Layered Nacho Taco Salad

Sometimes it's just too hot to cook.

While the temps haven't really soared yet, it definitely feels hotter here in the Carolinas than it did just last week.  The humidity level has shot up and we've had lots of outdoor commitments - and most of them have been all day and in the sun.  I feel as if I've spent the past week in a sauna.

So when it came time to cook dinner, I really didn't want anything warm. Something simple and cool but filling and fun seemed right, and so My Big Helper and I made this Layered Nacho Taco Salad.

We ended up with a spicy and (mostly) healthy salad that had some fun crunch, too.

Here's how to make it:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground meat - chicken, turkey, or beef (in the picture above, I used chicken)
• 2 T. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 t. cumin
• 1 t. ground black pepper
• 1/4 t. ground red pepper
• 1 c. shredded Monterey Jack and Colby Jack blend
• 2 heads of romaine lettuce
• 1-2 tomatoes
• 1 small cucumber
• carrots to suit, sliced
• Salad dressing - Catalina or Chipotle Ranch are great
• 1 bag of Nacho Doritos

Directions:

1. Combine the meat, onion, and bell pepper in a skillet with the Worcestershire sauce.
2. Brown until cooked through.
3. Drain as necessary.
4. Add seasonings and stir well.
5. Remove from heat.
6. Assemble the salad veggies on plates.
7. Place a layer of Doritos on top of the veggies.  Top that with cheese and then with the meat mixture.
8. Crown the whole salad with tomatoes and your favorite salad dressing.

What's your go-to meal when the temperatures rise??

{Man-Friendly} Grilled Steak Salad

A few days ago I tried to figure out how to combine my husband's love of steak with my desire for a good salad.  This {Man-Friendly} Grilled Steak Salad is the result.

I foresee us grilling this salad often this summer.  It's a quick and easy dinner that keeps all the heat out of the kitchen, but it's also colorful, hearty, and full of flavor.  

This could even be a fun Father's Day option!

So here's how to make your own {Man-Friendly} Grilled Steak salads.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of thin steak
• 3/4 t. Montreal steak seasoning
• 4 T. Worcester sauce
• 2 T. olive oil + oil for the grill pan
• 1-2 heads of romaine lettuce
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 c. shredded sharp white cheddar
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 c. frozen kernel corn

Directions:

1. Preheat the grill to about 350.
2. Toss the onions and peppers with olive oil and steak seasoning.  
3. Oil the grill pan and place on the grill to heat.
4. Chop lettuce, carrots, cheese, and tomato.  Assemble salads on 4 plates.
5. Put the peppers and onions in the hot grill pan to caramelize.   Stir occasionally.
6. Place the steaks on the grill and top with Worcester sauce.  Grill until they reach your preferred level of doneness.
7. When finished, remove steaks and veggies from the grill.  Allow steak to rest, then slice into strips.
8. Add veggies and steak to the top of the salad.
9. Serve with your favorite salad dressing and enjoy!

How do you celebrate Father's Day?

Homestyle Grilled Chicken Salad

It feels like forever since I've been able to share a recipe, so I'm especially happy to share this one. This simple salad reminds me of home - of the kinds of yummy salads you'll find in a Pennsylvania pub.

When I first started trying to eat healthier, I always looked at the salad menu cautiously.  There were lots of things listed that I didn't like, but how can you go wrong when your salad has French fries on top?  

This particular salad is one of my favorites.  With only a few ingredients, it's full of bold and simple flavors.  You won't leave the table hungry, but there's lots of nutrition hidden under those few fries.

Here's how to make it:

• 1-2 heads of romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
• 1 lb. of chicken tenders
• your favorite barbecue sauce
• 1/2 c. of shredded monterey jack cheese
• a handful of carrots
• 1 tomato, diced
• Oreida crispy French fries
• honey mustard salad dressing
• 1/2 c. prepared bacon crumbles (I bake bacon ahead, crumble it, and keep it in my freezer for these types of recipes.)
• sliced onion (optional)

Directions:

1. Grill the chicken tenders.  Coat with your favorite barbecue sauce just before they're done.
2. Bake French fries according to package directions.  Add crumbled bacon to the fries during the last 5 minutes of baking time.
3. Arrange romaine lettuce on plates.
4. Top with carrots and onions.
5. Allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes after removing from heat.  Slice into strips.
6. Arrange the chicken slices on top of the lettuce beds.  
7. Top with fries, bacon, and tomatoes.
8. Serve with honey mustard dressing and fresh fruit slices.
9. Serves four.

What's your favorite kind of salad??

Creamy Veggie Casserole

Sometimes I get super hungry for veggies, and if the weather is cold and salad ingredients are not readily available, a dish of this casserole does this trick.  It's quick to assemble and  and full of vitamin-rich veggies.  My kids love it as much as I do.  My husband, admittedly, prefers to have meat in his, so we either add some cooked chicken or turkey to it or serve that on the side.  Either way, this makes for a quick and yummy meal.

Ingredients:

• 4 c. frozen veggies (I use a blend from Costco that includes broccoli, orange and yellow carrots, and cauliflower)
• 3 T. butter
• 3 T. flour
• 2 T. cream cheese
• 1 c. shredded cheddar (optional)
• 2 c. milk
• 1 c. chicken stock
• 3 c. stuffing

Directions:

1. Steam the veggies until fork tender.
2. Drain and place in a 9 X 13" casserole dish.
3. In the empty pot, melt the butter. 
4. Stir in the flour.
5. Slowly pour in the milk, stirring the entire time, to create a simple roux.
6. Add the chicken stock.
7. Heat over medium-low heat until mixture begins to thicken, watching carefully and stirring occasionally.  Do not allow to boil.
8. Add the cream cheese and stir until melted.
9. Add the cheddar if desired and stir until melted.
10. Pour the cream sauce over the veggies.
11. Crumble your stuffing over the top.  This is a great way to use up leftover holiday stuffing!
12. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until bubbly.
13. Serve hot.

What's your favorite type of casserole?

Slow Cooker Caribbean Chicken & Veggies

Sometimes, you just need something that's quick and easy.

That's this dish.  It's perfect for those days when you're going to be in and out or just all around busy and don't have time to mess around in the kitchen but still want to serve your family a yummy, healthy dinner.

It can even be made as a freezer meal - just pop the ingredients into a large zip-top bag and freeze.  On the morning of the day you want to serve it, just dump the entire contents of the bag into the slow cooker and let it go to town.  When life gets crazy, I love dinners that cook themselves!

When I put this in front of My Little Man, having not cooked this in a while, he looked at me rather skeptically.  Then he tried it - and the next thing I knew, his bowl was empty.  He said that he especially liked the chicken.  For my veggie-lovin' man, that's saying a lot!

So here's how to make your own Caribbean Chicken and Veggies in a slow cooker:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. chicken tenders
• 1 c. diced pineapple and accompanying juice
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 3/4 c. Caribbean-style marinade
• 2 c. black beans
• 1 lb. broccoli, cleaned 

Directions:

1. Combine chicken, pineapple, onion, pepper, and marinade in a slow cooker.  
2. Cook at low heat for 4-5 hours or until nearly finished.
3. Add black beans and broccoli to the slow cooker.  
4. Cook for another hour or until broccoli is tender.
5. Serve over rice.

What's your favorite kind of no-fuss meal?

Crazy Cooking Challenge: World's Easiest Fried Chicken

** Be sure to check out our Celebration Giveaway happening now!

When I was a kid my mom used to make fried chicken.  It wasn't like the greasy fried chicken that we saw at picnics every summer, but instead a rich and simple dish that she always served with my favorite foods - mashed potatoes, baked corn, and even simple stuffing.  As I got older, this being my 'welcome home' meal after being away at college or work, and it's still one of my very favorite comfort foods.

Now that I'm a mom myself, I love to cook chicken this way because of it's very simplicity.  It tastes like you've bitten into a roasted chicken, but without the hours of basting or the heat of an oven.  It's faster to prep because there's no egg or buttermilk wash, no crumbs to season or cereal to crunch, and no slippery parts to dip.  Because this dish is part-simmered and part-fried, it comes together fairly quickly - and while it bubbles away on the stove, you can be assembling your potato salad or husking corn or whatever else you need to do.

Added bonus:  Since this chicken is fried in natural ingredients, there's nothing false about it - and it's pretty healthy, too, because you control the amount of fat inside.

Here's how to make your own World's Easiest Fried Chicken:

• chicken parts, whatever you like.  I'm partial to the white meat of the breasts, myself, but any piece will work, even the boneless variety.
• freshly ground pepper
• 1+ c. of water
• a generous sprinkling of poultry seasoning for each piece of chicken
• 3-4 T. butter per 1-2 pounds of chicken

1. Cut the skin off of your chicken pieces.  
2. Place them in a frying pan, bone sides down.
3. Sprinkle each piece generously with pepper and poultry seasoning.
4. Add a cup of water.
5. Cover the chicken and cook over medium heat until the water is nearly gone and the chicken is nearly cooked.  The time this takes depends on the size of your chicken pieces.
6. When the pan is nearly dry, add the butter to the middle and flip the pieces over so that the meatiest sides are down in the butter.
7. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through.
8. Bonus:  If you want to make gravy, when the butter is nearly cooked away, add more water or chicken broth back into the pan and stir to remove the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Slowly stir in your slurry and continue to stir until the desired thickness.  This makes a super rich and yummy gravy!
9. When you first season the chicken, it will look pretty plain - but when it's done, voila! You get this!  Who would want to eat some of that?  Serve with your favorite fried chicken sides. 

What's your favorite way to eat fried chicken?

Chocolate-drizzled Strawberry Crepes

It's been a while since we ate crepes, and with an abundance of strawberries and a reader's suggestion, we made them for dinner the other night.  Now, we do not normally serve chocolate as part of our main course; we rarely even eat dessert, but with ganache in the fridge, this meal just screamed out for it.

Because my husband was away and a batch of crepe batter makes oodles of crepes, I made only half a batch, and that was barely enough.  I think my Big Helper would've happily eaten a few more.

"Mommy, these are DELICIOUS!"  she kept shouting.  "I need another one!"

So, with reviews like that, we might just have to have these a bit more often.

Here's how to pull together your own Chocolate-drizzled Strawberry Crepes.

You'll need fresh strawberries, washed and sliced; chocolate ganache, crepes, and whipped cream.

For the chocolate ganache, simply measure out equal parts of chocolate chips and heavy cream.  Put the chips in a heat-safe bowl and heat the cream on the stove until bubbles just begin to form - do not boil!  Whisk the cream into the chips into smooth.  Cool.

For the whipped cream, I put 1 c. of heavy cream into my KitchenAid with the whisk attachment and let it go to town.  It took less than 5 minutes to get seriously fluffy whipped cream - and the machine did all the work.

For the crepes, we made 1/2 batch of our Creative Crepe batter.  Just whisk the following together:

• 1/2 c. flour
• a few grains of Kosher salt
• 1 1/2 t. honey
• 1 c. + 2 T. milk (I just eyeballed the tablespoon part.)
• 1 T. melted butter
• 1 egg

Over medium heat, butter a small non-stick frying pan and let it get hot.  Add a few tablespoons of the batter and rotate the pan until covered.  Pour the rest back into the bowl and let it cook until the top appears dry.  Flip with a rubber spatula.  The second side will cook in seconds.  Slide out of the pan and repeat until batter is gone.

To assemble the crepes, lay a crepe flat on a plate.  Spoon strawberries down the middle, fold the ends over, and top with ganache and whipped cream.  Or, as my French friend says is often done in France, simply fold the crepe into quarters and pile everything on top.  Either way, you can't go wrong with chocolate and strawberries.

See?  He liked it so much he dove right in.  ;-)

Shared with Gooseberry Patch and these fun blog hops:

Roasted Turkey and Brie Grilled Sandwich

With lots of leftover roasted turkey last week, I was looking for new ways to use it.   With the temperatures all over the place and busy birthday plans in place, we decided to put them in fun, new sandwiches.  Since I love Brie and hadn't had it in a while, this became our go-to cheese.

Paired with some yummy soup, this made a great meal for a chilly day, but it's hearty enough to stand alone or with a light salad, too.  With the richness of the Brie, the sandwich has a big, stand-up taste - and yet most of the ingredients are actually pretty light and healthy.

So try it and tell us - is this a keeper at your house?

Ingredients:

• hearty, healthy whole wheat bread
• Brie
• fresh spinach
• shredded mozzarella
• freshly ground black pepper
• thin tomato slices
• red peppers, sliced thin
• a few tablespoons of Italian salad dressing
• melted butter

Here's how to put together your very own Roasted Turkey and Brie Grilled Sandwich:

1. Marinate the red peppers in the Italian salad dressing.
2. Grill in a grill pan until cooked through and almost caramelized.
3. Lightly butter the outside of the bread.  
4. Build the sandwich with thin slices of Brie next to the bread, then turkey, then a light sprinkling of mozzarella between each layer, with another thin layer of Brie on top.
5. Brown over medium-low heat for a few moments on each side until lightly toasted.  Using two flippers may facilitate the flipping process.  :-)
6. Serve immediately.  YUM!

What do YOU like to put into your grilled cheese?

Come back on May 7th for a fabulous new take on grilled cheese!

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

This is one of my favorite quick-and-easy meals to throw together.  It smells great, comes together quickly, and it's fairly healthy.  Everyone in my family likes this dish, and it's versatile enough for them to customize it on their own plates.  THAT makes me happy!

Ingredients:

• bone-in chicken breasts, skin removed
• your favorite BBQ sauce

So to make your own slow cooker BBQ chicken, try this:

1. Put your chicken in your slow cooker and add just a bit of the sauce.  Doesn't need to be much - I pour on maybe 1/2 cup or so, just enough to be on the outside of the chicken but not enough to sit in the bottom of the dish.
2. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is done.
3. Turn off the slow cooker and allow to cool for 15 minutes or so.
4. Using forks or a stand-alone mixer, shred the chicken to your preferred texture.
5. Stir in enough BBQ sauce to flavor the meat.  I also add in some of the juice from the slow cooker.  Stir together.
6. Add to buns or tortillas with all your favorite toppings - onions, cheese, spinach, lettuce, tomato, etc.
7. Enjoy!

With some steamed broccoli - or even carrot sticks if you're in a big rush - this is a complete, hot meal that everyone will love!

Easy Calzones

We had lots of lasagne ingredients left after making lasagne a few days ago, and so tonight we turned them into calzones.  I grilled them - it's too hot to turn on even the toaster oven - but they would work well baked, too.

These are super simple:

1/2 batch of pizza dough
1/2 batch of ricotta cheese (15 oz tub of ricotta mixed with one egg)
1/2 c. chopped ham
1 c. grated mozzerella
Italian seasoning to taste
marina sauce for dipping

Roll out 1/4 of your pizza dough into a small circle.  Spoon 1/4 of the ricotta mixture onto  half of it and top with chopped ham, a bit of mozzerella, and a dash of Italian seasoning.  Fold the dough over to make a pocket and pinch it closed. (I did this with a fork to seal the edges.)  Repeat 3 times.

On a greased cookie sheet, bake at 350 degrees until dough is baked and crispy.  Serve with a side of marinara.

** I think this would be yummy with spinach in it, as well, but the store was out when I shopped for it.  Maybe next time!

Do you like calzones, or are you more of a straight-up pizza person??

Shish-ke-sketti

I love eating shish-ke-bobs, but they take forever to make.  Not cook - they grill up in no time - but it seems to take forever to soak the skewers, chop all the veggies, thread everything on there - that's the worst! - and then marinate it all.

A few days ago I had everything I needed to make great kebobs, but I couldn't make myself do the skewering.  (I know, lazy, right?)

So, we made this instead.  It was just as good and had the same components but came together much faster.  It's still very healthy and filling, and best of all?  No skewering!

Ingredients:
1 each red pepper, green pepper, onion
3 cups broccoli spears
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken
1 box whole wheat spaghetti
Italian salad dressing
olive oil (a few splashes)
Parmesan cheese (optional)

First, chop the peppers and onions into 1" sized pieces.  Put into a one-gallon Ziploc bag.  Cut up chicken into small bite-sized pieces and throw it into the bag, too.

** Some people say that you shouldn't marinate veggies and meat together.  You SHOULD be very careful that all  components get cooked through if you choose to do this.  The large veggies and small meat pieces will cook through at the same time.  If you don't want to worry about cross-contamination or the size of your chopped goods, just marinate separately!

Add the salad dressing and squish the bag to coat the entire contents.  Refrigerate for at least three hours, flipping over halfway through.

When you're ready to prep your meal, preheat the grill and prep your grill pan.  (I give mine an oily massage so nothing sticks.)  Dump your meat and veggies onto the hot pan and close the lid.  Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, boil the water and prepare the spaghetti as directed.  Five minutes from being finished, add the washed broccoli to the pot.  Then drain completely and return to pot.  Add just a bit of olive oil and toss to coat.  Season with salt and pepper if desired.

When meat and veggies are finished on the grill, serve them over the spaghetti and broccoli.  Yum!