Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Artichokes.....

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Artichokes, Lemon and Goat Cheese

2 1/2 Tablespoon Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs

2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 (6-ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts drained and chopped 

1 (3-ounce) package goat cheese

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 375*
2. Combine first 6 ingredients; stir well.
3. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin.  Top each breast half with 2 tablespoons cheese mixture; roll up jelly-roll fashion. Tuck in sides, and secure each roll with wooden picks.
4. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan, and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Wrap handle of pan with foil, and bake at 375* for 15 minutes or until chicken is done. Yield: 4 servings.

Variations:

Substitute Laughing Cow low-fat wedges for goat cheese and non-marinated artichoke hearts instead of marinated ones.

I usually have to cook it longer; but I had my oven at 350*. Also, there’s usually enough salt in other things that I omit the added salt.

April's Butternut Squash Bisque

Butternut Squash Bisque

1 Tbs Olive Oil

1 Tbs butter

½ cup diced onion

¾ cup diced carrots

4 cups roasted butternut squash

3 cups chicken stock

2 cloves roasted garlic

1 tart apple

Salt and pepper to taste

Nutmeg

½ cup heavy cream

1. Heat the oil and butter in a large stock pot.  Cook and stir the onion until tender.
2. Mix the carrots and apple into the pot and cook for a couple minutes.  Then add the squash and garlic and sauté for a minute more.
3. Add the chicken stock and simmer until the vegetables are tender.  Add the salt and pepper.
4. Puree the soup until creamy.  Then stir in the heavy cream.  Heat through, but do not boil.  Serve with a dash of nutmeg.

Coconut Cream Cake

COCONUT CREAM CAKE:

Wet Ingredients:
1 c. butter, softened
1 3/4 c. white sugar
1 c. cream of coconut (Coco Lopez is the one I used.. it can be found by the drink mixers at your grocery store)
4 large eggs

Dry Ingredients:
2 1/2 flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. coconut extract

Separate eggs, set whites aside. Beat wet ingredients together including egg yolks until fluffy. Sit dry ingredients together and stir well. Add dry ingredients to wet using mixer on low speed alternating with buttermilk/extract mixture. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Fold egg whites into batter. Bake at 275-degrees in two 9-inch pans (lightly sprayed with baking spray or what works BEST is lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper) for about 90 minutes (it seems they finish much nicer in the lower heat). After about 60 minutes, do the “toothpick test”, repeating every 5-10 min or so until the toothpick comes out clean. After cake is out of the oven and transferred to parchment paper or a cooling rack, poke each cake with a few holes (making sure not to poke all the way through) and drizzle remaining coconut cream over (about 1/2 c. total). This is optional and just keeps the cake extra moist. After the cake cools, transfer to the freezer and freeze overnight.

Frost immediately (see frosting recipe below) after removing from the freezer. Allow to thaw for about an hour before serving. If you want to do a layered cake, put a layer of frosting in-between the two cakes and then continue to frost the remainder of the cake. Sprinkle with lightly toasted, shredded coconut (see below).

COCONUT CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

1/2 c. butter, softened
8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. coconut extract
1 bag powdered sugar
milk (as needed)

Beat butter, cream cheese, and coconut extract together, adding powdered sugar little by little until reaching desired consistency. If it seems to get too stiff, add about 1 tsp of milk at a time until you get the consistency you want. (add milk to thin it out, add powdered sugar to thicken it up).


Toasted Coconut:

Place contents of about 1/2 bag of sweetened, shredded coconut on a cookie sheet. Spread it out so it makes just a single layer. Bake for appx. 8-10 minutes in a 325-degree oven. Some pieces will still be white and soft, some browned slightly with a little crunch.

Lauren's Carrot Cake

Lauren's Carrot Cake

Mix dry ingredients:

2 cup flour

1 t salt

1 t soda

2 t cinnamon

Cream together:

2 c sugar

1 c oil

Add:

4 eggs

Mix in dry ingredients.

Grind:

1/2 c coconut

1/2 c walnuts

Add ground ingredients

Add carrots ( 3 cups peeled and grated)

Grease and Flour 2 9” cake pans

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes

Frosting:

2 pkg. cream cheese

1/2 c butter

5 c powdered sugar

2 t vanilla