Chicken Crust Pizza

***Disclaimer: I am still perfecting this recipe.  Feel free to use it and make it your own.  It is very important to make sure the layer of chicken for the crust is very thin.

One thing I have missed since losing weight is pizza.  It is so hard to make sure you have a pizza that matches nutritional needs after surgery or really, to maintain any weight loss.  This is a way to have pizza and still get the high protein and low carb needed.  Keep in mind, we do not have a full-sized oven where we live.  We have a large toaster oven.  This works fine for most of our needs, but if you are cooking in a full-sized oven with a regular sized sheet pan, you may need to up the amounts on the ingredients listed.

Ingredients:
Crust:
1-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/3-1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch of black pepper
Topping:
Favorite tomato sauce (Sometimes I make my own, sometimes I buy carefully)
1/4 cup parmesan
Sprinkle of chopped basil
Mozzerella
Favorite pizza toppings

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°F.  Add all of the ingredients for the crust to a food processor.  Blend until mixed well.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Add pizza crust spread very thin.  The thin crust is key.  The crust will thicken some as it cooks and to get the crust to be a similar consistency to regular pizza, it must be pretty thin.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the edges have browned and the chicken has cooked through.
Add ingredients for the toppings starting with the sauce.  You can put whatever toppings you like. I prefer cheese or pineapple.  J prefers bacon.  We made a half cheese, half bacon pizza.  Back in the oven with the toppings for 5-8 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and starting to golden.
Remove from the oven, slice, and enjoy after cooling for a few minutes.

Chicken Burrito Salad

It is more important than ever for my family to eat healthy.  I have been working almost daily to find winning dishes that satisfy all of the needs and picky taste buds.

Ingredients:
Chicken Burrito Salad:
3-4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
Taco Seasoning (I use my own you can find here.)
Green Leaf Lettuce (You can use your favorite lettuce.)
Roma Tomatoes
1-2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
Favorite Salsa

Dressing:
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
Juice of One Lime
2 Tbsp. Favorite Salsa


Directions:
Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks and toss into a pan with the olive oil over medium-high heat.  After the chicken starts to cook, add in the taco seasoning.  I don't measure the taco seasoning.  I season to taste.  Stir around the chicken regularly until almost done.  Add in some of your favorite salsa. Cook until chicken is done and most of the water has cooked out of the salsa.

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the salad bed.  I used green leaf lettuce because that is my favorite.  Tear it into bite sized pieces and dice up a tomato.  Add the chicken on top.

For the dressing, stir together all ingredients and pour the desired amount over the chicken and salad.

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken

I tried a new recipe this week.  It was a win after a few modifications.  I made slow cooker garlic chicken and paired it with couscous and green beans.  Green beans are our favorite vegetable around here.  This was the first time I tried couscous.  It wasn't too bad but a little goes a long way.  I also cooked it a little differently than the package directed.  I don't like my pasta or rice to bite back.  I found this recipe here, but I modified it quite a bit for our family needs and personal tastes.  I am including two recipes.  One is for the garlic chicken and one is for the couscous.

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken 

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1-2 Tbsp. favorite cooking oil
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
2 tsp. dried thyme
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup flour
salt and pepper

Directions:
-In the bottom of the slow cooker, add oil, thyme, onion and garlic.  Take the chicken breasts and roll in the mixture at the bottom of the cooker.  Add salt and pepper.  Lay chicken in a layer in the bottom of the cooker.
-In a bowl, whisk/blend together chicken stock and flour.  Make sure to mix until smooth with no clumps.  Pour the mixture on top of the chicken in the slow cooker.  Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.  We always shred our chicken up when it is done but you can keep it whole if you would like.


Couscous 

Ingredients:
1 cup dry couscous
2 cups water
salt

Directions:
Bring water and salt to a boil.  Add couscous to boiling water while constantly stirring.  This process will only take a couple of minutes and the couscous is done.  As soon as the water is soaked up, remove from heat.  Stir and fluff with a fork (much like rice) right before serving.


We made this into 4 meals but it was WAY too much and there was a lot of waste.  None of us could eat an entire serving.  Next time, I will be dividing it into 6-8 meals.  It is great leftover!

Italian Chicken and Tomatoes (Reprise)

I have already posted this recipe once.  However, it is very popular and many have asked for the recipe.  I have also changed a few things to make it easier.  You can see the previous post HERE. The old recipe was using fresh diced tomatoes.  This is still great, but let's face it... We just can't always do that.  Tomatoes aren't great fresh all year round. This post will hopefully make this recipe easier but it is still completely healthy and safe for my daughter.  It also looks the same so you can see a picture of the recipe in the above link.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes*** (see note)
1 Tbsp. Italian herbs and seasonings (I use McCormicks Italian Herb Mix.  You can see it HERE.)
Salt to taste


***Note: You can still use fresh diced tomatoes.  You can also use my diced tomato canning recipe to can your own during high season.  You can find that post HERE.  OR, we have found one brand which we can buy at the local natural foods store which doesn't taste horrible or come in a metal can.  You can see it HERE.  I can as many as I can but it never seems to be enough.


Directions:

In a slow cooker, poor in about a quarter of the diced tomatoes.  Next, place the chicken breasts in the slow cooker.  Then, pour the rest of the diced tomatoes and seasonings in the cooker.  Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.

I typically serve this with rice (Rice Recipe Here) and green beans.  It is amazing leftover as well.

Chicken and Broccoli Penne

	Ingredients: Grapeseed or Olive Oil 1 bunch fresh broccoli or a few cups frozen broccoli 1 (12-16 oz.) bag penne 1 medium onion, minced 6 garlic cloves, minced 2 tsp. dried thyme 1/2-1 cup all-purpose flour 3-4 cups coconut milk (This made this dairy free until I added the mozzarella.  This recipe is flavorful enough without the cheese added if you need dairy free.  We added the cheese to ours but left one bowl without for our daughter who needs dairy free.  I tried it both ways and loved it both ways.) Salt Pepper 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces Mozzarella cheese, shredded (I used a small block but you can add or omit cheese according to taste and need.) Tomatoes (I used a couple of handfuls of grape tomatoes and chopped them up but you can use any tomato chopped up.)
	Directions: Use some of the oil to grease a 9x13 inch baking dish and set aside.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large pot, bring the water for the pasta and broccoli to a boil.  Stir in some salt and the broccoli.  This part is going to be up to personal taste but we like our broccoli very soft so I cooked until the broccoli was tender.  If you want a little bite in your broccoli, you will want to pull it back out of the water pretty quickly.  Remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon, tossing it into the greased baking dish and add the pasta and a little more salt to the boiling water.  Drain the pasta and toss it with the broccoli in the baking dish. While the pasta is cooking, in a skillet, add some oil and start browning the chicken.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper or any other seasoning you prefer.  We like the herb and garlic Mrs. Dash.  When the chicken is done, toss it in with the penne and broccoli.  During this time is also when you should chop the tomatoes. Rinse and wipe out the large pot to make the sauce.  Add some more oil to the pot and add the onion and garlic until it starts to brown.  Add a few tablespoons of the flour and whisk.  Add the coconut milk (or other milk if you prefer) stirring constantly.  Add in the thyme and salt and pepper.  Add the flour a little at a time until the sauce is thick and creamy.  Taste regularly to add more salt and pepper.
	Toss all ingredients together in the baking dish. Put the dish in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes. If you don't need dairy free, feel free to add the cheese before putting the dish in the oven. I divided the cheese into bowls so I could store it all in separate bowls for leftovers so we had some dairy free and some cheesy. This dish and it's leftovers went fast so I didn't get a picture. But we will definitely be making this again so I will add a picture later.

Sesame Coconut Chicken

This is a new favorite.  It is easy to make and tastes like Chinese takeout except it's better for you.  I got the original recipe from the Paleoaholic website.  There are some great recipes there and the paleo diet lends itself well to allergen friendly diets like ours.  I modified the recipe a little but you can find the original recipe HERE.  J and I loved it.  This also helped us discover a replacement to soy sauce.  J loves soy sauce and recipes that use it but I've never liked soy sauce much and I stay away from soy due to hormone imbalances.  I also prefer to keep L away from soy since hormone problems run in the family and most soy is now GMO.  She also seems to have more stomach issues when soy oils are used on anything she eats.  Such a sensitive digestive system our toddler has.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 Tbsp. onion, minced
1 tsp. ginger (fresh grated or powdered/dried works)
3 Tbsp. coconut aminos (soy sauce replacement, you should be able to find this at any health food store)
1 Tbsp. sesame oil (I was actually out of sesame oil and used olive here.  It worked just fine so don't worry if you don't have sesame on hand)
1/2 cup apple juice (make sure it is a pure apple juice)

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together garlic, onion, ginger, aminos, oil and apple juice.  Add the chicken in the bowl and toss to coat.  Let marinate.  Mine marinated for a couple of hours but it should marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425*F.  Cover a baking sheet with foil and place chicken on the pan.  Spoon a little bit of the marinade over the chicken and set aside.  Bake the chicken for about 20 minutes.  Turn chicken and spoon a little more marinade over the other side.  Bake for another 20-25 minutes.

I served this over rice and cooked the rice with a little bit of the apple juice, ginger and coconut aminos mixed in as well.  It was VERY good.  It will be added to our regular list of meals because it was easy and tasted so good.

Quinoa Crusted Chicken

I completely stole this recipe.  You can find the original recipe HERE on a blog called The Simple Dish.  I must give credit here.  It's a very good recipe.  I was impressed.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 egg
salt
pepper
olive oil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. parsley

Directions:
Boil quinoa in 2 cups of water.  While the quinoa is cooking, I took the chicken breasts and used a mallet to make them thinner.  When the quinoa was finished, I put it in a separate bowl and mixed in the salt, pepper, garlic, onion and parsley.  In a separate bowl, scramble the egg for dipping the chicken.  Prepare a baking sheet with olive oil.  I have a Misto sprayer to spray the olive oil and keep the chicken from sticking.  Preheat the oven to 375*F.  Dip each chicken breast in the egg, then coat in the quinoa mixture.  Lay out on the baking sheet and bake for approximately 45 minutes.

Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

I've seen several recipes of stuffed sweet potatoes, especially since the paleo diet has become so popular.  This is actually my own recipe.  I read several recipes and kind of mixed them as I though my family would like.  This is a recipe for two servings.  If you have more people in you family, just add a sweet potato, chicken breast and two slices of bacon per person.

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
2 chicken breasts (diced)
4 slices bacon
parmesan (or preferred) cheese (optional) (I think this would be really good with something like goat cheese as well)
coconut or olive oil (unless cooking chicken in bacon grease)

Directions:
Now I already had bacon cooked so I chopped up and reheated it.  We keep our nitrate free bacon cooked and ready to warm up for the toddler.  She loves and can actually eat this one type of bacon so we keep it around.  If you are cooking the bacon, just use the bacon grease to cook the diced chicken in.  If not, use the olive or coconut oil.  First, you will need to bake the sweet potatoes.  This takes at least an hour in my oven so those will cook for 30 minutes before you even have to start on the rest.  Then cook the bacon.  Then saute the diced chicken in the bacon grease or oil.  When the potatoes are done, split them in half, unless you baked them that way.  Hollow out the middle a little, pushing the inside of the potato to the edges.  Split the chicken and bacon evenly into the hollowed out centers of the sweet potatoes.  Top with parmesan cheese.  I topped with parmesan from a jar.  I'm sure it would be better with fresh but I get so few shortcuts anymore that I take advantage of the few I can.

Freezer Meals 1

I have started trying to cook once every two to four weeks and freeze meals.  We have a food saver to vacuum seal for freezing.  The vacuum saver has already paid for itself in food saved from freezer burn. The meals are ready to go in the slow cooker or oven. We eat off of these meals for ALL meals ALL week.I cook one meal on Saturday and one meal on Sunday and we usually eat out for one meal per week.  We also make breakfast and tacos once a week.  This fills in the holes when we don't want to eat leftovers.  Plus, breakfast and tacos are always quick and easy to make.  Below is a week of recipes I used in my experiment.  I will continue to blog about my cooking and freezing ventures.  To see the recipe, click on the name of the dish underneath the picture.  They link to the blog posts with the the recipes.

NOTE:  I typically buy frozen chicken.  I can get a ten pound bag from Sam's for a great price and we eat mostly chicken for our lean protein source.  This means, if the recipe calls for chopped chicken, the chopping doesn't happen until it thaws or cooks.  (NEVER refreeze and meat after it thaws!)

There are two meals without a picture.  I'll add more later.

Instant Oatmeal Packets

Slow Cooker Chicken Stew

Mac and Beef


Healthy Slow Cooker Chicken

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Here are pictures of all of the frozen meals, ready for the freezer or fridge.  These pictures show 10 meals going in the freezer or fridge.  One went right into the fridge to cook the next day.  The rest went into the freezer and were laid out to thaw the night before or just dumped frozen into the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This is another meal that can be split or doubled for freezer meals.  The recipe below split into two batches for our family.  One batch went in the slow cooker and one batch went in the freezer.  One batch for us makes enough for one dinner for me, a dinner and a lunch for L and a lunch for J.  Sometimes there is even some leftover from that.  This can be served over and/or with anything.  Side of steamed veggies and a baked potato...  Over noodles...  Over rice...  A little hint if you want to serve over noodles:  you will need to add sauce whether that be your favorite spaghetti sauce or just a couple of cans of tomato sauce.  I've done all of these things and all have worked well.  I've messed it up too because I'm still not the best cook.  But I'm getting better.

Ingredients:
1 onion, minced (you can chop this or slice this however you like but I don't like onion chunks so I mince)
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2½ cups tomato paste (no cans for corn-free)
4 oz. fresh chopped mushrooms (again, you can slice but I don't like chunks so I chop in small pieces)
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. oregano
½ tsp. basil
1 cup chicken stock

Directions:
Mix together tomato paste, mushrooms, salt, pepper, garlic, herbs and chicken stock in a slow cooker.  Add in chicken and make sure it is covered by tomato mixture.  Cook on low 7-9 hours or on high 4 hours.

Italian Chicken and Tomatoes

This is another very healthy, easy slow cooker meal.  It is one of my favorites right now.  I served it over rice but you could also serve it over noodles or by itself with some veggies.  I split this recipe into two and put them in the freezer for future use.  This is another easy meal that is easy to dump in the slow cooker before work.

Ingredients:
8 chicken breasts
8 small/medium diced/crushed tomatoes
oregano
garlic
onion
basil
salt and pepper

NOTE:  We have also used an Italian herb mix instead of the separate herbs.


Directions:
Once you get used to the amounts, you will be able to just dump everything together in the slow cooker.  Or if you have the sauce already made, even better.  I like to make the crushed tomatoes, oregano, garlic, onion, basil, salt and pepper into an sauce.  You could can it, make it the night before, or make it on the weekend and freeze it ahead for one a week/month cooking.  I also will be blogging the instructions for making the sauce in another blog post just for the sauce.  It is a versatile mix.  There are Italian diced tomatoes you can buy canned in the store as well if you still use canned products.  It has citric acid in it so we cannot use it.
To make the sauce, dice the tomatoes.  I usually score and blanch the tomatoes to peel them.  Then I cut them into large chunks and put them under my hand chopper.  It makes quick work of dicing them up.  Toss them into a sauce pan or skillet.  Then add in oregano, garlic, onion, basil, salt and pepper to taste.  Plenty of onion, garlic and salt go into mine.  Watch the oregano because it is strong.  Start with a pinch and go from there.  I have gotten pretty used to using this and making this so I can usually just toss it all in.  You can use fresh garlic and onion, dried or powdered.  I've used it all and it all tastes great.
Mix everything together in the slow cooker or in bags for the freezer.  In the slow cooker, cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.

I serve this over rice and with a vegetable of some kind.  We like green beans a lot.  But broccoli, asparagus, peas are all good.  This is great reheated for lunches.  Even the picky husband eats it reheated.

Here are a couple of pictures.  The first is a picture with a salad.  The other is a picture with rice, packed up to take to work for lunch the next day.

NOTE:  The cooking times are what was used when cooking from a frozen state.

Healthy Slow Cooker Chicken

This is a very healthy but very easy meal.  This recipe was enough to make two batches.  These were put in the freezer for easy, throw in the slow cooker before work meals.

Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
6-8 small/medium tomatoes, peeled
salt and pepper
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. celery seed
2 cups chicken stock (if you are freezing, leave this out until you put this in the slow cooker)

Directions:
First, mince the onion and garlic.  If you are using fresh tomatoes, peel them now too.  Now I split everything except the chicken stock into two bags to put in the freezer.  That's it.  The only other thing there is to do is dump it in the slow cooker.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Note:  I don't have a picture of this yet.  It is hard to remember what pictures I still need.  I will add one next time we have this meal.

Chicken Stew

Note:  This recipe makes enough to freeze half for our little family.  Adjust amounts for what works for your family.

This meal was a hit with the toddler.  She went back for seconds.  That means it's a keeper since it is difficult to get that child to eat anything.  This stew is incredible flavorful.  I was impressed.

Ingredients:
6 chicken breast portions
2 cups chopped carrots
4 cups chopped potatoes
1 cup chopped celery
1 medium onion, chopped
4 oz. mushrooms, chopped or sliced
4 cups chicken stock
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. marjoram
1 tsp. basil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions for freezer half:
Put half of all ingredients EXCEPT potatoes, lemon juice and chicken stock in freezer bag.  Write the name of the meal, the date and instructions to add 2 cups chopped potatoes, 2 cups chicken stock and 1/2 tsp. lemon juice.  Vacuum seal or squeeze out as much air possible and toss in the freezer.

Directions for eat now half:
Dump all leftover ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.  If you cook on low, turn it up for 20-30 minutes at some point during cooking to cook the potatoes through.  I find that potatoes don't always cook through in the slow cooker without higher heat.  You could also partially cook them before putting them in the slow cooker at the beginning.

Baked Chicken Nuggets

I keep looking for ways to make chicken because that is pretty much the only meat that we all like here.  And, as with most toddlers, L likes chicken nuggets.  I have found a few recipes for healthier chicken nuggets at home.  Of course, she cannot eat chicken nuggets already made so I have to make them.  This is the easiest recipe I have found so far and it was good.  L didn't eat them but she is going through some teething and tummy issues so she isn't eating much of anything.  Toddlers...  Anyway, J and I liked them so I will continue to make them until she decides to try them.  After I put something on her tray so many times, she will eventually play with it, then eventually eat it.  It's really good, I promise.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced into bite size pieces
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ cup bread crumbs  (I used my recipe for Italian Bread crumbs HERE.)
¼ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (leave out for corn and dairy free)
1 tsp dried parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Olive Oil Spray


Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a shallow 13 x 9 baking dish (I used a small cookie sheet) with olive oil spray. Pour 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil into a small mixing bowl. In a large zip top bag (or bowl if you don't have bags), mix together bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Place chicken pieces into olive oil and toss chicken to evenly coat. Drop oil coated chicken into bread crumb mixture and coat each side shake in the bag making sure each piece is coated with the crumb mixture. Place all of the coated chicken pieces onto oil coated baking sheet then sprinkle remaining bread crumb mixture over chicken pieces. Bake in center of preheated oven for 10 minutes, then remove from oven, rotate chicken pieces to opposite side and bake an additional 5 minutes (I actually didn't do this step.  I just rotated my pan in the oven).

This recipe was modified from HERE.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I love to have good soups for comfort and easy slow cooker meals.  The base of this soup could easily be made ahead and frozen to easily dump in the slow cooker on a busy morning before work. I did this soup in a slow cooker but you could do it in a big pot on the stove too.  This also freezes well in freezer safe pint sized jars.  We did that with several soups this year and the frozen pints made perfect lunches for work.

Ingredients:
2 handfuls of carrots, sliced
2-3 stalks celery, minced
2-3 boxes chicken stock (watch ingredients)
10 chicken tenders, thawed and diced (2-3 breasts or whatever chicken you prefer can be used.  Shredded is fine too)
1 bag egg noodles
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of rosemary
pinch of celery salt
pinch of thyme
pinch of oregano

Directions:
First, slice carrots, mince or slice celery (I prefer minced because I don't like large chunks) and dice chicken.  Dump the veggies and chicken in the slow cooker and cover with chicken stock.  In a small cup, combine flour and chicken stock to make gravy.  When combined, stir into the mixture.  This adds a little bit of thickness to the soup.  Add seasonings and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Twenty minutes before eating, add the noodles and more chicken stock.  You could also add other veggies.  I think it would be great with peas but J doesn't like peas much.  Don't over cook after the noodles are added or the noodles will completely disintegrate.

Honey Lime Grilled Chicken

I have a new favorite citrus fruit.  LIME!  I never knew I even liked lime.  I can actually eat slices of lime.  I had no idea how great these little green things were.  I am so glad I tried this.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 12-15 chicken tenders

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup olive oil

½ cup lime juice

Zest of one lime

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried rosemary

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp. black pepper

1½ tsp. salt

Directions:

In a bowl, mix well all ingredients except the chicken. Place thawed chicken in a large Ziploc bag and pour mixture over making sure the chicken is coated well.  Marinate for a few hours up to overnight.  Grill until cooked through.  This could also work as a freezer meal.  Just toss into freezer instead of the fridge for marinating.  Set the bag out in the fridge the night before you are going to cook the meal.

Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini

NOTE:  This is not corn/dairy free as is.  Cheese has cultures which could include corn.  I am working on a different recipe.

This was amazing!  Even the toddler loved it.  I probably have the only toddler I've ever known who prefers the green veggies.  She picks the spinach out of lasagna and she went crazy over the pieces of chicken with zucchini on them.

Ingredients:
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced (garlic powder is good in this too if you don't have fresh)
1 medium sized zucchini (shredded)
¼ cup Parmesan or Romano cheese
2 Tbsp. Parmesan or Romano cheese
3 oz. part skim shredded mozzarella (again, I didn't measure)
salt and pepper
4 chicken breasts (I only made 3 and really stuffed the chicken)
½ cup Italian Breadcrumbs (You can use my homemade version HERE)
Juice of 1 lemon
olive oil spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°F.  Lightly spray a baking dish with the olive oil spray.  In a large skillet, pour in enough olive oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan for sauteing.  When the oil is hot, add garlic.  When the garlic turns golden add in zucchini, ¼ cup Parmesan or Romano, salt and pepper. Saute for 3-4 minutes.  While the zucchini mixture is cooking, pound the chicken breasts down to ¼-½ inch thick.  Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken.  Take the zucchini mixture off of the heat.  Add in the mozzarella cheese.  In a bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the rest of the parmesan or romano cheese.  Put the breadcrumbs aside for now.  Spread the zucchini mixture over the chicken breasts and roll up.  Place the chicken roll seam side down on the baking dish.  Bake the chicken rolls for 20 minutes.  Take the chicken out and drizzle with olive oil.  Then sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top.  Bake for 5-10 more minutes.  Serve immediately.

Sweet Lemon Rosemary Grilled Chicken

This recipe requires marinating.  I marinated for about an hour and it was perfect.

Ingredients:
½ cup honey (As usual, I didn't actually measure this.  I just poured until it looked right.)
Zest of one lemon
Juice of the fresh lemon
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1½ tsp. dried rosemary or 1½ Tbsp. fresh chopped rosemary
1 clove garlic, minced (or ¼ tsp. garlic powder)
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. black pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast (butterfly before grilling)

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the honey, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper.  Place the chicken in a large ziploc bag and pour the mixture over the chicken in the bag.  Mix around to coat the chicken.  Marinate for at least one hour.  We use a charcoal grill so just before we take the chicken out, we have to get the charcoal started.  Brush the grill with olive oil to prevent sticking.  Butterfly the chicken breasts and place on the grill.  Grill until cooked through.  We pour or brush the rest of the marinade on the chicken while it is cooking.  Serve.

I don't have a picture of this one.  I totally forgot to take one but trust me, it is good!  I will try to take a picture next time I make this meal.

Sweet Garlic Chicken

This is also a Pinterest find that I have seen over and over again from different blogs.  So it's nothing new but I did change a couple of things in my version.  The garlic was way too much for our taste buds so I actually halved the amount of garlic.  I don't use as much brown sugar as the original recipe either.  I also prefer this meal with tenders rather than breasts.

Ingredients:
12-15 boneless, skinless chicken tenders
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
olive oil
brown sugar

Directions:
Salt and pepper the chicken tenders to season. Thinly cover the bottom of your skillet with olive oil and heat over medium heat.  Mince the garlic while the oil is heating.  When the oil is warm, saute the garlic.  Then add the chicken tenders and cook thoroughly.  When the chicken is done but still in the skillet, sprinkle the chicken tenders with brown sugar.  Don't overdo the sugar.  You want the sugar and garlic to compliment each other, not overpower each other.

I know this recipe seems a bit strange but it is so good.

Chicken and More Flautas

This recipe has quickly become a favorite of family and friends around here.  It was very difficult the first time I did it.  I read this from a recipe that said it would take a total of 45 minutes.  WRONG!!!  It took about an hour and a half.  However, the next time I did it, I cooked the chicken in the slow cooker.  This let the hardest part of the meal cook all day.  So, I'm going to show the recipe using a slow cooker.  You can cook the chicken in a pot on the stove but it made my life so much easier to cook the chicken in the slow cooker.  You could also easily make the flautas with different ingredients.  I've thought about doing a bean, rice and cheese flauta or a shredded beef/pork or a ground beef/turkey this way.  But for this, I will give ingredients and instructions to make 10 flautas.  Five flautas are spinach and chicken and five flautas are chicken and salsa.  I can think of several different varieties to try later.

Ingredients:
1lb. boneless, skinless chicken (I've used breasts and tenders.  The original recipe used thighs.)
1½ bottles of your favorite beer (chicken stock works too, especially for corn and gluten free;  this would be a little over 3 cups.)
3 cups water
½ tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. chili powder
1 cup baby spinach, chopped
5 large burrito size tortillas (homemade for corn free, I am currently working on a recipe for this)
oil for greasing the pan
salsa, sour cream, guacamole, queso for dipping

Directions:
To cook the chicken, put the chicken in a slow cooker.  Pour in the beer/stock and water.  If it doesn't cover the chicken, add more beer/stock or water.  Cook on low for 6 hours.
Now for the flautas!  Preheat oven to 450°F. Shred the chicken.  I used two forks to do this.  You could also use a blender/food processor but that tends to pulverize rather than shred.  Mix together the the chicken with the spices/seasonings.  In a small saucepan, pour ¼ cup of the liquid in which you cooked your chicken into the pan.  On low heat, cook the spinach in this pan until wilted.  If you like extra spice, you can also include a seeded, chopped jalapeno in the pot with the spinach.  We don't do spicy in our house, so I left this out.  Coat a cookie sheet with oil.  Cut the tortillas in half.  On five of the tortilla halves, spread a line of chicken on the long edge of the tortilla half.  Spoon a little spinach mixture on top.  Spread some shredded cheese over that.
Like this:

Now roll from the long, cut edge of the tortilla half.  Put the flauta on the oiled cookie sheet, seem side down.  Do this for five of the tortilla halves.  For the other five, spread chicken just like the others.  Then top with your favorite salsa.  (We use One the Border mild salsa.  I love the salsa in the store, not so much in the restaurant.)  Then top with shredded cheese (unless corn/dairy free) and roll up just like the others.  Put the flautas in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until they are crispy and golden brown on the edges.  Serve with salsa, sour cream, guacamole, queso or whatever you prefer.

Pictures:

Recipe modified from HERE.