Day #264 - Baked Chicken Breast Stuffed with Ricotta, Spinach & Tomatoes

Tonight's dinner was inspired by a recipe photo I found earlier today on Pinterest.  Clicking on the photo led me to the "For the Love of Cooking" blog, where I found a recipe for "Panko Crusted Chicken Stuffed with Ricotta, Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil".  Since I already had the majority of the necessary ingredients in my fridge, I decided to try it for supper.

I started by preheating my oven to 400 degrees.  I mixed together the following ingredients:

• 1 cup of low fat ricotta cheese
• Small handful of baby spinach, chopped
• Small handful of grape tomatoes, diced (with seeds squooshed out into the sink)
• 3 Baby Bella mushrooms, diced
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tbsp dried Italian herbs
• 1 clove of garlic, pressed

I then butterflied two large chicken breasts the best that I could, forming a pocket into which I stuffed the filling.  Using several toothpicks to hold the chicken breast back together, I placed the stuffed breasts onto a large stoneware baking dish (with sides).   I drizzled a little olive oil over the breasts and seasoned them with salt & pepper.

I also tossed some broccoli florets and halved brussels sprouts in a little olive oil, and placed them on the same baking dish as the chicken.

I let the chicken and vegetables bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the chicken was cooked through.

These were delicious!!!