Autumn Beauty, Harvest Honey Apple Stuffing Chicken, & a Coffee Lover's Treat

 

Howdy Blogland Pals!

I know that's quite a title for this post...but I'm packing in all kinds of Autumnal goodness because:

A) it's my last post for this week 

B)this weekend it becomes November (gah! where has the time gone?🙈)

C)so life will start to become more about the holidays, so I'm being Fallish while there is still time 

Also, BOOO! It's almost Halloween! 👻🎃🍁

Ok, so first up - some Autumn Beauty. Matt and I went for a walk a few nights ago and there was still such Autumn gorgeousness (is that a word?) everywhere and I just reveled in every step that we took in it. And of course, you know me... I took a bazillion photos. Lol  I also took a few more pics of Autumn around our home.

So pull up a comfy chair, grab a nice cozy beverage and I hope you enjoy diving into this Fall-filled post. I'm so grateful you are here. 🍁🧡 

some of the neighborhood homes are so cute for the trick-or-treaters

🎃🎃🎃

Next up I wanted to share this chicken recipe that I made recently that was inspired by something I saw on social media. I took some of those ideas and ran with it to make my own recipe. The dish I saw was stuffing and apple stuffed chicken breasts over carrots with a honey butter poured over all before baking. I didn't want something quite that sweet and I wanted something more saucy/gravy like as I know that's what Matt would like. So here is what I did:

I peeled and cut up 3 large carrots and chopped some onion and put into the bottom of a pan that I had poured a little apple cider in the bottom. I still had cider lying around and thought it would go well with the apples in this dish. I probably put about 1/4 c. of cider in the bottom. And I seasoned the carrots with some salt, pepper, & Italian seasonings. 

 I only have photos of 2 of the breasts, but I butterflied open 3 good sized chicken breasts, and seasoned them all over with salt and pepper. I made a box of easy stuffing and I filled the breasts with some of that mixture (about a 1/4 c. or so) and some peeled and chopped apple (about 1/2 a large apple). I used a cosmic crisp. 

I squished the mixture into the chicken while folding the breast in half. I placed each of the stuffed folded breasts on top of the bed of carrots. And I put the rest of the stuffing and apple I had leftover all over the top of the chicken too. 

Then in a separate bowl I took a can of cream of chicken soup and I added 1-2 tbsp of honey(knew it would play nice with the apples), some seasoned salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and some Italian seasoning. Measure the spices with your heart - I like things flavorful. I blended the soup mixture up really well. I dotted the tops of the chicken with some pieces of butter. And then I poured the soup/gravy mixture all over the tops of the chicken. I placed them in a preheated 350* oven and baked them for about an hour - using a meat thermometer to make sure they were done. I think they were done in a little less than an hour. 

We had ours with a side salad and the carrots from the bottom of the pan that had soaked up all that goodness. True harvest comfort food. I could only eat half a breast but Matt cleaned his plate so I guess it was good. 😋

As long as we're being "hearty" with comfort food I thought I would share this amazing treat I came up with too. I typically still have my high protein greek yogurt treat...but I am human and sometimes crave ice cream (well we usually get frozen yogurt). So this twist is for my fellow coffee lovers out there. In Italy there is a dessert called an affogato - which in Italian means "drowned". And it usually consists of gelato drowned in some espresso. Think really sweet creamy coffee flavor but eat like a dessert like ice cream. Well I took it up a notch further. In my defense I had mine in a mug and only had 1 scoop though. 

You see, I'm also a cookie butter lover. Have you had this amazing concoction?? Think biscoff cookies all blended up until it reaches the consistency of peanut butter. So sort of like gingerbread cookie butter. I buy mine from Trader Joe's and it's evil because it's soooo good and sometimes calls out to me in the night. Not really, but it is something I struggle to resist. 

Anywho, back on track - I took some of that devilish cookie butter and smeared it in the bottom and a little up the sides of the mug.  I put one scoop of Moose Tracks frozen yogurt in the bottom over the cookie butter. Made a well in the middle of said frozen yogurt and filled it with some DECAF coffee (I still like to sleep at night). And oh my word, I thought I was in HEAVEN because it was sooo good! Cold, creamy, chocolatey and coffeeish. A new favorite dessert, so needless to say I'm not going to be able to buy cookie butter anymore. ::sigh:: Lol But that's my problem. I hope you go enjoy this amazing treat! 

Truly, give it a try it's sooo good. 

Blessings for a fun and safe Halloween weekend Friends

xoxo