Bacon-wrapped Stuffed Chicken with Spinach & Cream Cheese with Sauteed Brussel sprouts and rice

I finally felt creative in the kitchen again after about two months of hitting a brick wall.  Yesterday's grocery shopping trip netted quite a lot of things on sale, one of the most exciting items was the bacon!  I decided I needed use it for dinner. I poked around the kitchen to see what I could add to it.  This is what I came up with:

(6) thin sliced chicken breasts
(1) block of cream cheese, softened
(1) pound of bacon
(1) thawed package of spinach

Spread the cream cheese on the chicken breast and press some spinach into the cream cheese. Make sure you squeeze any water out of the thawed spinach before you add to the cream cheese.  Roll the chicken up and the wrap with a piece of bacon.  Place in a baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.  I wanted to secure these with a toothpick but I could not find them! Fortunately they ended up not needing the toothpicks.  I baked them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes and then switched to broil for approximately five minutes just to further crisp the bacon on top.

While the chicken was baking in the oven, I took the last two leftover pieces of bacon and put in a saute pan to fry with half a small yellow onion chopped small.  I let the bacon get crisp and then drained a small portion of the bacon fat off, but not all.  I then added three servings of frozen brussel sprouts and 1 tablespoon of butter to the saute pan, put a lid on and let gently saute for about 10 minutes while the chicken finished baking.  I do not think I will EVER eat brussel sprouts any other way again! They were the best I have ever had!

Here is how the finished dinner looked:

The cream cheese and spinach were warm and oozing inside the chicken. The chicken was moist because of the bacon.  The brussel sprouts were smoky and tender.  It was a wonderful dinner.  Even my pickest eater came back for seconds!  Mission accomplished for dinner!

Wild and Crazy Dinner!

It started out normal.....but it did not end that way.  I decided to make Giada's Lasagna Rolls for dinner.  I just needed to go to the grocery store for the lasagna noodles and the ricotta cheese.  I started at our brand new G-Mart that opened around the corner from my house.  This is an amazing International foods store.  They have every kind of vegetable and fruit you can think of and even more you have never heard of or seen.
As I strolled through the fresh fruit and veggies I came across some real Mandarin oranges.  I have NEVER seen these except in a can! Of course I had to pick up a few.  I also got some some pomegranates, lemons and limes.  I kept walking and finally found the pasta.  The selection of Italian type pastas was very, very small.  The only pasta they had was the kind that did not require boiling.  This would not be the type of lasagna noodles I need.  I decided to go ahead and check out and head to one more store.

I left the G-Mart and went to my local Target.  It has quite a nice addition of grocery items.  Looking around here, I expected to find the type of lasagna noodles I required.  There was a larger selection, even Giada's own brand of pasta. Alas, the only noodles they had were the kind that you do not boil.  Have we gotten so lazy we don't have regular lasagna noodles? <sigh> This required a change of plans. I bought two boxes of bow-tie pasta.  They were on sale for $1.00 and I decided it would make the dish more interesting in lieu of elbows or spaghetti.

Here is what went into my dinner dish:

(1) pound Ground chuck (poor chuck)
(1) large chopped yellow onion
(1) large Green pepper, chopped
Garlic powder (Okay...stop right there! I usually ALWAYS have fresh garlic but the last bulb I had went bad and I did not realize it!! The HORROR!!)

I cooked the ground chuck (poor chuck), onion, pepper and garlic powder until the hamburger was done.
I drained the hamburger and added one can of Hunt's Roasted Onion and Garlic tomato sauce.

The two boxes of bow-ties were set to boiling with a dash of salt.

I steamed one bag of Edamame, then peeled them out of their shells. I added the edamame to the sauce.

Next I added one large container of fresh chopped white button mushrooms.
Next I added chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese (about 8 ounces just torn by hand)
I prefer fresh mozzarella in lieu of aged.
I decided I needed more sauce so I added one more can of the Hunt's Roasted Onion and garlic tomato sauce.

I drained the bow-ties and added them to my sauce (obviously I had already switched the hamburger and sauce to a larger pan!).

After the bow-ties were stirred in I added three large handfuls of fresh baby spinach.  I stirred it up well and served my family.  It went over pretty well.  The mushrooms were hidden pretty well but the soy beans stuck out!  It was really good and with all the extra mushrooms, soy beans and spinach, it did not need very much meat. It was not a favorite with my girls, but my hubby and son and I really enjoyed it!