Arugula Stuffed Chicken

Early morning for Brandon and I. We got up at 5am and went to the gym for day 2 of our training. We were lucky enough to get into the Philadelphia Broad Street 10 Miler. One of the largest 10 mile races in the United States. It sold out to 30,000 people in 4 hours!!! This will be my second long distance run and don't ask me how but Brandon signed up to join me. This will be his first ever run. He is not a runner, he comes from a swimming background and has a hatred for Running. He can run, he just doesn't like to. In July Brandon shattered his elbow on a mountain bike ride in Western Maryland. He had to have emergency reconstructive surgery and was laid up for a long time. He was unable to work out, move his arm, get dressed on his own etc... for about 2 months. Now that he has 90% (+/-) mobility in his arm, he has started back to the gym. He really enjoys triathlons and wants to do some more, so I guess that goal is kind of forcing him to hit the road in his sneakers. FINE BY ME- I can't wait to run 10 miles with him.

We were both pretty tired this evening so for dinner we made a quick chicken dish:

Arugula Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients:

1 C. Fresh Arugula (ours was from a local Loudoun County Farm- talk about fresh)

2 on the vine tomatoes

1/4 C roasted red peppers

(Optional- Bite size pieces of asparagus)

Raw Cheddar cheese (you could substitute for goat, feta, Gouda or Havarti cheese)

Herbs for seasoning- I used lavender, salt, garlic salt, and thyme

Process:

Slice a pocket into the chicken breasts with knife. Cut from the top of the breast all the way down to the bottom. *don't cut all the way through- make it like attached wings*

Place chicken breasts opened on a lightly oiled cookie sheet

Chop tomatoes, asparagus and  peppers into bite size pieces.Put in a medium bowl.  

Mix in 1 cup of Arugula and then evenly stuff into each chicken breast.

Stuff in  thin slices of cheese on top of the arugula and then fold the chicken breast closed.

Sprinkle the tops of the breast with herbs for flavor.

Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until they are cooked through.

We paired ours with a side salad of mixed artisan lettuce, cucumber, strawberries and balsamic Vinaigrette.

Enjoy!