While my mandoline gently weeps

Another snow day. Well, ice day. It is absolutely horrible outside and everything is iced over. Initially, we had to go in at 10AM but on the first voicemail, it said to call back at 8A to see if 10A still rang true. When I called back at 8A, I learned our entire office was closed so another day at home.

What’s a girl to do? Clean? Organize? Workout?

No, I choose breakfast, naps and Dr. Phil

Breakfast was rolled oats with canned pumpkin, cinnamon and dried cranberries

A Thanksgiving bowl of oats if you will!

The rest of the morning is self-explanatory–naps and Dr. Phil. I am getting completely sucked into Dr. Phil and this needs to stop asap…..probably tomorrow since it looks like I will go back to work then.

I needed to get out of the house so I walked over to Dilworth Coffee and Harris Teeter. It’s only a few blocks away but it felt like it took me over to get there. I had to watch each step and was slipping every other step. Last thing I need on my plate is to fall on the ice and hurt myself so I strolled on over and got myself a cup of coffee. Surprised they were open but also surprised that I was the only chick in the place. It was sausage fest 2011—woo hoo! I sat around there for awhile, sipped my coffee and read. Very relaxing and nice to me around people as opposed to a needy fur-baby (got nothing but love for you Lincoln but momma needs her space sometimes!)

Tuesdays at Harris Teeter is $2.99 any half sub day, I got turkey on a whole wheat wrap with mustard, lettuce, tomato, banana peppers and black olives. Fresh and delicious!

I decided to break out my mandolin that I got for Christmas. My mom sent my gifts to me this wknd so it’s been sitting around in the box and felt it was time to pop its cherry.

I sliced a potato into thin rounds, brushed extra virgin olive oil on them and then tossed with Spike seasoning.

The main dish was baked chicken stuffed with a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, spinach and mushrooms.

I cooked the frozen spinach and mushrooms on the stovetop with garlic and black pepper until soft.

I took one chicken breast, wrapped in plastic wrap then pounded until flat

Spread the laughing cow cheese  wedge over the chicken

topped with the spinach/mushroom mix

And of course, some extra mozzarella cheese to add to the gooey cheese factor

Fold the chicken breast over and secured with toothpicks

Why buy toothpicks when I can get them for free? Thanks Chipotle!

 Proceed to toothpick the chicken until it looks whole again. Disclaimer: you may curse at the chicken when it’s being difficult with you when toothpicking-such as “I effin hate you, you effin chicken” don’t worry, it can’t hear you and won’t get talk back at you!

When closed up, sprinkle some seasonings on both sides of the chicken. I chose to keep it simple and went with black pepper and garlic.

Cook on the stove top with extra virgin olive until cooked thoroughly

When I’ve made stuffed chicken in the past, I’ve baked in the oven so my only issue with this method was getting the side and ends of the chicken. I wasn’t sure what to do so I would hold it for a minute and let cook!

When the chicken was almost done, I took the potatoes out of the oven

I should have sliced them thicker and used foil (but was out of it b/c I didn’t pick it up in one of the three supermarket visits in the past four days) but they were edible. I also had corn heating up in the micro then topped with pepper and spray butter when done.

The meal?

Gorgy, melted, ooey gooey chicken goodness!

But it didn’t stay pretty for too long

I’ve had some good dinners in the past few weeks but this has been the best-hands down! It was a perfectly balanced meal with meat, carbs and veggies and took less than 30 minutes to make (yeah Rachael Ray, I’m looking at you!) The chicken was succulent and tasty and only took a few seasonings to make it so. The stuffing reminded me of spinach and artichoke dip so I think I will make spinach and artichoke stuffed chicken next time around. When I was lucky, I would get a bite of the stuffed chicken with a potato and all was in the world for a couple of seconds. Way easy to make, I recommend making this tasty chicken!

After seeing Laury’s post, Something in the way she moves, I’ve had “Something” in my head all day. Which is perfectly alright with me since I love the Beatles and to me, their music is timeless.

My Top Five  Favorite Beatles songs

1) While my Guitar Gently Weeps

2) Across the Universe

3) It’s Only Love

4) All You Need is Love

5) A Day in the Life

And you can’t forget when they went solo

John Lennon

1) Oh My Love  (One of my top 10 songs of all time)

2)  Instant Karma

3) Woman (I sing this to Lincoln all the time but instead of woman replace it with “Lincoln”, you need not tell me I’m a nut)

4) Watching the Wheels

5) Whatever Gets You Thru The Night

Paul McCartney (with some Wings thrown in there) This mans energy absolutely amazes me

1) Back in the USSR (I like Paul’s version better than the Beatles)

2) Maybe I’m Amazed

3) Live and Let Die

4) Ebony and Ivory

5) Wonderful Christmas Time

George Harrison-never really got into his solo music but love My Sweet Lord

Ringo Starr-sorry Ringo, I don’t like any of the stuff you’ve done solo.

It’s sad that only two of the Beatles are still alive, John and George were such wonderful musicians. If any of you like classic rock, I suggest Wonderful Tonight by Patti Boyd. Married to both George Harrison, then Eric Clapton, she was the inspiration for The Beatles “Something” and Claptons “Beautiful Tonight. If you don’t know the story of Boyd, here’s the short story of it but I definitely recommend “Wonderful Tonight”

Are you a Beatles fan?