Stuffed Chicken and Ricotta Mashed Potatoes

The name of the game last night was to try to use up ingredients I have bought over the last two weeks.  Cheese is expensive so I wanted to try to use the boursin cheese and the ricotta cheese and try to make a meal with a reasonable amount of calories.  My goal for the day is 300 calories for breakfast, 100 calorie morning snack, 400 calorie lunch, maybe a 100 calorie afternoon snack if I get home early enough, and then 600-800 calories for dinner for me and a little bit bigger serving for my husband. 

So I had a couple chicken breasts in the freezer that I bought for the chicken parmesan, boursin cheese from the smashed cauliflower, spring mix from the Caesar salad, potatoes from the chicken and dumplings, and ricotta cheese from the ravioli. So I made a stuffed chicken with boursin cheese and spinach that I picked out of the spring mix with ricotta mashed potatoes.  Now I know what you are thinking, no way that is less than 800 calories, but oh my friend I am just that good.

2 small chicken breasts (6-7 oz)

2 tbs boursin cheese

¼ cup spinach, torn into bite sized pieces

¼ cup bread crumbs

1 tbs Olive oil

6 toothpicks

Preheat oven to 350 and get your toothpicks out. 

Pound the chicken breasts so they are as thin as you can get them before they tear, about ½”.  Crumble the boursin cheese and sprinkle it across the entire breast.  Place the torn spinach on the breast as well.   

Start at the small end of the breast and start rolling it up, rolling as tightly as you can and making sure the stuffing stays inside as you go.  Once you get to the end try to tuck in any straying ends to try to keep any stuffing from being exposed.  Use 3 toothpicks to keep it rolled up.  Coat the chicken with bread crumbs.  This is where you need to be careful, the calories in the bread crumbs and the olive oil add up quick, so don’t go crazy.  Heat the olive oil over medium heat and once it’s hot add the chicken, one at a time.  Turn the chicken multiple times just to brown the bread crumbs.  You want to try to get the bread crumbs browned all the way around with as little olive oil as you can.  Browning it in the skillet before you put it in the oven will keep the bread crumbs stuck to the chicken better but you want to minimize how much oil is soaked up.  Remove the chicken to a sheet with a cooling rack and bake for 25 minutes.  It’s better if you put the cooling rack on a sheet because something is going to drip out of your chicken and it’s much easier clean up if there is something underneath to catch it rather than having to clean the oven.

2 Servings, 480 calories, 21 g fat

Ricotta Mashed Potatoes

4 new potatoes (was about 11 oz for me)

3 oz ricotta cheese

¼ cup skim milk

Salt and pepper to taste

 Cut the potatoes into 1” pieces and boil in water until soft, I leave the skin on but that's a personal preference.  I wanted mine chunky today so I mashed with a fork.  Stir in milk and cheese and add salt and pepper to taste.  You can always add more milk if you like it a little less fluffy and if you can spare some extra calories feel free to add more cheese.

2 Servings, 180 calories, 4 g fat

Now try and tell me you aren’t impressed.  That is a pretty filling and flavorful meal for 660 calories, of course yours will vary depending upon the size of the chicken breasts and the potatoes you use so be aware of that.  What’s great about the stuffed chicken is once you get the hang of how much filling to put in it and how to roll it up well you can stuff it with anything you can think of.  I have tried to do a stuffed chicken without breading it before and it didn’t taste very good.  Just seasoning and baking the chicken didn’t work for me so I think you really have to bread and pan sear it.

This week groceries were $31 and made 12 servings at $2.57/meal, I'll take it.