I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, it's my favorite place to be. I write The Bee Skep blogs from my desk in my kitchen, while I drink my morning coffee or tea. I think of ideas of what to make for dinner to keep the dinner plates interesting. I get tired of eating the same old things all the time, gets boring or I'm not satisfied and then eat junk after dinner because my belly is not full, BAD MOVE! More food makes more of me, and I don't need any more of me, the good Lord has been too kind.
Some of the things I get done in the morning are: I rise around 5:30 AM, shower, get dressed and feed the kitties. Then I take something out for dinner, write my blog, read emails and think about what I have taken out for dinner and what I am going to do with it. Creative juices flow until about 12:00 noon. By then I have a meal plan, sometimes including dessert. I get all things ready as much as I can, never know when the hubby is walking through the door, he has a long commute. He sends me a text about 20 minutes before his ETA and I start cooking, he is always curious as to what he is getting fed, so I let him know.
I took chicken cutlet out for dinner and my plan was a Chicken Florentine, my way of course. This was a new dish for me, never made it before. I'm exploring as you can probably tell from these last few weeks of blogs. It's fun, and so far so good on all the recipes.
Recipe below.
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I started with fresh spinach, chopped garlic and extra virgin olive oil. Chop and seed two plum tomatoes. Love the plums, meaty and tasty all rolled into one!
Oil and garlic in the pan, cook until fragrant and add 3 cups of fresh spinach.
Add salt an pepper and saute until wilted, it won't look like much but it will be. Good way to get your greens (as my grandmother use to call them).
Add tomatoes and saute them for about 2 minutes. In the pan divide the mixture into 4 equal parts for each chicken cutlet.
Now for the chicken. I had four chicken cutlets so that is what I made the recipe for. If you are cooking a larger amount add ingredients accordingly. I used four slices of provolone, cut in half so you have 8 slices and four slices of prosciutto.
Pound the cutlets flat, add two slices of provolone. Ahhh, everything is better with provolone.
Add one slice of prosciutto on top of the cheese and 1/4 of the spinach mixture. Look how pretty those colors are!
Roll them up seam side down and onto a plate.
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Place the chicken seam side down.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover the pan.
Cook for 8 minutes, turn and cook for another 8 minutes on the other side. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Let them rest, they have been working hard in that pan!
On to the Creamy Basil Alfredo Sauce - These are my ingredients.
Melt butter, add the heavy cream and cheese, whisk.
Add the basil, I love basil! OK, back to the sauce. It's done when the thickened sauce covers your wooden spoon.
Plate your Chicken Florentine and pour some of the sauce over it and serve. Now what you have here is an awesome restaurant quality meal good enough for company too. This meal was pretty easy to cook even though it looks hard. Now go and prove you can do it!
I served my chicken on a bed of orecchiette, it's a round disk shaped pasta. I tossed the pasta with the remaining Creamy Basil Alfredo Sauce. And my side dish, roasted whole baby carrots in balsamic. This meal was amazing, the hubby liked it so much he took the leftovers for lunch!
Oh, I almost forgot, this is the orecchietti I used, it absorbs a good amount of sauce.
Chicken Florentine
Ingredients
For the chicken
2 tablesooons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 cups fresh spinach
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
4 chicken cutlets, pounded flat
4 slices provolone or sharp provolone, cut in half
4 slices prosciutto
salt and pepper
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, for cooking the chicken
Directions
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, but do not brown it. Add the spinach and saute until wilted. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat. In the pan, divide the mixture into 4 equal parts.
Pound the four cutlets until they are flattened. Add two slices of provolone cheese and then 1 slice of prosciutto to each cutlet. Top with the spinach mixture, roll each one up and place seam side down on a plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Add the last 2 tablespoons of oil to the same pan and heat over medium-high heat. Place each chicken cutlet roll in the pan seam side down. Cover and cook for 8 minutes, turn them over and cook for another 8 minutes. They should have a nice brown color to them. Keep them covered, reduce heat to simmer, let them rest and stay warm. Make the Creamy Basil Alfredo Sauce.
Ingredients
For Creamy Basil Alfredo Sauce
1 stick of butter
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup grated Parmigiano cheese, divided
8 basil leaves sliced (chiffonade style)
salt and pepper
Directions
Melt the butter in a medium size sauce pan over medium - high heat. Reduce heat to medium and slowly add the cream with a whisk, continue stirring as it cooks. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese and stir it in. The sauce will thicken as it cooks, but do not let it boil it will burn. Add the basil. The sauce is done when it heavily coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 15-20 minutes. Turn the heat off, add the other 1/2 cup of cheese and stir it in until it melts. Serve over the chicken and/or pasta.
