A note from a food insomniac...

I sit here and write at 12:14 A.M. I have to be up in approximately 5 hrs so that I can prepare for my biweekly early morning girly breakfast with girlfriends... We usually do it all up with delectable and exquisite treats.... So really I should be sleeping. Not to mention that I haven't cleaned up at all and that my apartment looks a total mess thanks to my overly hyperactive monster of a cat. There is literally fur everywhere... eeeww. And me being the germaphobe that I am get grossed out at the thought of cat hair on the dining table where she is restricted from mind you, but does it anyway when I'm not here... but anyway... enough about my feline monster, I digress.

What I really wanted to share was an amazing dish that I created just last night... (Tuesday night that is). And while I can't take credit for the idea entirely on my own seeing as how I was inspired by something similar I had seen in Cooking Light Mag... I did create the mixture of ingredients all on my own and here is the results of that. So I have to apologize in advance for the not so pretty looking pictures but I promise that it tasted nothing short of ...A M A Z I N G! So enjoy...

Here my first food blog!

Pimento Cheese Stuffed Chicken A’ la Arie

Ingredients:

4 Chicken Breasts

1 Cup Mozzarella

2 Tablespoons Whole Grain Dijon Mustard

1 Cup of Chopped Onion

2 Tablespoons Minced Garlic

4 Slices of Ham

6 Slices of Turkey Pepperoni

1 Teaspoon of Freshly Ground Pepper

1 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

½ cup of Pimentos

Directions:

1. Chop up Ham Slices and Pepperoni into small pieces
2. In a hot nonstick pan at 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil and sauté 1 Cup of Chopped Onion and 2  tablespoons of Minced Garlic until onion is translucent
3.  Add Chopped Ham and Peperoni to pan
4.  Add Salt, Pepper, and Red Pepper Flakes and sauté together until Ham has browned some.
5. Remove mixture from pan and place in a bowl to cool for a couple of minutes
6. Add Whole Grain Dijon Mustard, Pimento and Mozzarella to mixture and stir together and set to the side.
7. Butterfly prewashed Chicken Breasts approximately at 2/3 down the center.
8. Stuff with Pimento mixture on one side and fold top breast directly over the other securing the filling into a pocket.
9. Sprinkle the chicken breast with garlic salt, onion powder and pepper as desired  and rub both sides gently. Be careful that filling does not fall out of inside pocket.
10. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
11. In a large hot skillet over low-medium heat, add the remaining Olive Oil, sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top of chicken and Sear Chicken 3 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other, until golden on both sides.
12. Remove Chicken and place in a pyrex dish and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
13. Remove from oven and serve hot.