Italian Chicken Salad w/Garlic Croutons

I love being able to use leftovers to make a tasty dinner.

I had on hand (you use whatever it is that you have around):

• Left over grilled chicken (chopped)


• tomato (Roma)


• capers


• a little bit of Romain lettuce


• a little bit of baby spinach


• roasted bell pepper


• fresh bell pepper


• asiago cheese


• sliced yellow onion


• black olives


• stale whole grain baguette

Sounds like the makings of an Italian salad, huh?

So I first mixed together a little dressing:

About 1/2 C red wine vinegar, juice of one whole lemon, 1 T honey, 1/2 t minced garlic, s&p to taste, and about 1/2 C of olive oil (may have been more, I eyed it all).

I then sliced the stale bread into a large crouton size...dipped the bread into a plate drizzled in olive oil and minced garlic and then toasted the bread under the broiler for about 3 minutes (turning once).

I threw all of the chicken, veggies and dressing together and topped the salad with some grated AND shredded asiago cheese and the croutons.

Did that make any sense at all? Either way...it was yum.

A Sexy Dish

Taken from a sexy cookbook given to me by a great friend titled The New Inter-Courses an aphrodisiac cookbook

Sadly I don't have a picture. It was too dark and Chad and I were too anxious to try it. Haha.
I added one small addition that I felt it needed, that is in italics.


Pasta with asparagus, chicken and Gorgonzola
• 1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed
• 1/2 pound linguine
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 chicken breast, cut into thin strips
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves, plus several whole sprigs for garnish
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
splash of white wine

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cut the asparagus into 1/2-inch lengths. Blanch the asparagus for 2 to 3 minutes, or until just crisp-tender. Remove the asparagus from the water, and add the linguine to the boiling water. Cook until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water, and drain the noodles.

Melt the butter in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the chicken strips and season with salt and pepper. As the chicken begins to brown, add the shallot. Continue cooking just until the shallot begins to soften. Stir in the cream, scraping the bottom of the pan to release any browned bits.

Stir in the red pepper flakes. Add the Gorgonzola cheese, stirring to melt. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. (this is where I added in a splash or two of white wine...we then drank the rest)

Add the tarragon, cooked asparagus and linguine and toss to coat evenly with the sauce. If the sauce seems too thick, add some of the reserved pasta water and cook until reduced to the desired consistency. Place on a warmed platter and garnish with Parmesan and fresh tarragon.

Makes 2 to 3 servings.

Bobby Flay Does it Again: Grilled Chicken Wings with Spicy Chipotle Hot Sauce and Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dipping Sauce

Oh yum. We haven't been impressed with our local wing place (although I want to find their fry recipes...drool), so we decided to try making them ourselves. Since it was our 1st try, we turned to good ol' Bobby Flay. We were very pleased. The dipping sauce was perfect, although I used sour cream. We both could have used more heat also, so I will kick it up some.

Try it. You won't be sorry.

And for those of you with kids, we left out the hot sauce mixture and just let them dip the chicken and veggies in the blue cheese dipping sauce.

Grilled Chicken Wings with Spicy Chipotle Hot Sauce and Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dipping Sauce

46 chicken wings

Vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Chipotle Hot Sauce, recipe follows

Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dip, recipe follows

Heat grill to high. Toss wings in a few tablespoons of oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on the grill in single layers and grill until golden brown on both sides and just cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Chipotle Hot Sauce:
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 to 3 tablespoons chipotle pepper puree (depending on how spicy you like it)

3 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons ancho chile powder

Whisk together the vinegar, Dijon mustard, chipotle puree, honey, and oil in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Melt butter in a large skillet or a large pot on the grates of the grill. Add the hot sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Whisk in the ancho chile powder and season with salt, to taste. Add the wings and cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dip

Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dip:
1 pint thick Greek yogurt

3/4 cup crumbled domestic blue cheese

2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion

3 tablespoons finely sliced scallions

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Easy Spicy Sesame Chicken with Scallion Rice-RR Inspiaration

So, I got the new Rachel Ray mag and saw a recipe that I figured I could tweak to us and what I had on hand. It was a keeper for sure!

Scallion Rice:

1 package boil in a bag Jasmine Rice (hey, I am a busy mom and have my own business, some stuff has to be easy!)

4 Cups chicken broth

1 bunch scallions chopped

Cook rice according to directions but sub brother for water. Drain and place in bowl. Sprinkle with scallions and fluff with fork.

Chicken:

1 pound chicken tenders

2 bell peppers (any color you have) seeded and sliced thin

3 T tamari

3T honey

1 T garlic chili sauce

1 T Cajun mustard (you can use any Dijon)

2 t sesame oil

1 t chili sauce

sesame seeds

small handful of snow pea sprouts, trimmed

After seasoning the chicken lightly to your taste, grill until done. :) Easy, huh? Set Aside

Saute peppers in oil of your choice (we used olive) for about 2-3 minutes.

In a bowl, mix together tamari through chili sauce

Toss the chicken and peppers in the sauce and place in top of rice. Drizzle left over sauce if any on top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and snow pea sprouts. Enjoy.

Berries Berries Everywhere!

Read here about where we got these berries!

In short, we went to a farm and came back with 2 pounds of blackberries and 5 pounds of blueberries. Not too bad, huh?

So far we have made blackberry limeade (drool, Chef Eva at the farm mentioned gave me that recipe), blueberry jam, and some ice cream toppings. The kids have pretty much enjoyed eating them as they cleaned the berries for me. No complaining here.

Another recipe we made was chipotle-blueberry chutney. This is pretty versatile. I could see it at Christmas just put over cream cheese and served with crackers. We put it over chicken one night and used leftovers wrapped in a tortilla and goat cheese. It isn't the prettiest meal, but it is pretty darn tasty with a kick from the chipotles (and next time I plan to kick it up even more). This is really worth giving it a shot.

Chipotle-Blueberry Chutney

Ingredients
4 cups fresh blueberries

1 cup finely chopped apple

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 t ground mustard

2 T chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (about 2 chiles)

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently. Cool; pour into airtight containers.

Cherries Cherries Cherries

My menu was inspired by Joe at one of my fave food blogs. I did some minor changes due to me trying to loose weight and what we had on hand.

Here is my version:

Chicken Salad with Cherries and Goat-Cheese Dressing

2 ounces crumbled fresh goat cheese (low fat)

1/2 cup fat free sour cream

2 tablespoons chopped chives

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons white-wine vinegar

salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons Olive oil

garlic/rosemary seasoning

2 large chicken breasts

1/2 Bag Spring Mix Salad

1 1/2 cup sweet cherries, pitted and halved (I used a straw to pit)

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

In a small bowl, whisk together goat cheese, sour cream, chives, water and vinegar - season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drizzle chicken breasts with olive oil and season with rosemary seasoning and s&p. Grill until no longer pink.

Remove and place on a cutting board to rest for 5 minutes. Thinly slice chicken.

To a plate add lettuce, chicken, cherries, dressing and walnuts. Enjoy!

The dressing was soooo good, Chad and I will definitely do this again! And the kids LOVED it.

Thanks Joe for the great recipe!

Now, for dessert. I bought some pastry shells and wanted to use more cherries. I made this recipe up...so I will call this:

Cherry Sussy hehe

4 pastry shells

1 C pitted cherries

1/2 C sugar

3T water

1T corn starch

1T lime juice

Fat Free Cool Whip (I had some on hand, added vanilla to mine and froze it... you can use ice cream for sure!).

Left over walnuts from dinner

Bake shells according to directions

In a sauce pan add cherries through lime juice, let it get bubbly and thick...stir stir stir. When cherries are nice and fat and sauce is thick, it is ready. You may have to add more sugar to thicken.

Then arrange: pastry, cool whip, cherry sauce, walnuts.....eat. Yum.

Memorial Day Food

Memorial Day this year was very low key. We had some stuff to do so that we could prep for the week. Also, my 5:30 am boot camp started this week. So I really didn't want to regret my first day.

Our simple but yummy menu was perfect. Instead of typing out the recipes, I added the links so that you can save them how you like.

Beer Can Chicken w/Cola BBQ sauce courtesy of Bobby Flay. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_28849,00.html
Summer Squash Ribbons with Lemon and Parmesan http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1737878
Grilled Potato and Onion Salad (added a T of Cajun mustard to the sauce and used rosemary from the garden in place of parsley) http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1737878

Chicken with Panko-Garlic-Parmesan Crust, Carrot Orzo, Peppery Parmesan Crisps and a Salad

Parmesan was the theme. Haha.

My 6 year old son helped with the parmesan crisps. For a version he could do, I pulled out a muffin pan and sprayed it with nonstick spray. I gave him grated parmesan and a spoon. A teaspoon went into each tin and then he used the peppergrinder to dust a little pepper on. He then used to other side of the pepper grinder to flatten the mixture. Those were baked at 350 for about 6-8 minutes. Done.

My carrot orzo I got from here. It was a huge hit. Thanks Joe!

The chicken recipe I got from here but subbed tenders for breasts and panko for breadcrumbs.

Then Chad mixed together a nice balsamic vinegar dressing and every was happy. :)

Mini Pot Pies-Inspiration from Kiwi Magazine

I am not a fan of the pot pie...but when I saw these in Kiwi Magazine I thought I would give them a try. I had bags of frozen veggies and a rotisserie chicken that needed to be used, so I changed up the recipe.

1 cup cut up cooked chicken

1 cup frozen mixed veggies

1/2 cup frozen onion

1 cup chicken broth (I used a low sodium organic one)

3t cornstarch

12 wonton wrappers

grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

a little olive oil

preheat oven to 350.

Drizzle olive oil in a pan and throw in frozen veggies/onions and stir. Add chicken after a few minutes. In a small bowl whisk chicken broth and corn starch until well blended. Add broth mixture to pan and stir. After a few minutes the broth will thicken. In a cupcake pan, place the 12 wontons in the 12 holes. Scoop in chicken/veggie mixture and then top with parmesan cheese. Bring up edges of wonton and twist/pinch to seal. Brush the wontons with olive oil. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.