Southwest Chicken Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing

One thing I hardly ever make at home is salad. I don't consider it all that satisfying, even though I love salads for lunch. My salads never taste like Panera's salads. They never taste like the salad bar at work. My salads at home are always so....bland.

Bottled dressings, eh. Random ingredients in the fridge, eh.

Just....eh.

Then I made this salad. Officially declared by The Fiance to be "the best salad [he's] ever had."

Now I'm on to something.

Maybe its the fact that I grilled the chicken on our electric panini press. Or maybe its the fact that I loaded each salad with half an avocado. Yes, and yes. But truthfully....I think its the dressing. The homemade dressing. The homemade cilantro-lime dressing that has so many awesome flavors going on, you don't even know what to say about it! You just keep eating!!

Now I'm on a salad kick. This week it will be grilled salmon salad with asian vinaigrette.

One more cooking "hurdle" that I have successfully overcome. Lesson learned = get creative!! And don't use bottled dressings :)

Southwest Chicken Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing

For the salad:

fresh spinach leaves, rinsed and patted dry

avocado, sliced*

canned corn

canned black beans

shredded colby jack cheese

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

poultry seasoning, salt, pepper

For the dressing:

1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt, pepper (small pinch of each)

3/4 tsp minced fresh ginger root

juice of 1 lime

1/4 C honey

1/4-1/2 C packed cilantro leaves

1/4 C olive oil

*Every time that I've bought avocado, it takes about 2-3 days to ripen. There is nothing worse than unripened avocado. It tastes like grass. The texture is stringy. Please let it ripen! It will be soft to the touch and a deep dark green. If you need to speed things up, stick it in a paper sack or wrap it in newspaper.

1. To make dressing: place the jalepeno pepper, garlic, and ginger in a small food processor or blender. Pulse until finely chopped. Add lime juice, honey, vinegar, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Pulse a few times to blend. Slowly drizzle in olive oil until desired thickness. Do a quick taste test and make adjustments as needed. Set aside.

2. Grill chicken on an indoor electric grill or outdoor grill. If you don't have a grill, you could sautee in a pan or even bake in the oven. Either way, season however you like. I used poultry seasoning with salt + pepper, but a mexican spice combo, or lime juice, would be yummy too.

3. Assemble salad: add avocado, small spoonful of corn and beans, cheese and chicken to a pile of spinach leaves. At this point, you could add/change anything you like - next time, I may try pico de gallo, or chopped cherry tomatoes, or red onion, whatever. Before serving, drizzle the dressing over the salad.

Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

My Valentine's Day...it was simply wonderful!

Take a cold, quiet Sunday in February.

+ a wonderful guy by the name of Brett

+ a pretty vase of flowers on my coffee table, thanks to the same wonderful guy (who sent them to my work on Friday)

+ a bottle of Chianti for drinking and a bottle of Chardonnay for my mushrooms

+ warm focaccia bread dipped in olive oil and sweet balsamic vinegar

+ a big bowl of Greek Pasta drenched in crumbled feta cheese

+ a couple comedies on the television

+ peanut butter no-bake cookies drizzled in chocolate

Yum. But there's one thing I'm forgetting.

Insert crab-stuffed mushrooms baked in a butter chardonnay sauce.

Yes please.

Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

3 TBS butter + 2 TBS butter + 1 TBS butter

1/4 C chardonnay

18-20 large button mushrooms

3 green onions, minced

2 tsp lemon juice

4 oz cream cheese, softened

4 oz can crab meat, drained well

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 C bread crumbs

salt, pepper, cayenne

1. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Pop stems out of mushrooms. Cut off the tough ends of the stems and discard. Finely chop stems. Set mushroom caps aside for now.

2. In a small skillet, sautee the mushroom stems in 2 TBS butter for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and sautee another minute or two. Remove from heat and put in a medium bowl.

3. To bowl, add green onions, lemon juice, cream cheese, crab meat and a sprinkle of salt + pepper and cayenne pepper.

4. Melt 3 TBS butter in a small bowl. Mix in 1/4 C chardonnay. Pour into the bottom of a baking pan.

5. Preheat oven to 350. Stuff the mushroom caps with the crab mixture. Heat 1 TBS butter in the microwave. Stir in 1/4 C bread crumbs. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the mushrooms. Place mushrooms over melted butter/wine in pan.

6. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until mushrooms look juicy and bread crumbs are toasted.

Chicken Noodle Soup

This soup was meant to be. Here's how it went down.

Last Sunday, while planning meals for the week, I had a strong craving for chicken noodle soup. Not Campbell's condensed chicken noodle soup (which, I'm ashamed to admit, I actually do like) but real chicken noodle soup. With chunks of carrot, and hearty noodles, and somewhat-greasy chicken :) Without telling Brett that this was one of my meals for the week (he isn't a soup kinda guy...) I went to the store and got everything I needed. The plan was to make it the next day, on a Monday.

Late on Sunday night, Brett started to feel strange. Icky. Upset stomach, headache. The next morning, he considered not going to work, but decided to tough it out. Needless to say, he spent his lunch break napping in his car and ate nothing but peanuts all day. Now, when a grown man eats nothing but peanuts, something is wrong.

Voile! How lucky is it that when he came home from work on Monday, I was able to say...."dinner is an enormous pot of chicken noodle soup!" He was thrilled, to say the least. He took three ibuprofen and a 2-hour nap. Upon waking, he was starrrrrving, and chowed down three big mugs of this soup. It must have done the trick, as he felt near-perfect the next morning.

And that's my saga of Brett getting sick and my delicious soup curing him. Try some before winter runs up!!

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 TBS butter

1 small onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 large celery stalks, chopped

5 cans broth (chicken or vegetable - I used a combo)

1 cooked rotisserie chicken (this is what makes it good! don't substitute :) )

2 small packages frozen yolk-free egg noodles

basil, oregano, salt, pepper

1. Spend about 15 minutes pulling all the meat off the rotisserie chicken and set aside. Make sure you don't get any little bones, and pull the big pieces apart. Go to town on it.

2. In large stockpot or dutch oven, cook onion, celery and carrots in butter until slightly tender.

3. Add broth and chicken to stockpot. Bring to a boil, and add egg noodles. Bring back to a low boil for approximately 20 minutes, before reducing to a simmer for another 30-45 minutes. Add seasonings as desired.

Scalloped Potatoes & Onions

I think this is the first time I've ever posted two blog posts in a period of 36 hours. But you see, I have this problem!! I keep a mental checklist of all the recipes I want to post. And, I keep the photos on a little SD card that quickly fills up. So when I cook quite a bit (which is lately....) both my mental list and photo card get just a bit bogged down. Its somewhat overwhelming, but in a good way!

I actually made these deeeeeelicious potatoes about 3-4 months ago, and then again a few weeks back. There is no way - I repeat, no way - that I can just "skip" and move on to another recipe. These potatoes do take awhile to bake, but its so worth it. Both times, I've done this recipe on a weekend, so I can let it bake while I make the rest of dinner or read a book.

This is a great side dish for just about anything, but both times, we've had it alongside pork chops. Something about pork and potatoes...I just can't explain it!

Without further ado...a side dish that I will be making for the next 60 years!

Scalloped Potatoes and Onions

5 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced*

1 medium onion, sliced**

3 TBS butter

1/4 C flour

1 + 3/4 C chicken broth

2 TBS mayonnaise

salt, pepper, paprika

1. In a large, greased, glass baking dish, layer potatoes and onions.

2. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add flour and stir with a whisk until clumps disappear. Gradually add broth, mayonnaise, and salt and pepper. Cook for approx. 2 minutes, or until thick, stirring with a whisk. Pour over potatoes, and sprinkle with paprika.

3. Bake, covered with foil, at 325 for 2 hours. When you lift the foil off before serving, be very careful...the steam is hot and will burn you!!

*if you have a mandoline, this would be a no-brainer. I don't. I like to be very hands on with my food, so much so that I chose not to add one to my bridal registry

**not diced, not minced, not chopped. Sliced, like half-circles. But you know, it will probably taste the same no matter what :)

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

If its possible to have a love affair with a muffin, I've done it. I have found THE muffin: the muffin that tastes more delicious, has more texture, is more colorful, and is more healthy....than any other muffin, ever.

Meet these Carrot Oatmeal Muffins. What's not to love? I'm talkin' pineapple bits, coconut, cream cheese!!!! For added nutrients and fiber, let's not ignore the whole wheat flour, rolled oats, and 2 cups of shredded carrots.

These muffins are so good, my cats tore into the plastic bag looking for them.

The bar has been set. Until another muffin scores more points...eat up!

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

1 C all-purpose flour

1 C whole wheat flour*

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 C white sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

3/4 C unsweetened natural applesauce

1/4 C canola oil

2 large or jumbo eggs, beaten (3 if medium/small)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 C uncooked, rolled oats

1/2 C flaked coconut (sweetened is ok)

1/2 C golden raisins (more plump and delicious than purple raisins, I think)

2 C shredded carrot

8-oz can crushed pineapple, drained with juice reserved

4 oz cream cheese (half of one block)

*this is my second time baking with whole wheat flour, and I love it. You can't tell a difference in flavor, but knowing that you're eating whole grains which aren't refined and bleached...that's a good feeling.

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray 2 muffin pans with Pam.

2. In a large bowl, mix both flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and add white and brown sugar, applesauce, oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix until just moist (I decided to forego the mixer and use a large spoon.) Fold in the oats, coconut, raisins, carrots and pineapple.

3. In a small bowl, soften the cream cheese by microwaving for 15-20 seconds. Stir until smooth by adding a tiny bit of the reserved pineapple juice. You want the mixture to be fairly thick, like yogurt.

4. In each muffin cup, pour a large spoonful of the batter, and a small spoonful of the cream cheese mixture, followed by another large spoonful of batter. Muffin cups should be about 3/4 full.

5. Bake 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

(see the little layer of cream cheese in there?!)

Pork with Pomegranate Pan Sauce

Flipping through my December 2009 issue of Cooking Light a few months back, something about this recipe drew me in. Imagining a deliciously juicy pork chop alongside a sweet and tangy sauce...it just sounded so appealing! Even better, Cooking Light made note that it can be made in 30 minutes or less: perfect for my crazy weeknight schedule.

My experience with pomegranate is, well, nil. I've had a few pomegranate martinis on the KC plaza, but thats about it! I do know that pomegranates are very, very good for you. In some studies, it has been said to reduce heart disease, lower blood pressure, inhibit viral infections and even prevent dental plaque. But hey, even if all of that is false...the juice from this sweet fruit tastes GOOD! This recipe is my baby step into cooking with pomegranates, since it doesn't actually call for a real pomegranate, but rather the juice - which is a-ok with me from a time and convenience standpoint.

So how did this recipe turn out? Very, very awesome. The sauce is tangy and has a different flavor than anything I've tried before. And the editors of Cooking Light didn't lie - this dish did take only 30 minutes!

Enjoy!

Pork with Pomegranate Pan Sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp black pepper

4 boneless pork chops

2 TBS olive oil

1/3 C shallots, chopped

3/4 C pomegranate juice

1 TBS sugar

1 TBS balsamic vinegar

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl; rub on pork chops.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork chops; cook 3-5 minutes on each side. Remove and keep warm in low oven. Add shallots to pan and cook for one minute. Add juice, sugar and vinegar. Bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes or until slightly thick.

3. Serve warm pork chops alongside sauce.