Dinners With D: Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade & Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Following my last day of work, Diana suggested we dedicate our dinner to new beginnings.  I thought it was a great idea.  New beginnings in life can be complex and scary but they are also exiting and usually welcomed.  And what better way to welcome new beginnings than with a delicious meal?

This week we had the pleasure of company for dinner. Amanda arrived and we sank into the couch with a glass of wine, recapping on our day.  I had not had a meal since my “last supper” at 10am and was itching to get dinner started.

We moved into the kitchen and examined our latest recipe.  Stuffed chicken breasts are one of my favorite things to cook.  You can basically stuff anything inside a piece of chicken: bacon, vegetables, spinach, fruit, spreads and cheese of course.  Always lots of cheese.  We started by sautéing garlic, onion and spinach.  After that mixture was complete we set it aside and prepared the tapenade.

I love a good tapenade.  Whitey’s in downtown Stillwater has a delicious Hummus & Tapenade platter that I violently crave every time I am drunk down there.  I usually end up “settling” for a hot dog from the stand in the alley, still dwelling on the smooth hummus and salty tapenade in the back of my mind.

After all the ingredients were ready I sliced the chicken and began to stuff them full of tasty goodness.  The recipe called for four chicken breasts and we used three so we got quite the bonus on our filling, which is never a bad thing.

Our scrumptious meal!

We moved into the living room with our wine and relaxed while we waited for our masterpiece to be complete.  When it was finished we sat down to a mouth-watering meal I am likely to make again.  The goat cheese (one of my favorites) was warm and created a match made in heaven with the red pepper tapenade.  After dinner we retired to the couch again.  I begged Amanda to give me a face massage (the best!) which put me right to sleep like a baby.  We had a fun night, the meal was delectable and Amanda finally got her honorable mention on the blog.