Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

This was super good! We have been trying lots of different salads lately (trying to get rid of the baby weight) and I think this one was my favorite!

Chicken Poppy Seed Salad
Found on my sister's cafe


Spinach leaves
Romaine leaves
Grilled chicken, sliced (grill with lots of lemon pepper seasoning)
Red onion, sliced thinly
Crispy bacon, crumbled
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Toasted almonds (or you can sugar the almonds. Put sliced almonds in a pan with lots of granulated sugar (about equal amounts). Cook on medium heat until sugar melts, coating the almonds as they brown.)

The best part... The Dressing:
** This makes a ton of dressing, I halved it**

1 1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp dry mustard
2/3 cup red wine vinegar
3 Tb Maui or Vidalia onion, chopped
2 cups canola oil
3 Tb poppy seeds

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a blender, then slowly add the oil, blending until thick. Stir in poppy seeds. Toss all ingredients together with generous amount of dressing before serving.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Low calorie Banana muffin

I hate to say it, but it seems like every time I try something healthy, it just isn't very good. However these muffins were really yummy, I was pleasantly surprised :)

Low calorie Banana muffin


Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup mashed banana
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine all the dry ingredients together
In a separate bowl add the remaining ingredients.
Slowly pour the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients and mix well.
Pour into a greased muffin tin and bake at 350 for 15 min.

*Each muffin has approximately 75 calories and .5 grams of fat

Variations: use strawberry applesauce or you can throw in some chocolate chips

Friday, June 4, 2010

Orange Thai Beef Skewers & Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

These were so INCREDIBLE! I found them over at Our best bites and I just copied and pasted the entire recipe because I wouldn't change anything... so go over there and check them out. She has so incredibly yummy looking pictures of the final product also. Just go to her site and then click on recipe index and you can find them there. YUMMY!!!!!!!


Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
About 8 oz. lean bacon, NOT thick-sliced (thick bacon is too hard to work with in this recipe)
1 large can pineapple chunks (you won't use all of them)
Homemade Teriyaki sauce (the best!) or Kikkoman Teriyaki Baste and Glaze
Kebab skewers or toothpicks

The easiest way to handle the bacon situation is to remove it from the package and while it's still all stuck together, stretch it out a little (lengthwise). If you're using center-cut bacon (and the "slab" is not as wide as regular bacon), just cut it in half. Otherwise, use kitchen shears to cut the slab into thirds. Refrigerate until ready to use, partially because it's easier to work with cold bacon and partially because you don't want to kill any dinner guests with dead pig germs.
Using kitchen shears, cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. You can gauge about how many pieces you'll need by how many pieces of bacon you have; you probably won't use all the bacon, but you'll need about 8 oz. or 2/3 of a standard-sized package of bacon. So count the bacon pieces and keep that in mind when cutting up your chicken.

Drain the pineapple and set up a little work station with skewers, bacon, chicken, and a 9x13 baking dish (for big skewers) or a sturdy Ziploc bag (for toothpick skewers). Wrap a piece of bacon around a chicken piece, secure with toothpick/skewer, and top with a chunk of pineapple. Repeat twice if using large skewers.

When all chicken pieces have been sufficiently staked, pour Teriyaki sauce over everything, reserving about 1/4 c., and marinate in refrigerator for at least 4 hours, no longer than about 8.

Preheat grill; when about 350-400 degrees, place skewers on grill and baste with reserved Teriyaki sauce. Cook about 7 minutes and flip skewers. Baste again and cook another 7 minutes.

*If serving at a party, you can keep the appetizer-sized skewers warm in a crockpot set to low or an electric roaster set to 170 degrees.
**If cooking in oven, preheat oven to 400 and bake about 20 minutes, turning once, following the same basting instructions.



Orange Thai Beef Skewers


1 orange
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 T honey
1T sesame oil
1 t ground ginger
1 t coriander
4 cloves garlic
2-4 t Sriracha chili sauce*

1 1/2 lb flank steak

*Sriracha is a really great hot chili sauce that can easily be found in most grocery stores in the Asian foods section. It has a rooster on the bottle- you can't miss it! It's also used in one of my most favorite meals ever- Kate's Thai Peanut Noodles. If you have to substitute, you could easily add cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, or plain ol' hot sauce to the marinade.

Grab a bowl for your marinade. Zest your orange and add all of the zest to the bowl. Then cut the orange in half and add all of the juice as well. You should have at least 1/4 C orange juice and anything more than that is just fine. To the orange mixture, add soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, ginger, coriander, and garlic. Then add Sriracha to your liking. I've found that once these are marinaded and cooked, the spice mellows quite a bit. I add 2t Sriracha and it's mild enough that my toddler gobbles them up. It's not even really spicey, just flavorful. So if you like heat, I'd do more like 3-4 teaspoons of Sriracha. Whisk the marinade so everything is combined.

Take the flank steak and slice it across the grain into about 1/4" slices.

When you're ready to get cookin' preheat your grill. Then take your skewers (pre-soaked if you're using wood/bamboo ones) and thread on the strips of meat, just like you're stitching.Place them on the grill. These cook really fast. Overcooked flank steak will be tough and chewy, so don't over do it! They should only take about 3-4 minutes on each side. Flip half way through.

Now these don't only cook fast, they cool fast. So get the rest of your meal all ready, set the table, gather the kids, etc. Grill these up at the last minute so you can serve them hot off the grill, literally.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Pear Salad

This one was an awesome side to this Asian BBQ Chicken :)

Pear Salad

Ingredients:

1 package of mixed greens
2 pears sliced into thin strips
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup feta cheese ( I used mozzarella instead cause I was trying to be a little more healthy)
1/4 cup chopped pecans

dressing:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
salt and pepper

Mix dressing together, and toss over salad right before serving.