Recipe: Cheddar Bacon Chicken

Once again, I have a Taste of Home recipe to share.  This one comes from one of those recipe books they sell at the check out lanes titled "5 ingredients".  Now that's my kind of recipe!  The bonus is that the five ingredients are usually ones that you have on hand.  Well, maybe not the teriyaki sauce...until you buy it for this recipe and have the remaining sauce left over!  I'm not a big fan of barbecue sauce, but I really liked this chicken nonetheless.  It was super easy to whip together with some roasted red potatoes and steamed green beans.

Cheddar Bacon Chicken

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (5 ounces each)
• 1/4 cup reduced-sodium teriyaki sauce
• 1/4 cup barbecue sauce
• 4 slices ready-to-serve fully cooked bacon, cut in half
• 4 slices cheddar cheese

Directions

• Dip both sides of chicken in teriyaki sauce; place on a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 13-18 minutes or until a thermometer reads 170°.
• Spread barbecue sauce over chicken; top with bacon and cheese. Return to the oven and bake for 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Yield: 4 servings.  

Favorite Things/Review: Baby Breeza Formula Pro

When I started to primarily formula feed Ben I was faced with a baby that screamed even more while he waited for me to measure, mix, and heat up a bottle.  Trying to do this while holding a flailing baby was no fun.  I also had to prep up bottles for the middle of the night feeds.  Most of this wasn't really THAT big of a deal.  Mothers (and fathers) have been doing it for ages.  However, I saw this baby and thought, "Damn, a Keurig for baby formula?  That's so awesome!"

We decided that since I was home on maternity leave for a good two months still and my mom would be watching Ben at our house once I went back to work that it would be worth the cost for the convenience.

In a nutshell, the Formula Pro dispenses 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 ounce bottles at the optimal temperature.  We use a few different style bottles of various heights and it works for all of them.  In the middle of the night I get up, pop a bottle under it, press a button and presto!  The water reservoir needs to be filled about once per day and the formula bowl needs to be filled every five days or so (obviously, this is all dependent on how often/how much your baby eats).  Check out this video for a more detailed look.

One thing I have noticed is that the dispenser area starts to get a little clogged over time possibly resulting in less powder being dispensed into the bottle (we learned this the hard way when Ben seemed to be eating a TON!)  We now do a little preventive maintenance each time we fill the powder and clean this area out.

Besides that fault, I love this thing!  It's nice not to have to measure out scoops six or seven times a day.  There's no messy powder on the counter (except the once a week that it gets filled).  Bottles are always warm.  One thing I do wish this fancy thing would do is make a one ounce bottle.  Ben is currently drinking around five ounces at times.  To combat this we make a two ounce bottle and add an ounce to the bottle.  We then refrigerate the extra ounce and add it to the next bottle (sure, it cools it down a little, but not much).

So, though this is splurge, I recommend it if you are a formula feeder and are a stay at home mom or are planning to take a significant amount of time off of work after the birth of your baby.

Recipe: Crispy Buffalo Chicken Roll-ups

Here's another recipe from the Taste of Home magazine!  I'm not a huge fan of buffalo sauce, but I know Mike is and I sometimes try and cook with it.  I'm also not a fan of recipes that involve the messy task of dipping raw meat into various bowls to coat it.  Nonetheless, I decided to try it.  Despite the fact that I chose to buy thin sliced chicken to save on pounding chicken and they were probably much smaller than they should have been, I think the final product was pretty good.


Crispy Buffalo Chicken Roll-ups

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1/4 cup hot pepper sauce
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 cup crushed cornflakes

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400°. Flatten chicken breasts to 1/4-in. thickness. Season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with blue cheese. Roll up each from a short side and secure with toothpicks.
• In a shallow bowl, combine pepper sauce and mayonnaise. Place cornflakes in a separate shallow bowl. Dip chicken in pepper sauce mixture, then coat with cornflakes. Place seam side down in a greased 11x7-in. baking dish.
• Bake, uncovered, 30-35 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Discard toothpicks. Yield: 4 servings.

Something I thought of when shopping for the ingredients:  Don't you wish they sold really small boxes of corn flakes?  I only use them for 'breading' and hate that the box takes up so much room in my pantry.  And by the time I use them again they are stale.  Just a thought for anyone reading this who may work for Kellog's.