Feta & Basil Stuffed Chicken Breasts - Can You Say Yum?

As a working mom with two jobs, one of which being a boot camp instructor, finding time to cook healthy and tasty meals during the week can be problematic. And I love to cook! Working out and cooking are two of my big escapes. Balancing the two can be tricky, because I love food - all food! But my family's health is important to me, especially that of my 3 year old. I want him to enjoy food and be able to indulge every now and then but, more importantly, I want him to have a good foundation when it comes to nutrition and knowing what is good for our bodies and what is not so good.

So, the other night, I was trying to come up with a new way to cook chicken breasts because, let's face it, the same old grilled or baked chicken, no matter how delicious it is, can get tiresome. I also wanted it to be a relatively quick and easy meal so that I could spend some of my evening playing with my son and chatting with my husband. Somehow, I landed on feta and basil stuffed baked chicken breasts. They were delicious, and they were ready in 30 minutes! What's more is they are low in fat and calories! Woohoo!!!  This is a recipe I'll definitely come back to time and time again. Keep in mind, I made it up as I went along, so feel free to add your own twists to it. I'm not exactly a culinary master, in fact I'm not even close, but I do love to cook ... and I watch a lot of the cooking show, Chopped. That counts, right? Ha!

I prepared six servings of this, because I wanted to have leftovers we could eat on during the week. Okay, enough gabbing. Let's get down to the good stuff! I hope you enjoy!

Six boneless, skinless chicken breasts*
1 4-ounce container of crumbled Feta cheese
2 tbsp. of fresh chopped basil
2-3 tbsp of olive oil
1 Italian tomato
1/2 of one lemon
Seasoning to taste

Pre-cooked

Preheat the oven to 425. Drizzle some of the olive oil into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. It gets pretty cozy in there with six breasts, but they all fit and turn out just fine. Mix the fresh chopped basil in with the Feta cheese. Cut a fairly deep pocket into each chicken breast, and stuff each one with the feta and basil mixture. Place them in the baking dish. Drizzle with the rest of the olive oil and then season to your liking. I mixed a little salt, pepper, and garlic powder together and just sprinkled it over the top of each breast, but hey, whatever floats your boat. Then, squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon over the breasts. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Just to make it look pretty and to add some fresh crispness, after they baked, I sliced the tomato and placed 1 slice on top of each breast.

Right out of the oven. Don't they look delicious???

That's it, folks! Use the baking time to prepare any veggies you might like. I served them with red potatoes which I boiled and then very lightly sauteed in a little olive oil, and  a romaine lettuce and kale salad with a homemade blueberry vinaigrette dressing. (I may have to write about the blueberry vinaigrette in another post. It was so good!) In 30 minutes, you have a delicious, nutritious meal.

Nutritional information for one stuffed chicken breast:

Calories: 216
Total Fat: 9g
Saturated Fat: 4g
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 75mg
Sodium: 308mg
Total Carbohydrates: 1
Dietary Fibers: 0.8
Sugars: 0.3
Protein: 29.5

*I used Harvestland chicken breasts. There are three in a package and they are individually wrapped.
The seasoning mix of salt, pepper and garlic powder are not included in the nutritional data.