A food challenge in the real world!

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I have watched more than my share of food tv. Alton Brown has been one of our favorites for years, and watching his re-runs sometimes reminds me where I got some of my kitchen habits. 

But we also like the competition shows like Top Chef and Chopped. They are fun to watch but I have said many times over the years - what chef presented with a grocery store of beautiful ingredients can’t make tasty food??? Let’s see them start with the contents of the average vegetable drawer and freezer at the end of the week. What can you do with that??

Anyway, I decided to take that challenge while visiting my daughter. We badly needed to make a grocery run, so the veg drawer was almost empty. I found the following:

3-4 gnarly carrots

The last couple stalks of celery

A hunk of an onion

The tail end of a bag of spinach

And a couple of two week old potatoes.

In the freezer I found a package of fairly freezer burned chicken breasts. 


The find for the day was the end of a package of fresh rosemary that was a little dried out.

After looking at this I decided to make a pesto out of the veg and do chicken pinwheels. 

So after some searching around in the fridge I found a jar of minced garlic and the bottle of dried parmesan that everyone has in the back of their fridge somewhere, along with some pecans leftover from Christmas baking.  

Here is how I made the Chicken Pinwheels. They are in the fridge now, so check back tomorrow to see how they turned out!

Chicken Pinwheels

Yield 4 Pinwheels

Time: 24 hours

Special equipment: Food Processor

4 Chicken Breasts

3-4 carrots

2 lg stalks of celery

½ med onion

2 tbsp minced garlic packed in water

½ cup rosemary leaves, loosely packed

2    cups    fresh spinach

¼ cup pecans

¼ cup parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil or canola oil


Thaw chicken breasts and place them on a flat cutting board. Laying your hand on top, very flat, slice the chicken breast in half, crossways, but not all the way. This will then allow you to open the breast like a book and lay it out in a long thin surface. Place the breast into a gallon Ziploc bag and using a rolling pin or mallet, flatten the breast a little further. You don’t have to get it paper thin. 

For the pesto:

In a food processor place: Carrots, celery, onion, garlic, pecans, spinach and rosemary. Process until everything is minced well. Add the parmesan cheese. Then, turn the processor on and dribble oil into the tube until a paste forms. This should use around a ¼ cup of oil.

Salt and pepper to taste. Remember that pesto should have a strong flavor. 


Lightly salt the flattened chicken breasts and divide the pesto between them.  Spread the pesto across each breast and roll them up into a tube shape. 


Place some plastic wrap onto the counter and place the chicken on top. Wrap the plastic around the chicken and pull it tight. Twist the ends. 

Place all the rolled chicken into the refrigerator overnight. 


After 20-24 hours in the fridge, they are ready to cook. 

Put oil into an oven safe skillet, like cast iron. Heat the skillet and brown each chicken breast on all sides. Then put the entire pan with the chicken breasts into the oven at 350° for 30 minutes or until the chicken reaches 170° – 180° internal temperature. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.


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