Stuffed Chicken Breast

My family has an obsession with bacon. I don't know where it came from or how it even got started. I get that boys like bacon, its meat. Most boys like meat, and a lot of it. Where my 5 year old daughter gets it from? I don't know, maybe it's because she is her dad's mini me?

 I have never really been fond of bacon. It's greasy, it's fatty, it's salty, and honestly, it's pork. Pork and I don't get along. 

Another thing that may surprise everyone, or maybe not, I don't like sausage or waffles or even pancakes.  I am kinda an anti breakfast person. I know, the horror of it all. 

So, with that, I had some left over bacon from making breakfast for my family one morning and not wanting to waste it, I decided that I would put it in my dinner that evening. I knew that I would have to make one without the bacon for my kinda-sorta-vegetarian 15 year old.....she only eats chicken. 

Nothing else, only chicken. 

She calls herself a vegetarian. I call her picky :) 

She has been this way for 5 years, and I don't see it changing, and really, I am ok with that. 

I served this stuffed chicken breast with the lemon and rosemary crescent rolls and a giant salad. I got so many yums from the family. Also, our usual loud and rowdy bunch were quietly eating away. They even helped clear the table and no arguments about dishes either!!!

Stuffed Chicken Breast

4 Chicken Breast

3 strips of bacon, cut into small pieces

 1 c. (or so) shredded cheese (I like swiss or mozzarella) 

1 rosemary twig

Juice from two lemons

Juice from 1/2 an orange

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

toothpicks

I sliced the chicken breast in half, length wise and stopped cutting right before I got all the way though.

I chopped my bacon up right afterwards. 

Then, I cooked my bacon until it was all the way cooked and drained the fat from it. 

After I let the bacon cool down, I added the cheese, salt and pepper and stirred with a fork.

Then, stuffed the chicken breast as full as possible, but still able to pull it closed.

I put about 5 or so toothpicks into each breast, just so that it would stay closed. Also, try to keep all the stuffings inside the chicken breast. 

Put chicken in a baking pan

Then, in a bowl (I used the same bowl that my stuffing was in), I added a swirl of olive oil and the juices from the lemon and the orange. Added it to the top of the chicken breast. 

Finally, I added salt and pepper to the top of the chicken breast and added the rosemary as well.

Place in a preheated oven at 350F and baked until cooked all the way though, about 30 minutes.