Spinach Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast

According to Sherri of To Simply Inspire, this recipe is a dream.

It makes a gorgeous picture, doesn't it? I decided to be faithful to this recipe up until the wrapping of the bacon. And then I thought, "Well, I could eliminate a few more calories just by skipping the parmesan."  Normally, I wouldn't think of deleting cheese from a recipe but because the rest of the ingredients pretty much spelled F L A V O R, it didn't look like anybody would miss that 1/4 cup. It may have made the filling goo...ier? (sp?) and richer in taste but I hedged bets that the guys wouldn't miss it.

I was right!

I do think it's probably a better idea to keep the bacon (because BACON!) because the chicken dried out a bit in the oven at the recommended temp/time. Next time, I'll wrap them in foil if I don't end up using bacon to keep it moist (and because BACON!)
 
I'm sorry because I forgot to get a picture of the final product before we sat down to dinner. :c It looked pretty good - just not as good as Sherri's with the bacon.

See? Sherri's Spinach Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts: 503 calories per serving/breast. 

 

By skipping the bacon and the parmesan cheese on this one, I was able to pull off the entree at 309 calories per serving/breast. I'm sure those ingredients mattered in terms of taste, but skipping them (this one time) made me feel like I was taking care of my people.

Turkey Soup with Stuffing Dumplings

Found it on Pinterest: Thanks, Bonnie Shippman!

I'm a fan of using what's in the freezer/pantry/food storage until there's so little left you can't make a meal out of it. That said, there's a grocery shopping trip on the agenda for tomorrow but I've got a few zip-locked freezer bags full of leftover turkey to use up. A chance to make frozen bits from our Thanksgiving turkey taste delicious and savory again? Challenge: accepted.

Enough time has passed and I've got carrots and celery and warm spices and I plan to create a great little stuffing to make dumplings out of. The question which lingers is, "Can I make something that looks great actually taste great?"

I have hope in my eyes.
 
Great! So, it's suddenly Thursday and soup's definitely on. As you know, I fell in love with this beautiful image and idea on Pinterest, shared by Bonnie Shippman. 

I loved the idea of using Thanksgiving dressing as "dumplings" for turkey soup, but I really didn't want to fill everybody up on white bread AND we don't have any of that dressing left. So, I made a small, fresh batch using:

Nature's Own "double fiber" wheat bread
diced onions, celery, chopped pecans,
chopped dry cranberries,
marjjoram, poultry seasoning, Peg's salt,
& 2 whisked eggs to bind everything together.

I made little meatballs out of the batch and stuck them in the oven on a spray-oiled cookie sheet for about 20 minutes, turning the tray around about halfway through the bake.

The turkey stew had chopped, bite-sized carrots, celery, onion, chopped leftover turkey and chopped mushrooms, chunks of garlic, marjoram, poultry seasoning, thyme, salt & LOTS of black pepper.

Our exchange student took this picture of his bowl so I could share with you...

I will admit to getting small complaints at using the wheat bread instead of white bread...but it didn't stop anybody from adding dumplings to their soup and eating them up, you know what'm saying?

Turkey Soup: 292 calories per serving
Dumplings:  296 calories per (3 dumplings) serving