Fav Dinner Recipe

One of my favorite blogs, Kelly's Korner, does a "Show Us Your Life" blog hop every Friday. I have never participated before, but it's always fun to look at all the other bloggers that share. It's a different theme every week and this time Kelly asked everyone to share their favorite dinner recipe. So I decided to hop in! (even though it's kind of a day late).

You can click on her blog link on the right to see all the other yummy recipes too. There are some I am definitely going to try. And just F.Y.I., I don't know Kelly personally, but her blog is always fun to read. I came across it last March when her family was going through a scare with her newborn daughter Harper. She began having heart problems immediately after birth and was in pretty critical condition, which I related to with Avery. Even though our problems have not been heart related, it's always helpful to talk to (or read about) other new moms that are thrown into this completely life altering situation that they never expected.

Now Harper is a completely recovered, happy and typical eight month old, and cute as a button! They persevered through it all just as we did, although we do have a whole lot of recovery still left and perhaps a more uncertain future. Lil'bub continues to work harder than any baby you know!

Now here is my favorite, EASY, yummy recipe. It's originally a Cooking Light recipe from a long time ago that I have never gotten tired of. I usually serve it with potatoes, orzo pasta or risotto.

EASY CHEESY BALSAMIC CHICKEN

Yields 2 servings (or double everything for 4 :)

Ingredients:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes or fire roasted tomatoes, finely chopped

1/2 cup (or 2 oz.) crumbled goat cheese (or most any other cheese you love)

3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

2 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided

2 tspns olive oil, divided

1/2 cup chopped shallots, divided

1 1/2 tspns sugar

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tspns chopped fresh basil

1/4 tspn dried thyme

2 tspns cornstarch
2 tspns water

salt and pepper

To Prepare:
Heat 1 tspn olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 1/3 cup shallots, all sugar, and all garlic; cook 4 min. or until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Spoon all this into a bowl and stir in 1 1/2 tspns bals. vinegar.

Combine this mixture with chopped tomatoes, cheese, basil, and 1/4 tspn salt, stirring well.

Cut a horizontal slit through thickest portion of each chicken breast to form a pocket. Stuff about 2 tablespoons cheese mixture into each pocket. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 tspn salt and black pepper.

Heat 1 tspn oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan, cover and keep warm. Add broth to same pan, then add remaining shallots, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and all the thyme; bring to a boil.

In a separate small bowl, combine cornstarch and water, stirring with a whisk. Add this mixture to pan and bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until sauce is slightly thick, stirring constantly. Drizzle sauce over chicken. Enjoy the deliciousness!

Sidenote: If you want to make it a bit healthier, use reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes instead of the ones packed in oil, or just use the fire roasted-tomatoes from a jar. I have also used lots of different cheeses like fetas and mozzarella for this if you don't have goat cheese laying around! I have also eliminated the shallots/used dried basil before and it still tasted great.