Caesar Pockets

Is this even a recipe?

Just because something is written down...I'm not sure it's automatically earned the "recipe" title. I mean, I feel a little foolish putting this in type.

Seriously, how many of you have already thought it up on your own?

Caesar Pockets

4 cups torn romaine lettuce

6 oz. turkey deli meat, cut into strips

1/4 cup drained roasted red pepper strips

1/4 cup halved grape tomatoes

3 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Caesar dressing

4 pita breads, warmed, cut in half

1. Toss lettuce with turkey, peppers, cheese and dressing.

2. Spoon into pitas.

Duh.

Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake

Busy day...needed something quick that required no quick runs to the store. Hmmm...what's in my fridge/pantry?

Oh...good...here we go...

I doubled, and served with ready-made garlic bread and a salad...

Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake

1-1/2 cups pasta, uncooked (I used Farfalle)

1 small bunch broccoli, cut into florets (about 3 cups) OR 3 cups frozen broccoli florets

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 oz. cream cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

1. Heat oven to 375. Cook pasta in large saucepan as directed on package. Add broccoli last three minutes..

2. Meanwhile, heat large non-stick skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 3 minutes or until no longer pink, stirring frequently. Stir in broth, simmer 3 minutes or until chicken is done. Add cream cheese, cook and stir over low heat 1 minute or until melted. Stir in 1/2 cup mozzarella.

3. Drain pasta and broccoli. Add to chicken mixture; mix lightly. Spoon into 8-inch square baking dish; cover.

4. Bake 15 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Bake, uncovered, 3 minutes or until melted. Let stand 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

courtesy Food and Family magazine

Easy Chicken Tostadas

I love the quirky things about being Mormon.

Like the drinks we WON'T drink (like coffee and alcohol), or the food we WILL eat (like green jello w/carrots and casseroles with Cheez-it crackers).

But the best part our being a "peculiar people" is that we TOTALLY make fun of ourselves for it. We joke more about Mormon than people who aren't Mormon joke about us being Mormon.

There are Mormon movies, and books, and magazines...and there is always this tongue-in-cheek humor about ourselves that keeps us all giggling behind our Triple Combinations.

A couple days ago I introduced you to a cookbook that celebrated "Mormon" recipes...and yeah - there's a lot of stuff to use up your endless supply of zucchini from your garden and recipes of innovative things to do with food storage, along with classic casseroles and quick meals for those busy nights with MIA, Scouts, and presidency meetings.

Well - that cookbook has a companion, also by Julie Badger Jensen, and it is called Essential Mormon Celebrations: Secret Combinations for Holidays, Homecomings, Potluck Dinners, and More. I thought I'd highlight a recipe from it tonight...it is a very simple Chicken Tostada recipe. You don't really NEED a recipe for tostadas...it's like tacos or burritos...anything that is self-assemble, really...because it is usually "anything goes". It's one reason why those Mexican favorites are also favorites at MY house because everyone has different tastes, and can make their meal however they please.

Anyway - what I DO like about this recipe is that it is easy and quick and since it is Girl Scout night...both are requirements.

This makes six servings, so depending on how many you're feeding...you may want to double. To save time tonight, I'm replacing the chicken tenders with CostCo's pre-cooked canned chicken...a yummy substitute. Another alteration is that I'm switching the flour tortillas for corn...because that's what's in my fridge.

I'm also playing with her salsa recipe, adding onion, tomatillos and cilantro, and switching the vegetable oil originally called for in the salsa for extra virgin olive oil (just a personal taste thing). Our sides will be a yellow saffron rice, black beans, and chips and salsa!!
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Chicken Tostadas

2 TBS vegetable oil, plus more for cooking tortillas
2 pounds chicken tenders (or 2-3 cans CostCo cooked chicken)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies
1/2 cup sour cream
6 (6-inch) flour tortillas (we used about 12 corn tortillas)
1/2 small head iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced
1 cup grated Monterrey Jack or cheddar cheese
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 recipe Avocado Salsa (see below)

1. In a 3-qt. saucepan, heat 2 TBS vegetable oil over medium heat. Add chicken tenders and cook for about 10 minutes or until cooked through. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 to 60 seconds. Add green chilies and sour cream, stir well. Cook over low heat until hot. Cover and set aside.

2. Generously brush tortillas with vegetable oil on both sides. (Here's another deviation...we just pour oil in the pan, heat it up, and drop them in...but whichever way is fine). Place a well-greased 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Fry flour tortillas, one at a time, for about 30 seconds on each side or until lightly browned and blistered. Remove from skillet and stack. (I personally blot tortillas a bit to remove excess oil).

3. Arrange lettuce on each tortilla. Top with chicken mixture; sprinkle with cheese and tomato. Spoon Avocado Salsa on top of tostadas and serve immediately.

Avocado Salsa

3 TBS olive oil
2 TBS lime or lemon juice
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 tomatillos, chopped
1 small or half a medium/large sweet onion, diced 2-3 TBS finely chopped cilantro

1. In a small bowl, combine all salsa ingredients and stir together.

2. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
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(Keeping it real...a laid-back quick family meal at our house...some things I don't even take out of the pans they were cooked in...)

courtesy The Essential Mormon Celebrations: Secret Combinations for Holidays, Homecomings, Potluck Dinners and More by Julie Badger Jensen

Chicken Supreme A.K.A. The Perfect Conference Dinner

So, I have this great conference dinner recipe that I am very excited to share with you. I got it out of a cookbook called The Essential Mormon Cookbook: Green Jell-O, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret Combinations by Julie Badger Jensen.

It is very similar to one of my favorite personal recipes for chicken. I like to wrap boneless, skinless chicken breasts in bacon (thick-cut applewood bacon, preferably), sprinkle generously with cracked black peppercorns, and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. So when I saw this bacon-wrapped chicken recipe, I knew I just had to try it.

I have that reaction a lot with recipes involving bacon. I just have to make them.

Either that - or I have to add bacon to recipes that don't call for it. Because...well...bacon just makes everything better.

ANYWAY - this recipe updates mine by adding a sauce...which is great.

I made a few changes to it, as well. For example, the recipe asks that the bacon be wrapped around the chicken raw, then you add the sauce, and then everything gets cooked together. But I find that the bacon doesn't get as done as I like it to be that way.

So I start the bacon and get it to the "cooked but not crispy" (so it's still maneuverable) stage, and THEN proceed with the rest of the recipe.

The restaurant secret to those nice flat strips of perfectly cooked bacon is this: they cook it in the OVEN, not in a skillet. I lay my bacon out on a broiler pan with vents so the juices and grease can drip down, and cook at 350 for about 20 minutes (or 400 for about 10-15 minutes, if I'm in a hurry), flipping once half-way through (I cover the pan at the bottom with a couple layers of foil to aid in quick clean-up). It takes a bit longer, but you get far better, and less greasy, results...especially if you're "precision cooking" it for another recipe like this one.

The best part (besides the bacon) about this recipe, is you put it all together the night before, and it cooks while you're away at conference. You put it in before you leave, and you don't even have to rush home...you can stand around in the foyer chatting with people for a few minutes about speakers and such, and then when you get home, you have just enough time to whip up a salad and heat some rolls, and it's done!!

There is no need to double, as it feeds eight!! (another bonus!)

Chicken Supreme

2 (2.5-ounce) packages smoked, sliced, pressed beef (lunch meat...like the Carl Budding kind)

16 slices of bacon (the recipe calls for eight...but since I pre-cook mine, the "shrinkage" means I need 2 strips for each chicken breast)

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups sour cream

2 (10--3/4 oz.) cans cream of mushroom soup

1. Put beef slices in a greased 9x13-inch pan.

2. Roll two strips of bacon around each breast half. Fasten with toothpick if necessary. Layer over beef.

3. Combine sour cream and cream of mushroom soup. Pour over chicken. Cover with aluminum foil. Refrigerate overnight.

4. The next day, bake, covered, at 300 for 3 to 4 hours.

courtesy The Essential Mormon Cookbook: Green Jell-O, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret Combinations by Julie Badger Jensen

Parmesan Chicken Bundles

You know what I wish?
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I wish when I made dinner, it came out looking as pretty as the pictures in the recipe books.

I know that most food pictures in magazines and in recipe books are plastic or foam re-creations, and that's why they look so good. But there are some real honest-to-goodness chef people out there that take amazing pictures of food...like Smitten Kitchen, or Pioneer Woman, or Bakerella.

My food never looks that good.

Luckily, I have this awesome motto...Ugly Food Tastes Best. I even saw once that Smitten Kitchen blogged the same thing, which makes me feel a bit better.

Anyway - please forgive my unattractive pictures of food. At least you know it's real, and not cardboard and foam.

And therefore...it actually tastes good!

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I didn't double this recipe, as it makes 6 servings, and that's all that is eating home tonight. I served it with a garden salad and store-bought garlic bread.

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Ta-Da!!

Chicken Parmesan Bundles

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained

1-1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

6 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves, pounded into 1/4-inch thickness

1 egg

A sleeve of Ritz crackers, crushed

1-1/2 cups spaghetti sauce, heated

1. Preheat oven to 375. Mix cream cheese, spinach, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 3 TBS of the Parmesan cheese until well-blended; spread evenly onto chicken breasts. Starting at one of the short ends of each breast, roll up chicken tightly. Secure with wooden toothpicks, if desired. Set aside.

2. Beat egg in a shallow bowl or pie plate. Mix remaining 3 TBS Parmesan cheese and the cracker crumbs in a separate shallow bowl or plate. Dip chicken bundles in egg, then roll in crumb mixture. Place, seam-sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with Pam.

(trick: I spray Pam ON my chicken bundles to help hold the cracker crumbs in place and aid in the browning process)

3. Bake 30-40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove and discard toothpicks, if using. Serve topped with the spaghetti sauce and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

Courtesy http://www.kraftfoods.com/

Costa Rican Beef and Chayote

Remember way back when, it my very first post, when I promised all the white girls out there that were afraid to visit the ethnic sections of their local grocer that I would slowly lead them down the path?

See - you know how I believe in easy recipes that EVERYBODY likes? Well - I believe that these recipes can include "exotic" ingredients, and still be easy, and quick, and delicious...and maybe even fun.

So tonight, we're going to introduce an ingredient...a vegetable...that I am willing to bet is new to most of you. It is called a chayote.

This is a chayote. Chayote is a tropical form summer squash about the size and shape of a pear. It is also called mirliton and christophene. It has deep lengthwise ridges and a center seed, like an avocado. I'm told that the harder the squash is, and the darker the green of the skin, the better the flavor is. To me, chayote has the consistency of a perfectly ripe and crisp apple, and in it's raw state tastes something like jicama or turnip.

Chayote has to be peeled, especially if it is large and the skin is tough. I use a vegetable peeler. I know some people prefer to peel it under running water because there is a sticky substance just under the skin that is a bit irritating (it disappears after cooking), but I've never had that problem (my chayotes are probably not big enough). Then I cut the chayote in half lengthwise, use my vegetable peeler to peel the skin in the little fold at the bottom, and use a medium-sized melon baller to extract the seed and tougher skin around the seed. From there, you can stuff it, dice it, or do anything you would normally do to a squash. I'm told they're excellent with cheese (I haven't tried yet...I always have some other crazy recipe for them to star in).

I got this recipe out of the March 2009 edition of Family Fun magazine. It turned out great. I didn't double, as I served it with lots of sides...refried beans, white rice, tortillas, and a tropical fruit cocktail (just a canned version that I chilled all day in the fridge).

Now - if you can't find chayote at your grocery store...don't freak. Substitute with zucchini. It'll work great. (I shouldn't hear this complaint from anyone here in South Florida...it is, after all, the Central and South American and Caribbean hub of the continental U.S.)

Enjoy!!

Costa Rican Beef and Chayote

2 TBS canola or olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound lean ground beef

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3/4 cup diced green pepper

2 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped

(confession...I used half a can of diced tomatoes w/jalapenos because I was in a hurry and hate peeling tomatoes. Feel free to do the same)

2 TBS tomato paste

1 large chayote, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch dice, OR zucchini cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

3 TBS finely chopped fresh cilantro

1. Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Stir in garlic and saute for a few more seconds.

2. Add the meat, curry powder, salt, and pepper to the mixture. Continue to saute until the meat is cooked through, breaking into small bits with your wooden spoon, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the green pepper, tomatoes, tomato paste, chayote, and corn. Lower the heat, cover, and cook until chayote is tender, about 15 minutes (zucchini will take about 5 minutes to cook).

4. Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Courtesy Family Fun magazine, March 2009

The Pioneer Woman's Mac & Cheese

Have you been over to visit Ree yet?

You haven't?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Are you crazy? And don't you give me those big 'ol innocent "Who's Ree?" eyes! Get over there!! Right now!! Here's the link: http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/

Now go!!!

Well - wait. Go after you read this.

See, Ree is this lady who runs this web-site called The Pioneer Woman, and it chronicles her life as a city-bred modern woman who finds herself married to a cowboy and living on an honest-to-goodness real-live working cattle ranch.

It's one of my very favorite sites. For one thing, it's hilarious. For another, Ree champions all good homemakers everywhere. No matter your situation, she gets it...every dirty, stinking, unappreciated bit. And for another, she's a red-head.

Which is actually reason enough.

Anyway - Ree likes to cook, and she has some GREAT recipes. I have to say that every one I've tried, I've loved. So I'm going to share one of my favorites with you.

Keep in mind that when P-Dub (as she sometimes calls herself) posts a recipe...she goes all out. There are step-by-step instructions with gorgeous color photos, and lots of Pioneer Woman commentary (which is usually pretty funny). I recommend checking out the recipe on her site (along with all the others). But if you're impatient, you can get it here.

I'm not sure I have all the proper authority to re-print it, but as long as you know IT IS NOT MINE, and ALL PIONEER WOMAN, I think we're safe!!

But seriously...go check out her site. You won't be sorry!!

PS - One of the best things about Pioneer Woman recipes is that she is feeding her own family of 6, and usually a few ranch hands as well...so you RARELY need to double.

Pioneer Woman's Mac & Cheese

4 cups cavatappi

1/4 to 1/2 of a red onion, diced

equal amount of red pepper, diced

1 4 oz. can chopped green chilis

1 cup frozen corn

1 jalapeno, de-seeded and diced (if you dare)

1 heaping cup grated pepper jack cheese

2-3 cloves garlic

1 cup heavy cream

olive oil

2 TBS butter

salt and pepper

1. Boil pasta until al dente.

2. In a large skillet, add olive oil and saute onions, bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic, and corn over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add in canned chilis and stir around, then turn off heat.

3. Drain pasta and add it to skillet. Pour on cream, add cheese, then add salt and pepper to taste and stir gently. At the end, add 2 tablespoons butter and stir again. Salt and pepper to taste.

4. Serve as a side with steak, chicken, shrimp, or have it be the main course!!

Courtesy to The Pioneer Woman @ http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/.