Good (late) morning!
This dish is a memorable one. Yes, it was good…very good, in fact. But that’s probably not what I’ll remember most about it.
See, the night I made this dish, I lost something very near and dear to me. I lost my absolutely stunning engagement ring. After Mr. Prevention proposed to me with cubic zirconium and told me I could chose any ring I wanted…well, I chose right, that’s for sure. My ring is beautiful.
I take my ring off when I cook (it’s a channel setting and I don’t like to gunk it up), when I shower, and when I play ice hockey. After making this meal on Tuesday, I cleaned up and did what I always do after dinner…returned my rings to my ring finger. Except, only my wedding band was to be found. My engagement ring was MIA.
I went to bed, after tearing apart the kitchen, in what I would consider to be a pretty depressed state. I had “lost” my ring once before in the kitchen, but was able to retrace my steps and locate it in a bag of cilantro in the fridge. Tuesday, no such luck.
On Wednesday..and Thursday…I continued to search high and low for my ring. No ring. Friday rolled around and I was off work. I had spent another hour or so searching for my ring, to no avail.
I decided to make cookies. I made cookies to 1) get my mind off the lost ring and 2) to put off grading my students’ final exams. The cookies I made were thumbprint cookies (so good – recipe coming this week!) and when I was returning the jam to the fridge, there was my ring. It was in the door of the fridge in one of those compartment holder thingies.
I burst into tears. I was so, so happy. I still have no idea how it got there, but it was found…that’s all that matters.
Chicken & Goat Cheese Strudel adapted from Clean Eating Magazine and Loves to Eat
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground chicken breast
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
10 sheets phyllo dough, thawed
cooking spray
Directions:
Add olive oil to a non-stick pan and cook the onion over high heat 3-4 minutes or until translucent. Add chicken and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Add garlic, salt, and Italian seasoning and cook until chicken is no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
Return the pan to the stove and add spinach, cooking for 2-3 minutes to cook off any remaining moisture. Stir spinach into the chicken mixture. Add crumbled goat cheese, stirring to combine.
Place a phyllo sheet onto a cookie sheet. Mist with cooking spray and top with another sheet. Mist with spray and top with a third sheet and so on so there are 5 sheets of phyllo dough. Spoon the chicken mixture onto the sheets, and top with 5 additional phyllo sheets, misting each sheet with cooking spray before adding the next.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for 3-5 minutes. Yield: 6 portions.
Nutrition Information (per serving): 221 calories; 6.5 g. fat; 59 mg. cholesterol; 461 mg. sodium; 16.7 g. carbohydrate; 1.5 g. fiber; 22.5 g. protein
Result: I love the simplicity of this dish. It came together quickly and has wonderful nutrition stats. For those seeking low-carb meals, this is a great one for you! I had to add a bit of flavor to the ingredient list – I could tell it would be lacking pizazz. Salt and olive oil helped this out a lot. I tried the chicken-cheese-spinach-onion mixture without salt and it just didn’t fly. I’m not a huge salt person, but chicken can be a bit lack-luster without some seasoning. The one draw-back to this dish is that it doesn’t reheat that well. Of course I ate it leftover, but the phyllo dough lost all of its crispiness. Overall, thumbs up and love the low-calorie, high-protein stats! Enjoy!
Weekly Menu: December 11th-12th
- Sunday: Lentil, Kielbasa, and Garlic Stew (roll-over from last week)
- Monday: Grown Up Spaghettios
That’s it for a menu this week. Lily and I are heading to Chicago to hangout with friends and family since the quarter is over for me 
I need a little R & R!
Not sure what’s on the agenda today other than a brief grocery shopping trip and a hockey game later. Oh, and grading…that I really shouldn’t put off any longer 
xo,
thank God you found it! I can imagine how happy you were when you found your ring, sweetie! I’ve misplaced mine in the kitchen before too, but I recently started keeping a small “ring dish” on the counter and I put my rings there when I take them off in the kitchen…makes my life a lot happier, lol! The strudel looks really yummy and I can’t wait for the grown-up spaghettios!
I’m so glad you found your ring! This recipe is on my menu this week. I marked it in Clean Eating and can’t wait to try it. I mentioned on WC yesterday when I saw your menu,I cannot wait to see what you think of grown-up spaghettios!
I saw on FB that you found your ring – nice! I think I already told you, but my sister lost the stone to her ring – um, it was a $6000 stone 15 years ago!
Fast forward a year, she’s cleaning out her closet deciding what should go to goodwill, puts on a pair of shorts, puts her hand in the pocket, and low and behold – the stone was in the pocket!
Have a safe trip coming home! We WILL meet in person one of these trips!
(and hope you like the grown up spaghettios!)
This recipe looks and sounds delicious! Must try it sometime. So glad you found your engagement ring xx
This dish looks incredible!
So glad you found your ring! I could only imagine how upset you would have been.
Good luck grading those papers!!
Hi Nicole. OMG, that must have been HORRIBLE. I can’t imagine losing such an important thing. SOOOOO happy the story ended well. Hope you and Lily have a safe and relaxing trip to Chicago. Have a wonderful week.
Glad you found your ring. I take mine off all the time, but Im pretty good at leaving them on this ring holder thing that we have. My grandmother was shocked that I took them off to sleep, but my fingers swell and it’s not comfortable.
I’m glad you found it! I have to admit, I was examining the pictures to see if it was peeking out! The recipe looks amazing – I love goat cheese!
SO glad you found your ring!
oh no, what a nightmare! I am SO glad you found it.