One filling, two meats, and three happy eaters

Last week, I decided to pull out one of those giant frozen bags of fish that Aaron's dad bought a couple weeks ago. I'd been procrastinating because it was a bag of tilapia, which isn't exactly my favorite fish, and I am always reluctant to cook things I won't enjoy. In an effort to find something more appealing to do with the tilapia, I found a recipe online (Pinterest again) that I was actually excited to try. It's a Broccoli-Stuffed Sole (though, obviously, I made substitutions right off the bat).

The filling is delicious, made with chive & onion cream cheese, broccoli, stuffing, and Parmesan cheese. The sauce is more chive & onion cream cheese, with a tiny bit of white wine and milk.

When I tried to wrap the tilapia around the filling, I will admit to having difficulty. The filets, while thin, were not long enough to comfortably wrap around a good spoonful of the filling.

The finished product was very good, especially with a side of yellow rice (that recipe has been passed down in my family for years, and is much more about taste than portions) and green beans. For Aaron, whose favorite fish is tilapia, this was a great meal. For me, whose favorite fish is salmon, it was tasty, but not something I'd run off and tell people about. (Then again, nothing with tilapia is that good to me.)


When I made the filling originally, I doubled it, because I needed twice as many pieces of fish. Turns out, because I had so much trouble filling the tilapia, I ended up with over half the stuffing leftover.

Wednesday night, upon realizing I had rapidly expiring chicken breast filets sitting right next to the leftover filling, I had an idea - why not try again??

So I repeated the recipe, with the same filling and more sauce, but this time with chicken instead of fish. The end result was delicious. The filling kept the chicken nice and moist, and the subtle chicken flavor complimented the onions and broccoli in the filling in a much more satisfying way than the tilapia did for me. Aaron, his uncle, and I cleaned our plates of the chicken (this time with salad and green beans). This time, I actually found myself wanting more, rather than leaving half for Aaron, like I did with the fish.

All in all, this recipe is a DEFINITE win, both for tilapia and for chicken lovers. Yay!!

I think I'll call it "Delicious Chicken" and leave it at that

Last week, I decided to get creative and try a new recipe off Pinterest. I was hoping for something that would be delicious, yet simple, while still being elegant enough to give me an excuse to pull out the candles I've got stashed away and have a nice, romantic dinner with Aaron.

What I ended up choosing was a recipe titled Dijon Chicken Linguine with Chanterelle. The first thing I should say is that both Aaron and I HATE almonds, so that part of the recipe got nixed very quickly. Also, it's next to impossible to find chanterelle mushrooms (which I'd never even heard of, just for the record) in this teensy-weensy town I live in, so we substituted a pack of sliced baby bellas, which are Aaron's favorite.

The rest of the recipe was ridiculously easy. Pan-fry chicken, salt, pepper, and garlic until the chicken is cooked. Make a white wine, dijon mustard, and cream sauce. Add mushrooms, and serve over cooked linguine. DONE!!
The hardest part for me was having the patience to let the chicken cook in the pan.

Aaron LOVED the meal. I'm not a huge mustard fan, so it was a tiny bit...dijon-y for me, but still very tasty AND!! It looked really pretty on a plate (though it probably would have looked better if I'd actually remembered the salad I'd meant to serve with it), helping me to feel like I was really having a nice dinner with my man, instead of our usual "What random thing should we cook tonight" fare.

All in all, an absolutely delicious (and incredibly) simple meal that I'll definitely be cooking again.

Happy faces all around!!!