There’s something so wonderful about snow days. Perhaps it’s the gray skies glittering the world below with wisps of snow and ice. It may even be staying home from work or school (personally, I love this part!). Or even the chance to curl up on the couch, Netflix binging a tv show you’re addicted to or watching a movie – which most accurately describes yesterday, my latest snow day, as I binge-watched Peaky Blinders and the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice. Don’t worry though – I did vacuum my apartment…a whole five minutes of activity for my lazy, bumming self! 🙂
Yup, there is something exquisitely delightful about snow days. As if the world is handing you a chance to refresh, relax, and enjoy the moment. What about you? How do you spend these delightful snow days when they come around?
Snow days also have the odd effect of making me want to cook, which means yesterday I was creating in the kitchen on a weekday! Yay!! Normally I try to meal prep as much as possible on the weekends, leaving leftovers for the weekdays, but this snow day was spent in the kitchen, where I decided to whip up a couple of Cayenne Stuffed Chicken Breasts and some stalks of roasted garlic Asparagus, all seated beside a (store-bought) Cranberry-Kale salad topped with Poppy Seed Dressing. Are you drooling yet??! You should be – it was that good!! So good that I’ll even share the recipe. 🙂
What you’ll need:
1-2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bunch Arugula, chopped
1 16 oz package of shredded Pepper Jack Cheese
1 bunch fresh Asparagus
Garlic Powder
Olive Oil
Cayenne Pepper
Salt & Pepper
Cooking Spray
Foil
Salad Mixture + Dressing (if desired)
Cayenne Stuffed Chicken:
Clean the chicken of any excess fat and rinse. Dry off each piece of chicken well with a paper towel.
In a small bowl, mix together the chopped arugula and shredded pepper jack cheese.
Cut a deep pocket into the thickest part of each chicken breast, but don’t slice clean through the other side.
Stuff each chicken breast pocket with the arugula-cheese mixture.
Once stuffed, sprinkle cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper over all the sides of each chicken breast.
Spray a glass pan with oil. Place each chicken breast into the pan.
Drizzle olive oil on top of each chicken breast.
Bake in the over at 350 for 30 min. Remove pan from the oven, flip the chicken breasts over. Replace the pan in the oven and bake for another 30 min, or until each chicken breast is no longer pink in the center of the thickest portion.
Roasted Asparagus:
Rinse off each stalk of asparagus. Slice off the ends from the bottom, about ½-1 inch worth.
Cover a small pan with aluminum foil (or spray a pan with cooking spray).
Place each stalk of asparagus in the pan.
Season with cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Drizzle olive oil over the stalks.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 or until tender.
If you are following THM, the Cayenne Stuffed Chicken + Arugula would be an S-Meal due to the cheese involved. But the salad with the poppy seed dressing would be off plan so don’t eat that! Or at least eat the salad with an on-plan approved salad dressing 🙂 I haven’t quite figured out how to make the poppy seed dressing to THM standards. One of these days I’ll figure it out!
I’d love to know what you think about this recipe. Happy Cooking!
Baker Kella 