Olive-Stuffed Chicken with Almonds – Gourmet Recipe

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Oy!  I have so many posts floating around that I haven’t written.  Maybe this weekend I can play catch up?  *shrug*

So, I posted some brief highlights of our trip to Moms.  *waving*  Love ya!  🙂 

BUT I have to chat a bit about her and the food this weekend.  Apparently, with my blogging being stepped up lately, she’s got a bit of stage fright about cooking around me or even FOR me any more.  Which, I think, is funny.  I mean.  Half of these talents come from her!!  It’s not like I’m some kind of food celeb.  It’s not like this blog is big and I’m famous for it.  In my own little blog world I’m getting some features, but not daily or evenly weekly for that matter.

Okay, Mom.  Seriously.  You are an AMAZING cook and I wouldn’t have half of these abilities (more so on the baking part) if you weren’t!!  So, I haven’t changed in that respect.  You still put on KILLER dinner parties and cook fabulous food!!

Speaking of fabulous food…She received a cookbook from my sister:
Gourmet’s Five Ingredients: More Than 175 Easy Recipes for Every Day

Apparently, Mom used to hoor over this cookbook when she went to L’s house and finally asked for it as a gift.  It’s a good cookbook!  I thumbed through it.  Essentially, it’s dishes with 5 ingredients that are easy and “quick” to prepare.  Some of them I’m not so sure you could make on a weeknight, or at least WE could make on a weeknight.  It it takes more than an hour start to finish, I’m probably not going to make it because that just encroaches on our impending bedtime of 9.  *snort*

ANYWAY!  I’m always right at home in the kitchen.  And my mother’s kitchen has been new renovated and is GORGEOUS!  AND HUGE!  I always LOVE cooking in there with her.  The best memories I have have usually been in the kitchen.  And she’s never afraid to “put me to work” in the kitchen.

She wanted to make Olive-Stuffed Chicken with Almonds.  It looked delicious in the cookbook.  It sounded simple, and it was easy to make as relatively low fat.  It’s just the fat in the olives and well, you can’t help that.

You should follow along in your cookbook.  You don’t have it?  Why not?  GO GET ONE NOW!  No, I’ get on kickback for these mentions or any type of royalty if you DO buy it.

Well, if you don’t have one, then this is what we did:

Mom toasted the almonds in the microwave without the butter.  That’s how we lowered the fat grams.

Dry chicken, and cut a horizontal slit in the chicken.

Coarsely chop the olives.  Fill each chicken breast with 1/4 cup of chopped olives.  We used toothpicks to close the chicken.  Heat a large skillet (cast-iron here) over medium high heat and cook chicken,

7 to 10 minutes on each side until cooked through.

While all this was going on, THIS happened:

It was a very bright DOUBLE rainbow!  It was neat.

Remove the chicken and keep warm.  Add the almonds and any additional olives to the pan.  I added 1 teaspoon of Smart Balance at this point to create a pan sauce.  We also added about 1/2 cup of white wine.

We were also making some honey glazed, pan roasted parsnips and carrots.

After the almonds and olives have heated through, pour a spoonful top each chicken breast and serve.

It was yummy!  I think, if I were to make this again, I’d mix the olives.  I think all green is a little too much.  You could mix it up, too.  Kalamata and hazelnuts?  Oil cured and walnuts?  Just some ideas.