Feta-stuffed Chicken Breasts

Found this recipe off the Better Homes and Gardens website.  I made it for the first time a couple weeks ago and have made it multiple times since because it's a fairly easy and quick dinner.  Plus, it tastes good!


Ingredients:
1 tbs sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (1 to 1-1/2 pounds total) - I usually use two from the HEB brand ones and cut them in half
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (fat free still tastes good!)
2 tbs softened fat-free cream cheese
1/2 tsp dried, crushed basil
1/8 tsp pepper


Directions:
1.  Defrost chicken (I've only bought frozen chicken and I don't have the foresight to take it out of the freezer in the morning).  I usually do around 4 minutes, then cut pockets in it, then defrost for another 3 minutes.  To cut the pockets, I recommend cutting length-wise on the top of the chicken breast and then slicing horizontal pockets.  Try to not cut through the sides of the chicken.
2.  Place sun-dried tomatoes in bowl and pour boiling water over it.  Let soak for 10 minutes.  Then drain, pat dry, and cut into small pieces.
3.  Combine feta, cream cheese, basil, and tomatoes.

4.  Spoon a quarter of the mixture into each chicken breast's pocket.

5.  And pop them into the George Foreman grill!  I was actually really excited to use the one I got last year for my birthday because I've only used it for grilled cheese sandwiches so far.  I believe it took around ten minutes, but it depends on the thickness of your chicken.  Just check on it every once in a while and take it out when it's cooked through.  Another option is to pan fry it on medium-high heat for 12-14 minutes.

I like it with couscous.  This one's the Near East pearled Basil  & Herb one. 

Look how domesticated looking our dinner was!  I guess that's what living in a small, conservative college town will do to you :)

Verdict: Well, I obviously like it because I keep making it :)  It's a fairly easy recipe without too many ingredients.  I would recommend keeping an eye on it while grilling because I overcooked the chicken the first time so it was a little dry.  Also, couscous is awesome!  I hadn't had it before this recipe (a reviewer of the recipe had recommended it) and now I use it in place of rice or pasta because it's way easier and faster to make.  Do note though that some of the Near East ones are very salty/strongly flavored so it may overwhelm the flavor of your meat.


Is it healthy?  I'd say so!  If you make 4 of them from 2 large chicken breasts, each one is around 97 calories.  Couscous is around 110 calories for half a cup so together you have a low-calorie meal that can fill you up!

Easy Coffee Cake

And yet another recipe extolling the virtues of Bisquick... This time in a sweet form!  I got this recipe from the Salad In a Jar blog. 


Ingredients:
Batter
1-1/3 cup Bisquick
3 tbs sugar
2 tsp melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Topping
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup Bisquick
1/4 cup melted butter


Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and preheat the pan (I used an 8 inch square pan).
2.  Whisk together melted butter, milk, and egg.  Add to medium bowl of Bisquick and sugar.

 3.  Pour into pan.

 4.  For the topping, mix all the ingredients together.

 5.  Add it on top of your batter.

 6.  Bake for 20-21 minutes until it looks delicious, like mine!

Verdict: Another yum recipe!  It came out very fluffy and light.  Joseph likened it to a pancake with coffee cake topping, which sounds delicious to me! Perfect for after dinner with ice cream!  Or with coffee, I suppose, if you're into that stuff.  Or breakfast.  You can basically eat it any time you're craving something sweet.  I also feel like it'd be nice to bring (if I took it out of the old pan) to a get together with friends.  Also, according to the blog I got this from, the coffee cake should work well if mixed beforehand, covered, and refrigerated before baking it when you need it (although the baking time will increase).  However, I'm the kind of person where if I've made it, I want to eat it right away so I can't attest to that.


To my best calculation, if the cake were divided into 12 servings, each serving would have around 130 calories.

Easy Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

Another super easy recipe that's super tasty.  This time, with some help from Bisquick!  This recipe actually came directly off the Bisquick website.


Ingredients:
2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons margarine
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder


Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2.  Stir Bisquick, milk, and cheese together.  And that's your dough.  Easy, right?

 3.  Drop onto cookie sheet.  Should make around 9 biscuits.

 4.  Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown.  Stir together melted butter and garlic powder and brush over biscuits.

Verdict: First off, I have to say "look how pretty and grown up they look!".  These are soooo good, especially when paired with pasta (my favorite).  They taste very similar to those from Red Lobster, but with a little less garlic flavoring and a lot more cheese.  And cheese makes me happy.  I would buy Bisquick just so I could easily make these biscuits.


Note: Be wary of them these biscuits, each has around 160 calories.

Super Easy Reese's Cookies!

First off, I'm sorry for the lack of posts.  I actually have been cooking/baking (at one point, I made something new for 7 days in a row!) and now have a backlog of around fifteen items I need to write up.  Grad school's been crazy busy lately, but I should be finishing up my first semester within the next two weeks!  And now, on to the first cookies I've managed to bake!  (It's very hard to mess these up...)

This is THE easiest cookie recipe I've ever seen and the results are delicious!  This semester, I've developed an odd affinity to cooking blogs and I stumbled upon this one.  It uses a total of two ingredients!  Yes, you read that right - TWO!


Ingredients:
40 mini Reese's Peanut Butter cups
1 egg


Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Unwrap the mini Reese's.  Easy enough, especially when you sneakily taste test a few of them while you work :)

2.  Break up the Reese's.  The recipe I found recommended using a food processor to smoothly blend them, but I don't have one.  I ended up just using a fork to coarsely break them up since we'll be using a mixer later.
3.  Add an egg.

4.  Grab a mixer and mix it all together.

  5.  Drop onto cookie sheet.

 6.  And bake for 10-11 minutes!  That's how easy it is!

Verdict:  These are so easy and tasty!  Since I didn't have a food processor, my cookies ended up having chunks of Reese's in it.  And you know what?  It worked out for the best because I had melty chocolate and peanut butter bits when they came out of the oven!  I'd definitely do it that way again.  One thing though, since it is made with many Reese's candies, it does have that slightly sickly sweet taste to it which gets overpowering if you eat eight in a row.  I know from experience.