Tex Mex Chicken Salad

We love chicken salad around here so versatile. Put it on lettuce- or slap it in a wrap, or like I did tonight- paired up with homemade bread!

You can vary up the veggies in it and change up the amounts of things to your preference.  Celery, tomatoes etc would all work great in this.

Inspiration recipe here

2 chicken breasts cooked
1/2 cup low fat Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
1/4 cup low fat Sour Cream
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Chili Powder
1-2 Sweet Peppers
2 Scallions
Large can Kernel Corn rinsed and drained
1 Cup or small can Black Beans rinsed and drained


Cook the breasts ahead and set aside to let cool.  You could also use precooked chicken or the left overs from a roasted chicken!

In a medium bowl mix mayonnaise, sour cream, cumin and chili powder.   Mix well. Chop remaining ingredients and add to the bowl.  Cube the chicken and add to the mix.  Tastes best if chilled for a couple hours.

Serve on its own, in tacos, wraps or on bread.
Delicious!

Ranch Pork Chops and Parmesan Garlic Potatoes

I've been wanting to make this recipe for a while.  The original inspiration recipe is here.  That said i think next time i'm not going to make them in the crock pot- but in a sauce pan... or maybe in the oven.  Since we had to turn it on anyway.  This was my first time trying to roast garlic too- success!

Crock Pot Pork Chop Portion:
Our crock pot uses a probe to measure temperature- but it worked out to approximately 2.5-3 hours on high.

1 can ready to serve cream of chicken soup
1 packet Ranch dressing mix
4-6 pork chops.  (We used bone in and fairly thick- but thinner boneless would work well too)

Potatoes:

First roast a bulb of garlic: oven at 350F lightly wrap the garlic in tinfoil and roast for 45 minutes- 1 hour.  let cool for 15 minutes and then peel the skins off and mash.  I used 12 cloves total (about one bulb)

4lbs potatoes cubed skins on
roasted garlic
1 cup parmesan- shaved or grated- fresh is best
Milk (approx 1 cup)
5 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes until soft. Drain. Now you have the option hand mashing or transferring to your stand mixer and mixing there. Mash and add in the butter and milk until the consistancey you want.  Add in the Parmesan and mix until well distributed.  Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the pork chop over a bed of potatoes.  Garnish with parsley

Cheddar Biscuits (aka Red Lobster Yumminess)

I don't eat seafood.  But Red Lobster has been a family favorite restaurant and I'm always happy to go along- to eat the biscuits.  well no more- now we're making them at home. 

2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup Milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup shredded cheddar (Personally I'll be using more cheese next time)

2tbsp melted butter
2tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp garlic salt

Really these can't get ANY easier.  Mix the Bisquick, garlic powder and cheese. Add milk and mix.  It gets sticky.  Drop onto a non stick cookie sheet (mine's seen better days- so I lined with foil first).  I made 6 jumbo biscuits. You could get 12 out of this easy.  Cook for about 10 minutes @ 400F.  Keep an eye on them- even making huge ones mine were done in 10 minutes.

While baking melt the butter oregano and garlic salt.  When you remove the biscuits brush over the top of biscuits.

A perfect side for breakfast or supper!

Week Three Meal Plan

OK I'm learning my lesson- it's summer and I'm not cooking that much.  Between days at the lake, work and parents feeding us we're not needing a big meal each day on the plan.  So I have 4 recipes for this week. 

Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops

Carlic Cheddar Biscuits (aka Red Lobster Numminess)

Tex Mex Chicken Salad

Wicket Thai Chicken Soup

Sweet Potato Quinoa Curry

I've been wanting to make this recipe for a couple weeks now which you'll know if you saw my last recipe list.  So I tweaked a bit to work with what I had in the pantry. It's been a busy month between traveling for dog shows, picking up last minute work and kids being gone with their dad we haven't been cooking as many meals. however my leftovers now are used up!

Inspiration recipe here

2 medium sweet potatos
1/2 large onion
1 tsp ginger paste
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup Quinoa
1 tbsp Olive oil
1/4 cup Butter (Or Ghee) 
1/4 cup Curry Powder
Pinch of salt
Dried Cranberries or Currants (optional)
Spinach (optional)

Cut the sweet potato into 1/2" cubes.  Personally I peeled it but you could scrub and cut with peel on. (Our chickens get our peels :) ).  Toss with olive oil and salt. Place in oven on a sheet at 475f
until cooked through and just starting to brown (15-20 minutes)

Meanwhile chop onion, place in sauce pan with butter, garlic and ginger. cook until soft. If needed add some of the broth to prevent sticking.

Prepare the quinoa - 2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa- boil until water is mostly absorbed then remove from heat and cover letting steam until cooked tender.

Remove the sweet potato from the oven, add to the sauce pan with the onion. Add the cup of broth, curry powder and simmer for 10 minutes stirring to cover the sweet potato.  Add spinach (we were out! storm took out our garden worth) in the last couple minutes so it just wilts

Serve over the Quinoa and top with a sprinkle of cranberries (dried)

servings 4- although you may want to make more quinoa if it's to be for four people. We had sweet potato mixture left over fora couple more servings but were out of quinoa feeding 3 of us

Tropical Frozen Treats

My kids love making Popsicles.  I love pina colada's.  So this is what we made.
1can coconut milk
1 can pineapple (Crushed) and juice

I mixed it up with our immersion blender and then poured into our popsicle molds.

Suggestions: use strong juice to mix with the coconut milk. Otherwise the taste will be quite mellow- concentrated juice mixed with just some water not the correct amount.  Or like i did canned fruit with it's own juice.

 

No Bake Cake Batter Fudge

Kids are off to their dads, I'm home alone and it's miserable and rainy out.  When the kids are gone I try to avoid buying groceries and usually don't cook big meals just for me. A friend keeps commenting on cupcake posts on facebook and it got me craving.  So off to pinterest for something fast and easy and hopefully no bake. 

So here we are- original recipe from here

Off to the pantry I go- i have white cake batter but not yellow- and no sprinkles.  MMMMM I think white chocolate chips instead.  Nope kids ate those all gone! So this is a plain Jane version.

Microwavable bowl mix together
1 cup cake mix
1 cup powdered sugar
then add in
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter

Don't stir. Microwave until melted.  Original recipe said 2 minutes- that was too long for mine- i got a couple spots of carmalized butter/sugar out of it. Next time I'll just keep an eye

Stir until completely mixed, add in any add ins such as sprinkles - and stir only until distributed.  Spread into a greased container (This recipe worked well into a pie plate) and place in fridge to cool for about 1 hour.

mixed and ready to go in the fridge

Total time from start (as in got off the couch) until into the fridge- around 5 minutes :)

Servings: 8
WW Points: 6 (no add ins)