Cheese Stuffed, Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Well, it's true, I (obviously) love bacon... just check out how to wrap sweet potatoes in bacon if you have any doubt of this.  I also love cheese, and chicken is one of the few meats that I enjoy *all* of the time, so how could anything go wrong with putting all these items together?!  This came from a blog without measurements, so I tried to adapt a little, also understand that I am fully onboard with using more cheese and/or more bacon!!

Ingredients (should serve 4):

• 4 chicken breasts
• 4oz cream cheese or cheese spread (I used mostly artichoke asiago from Wegmans and it was awesome)
• 1/2c shredded cheddar cheese
• 16 pieces of bacon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 (F)
2. Show that chicken who's the boss!  I guess most people use a meat tenderizer (I used a jar wrapped in a plastic bag, then put "meat tenderizer" on our wedding registry), to pound the meat into an even patty.  Cut each one in (approximately) half.
3. Spread cream cheese over one side of the chicken (I used the mushed side) pieces, then evenly divide the cheddar cheese on top.
4. Take a piece of chicken and roll/fold the ends together, so the cheese is in the middle.  Take two pieces of the cut bacon and wrap one direction, then two more pieces to go the other direction, until you have a little "package" held together with bacon.
5. Lay on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and continue with remaining chicken pieces.
6. Bake for about 45 minutes, then turn the oven to broil and toast that bacon!  Flip each piece of chicken over to be sure to get the underside bacon also toasted!

Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potatoes

To celebrate spring deciding to show up, Mike asked if we could at least grill this week.  So we made some salmon packets on the grill, along with these delicious sweet potatoes.  They were awesome after a hard evening of playing in the dirt!

Ingredients (serves 2 very hungry people as a side):

• Sweet potato, cut into thick (french fry) strips
• Bacon, cut in half to match number of sweet potato strips
• Brown sugar
• Chipotle pepper (dried and preferably in a shakable container)
• Toothpicks (especially helpful if grilling)

Instructions:

1. Boil water and add sweet potato strips.  Cook until tender to pierce with a fork (for mine, I think it took around 15 minutes and that might have been a little long).
2. Remove sweet potato from water and sprinkle with chipotle pepper.
3. Take a strip of sweet potato, and make a small mound of brown sugar (this should caramelize when cooking) the length of the strip.  Wrap with a piece of the bacon and secure with a toothpick.  Repeat until all strips are used (and/or there is no bacon left).
4. Grill until the bacon is cooked then get your sweet potato on!!

Sorry that this is a little not measured, but I modified a recipe as I was going to make it work.. the amount of bacon definitely depends on how big your strips of potato are.  Next time I definitely need to make more potatoes (I used only one) and maybe use mini marshmallows inside the bacon (to make it a little like sweet potato casserole).. 

Green Smoothie

So I'm a little late in getting this one posted, and it's a little surprising to me since I'm not really a "veggie" person, that I actually found a green smoothie that I not only stomach, but actually really like!  I can't wait to make it for Mike and see what he says about it!

Ingredients (2 servings):

• 1 frozen banana (I peel and slice before freezing so they're easier to use in smoothie making)
• 6 frozen strawberries (I suppose fresh is also fine)
• 1 apple (I used gala)
• 1 orange
• 1c kefir (yogurt would also work, we usually have homemade kefir on hand for our puppy)
• 2 handfuls of baby spinach

Directions:

1. Core and cut the apple into chunks then peel the orange.
2. Throw everything into the blender and make it smoothie.
3. Drink up the deliciousness!

Crockpot Coffee Ancho Chile Short Ribs

This recipe is Paleo friendly, and sounded like a little different than what we usually have... plus, it has coffee in it, and who doesn't love coffee in their food?!  The outcome for our family was that it was a little "mild", but when I had the leftovers a day later, I liked it much more.  I also should say here that I did do a half recipe (there are only two of us and short ribs were a more expensive cut), so I'm not sure if that made it so it was less submerged and so it needed the extra day to sit in the juice to be more delicious?  Either way, here it is!!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

• 4lbs grass fed beef short ribs
• 1c brewed coffee
• 1 large yellow onion, roughly sliced
• 4 dried ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
• 4 garlic cloves (or 6 with my proportions)
• 2T raw honey
• 2T extra virgin olive oil
• 1T lime juice 
• 1/2c vegetable broth or water
• salt and pepper, to taste

 Directions:

1. Submerge the dried chiles in a bowl of hot water.  Let them sit for about 20 minutes until soft.
2. Put the chiles, coffee, garlic, honey, olive oil, lime and salt and pepper in a food processor and puree.
3. Place the onions in the bottom of the crockpot and pour the broth (or water) over them.
4. Stack the short ribs on top of the onions, then cover with the ancho chile/coffee sauce.  Season with a little additional salt on top.
5. Cover and let cook on low for 6-8 hours (or on high for 5-7 hours).

Mozzarella Sticks

Okay, so these are definitely not the "traditional" mozzarella sticks (obviously), but I thought that for being so quick and easy, they're pretty delicious and a great way to do them on the run.  I do admit that for the next round of these, I will be using some fresh mozzarella (perhaps my homemade stuff) because I think that would be a little more "stretchy" (not sure that's the right word to use).

Ingredients (makes 12 sticks):

• 12 pieces of string cheese
• 12 egg roll wrappers
• 1 egg 
• oil for deep frying
• marinara or spaghetti sauce for dipping

Directions:

1. Put egg in bowl and whisk in about 1t of water to make an egg wash.
2. Place a piece of string cheese near the bottom corner of one wrapper.  Fold bottom corner over the cheese and roll halfway.  In the middle, fold in the sides toward the center, over the cheese.  Lightly moisten the remaining corner of the wrapper with the egg wash, then continue to roll the cheese.
3. Repeat with the remaining 11 wrappers and cheese.
4. In a large pan, heat the oil to approximately 350 degrees.
5. Fry the sticks, a couple at a time, for 30-60 seconds on each side, until golden brown.  Drain each stick on a paper towel covered plate to remove excess oil.
6. Serve warm, with the marinara/spaghetti sauce.