Friday, July 30, 2010

Fruity Curry Chicken Salad

My college roomie Hattie loved this! She would just eat it out of the bowl when I would make it. You can do that as well, or you can make a sandwich or put it in a pita or eat it with some crackers whatever makes your skirt fly up!

Fruity Curry Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cooked and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
4 green onions, chopped
1 Golden Delicious apple - peeled, cored and diced
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup seedless green grapes, halved
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 cup light mayonnaise

Directions:
In a large bowl combine the chicken, celery, onion, apple, raisins, grapes, pecans, pepper, curry powder and mayonnaise. Mix all together. Serve!

Fruity Curry Chicken Salad

Divine! Chicken Nuggets and Honey Mustard

I've decided that when I use the word "Divine" preceding a title of a recipe, that means it isn't healthy. Case in point, these chicken nuggets. No, they're not healthy. Not one bit. But are they tasty? YES!!! My BFF Hattie in Oklahoma, who by the way is 32 weeks pregnant with her first child asked me again for this recipe so I decided to post it so she could find it whenever she needs it!

Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients:
2 cups crushed sour-cream-and-onion-flavored potato chips
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
6 chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Spread the crushed potato chips in a shallow dish. Beat together the egg and milk in a shallow bowl.
3. Dip the chicken cubes into the egg mixture and then dredge them in the chips. Place the chicken nuggets on a baking sheet and drizzle with melted butter(oh my!)
4. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown
PS! chicken nuggets can be frozen after baking! yay!

Honey Mustard

Ingredients:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice or juice from 1/2 lemon
Horseradish, to taste
2 tablespoons orange juice (more or less as needed)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients except orange juice; stir well. Thin to pouring consistency for dressing or dipping consistency for dips with orange juice. Cover and chill for 2 or 3 hours
Yield: 1 1/4 cups

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Country Oven-Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken is one of my weaknesses. I'm always looking for a yummy, healthy fried chicken recipe and here is one that I have found! yay!

Country Oven-Fried Chicken
serves 6



Ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp hot sauce (optional)
6 6-ounce skinned chicken breast halves
3 cups Corn Chex or cornflakes
3/4 cup self-rising flour
2 tsp Creole or Cajun seasoning
Cooking spray

Directions:
1. Combine the buttermilk and hot sauce in a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. Add chicken and seal the bag. Chill for at least 4 hours, turning the bag occasionally.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Crush the cereal into crumbs in a food processor. Pour into a shallow dish; stir in flour and seasoning. Remove chicken from the buttermilk, letting excess drip off. Dredge chicken in cereal mixture. Arrange the pieces, bone-side down, on a cookie sheet or shallow baking pan coated with nonstick cooking spray.
3. Coat tops of chicken lightly with cooking spray. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 20 minutes. Use a wide metal spatula to carefully loosen and turn the chicken. Coat other sides with cooking spray and bake for 15 minutes.
4. Loosen and turn the chicken again, coat top side with cooking spray again, and bake for 10-15 minutes or until juices run clear when chicken is pierced(or use a digital read thermometer and make sure the internal temperature is 165.

Nutrition Score per serving:
302 calories, 25 g carbs (38%), 2 g fat (6%), 0.7 g fiber, 42 g protein (56%), 0.6 g saturated fat

Pan Seared Tilapia(or trout)

I used Trout for this recipe because it is what I had in my freezer. I buy the big bag of tilapia loins at Costco for around $14 and they last quite a while. Tilapia is super mild, so if you are not a fish person it is a great choice for you. This dish offers a whopping 32 grams of protein per serving!

Pan Seared Trout/Tilapia
Serves 4



Ingredients:
2 cups fish stock
2 tablespoons whipping cream
Pinch saffron
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
4 5-ounce trout fillets
1 pound fresh spinach leaves, rinsed and spun dry
1 Meyer or regular lemon, quartered

Directions:
1. Boil broth and cream in a small, heavy saucepan, uncovered, over high heat until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat. Add saffron and steep 10 minutes. Add lemon juice. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Heat 1/2 teaspoon oil in each of 2large, heavy saute pans over medium-high heat. Sprinkle trout with salt and pepper. Add 2 trout fillets to each pan and cook until golden brown and crispy on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Remove pans from heat. Turn trout over and let rest in pans until just cooked through, about 2 minutes
3. Transfer fillets to 4 plates. Divide spinach equally among saute pans and stir over medium-high heat until it just wilts, about 2 minutes. Serve 1/4 of spinach alongside each trout. Spoon saffron sauce around trout and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Nutrition Score per serving:
(1 trout fillet, 1/4 each sauce and spinach): 252 calories, 42% fat (12 g; 4 g saturated), 8% carbs (5 g), 50% protein (32 g), 3 g fiber, 251 mg calcium, 3.8 mg iron, 544 mg sodium.

Chipotle Marinade

Eating healthy can be boring, which is why a lot of us give up on it or go through phases. This marinade is an easy way to make a plain old chicken breast flavorful and dare I say, exciting!

Chipotle Marinade

Ingredients:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 Tbl. honey
2 tsp. adobo sauce from can
1/2 tsp. salt
2 canned chipotle peppers

Directions:
Puree all ingredients in a blender. Pour the marinade into a zip-top bag. Add chicken or pork and marinate 30 minutes(or longer if you would like a stronger flavor, overnight is fine!) in the fridge, occasionally flipping bag to distribute.

Makes enough for four chicken breasts or four (1-inch) pork chops or a couple 1 pound pork tenderloins.

Green Chile Chicken

yes, it has been FAR too long since I've posted anything. For those of you that don't know, my husband left June 14th for Sheppard AFB in Texas until AT LEAST Sept 21. Then he has phase 2 of his training and we don't know where that will be, but it won't be with me :( THEN there is phase 3. That is at least in Tacoma, which is about an hour away(with out traffic) so he will be a weekend commuter.

So since it is just me, I haven't been cooking because cooking for 1 is really hard. Unless you want to eat the same thing for lunch & dinner for the week which sometimes I don't mind. However, my great friends The McClintock's let me do laundry at their house(yep, our new tiny apartment doesn't have a washer or a dryer...LAME!) so I decided to surprise them with a nice, healthy flavorful dinner and this is what I came up with!

Green Chile Chicken
serves 4




Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 packet reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 lime
1 can whole green chiles
4 slices mozzarella cheese(or you can use shredded, the slices are just easy for portion control)

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 400
2. Place your chicken breasts in a baking dish and squeeze the lime juice over the chicken
3. Evenly sprinkle the taco seasoning over the chicken breasts
4. Take your chiles and open them so that they lay flat, "butterfly" them if you will. Cover each chicken breast with a chile(YUM!)
5. Bake at 400 for 30 min then take them out of the oven, take a slice of mozzarella and lay it over your chile covered chicken and bake for 5 more minutes or until the cheese is melted.

I served this with some black beans and some Spanish style rice! Ryan and Heather both loved it!