Neely's Chicken Salad in Tomato Cups

Very Delicious and EASY recipe from Food Network's Down Home with the Neely's.

The tomato cups give this chicken salad a "gourmet" touch without the gourmet work. Try it. You will LOVE this chicken salad. Adding white wine vinegar really makes a difference and lightens the mayo.

I added a side of chicken salad on top of a butter lettuce leaf (another item from our local farmer's market!) because this was all we had for dinner. My tomatoes weren't too big and so not much salad fit inside.

We aslo had a piece of whole wheat toast on the side - really good to scoop up the chicken salad! Here is a link to the recipe on Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/neelys-chicken-salad-in-tomato-cups-recipe/index.html

Meyer Lemon and Cranberry Muffins

Yesterday at the farmer's market we picked up some great, fresh, local, and seasonal food including Meyer Lemons. This is the only time of the year you can get them. I brought them home and looked furiously for a recipe to use them in. I found a great blog that has dozens of uses for Meyer Lemons and I decided to bake one of them up this morning.

Meyer lemon and Cranberry muffins! They took no time to make and they were delicious. It's a good thing the recipe only makes a dozen. Using fresh cranberries is a must in this recipe. I buy a few packages during Thanksgiving and Christmas since they are cheaper then. I just freeze them and take out what I need until the holidays come around again and I can buy some more!

Do yourself a favor and head to the farmer's market every Thursday in downtown Visalia or every Saturday in the Sears parking lot. Buy some Meyer Lemons, Blood Oranges, and Cara Cara Oranges and whatever else your heart desires!

Thanks to Buff Chickpea for the recipe ideas. Here is the blog with links to all the yummy Meyer Lemon recipes: http://www.buffchickpea.com/2009/01/seasonal-eating-meyer-lemons.html

Thanks to Everybody Likes Sandwiches for her delicious muffin recipe: http://everybodylikessandwiches.blogspot.com/2008/11/sweet-success-meyer-lemon-fresh.html

Farmer's Market Dinner

Went to the farmer's market today and decided to make a delicious salad with what we found there. At the farmer's market we bought: red onions, spinach, blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, clover sprouts, bib (or butter) lettuce, Meyer lemons...all for $10. We decided to make a salad from the red onions, blood oranges, and spinach. Later on in the week I will use the Bib Lettuce to set a chicken salad on that will be stuffed in a tomato. Here is the recipe for the salad:

Spinach Salad with Blood Oranges

(Serves 2)

2 bunches fresh leaf spinach (trim stems and break apart larger leaves)

1/2 red onion, sliced

2 blood oranges, sectioned

(click on this link to learn how to section an orange: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9K6tcu3QZ8). Make sure to work over a bowl to catch the juice that will be used in the vinaigrette. Save the peel and membranes. you will squeeze the juice out of these over a strainer set on a bowl to also use in the vinaigrette.

4 oz. Goat Cheese

Toasted sliced almonds

Blood Orange Vinaigrette (see recipe below)

Place the spinach, red onion, and orange sections in a bowl. Pour just enough vinaigrette over the salad to coat it - don't drown it! Divide the salad between to 2 bowls and sprinkle the almonds and 2 oz. of Goat Cheese over each serving. Drizzle a bit more dressing over the salad.

Blood Orange Vinaigrette:

I used the recipe from this website to make my vinaigrette. Make sure you use the blood orange juice saved from sectioning the oranges. The dressing comes out a beautiful pink color and it is delicious!!

http://southernfood.about.com/od/saladdressings/r/r70402b.htm

What Goes with a Rainy Day?

Broccoli and Cheddar Soup and Baked Potatoes with the Works!

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. With a new church schedule of 2-5pm, making dinner from scratch when we get home just isn't reasonable anymore. I am all for make-ahead dinners! This recipe is from one of my go to recipe sites and inspired by a recent get together with my side of the family. It was delicious and a perfect pairing for a rainy day here in Visalia.

Here is the link for the soup: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/broccoli-cheese-soup/Detail.aspx
Yes I know it calls for frozen broccoli and Velveeta...but it is super yummy!

This is my prep that I did before church:
1. I made the base of the soup - softened the onions in the butter, added the broccoli and chicken stock and brought it to a simmer. Then I just left the pot on the stove until we got back from church. I also cubed the cheese and left it in the fridge.
2. Since my oven has a delay timer on it, I prepped the baker potatoes (washed, pricked with a fork and rubbed canola oil on them and wrapped them in foil) and set the oven to cook them at 350 degrees for one hour. These cooked while we were at church and were hot and ready when we got home.
3. I prepped all the toppings for the baked potatoes: grated the cheese, sliced the green onions. This is what we like to top them with.

When we got home from church:
1. I finished off the soup with the cheese, garlic powder, milk, cornstarch and water and let it thicken (about 10 minutes). I also added salt and pepper to taste and it really made a difference. I also didn't want chunks of broccoli and onions in my soup so I took my stick blender to it. WOW! it was really yummy this way all blended together and I think it made it creamier.
2. I took out the potatoes and they stayed nice and hot in the foil until we were ready to eat.
3. Put a can of chili in a pot to heat it up to use as a topping for the potatoes.

These are the toppings we had out for the potatoes: chili, cheese, sour cream, green onions, butter, salt and pepper. The soup can also be used as a topping for the potatoes...and it is really delicious on potatoes.

Aloha Chicken Sandwiches

This recipe is made from all leftovers!

I made this sandwich the other night with a leftover chicken breast that had been marinated in a sesame ginger marinade that we used for an Asian chicken salad the night before, half of a leftover yellow onion, and leftover pineapple rings that were sitting in the fridge and hamburger buns from a previous meal of Boca Burgers.

I preheated a grill pan on med-high heat and sprayed it with non-stick spray. The chicken breast was quite thick so I sliced it in half to make two new chicken breasts. I sliced the onion into thick rings. While the pan was heating, I mixed the pineapple juice with a couple splashes of terayaki and poured it into a zip top bag and added the pineapple and onion slices so that they would marinate and pick up that flavor.

Place the pineapple rings (two per sandwich) and onion rings onto grill pan and cook the onion rings until soft and then flip over. I cooked the pineapple rings just until there were grill marks on them and just a bit caramelized. You can brush more marinade on top while cooking. Grilling pineapple rings completely changes its flavor. Take the pineapple and onions off and place the chicken in the grill pan. Since my chicken was already cooked, I just heated it through and brushed the pineapple/terayaki marinade on top as it was heating. I also added a slice of Monterey Jack cheese and melted that on top of the chicken.

Butter the hamburger buns and place them face down on the grill pan to toast. When done, brush a bit of the marinade on the buns and assemble the sandwich: bun, chicken, pineapple rings, onion, bun.

You can make this sandwich your own and place whatever condiment you want on it. You can add mayo or BBQ sauce if you like. You can even add bacon to it if you like that - whatever is to your taste. I recommend trying it with just the way we ate it.

The grilled pineapple is the star of this sandwich!

Chicken Delicious

The title of this post is also the name of this recipe. I made it for dinner tonight. Say what you will about recipes that call for "Cream of _____" soups, but it was easy and yummy! It was Chicken Delicious!

CHICKEN DELICIOUS
(by Janice Crist)

4-6 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts **
just a squeeze of a lemon
salt to taste
pepper to taste
celery salt to taste **
paprika to taste
10 3/4 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
10 3/4 oz. can cream of celery soup
1/3 cup dry sherry or white wine (can substitute chicken stock)
grated Parmesan cheese

1. Season chicken with lemon juice, salt, pepper, celery salt, paprika. Place in slow cooker.
2. Combine soups with sherry (or chicken stock). Pour over chicken. Sprinkle with cheese.
3. Cover. Cook on Low 8-10 hours or on High for 4-5.
4. Serve with rice.

** I used what I had in the freezer which was a combination of chicken breasts and tenders. It was nice to have the smaller pieces for the kids and if you aren't too hungry for a whole chicken breast.

Also, make sure you do season the chicken on both sides before you put it in the crock pot and pour the soups over the top. It really does make a difference. I love paprika, so I seasoned the chicken liberally with it.

**Remember that you are using both salt and celery salt in this recipe, so watch how much you put on the chicken.

(Recipe taken from "Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with your Slow Cooker" by Dawn J. Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good)

Here's a Moneysaving Tip...

1. Buy your cheese in bulk and shred it yourself. You can always divide it in half and freeze it for later use. YES! You CAN FREEZE CHEESE...just in case you didn't know that. It will freeze better if the bag isn't stuffed with cheese.

2. Buy large cans of whole olives and slice or chop them yourself. You can store them in the fridge, to use as needed.

3. When butter goes on sale...buy at least 4 boxes. You'll thank me later. And guess what? YEP! You can stick your butter in the freezer as well. Oh, and PLEASE buy UNSALTED BUTTER, especially when you bake with it. Nothing worse than putting salted butter in your cookie recipe along with the additional amount of salt it calls for. If you use unsalted butter in your baking recipes, you can tell a difference.

4. I have recently learned a hard lesson. Don't store your milk on that neat little shelf on the door of the fridge. Especially in the summer when our houses are a bit warmer, every time you open that door, the warm air will hit the milk container, raising the temperature a bit. That "little" bit every time might just make your milk expire a few days before the expiration date.

5. This is a good one for all you moms whose kids love Lunchables. I don't buy them. Give me a break! Packaged cheese and crackers with little circles of meat? Mini-pizza shells with sauce and shredded cheese that cost over $2? NOPE! Won't do it! Our local grocery store (shout-out to Winco) makes small pizza shells ready to go in a package of 6, package their own pizza sauce, and even have pizza dough ready to go. My son loves the mini pizzas that I make for him. And remember that bulk cheese that you shred yourself? For literally a fraction of the price of that pizza Lunchable, I make a homemade version for him. Don't even get me started on the cheese and cracker Lunchable.

So those are my money saving tips for now.