Cashew Chicken with Brown Rice

What’s my inspiration?
I LOVE all things Asian food related.  What’s not to love – fresh vegetables, sweet & spicy meat and it’s usually healthy.  My heaven.  I found this tasty take out inspired dish while surfing Pinterest one wild Saturday night at the cabin.  The original pin came from Eclectic Recipes who based this dish off of Martha Stewart recipe.  I just added some red & green pepper so the meal was a bit more well-rounded.  Let me tell you what, it was fast & easy and taught me that even this meat & potato girl could make an Asian inspired dish (something I have no skill at).  Now that I have cashew chicken under my belt, who knows, maybe Pad Thai and Spring rolls next.  Watch out!

Tips: 

• Next time around, I would use less hoisin sauce then suggested below, it was a little sweet.
• I added some Sriracha to give the dish a kick and it made a WORLD of difference.  Took away some of the sweetness.
  

  Sriracha

What you need:

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, chopped
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1 cup cashews
• 1 bell pepper, diced (optional)
• 4 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
• 8 green onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 3/4 water or chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt and pepper
• Sriracha – if desired
• Serve with white or brown rice

What you do:

• Cook rice according to package directions. 
• Preheat large skillet or wok over low heat.
• Add olive oil, garlic and cashews to skillet. Saute over low heat until garlic becomes golden, but don’t let the garlic brown, or it will become bitter.
   
• Add peppers and any other vegetables you want
   
• Salt and pepper chicken. Add chicken to skillet and cook until chicken is no longer pink. 
   
• Add cornstarch to a small bowl with the water and mix well. 
• Add cornstarch and water to chicken. Then add hoisin sauce and vinegar.
   
• Simmer for 5 – 10 minutes, until sauce has thickened. 
• Season with Sriracha sauce if desired.
• Just before serving, add green onions and serve with rice.

Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad with Mandarin Oranges and Feta

Source: Melissa’s Kitchen 

What’s my inspiration?

I was really just looking for a fresh, spring friendly salad that wasn’t the same ole’ thing.  I love my pecan-crusted chicken so I thought I would throw it onto a salad with some other favorite things and see how it ended up.  Plus, I wouldn’t just serve a straight up veggie salad for dinner.  If the dish doesn’t have meat of some kind, my husband doesn’t think it qualifies as dinner 🙂 This recipe was delicious and light.  It also made fabulous leftovers for lunch disguised as a wrap!

What you need:

Salad

• Spring green lettuce mix
• 1 can mandarin oranges
• 4 oz crumbled feta
• ¼ cup pecans

Pecan crusted chicken

• 4 boneless chicken breasts
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• ½ cup pecan meal
• ¼ cup flour
• Salt and Pepper
• Poppy seed dressing

Tips:

• If you can’t find pecan meal, put pecans in food processor until they are a fine powder.  Or just finely dice with a  knife.
• Don’t like poppy seed dressing?  Use raspberry vinaigrette or balsamic.
• Substitute strawberries or blueberries if you don’t have or like mandarin oranges.
• Got Leftovers? Make it a wrap!  Grab a tortilla and fill it up with chicken & salad. 
• Serve this dish with a grilled garlic bread or Texas toast.

What you do:

Prepare Salad:

• In large serving bowl, toss together lettuce, mandarin oranges, pecans and feta cheese.  Set aside.
   

Pecan Crusted Chicken:

• Mix together breadcrumbs and pecan meal.
• In 3 shallow pans, put flour in one, eggs in one and bread crumb / pecan mixture in the other.  Season flour with salt and pepper.
• Place each chicken breast between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and seal edges.  Using a meat mallet, pound out the chicken breasts until ¼ to ½ inch thick. The thinner they are, the faster they will cook.
• One piece at a time, coat chicken in flour, then egg, then in breadcrumb / pecan mixture.  Shake off excess of flour, egg and breadcrumb / pecan mixture as you go.  Set aside until all pieces are done.
• Cook any of the following ways (Pan frying is the most messy and slightly less healthy.  Baking is the easiest way.):
• BAKE: Place chicken on a rack on top of a shallow pan or cookie sheet.  Bake chicken at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.
• PAN FRY: Pan fry chicken in 1/8 inch of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) until cooked through.  About 6-8 minutes per side on medium heat.
• GRILL: Place chicken on top rack of grill and cook at 300 for 20-30 minutes on indirect heat.  Do NOT cook on bottom rack or nuts will burn.
  
  

  Pecan crusted chicken on grill

   

Serve salad with chicken on the same plate, drizzle with dressing and enjoy!

Chicken Stroganoff with Dried Beef

Source: Melissa’s Kitchen

What’s my inspiration?

My mom served this dish growing up.  I think she used to bake it in the oven and then eventually, started making it in the crock-pot.  She used to make me whatever I wanted for my birthday dinner, and if I recall correctly, I asked for this every time.  I loved it.  It’s such a flavourful dish that is fairly healthy and really easy to make.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

What you need: Feeds 2-4 people

• 1 pound frozen chicken
• 1 small can mushrooms
• 80z sour cream (light)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup  (low sodium)
• 1 small can dried beef, torn in 1/2 (I use Hormel Dried Beef)
• 1 package wide wheat egg noodles

Tips:

• You don’t have to use light sour cream, low sodium cream of mushroom soup or wheat noodles.  You can use the high fat, high sodium ingredients.  However, it is much healthier if you do use the suggested items.  I promise, you won’t notice a difference in taste.
• If you don’t have cream of mushroom, you can use cream of chicken
• You can put the chicken in thawed.  But is works great if you throw it in frozen.  Especially if you leave it in all day.

What you do:

• Simple: Combine all ingredients into a crock pot
• Cook 8-10 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high
• Cook egg noodles until done
• Service Chicken Stroganoff with Corned Beef over egg noodles

Football Sunday – GO VIKES!

What’s my inspiration:

I love Sunday’s, especially during football season.  It’s the time of year where I finally feel like it’s OK to be inside and I don’t feel AS guilty for not spending the entire day outdoors.  I started cooking mostly because my husband likes to spend the day watching the games and I needed something to do.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Vikings fan (even during the tough times).  But…I don’t care to watch the other teams unless it’s playoffs.  More and more I found myself in the kitchen most of the day testing out recipes and using my hubby as my official taste tester.  I usually make a couple appetizers during the day, dinner, and on extra ambitious days a dessert.  This particular day, I made Chips & Hot Salsa Cheese, Buffalo Bites, Sunday Chili and Beer Bread.  Today, the Vikings won – WOOT WOOT!  So just maybe, this is a luck combination.  Enjoy!

Strawberry Mint Chicken

Strawberry & Mint?  Yes!

Inspiration:
I love fresh mint!  However, when I spend the whopping $2 on mint at the farmers market, I feel like I have enough to make a giant mojito in a pool.  Since that is not a logical solution for the excess mint, I experimented with a few marinades. This strawberry mint marinade is light, fresh and great on chicken!  You can eat the chicken alone or on top of a strawberry and spinach salad!

What you need:

• 1 lb boneless chicken breast
• Strawberry vinaigrette
• 5-6 large strawberries – diced
• 1/2 cup fresh mint – remove stems and roughly chop leaves
• Salt & Pepper

What you do:

• Combine vinaigrette, strawberries and mint in a large zip lock bag
• Add chicken and massage with vinaigrette until chicken is covered
• Season with Salt & Pepper
• Seal bag and marinate  chicken 4-24 hours.  The longer you can marinate, the more tender and flavorful
• Remove chicken from bag and grill until cooked through and enjoy!

Substitution Idea: Try using raspberry vinaigrette and raspberries in place of the strawberries!

Side Dish Idea: Brussel Sprouts with Bacon

FYI: The chicken will turn a little pink due to the strawberry’s.  Don’t let this fool you when cooking it!

Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken Breasts

What’s the inspiration?

Photo Credit: Buca di Beppo

My husband and I love going out to eat.  What’s not to love when you have good company, a fun atmosphere and the excitement of trying a new food adventure, or an old favorite standby?  Additionally, one of my new hobbies is attempting to re-create portions of the meal from our restaurant adventures. I am defiantly not a trained chef, and I don’t claim to have a great pallet. However, you can pick up clues from the menu and even ask the waitress who may give you ingredients in the dish!  These will help you re-create a dish at home!

This particular evening, we were in the mood for a comforting meal in a warm cozy atmosphere.  We ended up at Buca de Beppo in St. Paul, which is an amazing Itialian restaurant that serves family style portions.  We have been to Buca’s for several family occasions and even grooms’ dinners.  Each time as good as the last.  Believe it or not, despite being a family style restaurant, you can go here with 2 people!  You just don’t get to order as many items off the menu, which is half the fun. CA (aka my husband) and I split an amazing Prosciutto Stuffed Mushroom appetizer followed by Prosciutto stuffed chicken breast with spaghetti.  Both just fantastic.  The mushrooms melted in your mouth and left you wanting more.  The Prosciutto stuffed chicken was tender & juicy with the crunch of baked breading on the outside.  In the middle was the salty taste of the Prosciutto combined with mozzarella.  Very yummy when paired with a great glass of wine.

I left the restaurant that night inspired by this meal and did re-create it in my own kitchen.  I left out a few things when I re-created it.  Buca’s stuffed chicken was on a bed of pesto cream sauce.  I’m not one who is totally in love with pesto, so I choose to leave that portion out.  I was left with a perfectly acceptable Prosciutto stuffed chicken that we can enjoy at home, any night of the week.

What you need:

• 4 Large Chicken Breasts
• 4 Pieces Prosciutto
• 1 bag shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 cup Breadcrumbs (See my homemade breadcrumb recipe, Simple Tip #1)
• 1 Egg
• Flour
• Salt
• Pepper

What you do:

• Heat oven to 350
• Pound chicken out & season with salt & pepper.
• Place 1 piece Prosciutto & some mozzarella cheese on chicken
• Roll up chicken and secure with toothpicks.
• Bread chicken by coating in flour, egg then bread crumbs
• Lightly grease baking dish and cook chicken for 20-30 minutes until done in the middle
• Serve with Spaghetti & Sauce