CEiMB: Curried Chicken Salad

I’m late in posting my weekly CEiMB recipe because, quite frankly, I was hesitant to make it. For one thing, I was less than impressed with the last chicken salad we made. Also, I didn’t know if I would like curry powder, even though I recently discovered a love of Indian food.

I reconsidered, though, after reading through the recipe and realizing that it is not that different from my standard chicken salad. It is basically the same, except substituting almonds for walnuts and adding both curry powder and cilantro. Plus, I have heard about the popularity of curried chicken salad and even saw an episode of Barefoot Contessa where Ina Garten prepared it, so I gave it a try.

On a side note, I LOVE Ina Garten’s food. I think her show is a little very unrealistic and it drives me a little crazy (seriously, who entertains that much and has that many male friends?), yet I watch it daily and have prepared her food on many occasions.

Back to CEiMB: this week we were hosted by Sarah of Sarah’s Kitchen Adventures. To see the recipe, click here or visit Sarah’s blog.

I skipped the first part of the recipe, which called for poaching the chicken in chicken broth. I just pulled some frozen chicken breasts out and boiled them in water. I also did not toast the sliced almonds, but that was only because I forgot to do it!

Overall, I was pleased with the result of this recipe. The curry powder was not overwhelming but added a spicy warmth to the salad. I also liked the cilantro in the recipe because it made the chicken salad taste very fresh. I think this may be a permanent addition to my chicken salad, curried or not.

I ate the chicken salad as pictured, over greens, but I think it would be much more filling as a traditional sandwich. I also liked Sarah’s suggestion to serve it with pita chips, which I may try with the leftovers.

Thank you, Sarah, for a great CEiMB pick!

Spicy Chicken Lasagna

This post was sponsored by Foodbuzz and Pace.

A few weeks ago, I received two jars of Pace Picante Sauce through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program. I immediately started thinking of recipe ideas that went beyond opening a bag of chips and pouring, even though that’s what I really wanted to do!

After thinking about what exactly what I wanted out of my Pace recipe (a main meal, something filling, and freezable leftovers) I decided to make a lasagna. I actually tested this recipe with both chicken and beef, and Scott and I both agreed that the chicken was much better.

Spicy Chicken Lasagna
*a Rachel ♥s Food creation*

- 8 lasagna noodles, broken in half
- 1 T. olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
- 1 c. Pace Chunky Salsa
- 4 oz. cream cheese
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/2 t. black pepper
- 1/3 c. fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 16 oz. jar Pace Picante Sauce
- 2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1. Boil lasagna noodles in water according to package directions, drain, and set aside.

2. While noodles cook, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook onions until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 additional minute.

3. Stir in shredded chicken, salsa, and cream cheese and heat until the cheese melts and the mixture is bubbly. Turn off the heat and stir in the salt, pepper, and cilantro.

4. Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray and cover bottom with a thin layer of picante sauce. Then layer 4 half noodles, chicken filling, picante sauce and 1/4 c. cheddar cheese. Repeat the layers two additional times.

5. Place the last 4 half noodles on top and cover with remaining picante sauce and cheddar cheese.

6. Bake at 375 for approx. 20 minutes until the cheese is browned and the lasagna is bubbly.

7. Let the lasagna sit for at least 10 minutes before cutting into 9 servings.

Scott and I have enjoyed this dish twice now. It makes a great dinner paired with some vegetables and either chips and salsa or garlic bread. The lasagna also freezes and reheats nicely – I just thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and then heat it in the microwave or the oven at 350 for 10 minutes.

I hope you enjoy!

CEiMB: Chicken Chop Suey

It’s Thursday again, so here is the latest CEiMB offering! This week we made Chicken Chop Suey, and this recipe was hosted by Ali of The Healthy Hostess. I think one of my favorite parts of participating in this group is exploring the other members’ blogs as they host. Check out Ali’s blog – she has a lot of great recipes and tips for entertaining and green cleaning!

As for the Chicken Chop Suey, I have to admit that I didn’t think chop suey was a real dish. I had heard the term before, but had never had it. Maybe I didn’t think it was real because I had only heard of it on TV? Who knows.

This recipe included another of Ellie’s extremely long ingredient lists, but that didn’t bother me as I had most of the ingredients on hand…or so I thought. As I was making the dish, I almost felt like it was a comedy of errors – so many things went wrong!

As you can see in the picture, my chop suey included broccoli instead of cabbage. When I cut open the cabbage to prep it for the recipe, I discovered it had succumbed to dry rot. It was mottled all throughout the cabbage, not just on a few leaves, so into the trash can it went.

You may also notice white rice on my platter instead of brown. I was SO sure I had a big bag of brown rice in my pantry, but when I went to get it I couldn’t find it anywhere! I was thinking “Where is my brown rice? I KNOW I have some!” Oh wait, I used it a few weeks ago to try to soak water out of my cell phone after it took a trip through the washing machine. Silly me.

Finally, my wonton skins almost burned while I was distracted with the above problems and my desperate search to find a substitute for cooking sherry (guess what – water works just fine).

Even with all of the problems, this recipe was a winner. I did not use the amount of oil called for in the recipe because it seemed excessive, so I used cooking spray on the wontons, only two teaspoons of vegetable oil and only one tablespoon of sesame oil instead of two. I did really enjoy the combination of chicken broth, soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch to make a stir fry sauce, though, and I’ll probably use it again in the future and just mix and match the other ingredients according to what I have in the refrigerator and pantry. The sesame seeds and wonton skins added a nice crunch, and I also sliced a few extra green onions to garnish as well.

Thanks Ali, it was fun cooking with you this week!

CEiMB: Waldorf Chicken Wraps

This is actually the CEiMB recipe from September 3, but as I said in my last post I got a little behind with my posting. This recipe is for Waldorf Chicken Wraps and was hosted by Jessica of Johnstone’s Vin Blanc (who is also my “neighbor” since she is another North Carolina blogger. Hi Jessica!).

I had a hard time getting together on this recipe. I had all of the ingredients on hand, I just couldn’t get motivated to actually make it. I finally finished up around 8:00 on the night of September 3, then discovered my computer would not read my camera’s memory card. I ended up going to bed frustrated because I finished the recipe just in time to post, then I couldn’t do it!

My thoughts on this recipe:

- I liked the dressing very much, although I found there was too much of it. I don’t like chicken salad that is really wet – I prefer just enough dressing to hold the other ingredients together.

- I loved the addition of grapes and apples. I always put grapes in my chicken salad but I’ve never tried other fruit before, but the apples added a very nice crunch.

- Chicken salad is not photogenic AT ALL.

- I was disappointed to find the next day that the dressing had separated and it was very difficult to mix back together.

I am not sure if I will try this exact recipe again, but I will probably continue adding extra fruit to my normal chicken salad mixture. Also, since I like only a small amount of dressing, I will keep the amount of mayonnaise the same but omit the Greek yogurt – I think the mayonnaise is such a small amount it doesn’t make the dish completely unhealthy, and it will be thick enough to hold the salad together without separating.

CEiMB: Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Sauce

It’s Thursday again, which means it’s time for CEiMB! This week was hosted by Cathy of The Tortefeasor, and she chose Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce. It seems like we are continuing with the Thai theme from last week, which is fine with me because I love Thai food but don’t eat it all that often.

Once I read over the recipe and got over the initial shock of the lengthy ingredient list, I rummaged around my pantry and realized I only had to buy three things to complete this meal: coconut milk, chicken stock, and bamboo skewers. Yes, that’s correct – I have fish sauce in my pantry but not chicken stock. Crazy, right?

When I mixed the marinade for the chicken, I have to say that I wasn’t that fond of the smell and was afraid I would not like the finished product. However, I think the ingredients really came together in the grilling process, just like last week’s Thai salad dressing/marinade. The chicken was very moist, slightly salty from the soy and fish sauces, and had a little bit of brightness from the lime zest.

I also really enjoyed the peanut sauce. The only change I made was to substitute sriracha for the red curry paste – I don’t like curry very much, but I love chili sauce. I used a generous amount, probably close to 1 1/2 tablespoons, and found that the sauce was perfectly spicy for my taste. I noticed that some other CEiMB members commented that the sauce was too thick, but I didn’t think so. It may be because I used a no-stir natural peanut butter than regular, but I also blended it for a long time. Maybe that made a difference, maybe not.

As you can see in the picture, I also stir-fried some broccoli and straw mushrooms to go along with the chicken. It was very simple. I used vegetable oil, broccoli, and one can of drained mushrooms then finished it off with a drizzle of sesame oil for extra flavor. This was my first experience with straw mushrooms, and they were just okay – next time I’ll use sliced fresh instead.

To round out the meal, I wanted some kind of starch. Since I love spicy things and Scott loves pasta in any way, shape, or form, I picked up these Simply Asia Chili Garlic noodles at the grocery store for a quick addition to the meal. I’m not sure what kind of noodles these were, but before cooking they looked similar to soba noodles. The spiciness level was labeled “medium,” but I found the noodles rather mild. They were good, but next time I would probably add some sriracha to spice the dish up even more. The best part was definitely the chili flakes sprinkled on top!

I’ll mark this one as a success. Thanks to Cathy for another great recipe choice!

Dinners

When I went to the Fresh Market for the chicken sausage, the friendly guy behind the meat counter talked me into buying some boneless, skinless chicken breast that was on sale for this week. I think their chicken tastes so much better than what I usually buy, so I got enough for two nights.

I didn't feel like making anything special or new, however, so the first night we had barbecue chicken. Sometimes I have a hard time cooking thick pieces of chicken to the right temperature, so I put this in the oven. I browned the chicken on both sides in a skillet, then stuck the pan into a 350 degree oven for around 10 minutes. After I took it out of the oven, I brushed the chicken with sauce (Kraft Spicy Honey tonight) and let it stay in the hot pan until the sauce thickened.

I also attempted to make a noodle dish with my leftover ricotta salata, but it didn't turn out quite like I wanted it to. My aunt used to make a baked dish with egg noodles and farmer's cheese, which melts and browns in the oven, but the ricotta just stayed the same while the noodles dried out. We ate part of it anyway just so it wouldn't completely go to waste.

Barbecue chicken and noodles with steamed broccoli and 1/2 baked sweet potato:




I was feeling nostalgic on Friday night and wanted some comfort food, so I made one of my favorite dishes from my childhood: Chicken Casserole (and yes, the word casserole does signify that cream of mushroom soup is included).

The good thing is, the amount of this can easily be altered to feed one person or twenty. Just mix the following things in a bowl: boiled chicken (which has been torn into small pieces), mushroom soup, low sodium chicken broth, paprika, salt, and pepper. Put it in a baking dish and top with dry herb seasoned stuffing mix. Bake at 375 until the top is brown and the liquid is bubbling.

Even though this is definitely not a fancy dish, it is one of my favorite things in the world to eat. The boyfriend likes it too, and I think he may have tried to hide the leftovers from me.

With green beans and 1/2 baked potato with light sour cream and lots of pepper:

Parents' Visit Day 1

I started out today with another new flavor of Clif Z bar: Apple Cinnamon. I was not a fan, but that's not surprising because I typically don't like this flavor of bars/muffins/yogurts/whatever. You would think I had it figured out by now, but I keep hoping the next apple cinnamon item will be better than the last. I think I don't like them because there is such a fake buttery taste in the background.




My parents arrived right before lunchtime. Usually we do a lot of shopping and eating out, but I decided to cook for all of the weekend. We started out with lunch, which consisted of barbecue chicken sandwiches, a huge salad, and homemade potato wedges. Sorry there is no picture, but I can assure you a good time was had by all.

For dinner, I made one of my mother's favorite dishes, which so happens to be a recipe I learned a couple years ago in my short cooking class and one of the richest chicken recipes I have ever prepared. It is Sun-dried Tomato Crusted Chicken with Feta Couscous.

Since I didn't create or adapt this recipe, I won't post it, but I will gladly share if you send an email address. I will tell you it involves lots of fun tasks like making your own breadcrumbs out of fresh bakery bread and mixing up a wine and butter sauce. YUM. I ate about 2/3 piece of chicken, 1/2 c. couscous, and a big serving of steamed broccoli which will hopefully soak up some of the butter from my system.

Tomorrow will feature another mini quiche recipe and a huge steak and blue cheese salad for lunch.

Then, when my parents leave for home, I think I'll check myself into food rehab.

Dinner

Last week, my boyfriend and I went to a new Hibachi Express restaurant. I was satisfied with the food, but the BF was disappointed in the amount of food/quality of the food for the price. I decided to try making it at home tonight, except with A LOT more veggies. I started with 1/2 onion, baby bella mushrooms, 1 zucchini, and a small broccoli crown, which I stir-fried on high heat with 1 T. oil and salt and pepper:





I also made some fried rice with some diced carrot, diced onion, leftover brown rice, and low sodium soy sauce. For the chicken, I tried to find some kind of sauce that was low calorie and low sodium (since we already had a little soy sauce in the rice). I found the perfect sauce:




Per tablespoon, this garlic sauce has 15 calories and less than half the sodium of light soy sauce. Also, the flavor is really strong, so I only used 2 T. for a little over half a pound of chicken. It got really thick and stuck to the chicken nicely as it heated. I highly recommend it (I found it at Lowe's Foods). Plus, it's organic!

The BF also requested the sweet carrots that they serve at the hibachi restaurant. I was a little short on time, so I used the Green Giant microwaveable honey carrots. They tasted good but had too much butter in the sauce. If anyone has a good recipe for sweet/glazed/honeyed carrots, please send it my way! I plan to make this meal again and would like to make my own carrots next time.

My plate (on a small salad plate):





I ate approximately 1/2 c. rice, 1/4 c. each chicken and carrots, and LOTS of veggies.

By the way, before we ate, the BF said "If this is good, we're never going back to the restaurant." His final verdict: "Better than the restaurant!"

I'll take that.