Goat cheese, cream cheese and garlic scape stuffed chicken breasts

This is one of the meals we had stored on our camera before the long hiatus.

Super easy meal with very little work, and looks pretty impressive to boot!

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 strands of garlic scape
2 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp goat cheese
4 tbsp cream cheese
whatever seasoning you'd prefer

1. Preheat oven to 350F
   
2. Mix together garlic scape, cheeses, and chives
   
3. Slice a pocket on the side of the chicken breast, be careful not to go through the other side
4. Spoon cheese mixture into the pocket
   
5. Season the outside of the breast with whatever seasoning you'd like, we used herbs de provence
6. Bake for 30 minutes
   

Tastey Spanakopita

Jamie Oliver's Spinach and Goat Cheese Risotto

Geoff and I make risotto every other week, sometimes weekly. It's so easy and tastes so good with minimal ingredients.

My mom gave me Jamie Oliver's recipe book, COOK for Christmas (well actually, she gave it to my uncle and he already had it, so I took it) and in it, he lists several risotto recipes. This one was by far the tastiest looking and included everything that we already had on hand (I know, it's weird our kitchen staples include the ingredients for risotto and goat cheese...).

(serves two as a main dish, four as a side)

Ingredients:
1 cup arborio rice
2 tbsp butter
2 glugs of olive oil + slightly more for serving
1 med white onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 glass dry white wine
goat cheese (get the little tube, that's more than enough)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
5 oz spinach
3-4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth

1. In a pot, melt 1 tbsp butter over medium - high heat, and add 1 glug of olive oil. Add the diced onion to the pot and cook until translucent, then add 1 clove of choppe garlic and cook for a minute longer.
2. Add rice to pot and let it toast a little in the pot for 1-2 minutes. Then add the cup of white wine.
   
3. Once the wine is absorbed, start adding a cup of broth at a time. Continuously stir the rice so it doesn't stick to the pot. After 2 cups of broth have been absorbed, you're going to have to keep checking the rice to see if it's done. You might not need all of the broth.
   
4. In a frying pan, melt the rest of the butter, add a glug of olive oil and the other clove of garlic. Then add the spinach (Jamie added a grating of nutmeg to the spinach, but I didn't have any nutmeg and it still tasted amazing).
5. Once the spinach is wilted, chop it really finely, or put it into a food processor.
6. The rice should be done by now, so turn off the heat and stir in the parmesan and the spinach to the risotto. Cover and let it sit for about 2 minutes.
7. Now, take about half of the goat cheese and stir it into the risotto.
8. Serve in bowls or pasta bowls. Add a little coarse salt and a fresh grating of pepper. Crumble the remaining amount of goat cheese on top of the risotto and just a splash of olive oil.
   

Stuffed Zucchini

This was soooooo good. I can't even start to explain to you how much I enjoyed making eating this. Somehow the zucchini even tasted meaty. It was great!

I could eat these every day. Geoff and I found this recipe and had to try it right away. Unfortunately, the night we decided to make it, we made WAY too much, and also made the goat cheese crustinis because my sister was coming to visit me and we were going out to dinner the next night.

Luckily the left overs kept pretty well in the fridge overnight and Geoff was able to bring them into work the next morning to share with everyone was there. He said everyone that the stuffed zucchini loved it.

Taken from http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/?p=1465

Ingredients:

2 zucchini

½ tomato, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 tbsp sour cream

1 tsp lemon seasoning

4-5 slices bacon

Goat cheese

1 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 400F
   
2. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and spoon out the centre so it looks kind of like a boat
   
3. Roughly chop up the zucchini that you just scooped out and mix together in a bowl with the sour cream, lemon seasoning and tomato
   
4. Melt butter in a frying pan; add onion and garlic, sauté until the onion starts to brown. Mix in with the sour cream, tomato and zucchini
   
5. Cook bacon until crispy. Crumble into the sour cream mixture. Spoon mixture into the zucchini boats. Crumble a little goat cheese on top
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes

Spinach and Goat Cheese Crustinis

This is the start of the night that was deemed "The Delicious Disappointment." Due to the last minute arrival of Sarah's sister, we were forced to merge two nights worth of recipes into one. What followed was the Stuffed Zucchini. We feasted upon these crustinis as the zucchini cooked and ended up with two huge meals, instead of two small appeteizers. Theres no feeling worse than looking at two sets of food and not being able to eat them. I warn you: make these, but don't make too many because it will hurt more to throw them out.

Taken from http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=74098320&blogID=430277954

Large bunch baby spinach

1 garlic clove chopped

1 tbsp butter

Sliced almonds

¼ cup white wine

Goat cheese

Baguette

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1. In a frying pan, melt butter. Sautee garlic for a minute then toast almonds in the butter. Once they start to toast, add spinach until it begins to wilt. Add white wine. Cook until most of the liquid has disappeared.
2. Brush sliced baguette with olive oil and sprinkle kosher salt and black pepper on top, put in broiler for 1 minute until slightly toasted
   
3. Slice goat cheese and put on top of toasted baguette. Put back under broiler for 1-2 more minutes
   
4. Spoon spinach and almonds on top of baguette and enjoy!

Naan Pizza

(Makes two pizzas)

2 pieces of Naan bread (eventually we’ll get around to posting a recipe for naan bread)

1 orange or yellow pepper (we used half an orange, half a yellow) sliced thinly

2 green onions sliced thinly

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 tomato sliced thinly

4 slices black forest ham

Artichoke hearts marinated in oil

Herb goat cheese

Mozzarella

Olive oil

1. Preheat broiler
2. Brush naan bread with olive oil and garlic
3. Layer peppers, green onions, tomatoes, ham, artichoke hearts
4. Crumble a little bit of goat cheese on top of it all
5. Cover loosely will mozzarella cheese
6. Put on cookie sheet and place under broiler until cheese is all melted and starting to brown

Asparagus and Prosciutto with Breaded Shrimp

(Serves 2)

1/2 bunch asparagus

Sliced prosciutto

Lemon

Goat cheese

Shrimp

Butter

Flour

Olive oil

Chopped Garlic

Asparagus bundles (inspired by this recipe http://web.mac.com/marciaskitchen/Site/Asparagus_Bundles.html)

1. Trim ends of asparagus and boil for 2 minutes. Immediately rinse asparagus in cold water after to stop them from continuing to cook
2. Take 4-5 spears of asparagus, and wrap a slice of prosciutto around them. Do this until you’ve got all of the asparagus into bundles
3. Place in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice and crumble goat cheese on top
4. Heat oven to 400F and bake 5-6 minutes

For the shrimp

1. Peel and devein shrimp
2. Coat in flour
3. Melt butter in a frying pan, add chopped garlic
4. Put shrimp in pan and drizzle juice from ½ of a lemon on top
5. Fry on medium-low heat until both sides are pink and the shrimp start to curl inward – about 2 minutes per side