Dinner – Stuffed with Cheese

The best two things to happen when I got home from work?

1.  Sweatpants and a giant hoodie

[1.5. the unplanned mini nap that happened when I laid down]

2. Dinner

Why was dinner so great?

Everything was stuffed with cheese.

Mozzarella.  Swiss.  Blue.

Spinach, Mozzarella and Red Pepper Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast
• baby spinach
• 1 oz. roasted red peppers
• 1 mozzarella string cheese
•  salt and pepper to taste
• balsamic vinegar

To start, I used a crab mallet to pound the chicken breast until it was about 1/4 inch thick.  I layered the baby spinach and roasted red peppers on top with the string cheese (pulled in half).

I wrapped the chicken breast around the cheese and secured it with tooth picks and then sprinkled with salt and peppers and drizzled the roll with balsamic vinegar.

I baked the stuffed chicken roll for 20 minutes in an oven that was preheated to 400º.

To make sure I got my veggies in, I made summer squash – with cheese.

Blue Cheese-Stuffed Summer Squash (modified from this recipe from Diabetic Living Online)

Ingredients

• 1 yellow squash
• 1 Laughing Cow light swiss cheese wedge
• 1 tbsp. crumbled blue cheese
• dash of Tastefully Simple Onion Onion
• 1 tbsp. bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. plain Oikos yogurt
• pepper to taste
• 1/2 tbsp. chopped walnuts

I began by slicing the squash into halves lengthwise and removed the seeds with a spoon.  I left a shell about 1/4 inch thick.  I baked the squash shells (face down) in a glass baking dish for 10 minutes.

While the squash was baking, I mixed together the cheese wedge, blue cheese, Onion Onion, .5 tbsp. bread crumbs, yogurt and pepper in a bowl.

After the initial 10 baking minutes, I removed the squash from the oven and flipped both sides.  I stuffed the mixture evenly in each half and topped with the remaining bread crumbs and walnuts.

I added the stuffed squash back to the oven for another 10 minutes until the filling was heated through and the squash was tender.

Both recipes were really tasty.

However, next time I think that I will use panko instead of breadcrumbs and will turn the broil on for the last few minutes of cooking to brown the mixture and give a crunchy top.

Now do you see why dinner was one of the best parts of my evening?

I don’t think I need to explain why sweatpants and a hoodie were another highlight.

At least I hope not. 🙂

Enjoy the end of your weekend!