Garlic, Chives, and Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts with a Green Bean and Chickpea Salad

The fiance and I moved into our new apartment this weekend! It's wonderful, quiet, and ours. Another exciting update has to be mentioned - we now have an oven! Our first night in the new apartment awarded a special oven-made meal, and this is what I made: Chicken breasts stuffed with a filling of cream cheese, garlic, and chives. I made a Green Bean and Chickpea Salad the day before and chilled it overnight. It was truly a special occasion.

P.S. Do you like our new fancy black plates?

Recipes

Garlic, Chives, and Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

4-8 oz. light cream cheese (I used 4 oz., but many recipes call for 8 oz.)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

a small handful of green onions, sliced

4 chicken breast halves

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons oregano

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons pepper

Before you begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the filling by combining the garlic, chives, and cream cheese in a bowl. Divide the filling into 4 equal balls. Then you can stuff the chicken 1 of 2 different ways. First, place one ball of filling under the skin of each chicken breast and secure the loose side with toothpicks. Or, you can slice the chicken breasts in the center, leaving about 1-2 inches uncut on each side. Do not cut all the way through the to the other side of the chicken. Place the ball of filling in your slit, and secure with toothpicks. Complete this step for each of the 4 chicken breast halves.

Place each chicken breast on a baking sheet. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and butter on top - spread out evenly among each of the 4 chicken breasts. Bake the chicken breasts for about 30 minutes, or until the juices run clear and the center is no longer pink. Serves 4.

Green Bean and Chickpea Salad

1 14 oz. can of green beans, drained and rinsed

1 14 oz. can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon salt

2 cloves of garlic, mashed

1/4 cup sweet onion, chopped

1/2 ripe tomato, chopped

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1-2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

First, boil the green beans and garbanzo beans with the garlic and tablespoon of salt for about 15 minutes. Drain the beans and remove the garlic. Next, in a large bowl add the onion, balsamic vinegar, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir until it is mixed thoroughly and all the beans are equally covered with the dressing. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving. Serves 4-6.

a buen tiempo!

Roasted Corn Chowder

I wish I had a picture of this Roasted Corn Chowder. This recipe is from the blog Gluten Free Goddess, and I'm obsessed with it.

I really, really, really wish I had a picture.

The fiance and I have been so busy moving and doing a million things that we ate this corn chowder for 3 days, but we kept forgetting to take a picture.

Of all the meals I have been cooking up lately, this is one of my favorites. It's a chunky, creamy, a little spicy and a lotta sweet incredible chowder.

I even ate it cold one morning for breakfast this week. True story.

Recipe

Roasted Corn Chowder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon curry

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 ears of corn

2 cups torn cooked chicken pieces

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 can (14 oz.) coconut milk

1 (14 oz.) can tomatoes with green chiles

1 tomato, diced

4-5 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

1 medium white onion, diced

4 oz. chopped green chiles

1 quart vegetable broth

1-2 tablespoons honey

salt and pepper to taste

First, roast the corn! The easiest way to do it without a grill is to use a cast-iron pot and place it on medium-high heat. Let the pot get sufficiently hot, and then add the kernels (shucked and cut from your ears of corn). Do not stir! Let it sit for about 2 minutes, and then stir. Then, let it sit for another 3 minutes. The majority of it will have the roasted color like it's straight from the grill. Roasting it this way gives the corn a nice color and a great CRUNCH in the chowder!

Second, in a big pot add the olive oil and let it heat through. Then, add in the curry and cumin and stir. You want the oil and spices to form a pasty substance. The next step is to stir and sautée the onions and garlic together for 3-5 minutes. It's super important that you never let the garlic burn!

Third, add the roasted corn, sweet potato cubes, canned tomatoes, fresh tomato, and green chiles. Stir for 1-2 minutes, and then add the vegetable broth. Cover and bring the soup to a high simmer, without boiling. Lower the heat to a low simmer and let the chowder sit for about 20 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender.

Fourth, add the coconut milk and cooked chicken. Then, add the honey. Heat it through, but do not let it boil! Taste it, and add salt and pepper to your liking.

Finally, serve it in pretty bowls and add a little lime juice to each serving. Garnish with a lime wedge. Serves 4-6.

a buen tiempo!

Jalapeño Honey Chicken

I started thinking about Jalapeño Honey Chicken as a fluke. You see, my mom came up with this idea. She asked my sister and I if we wanted to have a "cooking club." First, one of us gives the others a recipe at the beginning of the week. Then, we all have to make it, take pictures, and e-mail the images to each other. My mom sent us a recipe for Mediterranean Chicken (which I still have yet to make), and as I was flipping through other chicken recipes, I took ideas from here and there. With these tips, along with my imagination, Jalapeño Honey Chicken was born.

Getting back to the point, the shared recipe among mom and us daughters has to be gluten-free and oven-less, for my sake.

However, the fiance and I will not be oven-less for much longer, because we are moving! That's right, we are moving to our first apartment together, where we will be alone, just us. In a few days we will embark on our big transition (basically across the street from where we are living now), to our new apartment with a new stove and oven! I'm thrilled, excited, anxious, giddy, and I have to admit, a teensy bit sad about it all.

I had a bit of a down moment even when I was feeling, and sharing, such joy with the fiance. Sometimes, living abroad brings up the strangest emotions at the most inappropriate times. For example, this will be the first time that my parents will not help me move. In college, I moved an obnoxious amount - at the beginning of every school year, and also at the beginning and end of each summer - and they were always there. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't even think about it until I talked with them yesterday and they wished me good luck.

...Wait, you won't be here? You won't help me unpack and find a good place for everything and then go out to dinner with me and the fiance afterward?

As trivial as it may sound, it hit me smack dab in the middle of my chest that not only am I far from my parents and my sister, but I'm starting a new chapter without them here. How many moments such as these have I taken for granted? Too many to count. After a deep breath, I had to remind myself of something: Even though I'm far away, I'm so lucky to have a good relationship with my family. Creativity and technology bring us together even when we are physically apart. When I am a bit more settled, our virtual cooking club will allow my sister, my mom, and I to share our meals together. Through e-mail I was able to send them all the photos of our new place, and thanks to Skype we were able to gab face-to-face about it. And here, in the DR, I'm already living with my best friend, on the cusp of a new adventure, and the most beautiful part - on the cusp of binding our lives together. My world geographically may be spaced out in an inconvenient way, but it's all there.

It would be greedy to ask for anything more, but I do, every single day. We all do, because even when it seems like everything is falling into its perfect place, there is always something else to reach for and to dream about.

So, just try the recipe. It's _______ awesome. I mean it.

Recipe

Jalapeño Honey Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 teaspoons of red jalapeños in its brine, finely chopped (I bought a 8 oz. can of red jalapeños - brand La Costeña)

1/2 cup orange juice

3+ tablespoons honey

3 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-2 tablespoons sugar

1-2 tablespoon olive oil

Boil the chicken for about 10-12 minutes. While the chicken is boiling, make the Jalapeño Honey sauce. Combine the jalapeños, orange juice, honey, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, and salt in a small bowl. Then, after the chicken has boiled, add the olive oil and sugar to a pan. Let them heat together for up to 1 minute, until the oil begins to change color. This can be a tricky step, because you don't want the sugar to burn. Once you notice the oil changing color, add your chicken. Place the chicken in the pan, on medium-high heat, and make sure to turn it frequently, so that it finishes cooking and turns a golden color. After about 5 minutes, add the sauce. Let it a boil, and then turn the heat down to a low simmer. Cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serves 4.

P.S. If you are worried about it being spicy, don't be. The honey and balsamic vinegar knock out the extra spice of the jalapenos. If you are not convinced, only chop up about 1 teaspoon of the jalapeños instead of 2 - just in case.

a buen tiempo!