Chicken Salad Sandwiches

This stuff is soo good, after making and consuming the first batch I had to make another batch two days later. The spice mixed with the sweet fruit and the crunch of little bits of onion is phenomenal. Yum, I'm so excited to have some for lunch tomorrow.

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
     seasoned with tarragon, cajun seasoning, salt and pepper. get a good amount of seasoning on there - like 5 tsp worth
1/2 cup Kraft mayo with olive oil
1/2 a small red onion
1/3 cup walmart dried mixed fruit (it's got cranberries, cherries, and blueberries yummy) or just dried cranberries.
Some people like some chopped celery for extra crunch but personally I hate celery. It's so not needed the onion provides enough crunch and flavor.

Directions
Start by cooking 3 chicken breasts. I like to cube mine before cooking so that it takes less time to cook. Let the chicken cool a little bit before putting 1/3 of it into your mini blender, add onion and mayo and pulse and shake it a few times. It's okay if not all the chicken gets chopped up it's just nice to have some finely shredded chicken mixed in with the chunks. The true beauty of the mini blender is you don't have to chop up your onion, it does it for you. No more crying eyes! Stir in the rest of the chicken and the dried fruit.
Slab it onto your favorite whole wheat bread or rolls and enjoy.

Taco Soup

picture stolen from the origial recipe at http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ and will be replaced with mine after i make it again.

Sorry I didn't get any new recipes up last week! Between being sick and getting things ready to go to my sisters wedding in Arizona I didn't have time for much. This soup will make up for it I promise, and I bet you already have everything you need in the pantry too.
I found this recipe on the 365 days of crockpot blog and adapted the shiz out of it. The way she made it had like 8 cans of stuff and I decided that was just WAY too much for my little 2 (plus a baby) person family. We gobbled this stuff up too fast at dinner (and lunch the next day) for me to get a picture so I'll have to add one later. I made it last week before we got sick but now that fall weather is here and we both have colds I'm sure I'll be making it again this week.

DIRECTIONS
Brown 1 lb of ground beef in a large pan and rinse out the grease. Put half of the cooked beef in the fridge to be used for something else, like Nachos! or shepards pie!
Then add your seasonings to the top of the meat left in the pan
drain and rinse your cans of beans and add them along with your corn to the pot
dump in the whole can of diced tomatoes (including the liquid)
Add an additional 1/2 can of water, give or take depending on how soupy you want it.
Let it all cook on medium high heat for about 15 minutes
skwirt in about 3 squeezes of ranch dressing (I'm going to guess it was about 1/8 cup) stir one last time and divide into bowls.
Top with some sour cream and shreaded cheese.

INGREDIENTS
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can diced tomatoes with lime juice and cilantro
3/4 cup frozen corn
1 small can of tomato sauce (like the 6oz one)
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 packet taco seasoning (if you've looked at my other recipes you know I don't use taco packets so I just eyeballed my spices to all be about half of what I normally put on tacos)
1/2 packet ranch dressing mix (I used a couple skwirts of ranch dressing from the fridge instead of the dressing packet, do whatever works for you.)
Some shredded cheese and sour cream to top it off.


Like I said I adapted this from a crock pot recipe so if you want to put it in there be my guest. Cook it on high for 4-5 hrs or low for 8-10 hrs I'm told its really good this way but I needed food in a hurry so I cooked it on the stove, maybe next time i'll try the crock pot. Just make sure when you cook it in the crock pot that you brown the beef on the stove first so that you don't have gross greasyness floating around in your soup.
I really enjoyed a big bowl of this with a spoon like a normal person but my husband loves to scoop things so he ate his with mission tortilla chips, I think it would also be good scooped with saltine crackers.

BLT Wrap

Ok so I guess it's more of a BSTs wrap. Bacon Spinach and Tomato salsa.  Delicious way to eat the oh so good for you spinach. Here's what you do.

First cook your bacon, I use the micorwave directions because it's easiest. While that's cookin' make the tomato salsa.
Cut up your tomatoes and onion then add the lime juice, salt, chopped jalapeno and cilantro. Now I do like the taste of this the best but honestly I don't keep jalapenos and cilantro in my house much so I will usually substitute the cilantro for like 1/2 Tbsp dried parsley and what ever I have on hand to replace the spicyness or the pepper like chili powder or hot sauce.
Then take your tortilla (my favorite is the Papa Tortilla Wheat because it's got lots of good stuff for you in it and tastes great) spread a little mayo (the light stuff is all we use at our house or the kind made with olive oil, delicious and nutritous) top the mayo with your spinach, salsa, and bacon and wrap it up.

Ingredients:

• 2  large  ripe tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped (about 1-3/4 cups)
• 1/4  cup  finely chopped red onion
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 1  Tbsp.  finely chopped fresh jalapeño chile pepper
• 1  Tbsp.  lime juice
• 1/8  tsp.  (i.e. 'a pinch') salt
• 8 slices  turkey bacon
•  light mayonnaise
• 10-inch  vegetable-flavor flour tortillas or flour tortillas
• some fresh baby spinach

Makes 4 servings.

 

Fiesta Pasta Salad

Here is another tasty cheap healthy side dish. Just cook the pasta as the package directs and throw the corn and peppers in the water for the last 5 minutes. While that's going, get out the bowl you are going to use and mix up the dressing. Drain and rinse the beans and add half the can (save the rest in a container in the fridge to use later in the week for burritos tacos or chili or get out the mini blender and make some bean dip) Then drain your noodles and vege's and mix it all together.

Done in like 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 
  
  about 8 oz whole wheat spiral pasta (I used the walmart brand. You can use bow tie or whatever you want just stay away from the walmart whole wheat shells I made mac and cheese with them once and you had to add A LOT of cheese to make them taste good)
• 
  
  1/2 can black beans drained and rinsed
• 
  
  1/2 cup frozen corn
• 
  
  1/2 cup frozen green peppers (I only buy the pepper mix with green red and yellow so I just used that)
• 
  
  1/2 cup cherry tomatoes (personally I like the taste of roma tomatoes better so i cut up 2 of those)
• 
  
  You can also punch it up with that left over chicken you've got in the fridge, or add some olives, if you like that sort of thing.

Dressing:

A little less than 1/4 cup of vege oil and 1/4 cup white vinegar,

Add about 1/4 cup ranch dressing and 1/2 a package of taco seasoning

Heres another tip.

I'm not a big fan of the packages of taco seasonings so I put together my own. It's cheaper and it tastes better. Click here so see tacos.

Chicken Ceasar Lasagna

This definitely make its rounds at our house. The word casserole doesn't spark a lot of confidence but throw a lasagna and I'm game. Not only are they delicious but, as this one proves, very versatile.
It takes a little more work than my traditional cheesy lasagna because you have to cook the noodles before baking on this one.

Start by preheating the oven to 325' F. While that's getting ready cook your noodles as it says on the package drain and set aside. While that's cooking combine the chicken, alfredo, lemon juice, spinach, peppers and black pepper.
Now it's time to build your lasagna. In an 8x8 baking dish put just a little sauce on the bottom of the pan to prevent the noodles from sticking. Then it's just noodles, sauce, noodles, sauce, noodles, sauce, cheese. (Did you catch that? It's 3 layers of noodles and sauce but only 1 layer of cheese) I found that the texture of the spinach in each layer replaces that of the cheese, so by putting the cheese only on top it's almost like you are tricking yourself to think there is more cheese than is really there.
Then you cover it with alumum foil and bake for about 45 minutes (just long enough to get the sauce heated all the way through.

Ingredients

• 9    dried whole wheat (or regular lasagna noodles if you're lame like that ;) )
• 1  10-oz. container  light Alfredo sauce (I use the cheesy garlic one that Kraft makes)
• 1 1/2  Tbsp.  lemon juice
• 1/2  tsp.  cracked black pepper
• chopped, seasoned cooked chicken breast (I usually used salt pepper garlic and onion powder on 2 large breasts that's what she said)
• 5 to 10 oz.  frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained (for this I just put some clumps on 3 paper towels in the microwave and thaw it. Then use the paper towels to ring out the spinach out in the sink, but be careful it's hot)
• 1/2 of a bottle of roasted red sweet peppers, drained and chopped (I've been known to chop up some frozen red peppers if I don't have a bottle on hand)
• 3/4  cup  shredded Italian blend cheese

Nutrition Facts

Calories268, Total Fat (g)10, Saturated Fat (g)6, Monounsaturated Fat (g)1, Polyunsaturated Fat (g)1, Cholesterol (mg)68, Sodium (mg)557, Carbohydrate (g)20, Total Sugar (g)3, Fiber (g)2, Protein (g)24, Vitamin C (DV%)83, Calcium (DV%)21, Iron (DV%)8, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Teriyaki Salmon

Don't be scared of the fish, it's super easy and quick and lets be honest, how could you go wrong with some teriyaki salmon? Not possible. So get yourself a serving of the oh so important omega 3's

I like the frozen salmon you get at Walmart (it comes in an orange package, it's like 4-5 fillets for like $5 I think, and they are individually wrapped so you can make one at a time if you want to.) Just put them in the fridge in the morning and they should be thawed by dinner time.

Get out a cookie sheet and line with aluminum foil pour teriyaki sauce over fillets, flip 'em over and pour more on the other side. But if you want them to be really good have the fillets soak in the teriyaki sauce for at least 30 minutes.
Bake at 350' F. for 11 minutes. (A good rule of thumb for fish is 10minutes per inch of thickness)

And if you are feeling extra ambitious try this teriyaki recipe:
In a sauce pan on medium high heat mix together 1 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
3Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic
1/8 tsp ginger
Slowly add:
2 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup COLD water. This is what thickens the sauce so stir constantly for about 1 minute to determine how thick the sauce is and adjust to your tastes. (never put cornstarch straight into anything warm it will just clump up instead of thickening the whole sauce.)

Vegetable Tian

Saute (cook in a skillet on the stove) 1/2 an onion with 2 Tbsp olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic for about 1-2 mins (I never have cloves so I just use like 2 tsp garlic powder)

then put them on the bottom of a 8"x8" baking pan.

Slice up 1-2 potatoes (the yellow ones are my fave cuz they have a little bit of a buttery taste but russet are good too)
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash and
3 roma tomatoes (you may want to cut 2 each of the zucchini and squash depending on the size)

Put them on their sides in alternating order in the baking pan and drizzle a little olive oil on top and sprinkle on a little salt black pepper and 1 tsp thyme.

Bake at 375' for 30 mins then put cheese on top, parmesan or mozzerella, and bake for 20 mins or until potatoes are tender.

It's simple, loaded with veggies and very tasty.


Roasted Broccolli



I don't think broccoli is roasted often enough. At 24 years old I'd actually never had roasted broccoli.
Ridiculous!
That's exactly how this tasted, ridiculously good.

Thaw a bag of those frozen broccoli florets I know you have in your freezer. Yes do the whole bag.

Line a cookie sheet with foil (for easy clean up of course) and put all the broccoli on it. Then drizzle on some olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic and basil.

Bake it for 20 minutes at 450' F

When they come out put a touch on lemon juice and 1/3 cup of mozzarella cheese on top. (Parmesan cheese is what  most people would use because it melts better but I like the taste of mozzarella way better  so that's what I use. You can even put it back in the oven for a minute or two to help the cheese melt but I ate mine to fast for that)

Roasted chicken breast

Who doesn't love that crispy skin on a good roasted chicken? I always have chicken breast in my freezer so this is a really easy meal.

First thaw the chicken. They say its best to thaw meat in the fridge but that takes way too long for me. When I decide to use something it's gonna happen that night so I 'defrost' it in the microwave.

Line a cookie sheet with alumunum foil (for easy clean up) and set your oven to broil. Coat the chicken with a little extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper, tarragon, and nutmeg. Bake for about 25 minutes. This is where I love my meat thermometer. No one likes over cooked chewy chicken and everyone is too worried about undercooking it. You can either poke/cut it and make sure the juices are clear and there is no pink in the chicken. Or (and I just saw this little trick but haven't tried it) take the chicken out of the oven and poke a fork into it, keep it there for 30 seconds and then pull it out and if the prongs on the fork are hot when you touch it to your wrist it's done. OORRR you could get yourself a meat thermometer for like $10 at Walmart. Your call :)

Another option for cooking if you want the outside to be a little more crispy. Bake it for 35 minutes at 450' F

Ingredients
4 chicken breast
2 Tbsp tarragon (or another seasoning you like such as thyme or basil)
Salt and Pepper
EVOO (I like the Star brand)

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don't you just hate getting used to a new oven. When we moved into our new house I went from a wonderful gas oven to an electric one. My husband clearly suffered the most in this ordeal because the once perfectly wonderful chocolate chip cookies of mine were different. Well after half a dozen batches and some fumblig around with the temperature nob these cookies are back with a vengance.

There are a couple tricks of the trade that, though aren't nessesary, just make them even better.

Mix together
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup regular sugar
 2 eggs and
1 tsp vanilla

Tip numero uno: You can just melt the butter in the microwave BUT if you put it in a pan and melt it on medium heat wait for it to get a sort of golden brown color then pour it into a bowl and continue with the recipe it will give it just a hint of a nutty flavor that makes you say "wow I don't know what it is exactly but these are the best chocolate chip cookies ever"

Tip numero deux: Try using dark brown sugar instead of the regular medium color. This also changes the flavor just so to make people wonder how you did it. Also the brown sugar is what keeps these cookies super soft.

Monving on.

After you have your initial mixture all combined you then want to add:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Then stir in half a bag of the Hersheys semi sweet (because they are definetly the best)

Bake for 10 minutes at 350' F Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes before taking them off.

Chicken and Biscuit Pockets

Here is another easy one. Do it the quick way and you can have it all prepaired by the time the oven heats up. Or you can make them more from scratch and it's like 20 minuts prep time. Whenever I cook chicken I like to make extra just to keep in my fridge to be used for things just like this. It adds a little variety too because sometimes it'll be roasted chicken or shreaded or just chopped with different seasonings.


Start off preheating the oven to 400' F. Open up the refrigerator biscuit (like Pillsbury) and flatten them out so they are about 4 inches across. Then divide out your chicken squash and cheese evenly between all the biscuits. Fold the dough over the filling and pinch closed or use a fork to seal the edges really well. Put them on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

While those are cooking mix together 1/4 cup mayo and 1 tbps honey mustard to make a tasty dip. Or you can dip them in ranch dressing.... or barbecue sauce... or whatever other sauce you like.

Ingredients

• 1  6-ounce package (5)  refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
• 1/2  cup  finely chopped cooked chicken
• 1/3  cup  coarsely shredded yellow summer squash (If i don't have fresh squash I use frozen green and yellow zucchini and cut each piece really small)
• 1/4  cup  shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese

If you don't have biscuits in the fridge or if you're like me and never keep them in there here is my recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits. It makes enough for 16 of these chicken pockets or you can just bake half of it separate for dinner the next day.

 

 

Buttermilk Biscuits

I must confess
I have never made True buttermilk biscuits
because I never have buttermilk in the fridge. I've never even bought. Instead I use a substitute for the buttermilk, all you have to do is add 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (which I always have in the fridge) to 3/4 cup milk and let it sit out on the counter for at least 5 minutes.

So now that you have my knock off buttermilk here's what you do...

Melt
5 Tbsp butter
add your 3/4 cup of "buttermilk" and 3 Tbsp honey (I forgot to add this last time I made it and they were still delicious)
then mix in
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

After it's all mixed together you have a couple options. You can roll it out dust it with flour fold it in thirds roll it again dust it again fold it then roll it one last time and cut it into 16 pieces so that you get the seperate layers that comes with the territory of classic flaky biscuits.

OR you can do what I do and treat them like drop biscuits and after mixing everything together just use a spoon and drop lumps onto a cookie sheet.

Either way you just have to bake them for 10-12 minutes at 400' F.

Tacos

I'm not a big fan of the packages of taco seasonings so I use the spices in my cupboard. You probably have all the seasonings already... except cumin, maybe you don't have that one. Cumin helps give it a "Mexican" flavor. Before I bought my cumin I just added more chili powder and added a dash a cinnimon and that worked pretty well too.

1 Tbsp chili powder

1/4 tsp garlic

1/4 tsp onion

1/4 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp paprika

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp hot sauce

salt and pepper 

1/4 cup tomato sauce.

Now that is for a full pound of ground beef for tacos so adjust the seasonings to your own taste. Just brown the beef and rinse. Then put it back in the pan and add your taco seasonings or taco package.

Build your tacos with either hard shells or soft tortillas. Toppings can include but aren't limited to:

refried beans

cheese

lettus

tomato

sour cream

guacamole

olives

Enjoy :)

Spaghetti and meatballs

I love spaghetti. I used to make it with ground beef but my husband said he didn't like spaghetti so I didn't make it as often as I'd like. Then, after about 2 years, we figured out he just didn't like spaghetti with meat sauce but spaghetti with meatballs is so much better.Now I make it whenever I'm in the mood and he never has to make something else for himself for dinner.  

• 1/2 Walmart brand whole wheat spaghetti (trust me the whole wheat tastes good in spaghetti other kinds of noodles... you have to be more careful)
• 1/2 can tomato sauce
• 1/2 can Italian diced tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 20 (give or take) Walmart brand Italian meatballs

Directions: (not that you really need them)
Cook spaghetti like it says on the package (10 minutes or something).
While that's cooking get your sauce ready. Start heating up the meatballs in the microwave by themselves for about 4 minutes stirring after each minute. Then you can either add them to the sauce on the stove or put the sauce in with the meatballs to heat up in the microwave. I prefer the stove. Add your seasonings however it tastes best to you and serve. If you want to punch up the healthyness throw in a hanful of frozen chopped spinach to the noodle water the last 5 minutes it's cooking and when you or your kiddos eat it you wont even taste it it just blends in with the basil.
This makes enough for us to eat for dinner and both take for lunch the next day.

Scratch brownies

Have you ever looked at the ingredients label on the boxes brownies or cakes? I don't know why but I just don't like when I can't even pronounce whats on there. I'm still looking for a good cake recipe but I finally found a delicious brownie recipe. Not to cakey fluffy, dense but not too solid. Quite literally the perfect replacement for the boxed stuff.


Ingredients:
1/2 c melted butter
1 egg (eggs make them fluffy so if yours are too fluffy use a smaller egg or less egg white)
1Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla (go ahead and use the immitation but I prefer the real stuff it just tastes better)
1/2 cup flour (if you are feeling ambitious use 1/4c wheat flour1/4c all purpose flour like I do. Just don't tell my husband)
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder

Put 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter in the microwave or one the stove and get it mostly melted then stir in the egg, oil, and vanilla. They say it helps so mix together the dry ingredients seperatly and then slowly add in the wet ingredient mix but I am way to lazy busy efficient for that. Just add in all the dry ingredients and stir. I just use a spoon because it takes just that much longer to get out the hand mixer and wash the beaters when you are done. Since we melted the butter everything still gets mixed together well. You only have to stir for about 30 seconds. Pour the mixture into a greased/ oiled/ sprayed 8"x8" pan and bake for 25-30 minutes at 325'