Started with almonds...ended with a healthy Chicken Florentine....

Sometimes the best meals come from leftovers, random stuff in the fridge and extreme hunger (and therefore willingness to risk eating virtually anything that is created from the cooking adventure!)

Armed with thawed chicken breast, some baby spinach and some of the almond crumb mixture from the pork tenderloin I made earlier in the week I was all set!

Almond Chicken Florentine

serves 2

Ingredients:

- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 1/2 cup of baby spinach

- 1/4 cup cottage cheese

- 1/4 cup marinara sauce (I like the White Linen brand from Costco - it's delicious, low sugar, made from good quality ingredients & is gluten free!)

- 1/2 serving of almond crumb mixture

- 1/4 cup egg whites

- salt and pepper to taste

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  

2) Slice thawed chicken breast across the centre (width wise) but don't cut all the way through. Fold open the top half so the middle of the chicken breast is exposed and can be filled.

3) Put spinach, cottage cheese and marinara sauce on the bottom half of each chicken breast. Add salt and pepper to taste (but keep in mind, the almond crumb mixture contains parmesan, which adds a great deal of salty flavour - so be careful with how much extra salt you add in! Don't oversalt!) 

4) Fold the top half of chicken breast back over.

5) Holding together the halves as best you can (it might be a bit drippy...don't worry!) dip and cover in egg whites and then cover in the almond mixture.

6) Put in an ungreased pan, into the oven on the middle rack.

7) Cook for approximately 45 minutes (if you were to slice into the chicken the juice should be clear). For the last few minutes, turn the oven to max broil which will help to brown the top of the chicken breast. You can also opt to add a small bit of hard grated cheese on top and the broiling will help melt the cheese.

The calorie breakdown will really depend on the size of the chicken breast you use - the following breakdown includes 4oz of boneless skinless chicken breast.

Calories - 300, fat - 12g, protein - 41g, carbohydrates - 5g