Spinach and Water Chestnut Chicken

My Oma is having her birthday party this weekend. I will not tell you how old she is, so as to protect her privacy...(let's just say she's been dancin' this green earth since, well God himself was a boy...) So anyway, it's a substantial one, and we are going to party like there's no tomorrow. (Quite a fitting phrase, since the lady of the hour has taken to reminding me of her own mortality like it's going out of style.

"Goodnight, Oma, see you in the morning!"

"Perhaps, dear, or perhaps I will be looking down on you with a smile, as I sit next to your dear, dear Opa, while you eat your morning eggs...")

Woah.

Anyway, we are going to blow the roof off, if you haven't already put that together. So, naturally, as the event of the year creeped up, I started to prepare. And prepare I did, while at work this morning. I decided I should start hunting around for some intruiging looking recipes for an hour or two and stumbled on some definite prospects. Feta Cheese Puffs, anyone? How 'bout an Artichoke Spinach Dip-Stuffed Mushroom? Yum.

While I was looking, I came across a harmless enough looking recipe for spinach dip. Spinach, cheese, butter, etc. However, while perusing, I saw that you could put said dip on chicken? and roll it in breadcrumbs? With one ear perked, and my head cocked in confusion, I read on with the tenacity of a 6th grader and a new Harry Potter. Truly intruiged, I decided I'd try this sucker out. And deeaaaaammnn! It was good! I fixed mine with rice and voila! With no hesitation and no reservations, I have turned into a younger, female Anthony Bourdain!

Spinach and Water Chestnut Chicken

ingredients:

PAM

2 T butter

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T flour

1 1/4 c milk

1/2 c fat free half and half or milk

2 9oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 8oz pkg dry veggie soup mix

1/4 c shredded Parmesan cheese, divided

Breadcrumbs

Small chicken breasts

Pre-heat oven to 350. Coat casserole dish or cookie sheet with PAM.

In large saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter and add garlic and onion. Stir for 5 mins.

Stir in flour and cook while stirring an additional minute. Add milk and half and half and cook until thick. Remove saucepan from heat and add spinach, water chestnuts, cheddar, soup mix and two T Parm.

Put breadcrumbs on a plate.

Roll/smash chicken into spin dip. Make sure to gently pat the spin dip into the chicken, cradling chicken in palm. Gently coat chicken w/ dip into breadcrumbs, so as not to lose any of the dip.

Place on casserole dish/sheet and bake for about 30 mins.

When finished, sprinkle w/ remaining parm.

*I eliminated the half and half and substituted 2% milk instead to cut down on calories and to avoid having a bunch of half and half sitting in the fridge.

In one serving of the dip (1/9 of final product) there are:

137 Calories

8g Protein

9g Fat--again, this will be less if milk is used

5g Carbs

3g Sugar

120mg Sodium

Ta ta!