotta stuffed chicken tender coil’s. At the last second I topped them with pieces of bacon because bacon.

Dinner is served. Enjoy.

BBQ RANCH SALAD - Spinach, cabbage, lettuce, kale, green onions... bbq sauce and ranch dressing!

I wanted to update my site but I absolutely don't have much time so I'm going to grab a few photos from my Snapchat story and just upload them here.

My Snapchat story is only for family and a couple friends - and I literally was going to throw together this salad for dinner so I snapped the steps for my kids too - because it's THAT GOOD and THAT EASY.

So dear readers... these 'snaps' were originally meant for my kids but it makes it really easy to post this 'recipe' for a kick-butt good salad for hot summer days!

 

BBQ RANCH SALAD

Start with a lot of your main two ingredients:

Various romaine and dark green lettuce(s)

Cabbage

Add

Spinach, fresh

Kale, optional of course

Green Onions just a couple

Broccoli, a little bit

Yellow or Orange sweet bell pepper* optional just a touch

carrots* optional, just a touch

Pulse in a food processor for just 4, 5, 6 times and only a second or two each time.  You want to finely chop the veggies; not puree' them!  Or if you have the time you can finely chop it all by hand. I always use the food processor with an S blade.  Pulse, pulse, pulse... done!

Then add a small amount (like 1 ounce of each for about 4-5 cups of veggie mix)

BBQ sauce of choice

Ranch dressing of choice

 Crunch some tortilla chips on top and serve nice and cold!

 

I finally decided on what cherry pitter to buy....

As much as I like to eat cherries, and as many years as we've been married, and as much baking and cooking that I do, you would think I would own a whole bunch of awesome little fancy kitchen do-dads.  And I don't.  As a matter of fact I'm the queen of improvising... because I've never had money to buy fancy do-dads so I always made do without.  I even used a little $8 Hamilton Beach mixer for the first 12 or 13 years of marriage - even when I was making upwards of 1000 cookies each holiday season and doing baking and cooking daily for my family and friends.

But this past week I finally invested in a cherry pitter!  I normally just use a paring knife and cut around the pit if I'm using cherries in a recipe.  I was placing an order on Amazon for something or other (can't remember what it was) but I did a quick search that night of cherry pitters - found one I thought would work well for me and ordered it.  And?  YES I LIKE IT!

Ultimately I'd like to try two more; one of which is a 'multiple' cherry pitter that does a number of them at once; but for starters I got this single pitter.  After I got used to how it works, I found it was quick and simple - I went through an entire bowl of cherries in no time!


The one I chose is the one that looks like a tulip - or a flower.  It's the 'blossom' style: MSC International Joie Blossom Cherry Pitter.  You simply drop your cherry in, press the plunger, let it spring back and then give it a quarter turn to release the spring to 'dump' the cherry into your bowl or container.

A close up of it in action...

Here is what it looks like when there isn't a cherry in it - and this is a good photo to show you why I chose it.  Because the other similar 'plunger' style pitters didn't have the space this one does for my fingers!  Do you see how the petals of the flower blossom curve out?  They gave more space than the shorter and smaller versions of plunger style cherry pitters and I knew that if I was doing an entire bowl of fruit, my fingers would be more likely to slip off as there just wasn't enough to 'grab'.

The only tricky thing to remember is to line up the little notches inside so your plunger will go down through the cherry and then back up.  If they aren't lined up it will block it or lock it.  This is actually how you store it when not in use as well; you push it down, give it a slight turn so the notches don't line up and then it stays in the plunged position for storing in the drawer.

Cherries that have been pitted - quickly and easily!

Ready to be made into my pie filling.... (for a Cherry Crepe Cake - hopefully I'll get around to posting about it soon but... life.)

Homemade Spicy Salsa - Can be canned or stored in the refrigerator

Admittedly I've posted this recipe a couple times already on An American Housewife but I've noticed that I'm often cooking and baking things I've made before - so I don't take new photos or post updates and then it looks like I'm just not making anything at all (at least from the internets view!) So yes, I've made this recipe a hundred times - and I've posted it twice before - but for those who haven't seen it before, this is my favorite salsa recipe, and the one I prefer to make when I have the time to simmer and can. You don't have to can it, you can just keep yours in the refrigerator or use it right away.

Adjust the 'heat' of your salsa by the variety of peppers you use and how many/much you use!

Homemade Salsa

10 Cups of peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes**
5 c chopped onions
3 sweet banana peppers, diced
4 jalapenos, seeded and diced
2 t minced garlic
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 1/4 c vinegar
2 T chili powder
2 1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cayenne pepper
1 T sugar


Mix all the ingredients for your salsa and simmer 1-3 hours.

While simmering, be sure to either run your jars and lids and seals through an extra hot dishwasher cycle or boil them in another pot of water so they are hot and sterilized when you are ready to use them.  Ladle salsa into the jars with about 1/2 inch head space at the top.   Wipe the edges completely clean with a clean cloth and place the lid on it and then the ring.  You don't have to tighten them hard - just a quick twist to hold the seal/lid on during the process.  Now, originally this old time recipe did not call for a water bath.  The heat from the salsa and the jar will seal the lid.  However, I like to boil them in a water bath as an extra precaution for 25 minutes for pints.

Remove from the water, set on a towel on the counter and let them cool at room temperature.  You will hear popping noises.  That is the lids sealing.  When completely cooled, store in your pantry or cupboard.





**To peel/skin your tomatoes easily just put them in boiling water. Skins will split in 10 seconds - 2 minutes. Remove as soon as the skin splits and lay on a clean towel to cool until you can handle them comfortably - or you can dip them into a bowl of ice water if you wish. Some tomatoes won't split but they are still ready;  if it has been in the water for approximately 1-2 minutes, lift it out and feel it. If it looks tight and ready to burst, yet it feels like a water balloon, then remove it to cool. It's ready.  The second your fingers or a knife touch the skin it will probably split on contact.  Tomatoes can be seeded and the juice canned separately or you can use the whole tomato in your salsa and skip that process.  Up to you.

Tomatoes from the garden, ready to be made into salsa

Immersing in boiling water to easily remove the skins

The skins will split within about 30 seconds and they literally slip right off.

Frozen Fruit Smoothie Puree'

I'm not a fan of sweets, which includes sweet fruits.  I'll invariably choose vegetables over fruits and when I do eat fruit, there are only a handful I like.  But those I like, I love!  And when they are frozen? I love them oh-so-much more.

Nectarines, mangoes, cranberries, cherries, pineapple and strawberries are on the list and when frozen, I'll eat a pound them;  blended in almost any combination, with just enough liquid to make them smooth.  The end result is a gelato looking blend that is nothing but frozen fruit slushy goodness.

Here was what I ate 3 nights last week - as my 'go to' snack.  My body was craving the vitamins I guess, because I seriously was craving it.

I do not like dairy products in my smoothies... at all.  So YOU can feel free to add yogurt, milk, almond milk, etc. to this but... I won't don't.


FROZEN FRUIT SMOOTHIES

Fruit of your choice - frozen
Liquid of choice - just enough to make it smooth (water, seltzer, fruit juice, etc.)
Options:  yogurt, milk, sweeteners like a tablespoon of honey, sugar, etc. (I don't add but you can!)

Blend in a good quality blender or food processor - pulsing and scraping down the sides until smooth.  Adding a small amount of liquid when needed to get the consistency you prefer.  Pour into a bowl or glass and eat with a spoon or use a thick 'smoothie' straw.

You can see the bits of cranberry in it... yum!

Frozen goodness

It almost looks like gelato...but no dairy! Just yummy frozen, pureed fruit!