[Introduction]

This post is in response to a messenger conversation with my friend Maggy. She suggested that I make stuffed zucchini for her if I expected her to come over. This is the result of that idea. Took me about two hours to come up with the recipe in my head. Here is the ingredient list.

Just an FYI, Wordpress is not agreeing with me tonite, and so I cannot upload the files directly. I have added them manually to a directory here on my server. This is the link: http://www.redsatori.com/images/blogging1/index.html

• 1 chicken breast (approx. ½ pound)
  
• 1 Roma tomato
  
• ¼ white onion
  
• 2 zucchini
  
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• 10-15 fresh basil leaves
  
• extra virgin olive oil
  
• red wine vinegar
  
• salt
  
• freshly ground black pepper
  
• lemon juice
  
• a dash of white wine (I used Chenin Blanc)
  

This recipe is done in stages. Each stage does a few things in order to make everything go smoothly.

[Stage 1]

First thing we need to do is preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Next, chop up the garlic. I chopped mine into 1/8 inch cubes, or thereabouts. You don’t want it to be too finely chopped, but also not too large where a piece will be overwhelming. Create a small foil boat, and put a little bit of olive oil in it. Add the garlic and spread it around in the oil. Sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper over it, and throw it in the oven for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes is up, make sure you turn off the oven, but let the garlic sit in there.

While that cooks, dice the tomato and onion to about ¼ inch dice. Then chop up the basil as finely as you can.

Throw it all in a bowl and then add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Mix it up until everything is covered in oil and vinegar.

[Stage 2]

The next stage is preparing the chicken and zucchini. Dice the chicken up into ¼ inch pieces. If you find it difficult to do, put your chicken into the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up.

First, put the roasted garlic into your salsa mixture.

Put 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan and bring to a boil. Then, add the diced chicken and turn the temperature to medium high. Cook until the water evaporates. Add 2 tablespoons of white wine or so and let that cook off. Add the cooked chicken to your salsa mix and throw it in the freezer when it is finished cooking.

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the zucchini. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the zucchini down the middle. Mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon or so of lemon juice. Brush it onto each of the open faces of the zucchini. Sprinkle the open faces with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook in the oven about 15 minutes, or until the zucchini starts to brown on the edges and loses some firmness.

[Finale]

When the zucchini is done roasting, plate it and spoon some of the chicken salsa into the center. Eat and enjoy.