Baked Chicken Rollups

If only chicken wasn't so expensive these days, I'd make recipes like this more often.  Seriously, 5 chicken breasts for almost $25? What the heck are they feeding these things? In any case, this is a good family meal since there is lots of leftovers, and everyone likes it.  And there's that 'easy' factor as well. A big difference here I think is using good quality sliced ham. Not pre-packaged stuff that you wonder if it's actually ham or not, but something that looks and smells like a real ham. Sliced a bit thinner than regular, and slices at least as big as pre-sliced swiss cheese.

Pounding the chicken is kind of fun, thin enough to roll, but don't get too overzealous or it'll have see-through holes like an old quilt. Or socks. I put it in a zip-lock to avoid splatter. Cling wrap I find doesn't work so well.

Pound the chicken flat in a zip-lock

I had a great idea as I was doing this.  I sliced off the filet part of each breast, and cooked them up like bonus chicken fingers. This was ideal for SSO, and the filet doesn't add anything to the roll-up anyway.

Out of the oven, making use of the filets
for some bonus chicken strips

I should have sliced it up for a much nicer presentation - you can see all the layers that way. Oh well, we were so hungry I barely had time to snap off a photo let alone present it well. Since it was Sunday (I think that was the reason?) let's low-brow it and do tater tots alongside.

Chicken roll-up, tater tots, and cuke slices

Next time: SO thought it wasn't cheesy enough, although it was fine for me.

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 7/10

Scalloped Potatoes

I don't usually make good scalloped potatoes. There, I said it. But it's true - usually over/under cooked, curdled sauce (as SO reminded me), or just plain boring. Well this was none of those things, an actually very tasty. Cheesy, but not too much, cooked just enough, and flavour to boot. This was actually a sit-down Sunday dinner type thing, one of our stand-bys - a ham from the butcher, some form of potatoes, and peas. Is cheap to make, and there's always lots of leftovers for lunches. And to think I didn't even use cream this time - didn't really need it. No really!

Scalloped Potatoes

I have to say the key was both bacon and the cheese combo. The bacon - although somewhat redundant because of the ham - replaces the usual butter and gives lots of yummy flavour. The cheese combo was good quality old cheddar and Parmesan.  The cheddar gave it a bit of ooey gooey, and the Parmesan browned a bit and gave even more flavour. I'm going to make it like this from now on.

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham and Peas

Next time: wouldn't change much I don't think

Me: 10/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 1/10