General Tso's Chicken

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 TBSP canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 TBSP cornstarch
3 TBSP water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup vinegar (I used rice wine)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp freshly grated ginger OR 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
red pepper flakes (optional)
4 green onions, sliced

Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Mix together flour and cayenne pepper. Dredge chicken in flour mixture and cook over medium high heat in oil. While that is browning, combine sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Slowly whisk in water, soy sauce, pineapple juice and vinegar. Mix in garlic and ginger. Cook and stir over medium high heat until thick and bubbly. Add red pepper flakes to taste. Once chicken is cooked through (about 5-8 minutes) drain onto a paper towel. Place chicken in a bowl and pour the sauce over. Gently toss to coat. Sprinkle with green onions and serve over rice.

Shrimp Tacos and Mango Salsa

• 1 lb shrimp
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup butter
• Salt/Pepper or lemon pepper to taste
  
• Tortillas
• Mango Salsa
• Cheddar cheese (if you want, I didn't use it)
  
  If using frozen shrimp, thaw it and and cut each piece in half (depending on size). Melt butter and stir in honey and seasoning. Heat honey butter in a pan until bubbly and then add shrimp to pan, stirring until shrimp is cooked through (won't take long).
  
  Mango Salsa
  
  2 Mangoes, chopped
  1/2 Cup red onion, diced
  2 Tablespoons Cilantro
  1 teaspoon brown sugar
  1/2 lime's juice (about 1/8th cup)
  1/8 teaspoon chili powder (I didn't have this so I added paprika, garlic powder, cumin, and cayenne to taste) 

I also served them with mango rice and black beans.

For the rice, I used about 1 1/2 cups brown rice, 1 can coconut milk, 1 diced mango, 1+ cup water, and some sugar. 

Quinoa...Dip?

JJ threw this together the other day for dinner, but there are endless possibilities. 

1.5 cups dry quinoa, cooked
1/4-1/2 chopped onion (we used raw onion)
1 apple, chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes (we used olive oil and garlic tomatoes, you could also use fresh tomatoes, which we didn't have)
some form of meat (the first time we used leftover steak and the second time we used leftover sausage)

The second time I made it I also added avocado and shredded cheddar.  You could also add olive oil, garlic, spinach, chicken, nuts, sauteed onions, and a variety of other things. 

chips (if you want to eat it as a dip...which we did)

After the quinoa is cooked just mix it all together!

Baked Parmesan-Crusted Chicken

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 (4 ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Melt the butter with the garlic in a saucepan over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Stir the breadcrumbs together with the Parmesan cheese, thyme, basil, oregano, pepper, and salt in a bowl. Dip the chicken breasts in the butter, then press into the seasoned bread crumbs. Place the chicken into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is golden brown and no longer pink in the center, 50 to 55 minutes.

I used panko bread crumbs, which were so good, and didn't have fresh thyme or oregano so I used the dried versions.  I also poured the remaining garlic butter in with the chicken.  Delicious and super easy to alter!

Healthy "Ice cream"

Wait until you have banana's that are about to go bad. Very spotted and black. Peel them, dice them into chunks and freeze them. Then blend them in a food processor until it looks creamy! I "dice" first and then "grind" until it looks like ice cream. And I LOVE ice cream, so this is an awesome treat for me and Claire that I don't feel guilty about. You have to eat it right away, because once it starts to melt a little, it gets sticky and gooey.

Feed your kids ice cream for breakfast, they'll never know!

In the 1st pic, I added fresh strawberries.
In the 2nd pic, I chopped up some chocolate chips, and added a little bit of cocoa.
In the 3rd pic, I threw some frozen blueberries in.

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/01/mini-series-with-our-best-bites-healthy.html

Maple Syrup

1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp maple flavor

In a saucepan, combine sugar and water. Cook over medium heat and stir until sugar is dissolved, simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla and maple flavoring. Tastes best after the first day. Refrigerate, fits perfect in an old maple syrup jar.

This also works great with just white sugar and orange extract, though you need to add more than 1/2 tsp. I'm sure you could use it with any flavor to make great syrup!

Sheperd's Pie

Ingredients

• 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 carrots, chopped (I used a bag of baby carrots)
  
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 3/4 cup beef broth
• 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• frozen veggies (corn, peas, carrots etc)
• seasoning for the beef (I used salt, pepper, garlic, and an all purpose season)
  

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes (I cooked the potatoes and carrots together, and took the potatoes out first with a slotted spoon and let the carrots continue boiling) and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash. Mix in butter, finely chopped onion and 1/4 cup shredded cheese (I added a little milk and more butter). Season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add carrots and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, mash and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.)
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion and cook until clear. Add ground beef, season and cook until well browned. Pour off excess fat, then stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add ketchup and beef broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, add an frozen vegetables and simmer for 5 minutes.
   
4. Spread the ground beef in an even layer on the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Next, spread a layer of mashed carrots. Top with the mashed potato mixture and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Kristin- I think your kids would like this

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shepherds-Pie-VI/Detail.aspx

Chicken Carbonara

Ingredients:
1 pound spaghetti
olive oil
1 lb bacon, diced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 eggs
3/4-1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2-1 lb cooked, cooked diced chicken (I have no idea how much I use, I just fill the pan)
1-2 cups cooked peas
salt and black pepper to taste
extra parmesan for table

Directions:
Cook chicken with salt and pepper, dice.
Cook chopped bacon until slightly crisp; remove and drain onto paper towels (I cooked, then chopped). Reserve bacon fat; add olive oil, and heat in reused large skillet. Add chopped onion, and cook over medium heat until onion is translucent. Add minced garlic, and cook 1 minute more.
Beat eggs very well, add parmesan cheese to eggs.
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook spaghetti pasta until al dente. Add frozen peas when pasta is done cooking (or you can just cook them separately, this just makes it easier). Drain well. Toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and add the chicken, bacon, onions; toss well.
Add the egg mixture and (optional) heat on the stove while tossing constantly until eggs are slightly set (I don't heat it up since the pasta is hot when I add everything).

Delicious!

Adapted from here

Chicken Enchiladas

1 tablespoon butter or margarine
3 1/2 cups Chicken, shredded or chopped (we just get one of those already cooked whole chickens from the deli and chop it up)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (4.5 oz) can of chopped green chilies, drained
1 (8 oz) Cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
8-10 (8 inch) flour tortillas
2 (8 oz) packages of shredded cheese, Mexican blend
1 pint whipping cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add onion, and sauté 5 minutes. Add green chilies; sauté 1 minute 1 minute. Stir in cream cheese, cook, stirring constantly until cream cheese melts. Add chicken and stir until mixed well.

Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla, add some cheese. Roll up tortillas and place, seam down, in a lightly greased 13x9 baking dish. Sprinkle with more cheese and drizzle whippng cream.

Bake for 45 min or until cheese melts

Yeah, these are low fat ;) but super delicious. Oh, I'm pretty sure tripp adds some garlic too. I like the mixture stuff to just dip tortilla chips in too, you could probably put it all in a crock pot and use as a dip at a party or something...ummm, good idea!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Baked Chicken Bacon Alfredo

8 oz. penne or bowtie pasta

1 recipe Guiltless Alfredo Sauce (1 16-oz. jar would work in a pinch)

2 chicken breasts, grilled and chopped (about 2 c. chopped chicken)

6 oz. (1/2 package) cooked bacon, chopped

1 14-oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped ( don't use the whole jar)

1/2 c. chopped green onions (about 1 decent-sized bunch)

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350.

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, prepare Guiltless Alfredo sauce (below). When pasta is done, drain and add to the sauce. Toss with chopped chicken, bacon, artichoke hearts, green onions, and 1/2 c. mozzarella. Season to taste.

Transfer mixture to an 8x8" baking dish and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until heated through and cheese is bubbly.




Guiltless Alfredo Sauce

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender.

Process until smooth and set aside.

In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Stand above the pan (but not close enough to scald your face) and inhale. Ahhh...butter and garlic. Okay, now get cooking again. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly.

Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.

Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

8 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking cocoa
4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions

In a saucepan, combine the first four ingredients. Cook and stir over medium heat until the marshmallows are melted, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Ladle into mugs.

Caramel Apple Cider

1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup brown sugar
6 cups apple juice
bring cream and brown sugar to boil over med hear, stirring constantly. Add 6 cups apple juice, stir until warm.

Whipped topping:
beat 1 cup cream and 1 TBS brown sugar until thick.  Top cider with cream and (optional) toffee bits (or a crunched up Skor bar)

Shrimb and bacon pasta

I made this last night and loved it, but I didn't use a recipe, so I'm putting down what I did so I won't forget. 

Ingredients
1/2-1 lb shrimp
1/2 large onion
2-4 pieces cooked bacon
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
some shredded parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
butter (I used 1.5 TBSP altogether, but could use more :))
cooked pasta (about 8 oz)


Chop onion and saute in olive oil until clear.  Add some butter and the minced garlic.  Add shrimp, bacon and a handful of shredded Parmesan cheese and season with salt/pepper (may want to add a bit more olive oil and/or butter) and cook until the shrimp is done (just a few minutes).  Toss in with the pasta and add olive oil as needed so the pasta isn't dry. 

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 whole Vanilla Bean, Split And Scraped
• 3 cups Half-and-half
• 2 cups Sugar
• 8 whole (up To 9) Large Egg Yolks
• 3 cups Heavy Cream

Preparation Instructions

Heat half-and-half and 2 cups sugar in a saucepan over low heat, adding vanilla "caviar" to the mixture. (You can also drop in the scraped vanilla bean, just to extract all the flavor. Make sure to discard the bean before moving to the next step.) Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated.
Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick. Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling into the 1 1/2 cups of hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until quite thick, stirring constantly. Drain custard using a fine mesh strainer (not necessary, I didn't do this, though I could see it being a good idea if you're giving it to kids as the specks are quite noticeable), then pour into a bowl with the heavy cream. Stir to combine.
Chill mixture completely, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden for at least eight hours.
 

Found here.

I halved the recipe because my ice cream maker is too small for the whole thing, but I still used a whole vanilla bean.  It's so amazing!  It tastes like custard and doesn't get too hard in the freezer (which I love, all my other ice creams have gotten very hard in the freezer). 

Green Enchiladas

Ingredients:
*10 tomatillos (remove stems and boil until they are a transparent green, about 5 minutes)
*bunch of cilantro
*3 to 6 serrano peppers (6 will make it pretty hot, a bit too hot for me. Apparently, even 4 is too hot for Cory)
*chicken bouillon (powder form) (she didn't say how much...maybe 2 tsp or less)
*4 green onions
*1 jalapeño (optional) (I did not use this)
*1 normal sized cream of mushroom

I toast all the peppers and onions on the grill or on a pan to get them nice and dark. Take off the stems and throw in the blender with everything else listed above. Add the chicken bouillon and some salt to taste.

For this part you need:
*corn tortillas
*shredded cheese (I prefer munster, but also tastes good with colby jack)
*cooked chicken, shredded (probably 3-4 chicken breasts)

I then use a casserole dish and begin the first layer with tortillas, then on top of that shredded chicken and cheese and some of the salsa. Repeat until you have the desired amount of layers. Pour remaining salsa on top of the last layer of tortillas (remaining salsa should be about 60% of the original amount). Sprinkle another layer of cheese on top and stick in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.

I'm sure you could also put chicken, cheese, and sauce inside individual tortillas and roll them up and then pour the remaining sauce and cheese and top.  We used flour tortillas and it was amazing!