Dijon, Honey and Greek Cream Cheese Sauce

I made this sauce to go with my Baked Chicken Bites.  You don’t get a more classic dipping sauce than Honey Mustard. But I made it special. I used Dijon which I prefer for a honey mustard sauce and mille fleur honey that I bought while in Sicily.  I also mixed it with my new favorite Greek Cream Cheese.

This is a delicious, silky, sweet, tangy sauce that would be perfect for french fries, pretzels etc… you name it! Give it a try!

hmust

Dijon, Honey & Greek Cream Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
  • 2 tsp honey
  • 3-4 tsp Greek Cream Cheese

Instructions:

  1. mix it all together. Taste and add a bit more of any ingredient if you’d like.
Advertisement

Pistachio Pesto & Greek Cream Cheese Dipping Sauce

I made this sauce to go with my Baked Chicken Bites and it was so delicious! Because the greek yogurt cream cheese is whipped it was so light but so flavorful.  It just enhanced the flavors of the pesto. I think that this sauce would also be very tasty on a sandwich.

pesto

Pistachio Pesto & Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1 tsbp Pistachio Pesto (here’s the recipe)
  • 1.5 tbsp whipped greek yogurt cream cheese

Instructions:

  1. Mix the 2 ingredients together, put it in a cute bowl and enjoy 🙂

If you haven’t yet tried the Green Mountain Farms Greek Cream Cheese you’re missing out. I discovered it a few months ago and LOVE it. PS: this is my own opinion. The company has no idea who I am. It’s delicious!!

Baked Chicken Bites (with 2 Dipping Sauces)

Last week I had one large chicken breast left over after making the Red Dragon Chicken Salad so I made up some baked nuggets. They were delicious! Crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside and just the right amount of taste from the  marinade.  I also made 2 yummy dipping sauces because who wants to eat them plain? No one that’s who. So here we go.

chix

Baked Chicken Bites

Ingredients:

  • 1 large chicken breast, fat trimmed, cut into 2 bite pieces
  • 1 large garlic clove, smashed
  • 1/5 cup light italian dressing
  • 1 cup Panko
  • salt and pepper

Instructions:

  1. Place chicken, garlic and dressing in a ziplock bag and let it marinate at least 30 minutes.
  2. Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  3. Place panko in a shallow dish.  Roll each piece of chicken through the panko until coated and then place it on the baking sheet.
  4. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until cooked thoroughly.
  5. Serve immediately.

I don’t know how the photo came out so anemic looking-the chicken really was nice and golden brown.  That’s why I’m not a photographer.

Here’s the recipe for the Pistachio Pesto Greek Cream Cheese Sauce

Here’s the recipe for the Dijon, Honey and Greek Cream Cheese Sauce

Pistachio Pesto

Years ago I remember seeing Alton Brown make a pistachio pesto and it sounded so delicious! I love pistachios and have always kept that in the back of my mind.

So recently I made some. Wow is it delicious!!  You really can taste the pistachios but they don’t over-power the basil or parmesan (and if you’re a regular reader you know how I love my parmesan.  Hell, if this is the first time you’re ever reading this let it be known-I love parmesan) I made quite a bit and froze 2 tbsp amounts wrapped in plastic for use whenever I want it. Enjoy!!

(sorry no photo of the plain pesto–I forgot to take one when I made it but this is a photo of it mixed into greek yogurt/cream cheese for a dipping sauce. you get the idea)

pesto

Pistachio Pesto

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups basil leaves, stems removed, washed, patted dry
  • 1 large garlic clove
  • 1/3-1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
  • 1/4 cup shelled unsalted pistachios
  • 2/3 -1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • pinch of kosher salt

Instructions:

  1. Place the basil, garlic, parmesan and pistachios into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until chopped and even
  2. While the machine is running pour in the olive oil
  3. When desired consistancy is reached add the salt and pulse to combine
  4. Serve or freeze or refrigerate

Sriracha and Bacon Egg Salad Sandwich

Some times I like egg salad. Those times include when it’s not drowning in mayonnaise and when it’s zingy! Who likes mushy bland egg salad is a mystery to me….. The egg salad below is anything but mushy and bland.  It’s really tasty and it’s light and airy. If you like bacon and sriracha and eggs you’ll like this a lot.

eggsal

Sriracha & Bacon Egg Salad Sandwich

Ingredients:

  • 3 large eggs, hard-boiled, cooled and peeled
  • 4 strips bacon, cooked (2 broken into small pieces, 1 set aside for topping and 1 for the dog 🙂 )
  • 1 generous tbsp low fat mayonnaise
  • 3-4 tbsp finely chopped red onion
  • 1 generous tsp sriracha
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 piece of romaine lettuce
  • 2 slices of bread

Instructions:

  1. Gently chop eggs and yolks and put them in a bowl. Add everything else but the 1 strip of bacon, bread and lettuce and stir gently.
  2. Place lettuce on one slice of bread, top with salad, top salad with bacon, place 2nd slice of bread on top and enjoy.

Greatly adapted from Cooking Light magazine, August, 2013

Makes 1 sandwich

Flash Chicken Fried Rice

So last week my Wednesday night went a bit like this: home from work at 5:40, walk dog, make a dinner in 20 minutes and get to a meeting by 6:30 that ended up lasting until 11:00.  Yeah it was that kind of day.  And night.  I had to think of something that I couldn’t mess up, something that I could make in a flash (snicker snicker), and that had a bunch of good stuff in it and that was tasty too.  Thankfully Husband made up 3 cups of rice for me the day before so it was all ready in the fridge.  The rest of the recipe is a mish-mosh of stuff that I had in the fridge and freezer. And it was perfect! It was delicious, filling but not FILLING, and had a nice balance of tastes and textures.   It’s more of a stir fry than a fried rice really-but who cares-it’s good and FAR better for you than stopping for take out.

Next time you’re going to run short on time give this recipe a try.  It took me about 18 minutes from chopping the onion to when it was in the container ready to go.

rice

Flash Chicken Fried Rice

 Ingredients:

  • 3 cups cooked day-old rice (I used white-feel free to use any other kind you’d like)*
  • 1 large chicken breast, trimmed of fat, boneless and skinless cut into small bite sized pieces
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 small yellow onion, cut into very thin strips
  • 2 cups frozen edamame
  • 2 cups frozen corn
  • 4 tbsp sesame oil
  • splash of fish sauce
  • a few tbsp low sodium soy sauce (to taste)
  • splash of hoisin sauce

Instructions:

  1. In one skillet over medium high heat warm 1 tbsp sesame oil. When hot add the chicken and cook until nicely browned and cooked  thoroughly. When cooked set aside. 
  2. While the chicken is cooking and in another pan over medium-high heat put 1 tbsp sesame oil. When hot add the onions and stir for a minute or two and then add the edamame and corn and cook until no longer frozen.  Add the fish sauce and stir for a minute or two. 
  3. In a 3rd and large pan (that can hold everything and be stirred) over high heat put the remaining sesame oil and, when hot, add the rice and stir to heat through.  Add the edamame mixture and cook until the rice and veggies are all mixed and the rice has a nice browned outside. 
  4. In the same pan used to cook the edimame mixture, over medium heat, crack the eggs, add a spoonful of the rice mixture and mix quickly to cook completely.  Add the egg mixture to the rice then add the chicken to the rice, stir to combine and remove from heat. Add the soy and hoisin sauces and stir to combine. Serve.

I admit I used a bunch of pans while throwing this together. I’m sure if I had more time I could’ve figured out how to use less–but my purpose was to make a great dish fast, not avoid dirtying dishes. 

This recipe makes quite a bit. I took one container with me to the meeting, had some for lunch the next day and still had a bit left over. I’d say about 4.5-5 cups total.

I think that this would also be great with some bell pepper strips, some snow peas etc…add at will-veggies are good for you!

*if you don’t have pre-made rice it will take that much longer to make this dish.

Crispy Sriracha Chicken Bites

I really do like Sriracha and have used it for quite a few years. I came across this recipe over a year ago and it has sat, untouched, buried deep in my folder of ‘to make’ recipes——which is pretty thick.

As luck would have it Husband bought 2 large family packs of chicken breasts recently (on sale woot!! woot!!) so I’ve been looking for a few recipes to use them up and I came across this one.  I wish I would have made these sooner-they’re delicious! The chicken is juicy and perfectly cooked, the coating is hot and crunchy and really tasty and there’s really nothing to them-just great flavor.

sri4

Crispy Sriracha Chicken Bites

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup Sriracha
  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger (or ground ginger powder)
  • 1/2 tsp fish sauce
  • 1/2 tsp soy sauce
  • 2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, cut into equal strips (mine were about 1 inch wide) or about 1/2-3/4 lb
  • 1&1/2 cups Panko bread crumbs
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder

Instructions:

  1. In a large ziplock bag put the ingredients starting with Sriracha through and including the chicken.  Squish the chicken around to evenly coat and allow to sit at room temp for 30 minutes.
  2. Pre-heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and then place a cooling rack on top of the foil. Set aside.
  3. When the 30 minutes is up use tongs or gloves (I love my surgical gloves for things like this) to roll each marinated piece of chicken in the Panko and set it on the baking sheet. Repeat with all chicken strips. Be sure the pieces aren’t touching each other on the rack.
  4. Bake for about 20 minutes  (if you cut your strips larger or smaller it may take more or less time) or until they’re cooked thoroughly.
  5. Serve with assorted dipping sauces if desired.

sri1 sri2

 Adapted from http://sotastysoyummy.blogspot.com/2012/04/sriracha-chicken-strips.html

Red Dragon Chicken Salad

This is one gigantic delicious salad filled with great flavors and textures. The zingy chili sauce, the slightly sweet dressing, the crunchy noodles, the bright mandarins and the crispy veggies-everything just comes together.

I named it ‘Red Dragon’ chicken salad because of the zing, heat and red sauce on the chicken. Besides it sounds much better than plain old ‘chicken salad’,  no? Yes.

Unfortunately I can’t take full credit for this salad. I based in on a salad that I enjoyed a few weeks ago at Buffalo Wild Wings with Husband.  It was our first visit.  I’m not a fan of  chain restaurants but I liked it there more than I thought I would. The wings were delicious and they have a great variety of foods.

salad3

Red Dragon Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups salad (combination of shredded carrots, cabbage, lettuce and broccoli)
  • 1/3 cup crispy chow mein noodles (I used La Choy)
  • 3 tbsp Newmans Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger salad dressing
  • 1-2 tbsp Asian Zing sauce (from Buffalo Wild Wings)* 
  • 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast grilled and sliced
  • 6 mandarin orange segments

Instructions:

  1. Put salad and dressing together, toss to combine. Sprinkle noodles over the salad. Set aside.
  2. Mix the Asian Zing sauce with the chicken and spread over salad.
  3. Arrange mandarin slices around the outside.

This makes one large salad or 2 smaller salads.

*their Asian Zing sauce tastes to me like Sweet Thai Chili sauce and sriracha so if you don’t have the sauce or want to buy it you can mix those 2 ingredients together to the desired heat level and use that on the chicken instead.

salad2

Strawberry Delight Muffins

These muffins are lovely and light and oh so tasty–perfect muffins to go with slices of delicate strawberries for the summer.  

There’s not really all that  much else to write except for the recipe…..

muf4

Strawberry Delight Muffins

Ingredients:

  • 6 ozs Greek Yogurt (I used Fage 0%)
  • 2 ozs fat-free Sour Cream
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1&1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup Egg Beaters (or 2 large eggs)
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp strawberry extract
  • 2 cups AP flour
  • 1&1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped small

Instructions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350.
  2. Place liners in muffin tin and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl using an electric mixer cream together the yogurt, sour cream, butter and sugar. Then add the Egg Beaters, milk, vanilla and strawberry extract.  Stir until  combined-being careful to not over-mix. Set aside.
  4. In another bowl place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and whisk to combine.
  5. Add 1/4 of the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined. Continue adding the dry ingredients in increments and mixing. Do not over mix.   Gently fold in the fresh strawberries.
  6. Fill the liners in the muffin tin to about 3/4 of the way full and bake for about 23-28 minutes or until the tops are light golden brown. Allow to cool in the tin for about 10-15 minutes then remove the muffins from the tin and place onto a cooling rack.

Yield: about 18-20 muffins.  I made 12 muffins and froze the remainder of the batter to use another time.

muf1

Greatly adapted from the Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins from http://www.bos-bowl.com