Chicken Stuffed with Zucchini and Cheese

I saw a recipe on Pinterest and knew I had to try it. I'm always trying to find a good combination of healthy and deliciousness and this chicken dish seemed to be a good contender. Of course I had to put a few of my own spins on the recipe so here goes:

First it says that you need eight thin chicken cutlets. Well let me tell you, chicken cutlets are expensive and I didn't have them so I took a big block of three chicken breasts and made six of my own cutlets.

Making the cutlets challenged me because I HATE touching meat. I usually go to great lengths to avoid it. I'll use tongs to pick up raw meat, even to just transfer it to a pan, and I wash my hands seventeen times if I am forced to touch it. I also have to wash anything that's touched raw meat a million times (I honestly don't know if I'll be able to use the above cutting board again) and I wash anything within a five foot radius of the raw meat - even if it doesn't touch it at all. It's contaminated just be being near the foul rawness. Brigham complains I overcook meat all the time - and I do - because I'm freaked out about it being raw still. So I have raw meat issues, but I'm trying to explain the discomfort I had in handling it so much. It actually was only a low level of horrible because I put the chicken in a plastic sack and THEN pounded it with the hammer so it didn't splatter everywhere (shudder).

Next I made the zucchini/cheese filling by grating a zucchini,

sauteing some garlic (it's supposed to be fresh but I never have fresh, I always just use minced from my giant jar of minced garlic. We love garlic at our house),

adding previously grated zucchini, some parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to the garlic,

and mixing it all up and cooking it for a bit longer.

Then I removed it from the heat and once it cooled a little bit, I added CHEESE.

It's supposed to be mozzarella cheese, but I didn't have any so I just used cheddar instead. We love cheddar cheese at my house too. I know, more fattening - but more delicious too.

Next step is to spread the mixture on your chicken,

and then roll up the chicken (more raw meat touching), and dip it first in a lemon juice (it was supposed to be fresh lemon juice. I didn't have a fresh lemon so I just used bottled lemon juice)/olive oil combination and then second in a seasoned breadcrumbs/parmesan cheese mixture for a nice breading on the chicken.

I couldn't take pictures of the chicken rolling and dipping because then my camera would have been contaminated with my gross hands, and I can't really wash a camera, but here's the end result:

I baked my dish in the oven and it came out looking like this:

And on Brigham's plate it looked like this:

Let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS!  The cheese/zucchini middle and breading were sublime. Also, the hint of lemon in the chicken sent it out of this world. You could hardly tell that the zucchini was there because it blended right in with the gooey cheese middle, so it would work great if your kids are picky with vegetables. It was totally worth all of the meat handling and it's pretty dang good for you (especially if you don't switch out the mozzarella for the cheddar). I would make this recipe again in a heart beat and give it five out of five stars.