Lazy Sunday Of Football and Trying A New Recipe

Today has been a balmy 32  degrees Fahrenheit in Alaska and where I grew up in North Dakota it was -22 Fahrenheit with the wind chill of -57 below., BURR!! I spent today going to the gym and trying out a new recipe.  The original recipe was found on Pinterest.  Here is the link to the original Jambalaya. I have modified it for healthy substitutions.

Peggy's Healthy Jambalaya
1 green pepper chopped
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped
1 red pepper cut
1/2 jalapeno
4 Turkey kielbasa, sliced
1 28oz can of Crushed tomatoes in the heavy sauce
2 chicken breast
2 cups of brown rice
4 cups of Chicken broth (I like mine a little soupier than normal, and you can use less)
3 teaspoons of Cajun Seasoning
Frozen Okra

Chunk the chicken, brown it, and remove and set aside

Put the Peppers, onion,  and kielbasa in the pot with a tbsp of canola oil. Cook until they are tender.

Put the chicken back in the pot and add the rice. Stirring it around so that the rice gets coated.
Then you put in the chicken stock and Cajun seasoning in and let it simmer for 45 min.

Once it has simmered for the time allotted, add the tomatoes and okra, stir together. Let it simmer

It turned out AMAZING, and it froze well for a leftovers.   

Jalapeno Stuffed Chicken Breast Wrapped In Bacon

What can be better than a dish with bacon in it?? A dish that has bacon and cream cheese in it!! This recipe was inspired by another one that I had seen last week reading a magazine while waiting for an appointment.  Tonight's supper plans changed drastically when I came out of the post office after mailing some packages, and it was downpouring. Originally it was going to be grilled pesto chicken and potatoes. But, either way I needed to go to the grocery store to get chicken. I came up with this while wandering around aimlessly at the store trying to find what I needed.  The result was an amazingly moist chicken breast.

Things you need 

2 boneless skinless chicken breast

4oz cream cheese (room temp)

1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese

2 jalapenos diced (I used my sweet pickled jalapenos)

4-6 slices of bacon 

1)Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

2) Combine cream cheese, cheese, and jalapenos in a bowl

3)Place the chicken on the cutting board and create a pocket where you can put the cheese mixture in it

4) Split the cheese mixture in half and squish into the chicken making sure none of it is exposed

5) Lay out the bacon, wrap the chicken breast, and place in oven safe pan

6) Put the pan in the oven for 30 minutes*.

*Side note: I ended up covering mine because my no matter what I do when I cook bacon in the oven my smoke detector goes off even if the bacon isn't burnt. With my bacon issue, I then transferred it to a frying pan and browned off the bacon.  

The next time making this I will be adding more spice. This is a very quick, simple meal for a weeknight. 

Bruschetta Chicken

A couple weeks ago I was craving Italian food and didn't want to go out to the restaurant to get it. So, I used my noggin and came up with bruschetta chicken. 

1 container of Grape tomatoes

1/4 onion

2 cloves of garlic

Olive Oil

4 skinless chicken breast

Smoked provolone cheese

red wine

salt 

pepper

balsamic vinegar 

10 basil leaves

Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken breasts, set aside.

In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm olive oil. Add chicken, cover pan, and cook for about 10 minutes. Flip chicken breasts and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked thoroughly 

While chicken is cooking, in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute,\. Add tomatoes, red wine and continue sautéing until tomatoes skin starts to soften/wrinkle, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the basil. 

Once the chicken is done, top the tops of each chicken breast with 1 slices of smoked provolone cheese. Pour tomato mixture on top. Cover pan with lid once more and let the mozzarella melt.