Greek Inspired Slow Cooker Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Day #2 of my "last" fall semester all completed - and since school is back in session, it's time for slow cooker dinners to make their way back into our menu.  We've found that when I have earlier evening classes and am home at a decent time that this provides a warm dinner for both of us OR if I have late night classes after work, that this is dinner for my husband and lunch for me.  On those nights,  for dinner on campus I'll just eat a small salad or something else light, since I had a fairly filling lunch.

Also, now that "summer is over" - it means no longer having afternoon runs or workouts at my leisure.  Looks like I'll keep my runs to Thursdays and the weekends.  But I have found kettleball workouts a great 20-30 minute workout to do in the evenings when I get home from class.

This particular stuffed chicken recipe is a great recipe to make for a number of eaters or servings to last for at least a few days.  I'll be exploring some alternative fillings that may be more family friendly for picky eaters that prefer things like pizza, but this one is certainly more of a Greek inspired filling.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp garlic - minced
• 1 small red onion - diced
• 1 small tomato or 6 cherry tomatoes - diced
• 1/2 can - sliced black olives
• 1 small jar artichoke hearts - diced/chopped
• 1 cup baby spinach - chopped
• 1 cup mozzarella flavored cheese shreds (For cheese eaters, regular mozzarella or feta)
• All purpose seasoning
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 6 chicken breasts
• 2 cups green beans
• 2 cups cauliflower - in florets

Directions:

1) In a medium bowl, mix the garlic, onion, tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, baby spinach, "cheese", and seasoning

2) Slice a pocket into each chicken breast.  (Watching my dad fillet freshly caught fish as a kid came handy).  

3) Stuff chicken breast with spinach/cheese mixture & place chicken in slow cooker.  Repeat 6 times (or however many chicken breasts you have to be stuffed).  Be sure to keep the pockets facing up, unless you want the guts all spilled out.

4) Pour the chicken broth around the chicken breasts, not over, around.  Purpose is to keep the chicken moist and flavor it up a bit, not to drown the insides.

5) Place the cauliflower florets around the perimeter of the slow cooker.  

6) Then layer up the green beans around the perimeter.  (Next time, I may try layering the veggies underneath)

7) Last step, put a lid on it.  And set on low for 8-10 hours until chicken breasts are fully cooked.

8) Now either in the morning or when you get home, the goods in the slow cooker should look like the picture below.

9) And when it's time to eat, serve up the chicken breasts on a plate and the green beans and cauliflower on the side.

Berry Almond Muffins

Lately, we've been indulging in egg mini quiches and after about 2 weeks of eggs every day it was time to find a different GF protein snack.  Some folks can do a bowl of cereal with milk in the morning that holds them off until lunchtime - that.is.not.me.  I require protein, something substantially filling, and most GF breakfasts that are alternatives to breads usually don't have those qualities.  These little muffins are perfect for the days I need a break from eggs and something that can hold me off at least for more than 2 hours.  Seriously, I'm a pig.  Not going to lie.

Aside from that - today is the 1st day back on campus for my last falls semester evvvveer!  I may have woken up as excited for my last first day of school as I was for my very first first day of school 20+ years ago.  No fun Barbie or Lisa Frank backpack and folders this time around though.  Just good old fashioned thick bible-paged books.

Nutrition Summary Per Muffin: 135 calories, 10g carbs, 10 g fat, 5 g protein, 3 g fiber

Ingredients:

• 12 muffin liners
• 2 cups - Ground Almond Meal/Flour
• 1/2 tsp - Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp - Salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp Truvia Sweetener
• 1 Tbsp Chia Seeds
• 1 Tbsp Ground Flax
• 6 Tbsp Egg Beaters or 2 Eggs
• 1/3 cup - Natural Applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• Juice of 1/2 squeezed lemon
• 1 cup Berries of choice (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350F

2) Place muffin liners in muffin baking tray

3) In medium bowl or kitchen-aid mixing bowl, add in the almond flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, cinnamon, chia & flax. Mix with a fork/spoon/spatula until dry ingredients are well blended

4) Now it's time to add the moist ingredients.  Keep the blender at about medium speed and add in the remainder of the ingredients: eggs, applesauce, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice. 

5) Now it's time to add the berries into the mix. Keep mixing so that the berries are thoroughly blended through.  No one wants a muffin low on the goods.  At this point the mixture should look like the mixture below.

6) Using an ice cream scoop, dollop one scoop's worth of the mixture into the muffin liners.  The muffin tin should look like the picture below at this point, a little lumpy.  This isn't smooth like regular muffin mix.

7) Place muffin tin in oven at 350F and bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown at the top.  Muffins will still be quite tender when they come out of the oven.

8) They should now come out of the oven.  Let them cool for a few minutes before indulging.  The berries get quite hot!

Mango Sorbet and Tequila

Whether hosting a dinner party or just having an attack of the sweet tooth, this tasty tequila & sorbet treat will do the trick.  

Ingredients:

• 2 ice cream scoops Sorbet of choice - I used a mango sorbet
• 1.5 oz  Tequila
• 1 strawberry - sliced for garnish
• 1 lemon wedge/piece for sugaring rim
• 1 lemon wedge for garnish
• 1 tsp raw sugar for rim

Directions

1. Rub the lemon slide/wedge along the rim 
2. Place sugar on a small plate and spin/press rim around sugar
3. Place scoops of sorbet into glass
4. Pour tequila over sorbet
5. Garnish with lemon & strawberries (or fruit of choice)
6. Serve with spoon
7. Enjoy!  How you enjoy is up to you :-)  We first ate the sorbet like ice cream and a decent amount melted at the bottom which we then drank like a margarita.

Stuffed Peppers with Turkey

We spent the weekend at the lake, the typical thing Michiganders do.  But that means getting home fairly late on Sundays, hungry and tired.  That also means, quick, make something quick.  So, we still had about 1 lb of leftover cooked ground turkey and 1 cup or so of leftover grilled vegetables.  And 2.5 sweet bell peppers that looked like they were only going to last a couple more days before going bad.  Stuffed bell peppers - perfect little bowls for leftovers :-)  Not that these can't be made from scratch, but hey, this is even quicker.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey - cooked
• 1-2 cups grilled/cooked vegetables of choice (we used cauliflower, carrots, onion, and zucchini)
• 1 cup DF cheddar cheese
• 2-3 sweet bell peppers, halved & deseeded
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp italian seasoning

Instructions

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2) Reheat ground turkey & veggies in skillet over medium heat.  Add in the garlic & seasoning at the beginning as well.  Now, if starting from raw turkey & uncooked vegetables - you can still add in chopped veggies and ground turkey to skillet and cook until turkey is well done and vegetables are tender.

3) Place halved bell peppers into a baking casserole dish

4) Once turkey mixture is heated all the way through, add in the shredded "cheese."  It doesn't have to melt, the oven will take care of that.  But just make sure the cheese is mixed all the way through the mixture.

5) Place turkey mix into bell peppers


6) Last step, place casserole dish into oven and bake for 30 minutes.  Easy!

Balsamic Stuffed Flank Steak

We completely forgot about our Sam's Club membership... and as I was cleaning out our home office a few months ago, low and behold my Sam's Club card!  Now, you may ask, how do you forget you have a membership to Sam's Club?  Because my mom and dad have me on their membership at no extra-cost and they added me a lifetime ago when I started out as a freshmen in college.  I never found it convenient to shop at Sam's then because my mini fridge/microwave dorm combination was certainly not large enough to hold the incredibly large sizes of food.  Except for the pizza rolls I used to indulge in at the time.  Maaayyybe that explains the "freshmen 25" yes, 25.  Some folks get the freshmen 10, I gained about 25 lbs in 3 months.  Not good, not good at all.  I digress.

So, we've started purchasing some meats and produce at Sam's Club and balancing out with Whole Foods for a smarter more wallet friendly approach to eating healthy.  Last week they some stellar deals on flank steaks and bell peppers and I wasn't in the mood for fajitas.  This stuffed flank steak does not take much effort and is great for company!

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Flank Steak
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 c. rough chopped sundried tomatoes
• 1/2 chopped orange or yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 chopped small red onion
• 1/2 c. chopped baby spinach
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 4 basil leaves finely chopped or 1/2 tsp dried basil
• Twine

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375F

2) Butterfly fillet the flank steak so it looks like an "open book".  

3) Mix all of the ingredients, except the flank steak & twine in a bowl

4) Place the mix onto the flank steak

5) Roll your flank steak into a log and bundle it up with the twine.  Nothing intricate, just tightly double knot the strings along the length of the log roll.

6) Place the steak in the oven for 40 minutes.  

7) After 40 minutes, switch the oven over to broil to give a the steak roll a crispy crust on the outside while keeping the inside tender and juicy.  Broil for 5 minutes.  Pull out the steak and let it sit for a few minutes before slicing and serving. 

Italian Sirloin Burgers

Ingredients: 1 lb sirloin, 1/4 medium onion chopped, 1 Tbsp minced garlic, 1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes, 1 egg, 1/2 c up chopped spinach, 4 basil leaves chopped, 1/2 cup dairy free/regular shredded cheese, 1 tsp italian seasoning.

Instructions: Mix it all up, roll into balls, press into patties, and grill to preferred doneness.

Dark Chocolate Martini

Dark Chocolate Martini

After taking the MPRE, a slice of chocolate cake is what my taste buds were craving.  But alas, short on time for baking as it's summer time and boating season AND there's that whole gluten issue.  Needless to say, I can't just stop at the local bakery anymore for chocolate heaven.  Dark chocolate martini to the rescue!

Ingredients

• Chocolate & Caramel Syrup (optional)
• 1.5 oz Godiva Dark Chocolate Liquer
• 1 oz Kahlua
• 1.5 oz Smirnoff Vanilla
• Shaker full of ICE

Instructions

1. Drizzle syrup around glass.  Best method - hold bottle and spin glass around.  Or, lazy method - pour syrups into a dollop at the bottom of the glass.
2. Pour all liquor ingredients into shaker & shake, shake, shake, senora!  Shake it all the time!
3. Pour martini into glass and enjoy.

Cinnamon & Dark Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Cookies (Low carb)

I am a HUGE peanut butter addict.  By addict, I mean not only do I have a Sam's Club size jar at home, I keep a jar of peanut butter at my desk in a drawer and eat it with a spoon.  Mm Mm.  Now, typically peanut butter cookies around around 200 to 300 calories.  The calories and carbs in these little guys have been dramatically reduced by using Truvia instead of sugar, EggBeaters instead of a whole egg, and dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.  I believe these are safe to eat in later stages of Atkins or other low-carb diets, but really, I just enjoy peanut butter and it would not be healthy for me to eat 3 normal cookies in one sitting.

Servings: 24 cookies

Nutrition Per Cookie: 110 cal, 9 g fat, 7 g carbs, 1 g fiber, and 4 g protein.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups creamy Peanut Butter
• 5 Tbsp Egg Beaters
• 1/3 Cup Truvia Sugar Blend
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 3 Tbsp Dark Chocolate Chunks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and place wax paper on 2 cookie sheets sheets (much easier clean up and 2  sheets for 24 cookies means they all go in the oven at once, not 2 separate batches)
2. In a mixer, pour all ingredients & blend.  Scrape edges down and blend again until all ingredients are blended.
3. Roll out into Tbsp sized balls and press flat with a fork
4. Bake in oven for 14 minutes
5. Remove cookie sheets from oven and let cookies cool and harden.  (they will be very soft immediately upon removing from oven)
6. Grab a glass of milk, coffee, Bailey's.... beverage of your choice and enjoy a little bit of peanut butter heaven!