Terrifically Thomas: Chicken Scampi Roll-ups (and a rambling or two)

Recipe round 2 for this little chicky this week and guess what I used? Chicky! Duh. Prior pun intended. This recipe was COMPLETELY made up by yours truly so you may think it's disgusting or you may love it...but can you do me a favor? If you hate it, could you refrain from spreading the word to too many folk about what a hot mess I was in the creation department?!? Thanks.

A coinciding side story to ramble for a minute... You must know that I've reeeeeally enjoyed being home this Christmas break because 1) getting to spend all this time with my boy has been more than incredible (obviously) and 2) getting to pretend I am a stay-at-home mom and housewife and getting to actually reeeeally try new things in the kitchen has been wonderful for the life and times of the terrific Thomases (or at least we think we are). I've had some super homemade deliciousness awaiting the hubs on the dinner table upon his arrival home from work every single night, all the while, the house is clean and things are picked up. Believe me, I'm soaking alllllll of these days off in as it is my dream to eventually be able to be a SAHM, so I can maybe prove I can do this to one Mr. B. Thomas (not that he doubts that I can) and dominate it while I'm at it. Then we can potentially go on and move this fantasy to reality status?!? A girl can dream, I suppose...

Also (and to complete my random ramblings for the day), I simply HAVE TO show you this fabulousness from my mother-in-law and father-in-law and brag on them for a minute...

These were part of my Christmas present from them. I've been wanting some FOREVER and most of you know that I like things to be different and not all matchy-matchy. I definitely have ideas of styles of my own and like to be unique. I think these plates are more fun all mismatched so that's just what I asked for and EXACTLY what I received! My mother-in-law picked out the styles and designed them for me herself...and well, she ROCKED it!!! I LOVE them and even moreso that SHE designed them, keeping with my request that they are indeed not all matchy-matchy. Simply put, they're just too fabulous for words! I cannot wait to customize more and add more mismatched funky, colorful patterns and styles to my collection! See the plates for yourself and get some (or 10) customized for your kitchen HERE (LA plates!)

Okay, so now that I've gotten ~~a bit~~ way off track here, let's get back to this recipe business. Chicken Scampi Roll-ups. We liked it. Very much so, in fact ( and obviously, seeing as how I'm posting it and encouraging you to make it for yourself!), but I should warn you that you must have quite a fancy for garlic to enjoy it to its fullest (and intended) potential. Let me also preface this by saying that I have completely avoided the grocery store over my time off, so I've had to get quite crafty and quite creative with the ingredients of my recipes because I am limited to what we have in our pantry. This may not be full on "exactly" what a scampi entails, but hey...I went with what I had.
Thus, I put down some chicken and started brainstorming. We had butter. We had garlic. We had lasagna noodles, but no manicotti, ravioli, or large shells. We had flour, basil, and other items of the seasonings alike so a lightbulb was going off in my brain. B and I both really love Shrimp Scampi, so I thought I'd make a chicken scampi...and since we did not have penne, bowtie pasta, or even macaroni noodles, I had to get downright resourceful with the complementing noodles to make a full-on dish out of it.

**Also, it must be mentioned that I rarely use measurements when cooking, so all of these given in the ingredients list are approximations and you may adjust as you deem necessary while preparing. Yes, I am one of those crazies who cooks according to taste...

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Chicken mixture/ roll-ups-

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or 2 large) cooked (I poach - NOT boil) and shredded/ chopped (fine pieces)

6 lasagna noodles broken in half and cooked al-dente

2 sticks (1 cup) butter (do not use margarine)

3 cloves minced garlic (if you use the "Spice World" organic brand from the jar like I do, it's 1 1/2 tsp)

2 T all purpose flour

3 T grated parmesean cheese

1 T white wine
1 T chives

2 tsp. rosemary

2 tsp. basil

2 tsp. garlic salt

1 T minced onion

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1/4 cup sour cream

*I also added several sprinklings of this Citrus Basil Rub from Pampered Chef kitchen (truth be told, I pretty much add this stuff to everything...it's deeeeeelish! Added to some red or Yukon gold potatoes? Holy moly, it's an awesome side, but that's a different recipe, different day)

Basting/ Baking Sauce (to coat roll-ups prior to baking)-

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter

2 cloves minced garlic (1 tsp from jar)

1 1/2 T all purpose flour

2 T grated Parmesean cheese

2 tsp. basil

1 tsp. garlic salt

**2 cups finely shredded mozzarella or Italian cheese blend and 1/3 cup grated Parmesean cheese to cover and top all (not added to baking sauce mixture)

What you do:

Chicken mixture/ roll-ups-

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) poach chicken breasts by bringing to a gentle boil on medium to medium high heat. Once chicken is done, remove from water and finely chop/ shred according to size preference

3) While chicken is poaching, prepare sauce for chicken mixture: add garlic and butter to medium pot and cook over medium low heat until butter is melted and mixture is flagrant. Add white wine, then gradually add 1 T of flour at a time and continue stirring until mixture is smooth and thickened.

4) Remove butter mixture from heat and stir in parmesean cheese and chives.

5) WAIT until chicken is DONE until you start the lasagna noodles. Then, bring water to a rapid boil over high heat and add noodles, boiling until al-dente (about 8-9 min.)

6) While noodles are cooking, prepare chicken mixture - in large bowl, add chicken and stir in rosemary, basil, garlic salt, minced onion and ground black pepper. I even added a few squeezes of lemon. Next, add sour cream and mix until chicken mixture is even coated with spices and light coating of sour cream. Finally, add garlic butter mixture to chicken and stir until chicken is coated evenly.

7) Once lasagna noodles are cooked appropriately, remove from heat and drain. In a buttered an 8 x 8" dish (I used a 9 x 13" and it was too big), add rolls... To make roll-up: take one lasagna noodle and add 1 to 2 T of chicken mixture along the flatness of the noodle and then roll from the bottom up, creating a smaller roll. Place seam down on the buttered dish. Repeat this process until all noodles are used and chicken mixture is gone. Make sure ends roll-ups are placed close together so if some come out during baking, it will help in reducing the amount out (at least that's my theory).

BASTING SAUCE:

8) Prepare basting sauce in EXACT same way as before for adding to chicken mixture. Pour over rolls, careful to coat each one with an even distribution and so all the roll-ups are wet with the sauce.

BAKING THEM:

9) Once roll-ups are coated in basting mixture, cover with two cups of mozzarella or Italian cheeses.

10) Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove foil and bake for another 7 minutes uncovered.

Voila! It was super tasty deeeeeelish! I hope you try it and enjoy it too...we sure did! You can also adjust the number of roll-ups to your family's needs by having more chicken breasts and more lasagna noodles. We most definitely had leftovers from our dinner sesh.

**I wish I had taken a picture so you could see...they really turned out quite pretty, but I'll leave you a few pics of my sweet little guy who has become quite the handy helper in the kitchen here lately (ha! more like, you're in there Mommy, so I'll crawl around and get. into. everything. possible.).

AND...it absolutely MUST be said: the colors of his UnderArmor are in NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM reflective of his fanship and liking of collegiate basketball squads. We could not find any for his age/ size in blues when we bought this and thought if anything, it'd be reflective of my high school or just a red, white, and black shirt. He WILL be cheering on the C-A-T-S CATS CATS CATS tomorrow, without question so please do not be mistaken and save the comments for someone somewhere else :) GO CATS!