waldorf chicken salad

I finally found some time in the kitchen this weekend, when Michael and I took a much needed day off from our renovation project. Sunday was a glorious day spent sleeping in, lounging around, getting laundry done (finally), planning meals for the week, going grocery shopping and cooking. A normal day for once! It's a beautiful thing.

I've been focusing on healthy meals that give me lots of energy to tackle projects like de-greasing an entire kitchen.

 This Waldorf Chicken Salad is full of nutrients from walnuts, granny smith apples, grapes and celery. Those lovely ingredients are paired with grilled chicken and tossed in a very light mayonnaise dressing. It's the cool thing to do.

Start with cooked, cubed chicken... about 3 boneless, skinless breasts.

Chop up walnuts, a granny smith apple, grapes and celery. The best way I've found to finely mince celery is to first slice it length-wise into several pieces, then chop it up.

Bowl full of goodness.

Then I mixed up a light mayo/vinegar dressing and tossed the whole thing together.

It tastes so fresh and healthy, with the chunks of fruit and nuts. It's a very complex combination of flavors and textures - slightly sweet, nutty, crunchy, creamy...

I'm enjoying it for lunch at work this week, over lettuce. It makes a beautiful salad.

And hopefully it gives me lots of energy. We plan on painting our kitchen this week! Good-bye pink paint!

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Waldorf Chicken Salad

4 cups cooked, cubed chicken (about 3 large breasts)
1/4 cup minced celery (about 2-3 stalks)
1 large granny smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 cup chopped grapes (red or green is fine)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup light mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
Dash salt, pepper

Combine chicken, celery, apple, grapes and walnuts in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper (to taste). Pour dressing over chicken mixture and combine. It's that easy! Serve chilled over lettuce.


Serves: 5-6

fresh strawberry pie

This strawberry pie is kind of beautiful, right?

It's the supermodel of pie world.

It's bright and fresh, very summery. Makes me want to run down a slip-n-slide and chase my friends around the yard with a hose. Does it make you want to do that too? No? Weird...

I baked this pie with my Mom about 2 weeks ago. I've been meaning to share it with you ever since, but life has gotten in the way. I didn't really need to tell you that though. I could have just let you believe I made this pie yesterday... but I like to keep it real.

We baked a shortbread-type pie crust for this. Bake any kind of pie crust you like for super sweet pies... or buy one from the store. I will not judge you at all.

Just a little trick: fill your pie shell with rice or beans to weigh it down while it bakes. That way, your crust won't bubble up and get air pockets in the oven. No one likes a bubbly pie crust.

The filling for this pie consists of fresh strawberries in a sugary sweet glaze. The glaze is very easy... made with jell-o powder, cornstarch, water and sugar. That's it! It's basically a strawberry simple syrup.

Once the glaze is completely cooled, mix in the diced strawberries and pour it into your pie crust of choice.

Then take lots of pictures... because it's just too beautiful not to have it's moment in the spotlight.

This pie is very sweet. I think it would be best topped off with fresh whipped cream that hardly has any sugar added. The tangy cream will off-set the sweetness of this pie perfectly.

Enjoy!

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Fresh Strawberry Pie Filling

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3 tablespoons strawberry jell-o powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 quart fresh strawberries, cut into small pieces

Combine jell-o powder, cornstarch, water and sugar in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to boil, then let it boil for 1 minute. The glaze should be thick and the sugar dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool until cold. You may cover this and put it in the fridge for later use.

When ready to assemble the pie, add berries to jell-o mixture and stir. Then pour into cooled pie crust. Serve with fresh whipped cream!

summer recipes

Jenna Laughs has been pretty dessert-heavy lately. Seems like I am doing a whole lot of baking the last few weeks! So I wanted to go through my non-dessert dishes and post some great ideas for summer parties and barbecues.

First up we have Barbecue Spice Rubbed Pork Chops. These are bone-in thick cut pork chops, rubbed down with a spicy/sweet rub and grilled to caramelized perfection. You're welcome.

Greek Cucumber Salad is light, fresh and the perfect side dish on a hot summer day. It has 4 ingredients: cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese and olive oil. Couldn't be more simple and delicious!

These Mediterranean Turkey Burgers with Homemade Tzatziki Sauce are perfectly light and flavorful. The tzatziki sauce is tangy and thick, a lovely alternative to typical burger toppings. I served these with oven baked fries and it was a perfect meal.

Pasta with Lemon and Basil. This unusual flavor combination is heavenly. So light and refreshing - and loaded with tons of fresh basil. I made this last winter when lemons were in season, but now we have lovely fresh basil in season.

This grilled chicken is so flavorful, juicy, cheesy and wonderful. The fresh tomato salsa puts it on a whole other level. Then to make it even better - I made a flavored chili lime butter to brush on corn. This is definitely one of my favorite dishes for the summer.

Finally, to wash it all down - try Sparkling Lime Lemonade. It's super tart, which is how I like my lemonade.

I hope everyone has so many fun barbecues this summer!

rocky road brownies

I am a chocolate lover through and through. Most of my favorite desserts involve chocolate and I am totally okay with that. When I make brownies, I enjoy them when they are warm, served with a scoop (or two) of vanilla bean ice cream then covered in chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Brownie sundaes all the way!

I haven't done much experimenting with different types of brownies, but I am VERY glad I experimented with these.

Imagine fudgy, super chocolatey brownies covered in chocolate chips, walnuts and marshmallows... then broiled until the marshmallows are toasty and the chocolate chips melt. Super indulgent.

 The base of the batter is melted chocolate chips and butter. I know. You're welcome.

I mixed in some walnuts that I chopped fine. I am usually not a fan of walnuts in brownies, but I was experimenting so I went with it and I'm glad I did. The walnuts are small and as they bake, they dissolve into this buttery, nutty flavor in the brownies.

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After they bake for about 20 minutes, sprinkle the top with mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and more chopped walnuts. 

Since the brownies are already baked almost all the way through, we just need to brown the marshmallows on top. I stuck mine under the broiler for about 4 minutes until they were light brown.

I had visions of campfires dancing through my head.
 

The toasted marshmallows add a different texture - almost slightly chewy. The walnuts have a soft crunch and the whole thing is so sinful and delicious I can't even stand it.

I took these to a Memorial Day Barbecue at Michael's Mom's house. They were totally gone by the time I left... which I'm still trying not to be bitter about.

Enjoy this one!

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Rocky Road Brownies

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2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 bags (18 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

In a large heatproof bowl, combine butter and 2 cups chocolate chips. Melt in the microwave on high power for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.

Into the chocolate/butter mixture, stir in sugars and salt. Once combined, stir in the eggs and then the flour, stirring just until combined. Mix in 1/2 cup of the walnuts. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake for 20 or 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with crumbs.

Remove from oven. Sprinkle with remaining chopped nuts, chocolate chips and marshmallows. Bake until the marshmallows are puffed and beginning to brown and the chocolate turns shiny, roughly 5 to 7 minutes. (If you like your marshmallows extra toasty, turn on the boiler of your oven and use that for the last few minutes. Be sure to turn the pan every minute or so to ensure even browning.)

Remove from oven and cool completely in pan.

Recipe adapted from A Dash of Sass.

grilled chicken with tomato salsa and corn with chili lime butter

Last week, I had a bunch of chicken breasts I didn't know what to do with. This is a frequent situation in my house, and I'm sure yours too. How many ways can we cook chicken?

One of my favorite things to do is pile chicken breasts up in a 13x9 pan, sprinkle a packet of taco seasoning evenly on the chicken, drizzle with olive oil and use my hands to combine it all together until a delicious paste forms on the chicken.

I grill them.

Then I sprinkle them with shredded cheese and let it melt. Heaven.

I had 2 left over chicken breasts from this meal that I happily saved to put on salad for my lunch at work that week. By 10:30, I was sitting at my desk dreaming about this chicken and checking the clock every 5 minutes until noon, which was an acceptable time to finally get to enjoy my lunch.

But for dinner that night, I made an easy homemade tomato salsa to serve on top.

I chopped up a few tomatoes and a clove of garlic.

Then mixed it together with a can of chopped green chiles and some olive oil. And just like magic, you have homemade tomato salsa.

It's not quite the same... I mean, there are no onions, cilantro, jalapenos... but on a Tuesday night you will be happy to prepare a simple meal like this.

Spoon the fresh, delicious salsa over the chicken. Drool. Smile.

I served it with fresh corn on the cob. Raise your hand if you're glad corn on the cob is in season again? I love sitting outside, shucking the corn and smelling that sweet fragrance. I imagine that's what women have felt like for centuries, removing the husks and stacking up the cobs, excited to feed their families.

Sweet corn is SO GOOD.

To make it even better, I mixed up a chili lime butter to slather on it. It's a softened stick of butter, whipped up with lime zest, lime juice, chilli powder, salt and pepper. It's even better than you can imagine in your head right now.

The bits of lime zest combine so well with the sweet corn. It's salty, sweet, tangy, fresh, delicious....

I liked it so much, I made the butter again a few days later. I plan on making it several times this summer, and experimenting with other flavored butters for corn on the cob. Maybe chipotle? Honey?

Enjoy, guys!

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Grilled Chicken with Tomato Salsa

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For the chicken:
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 package (1 oz.) taco seasoning
6 tablespoons shredded colby jack cheese

For the salsa:
2 medium sized tomatoes
1 small (4 oz.) can chopped green chiles
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Trim fat from chicken and place in a 13x9 lined with aluminum foil. Sprinkle packet of taco seasoning evenly over the chicken, then drizzle olive oil. Use your hands to mix it all together until a paste forms over the chicken. Grill chicken for about 7-8 minutes on each side. When chicken is almost done, sprinkle with shredded cheese and cook for a few more minutes, until cheese melts.

Swap out foil for a fresh layer, and put the chicken back in the pan. Cover with more foil and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Which the chicken is resting, dice tomatoes. Mix in a medium sized bowl with garlic, chopped green chiles, olive oil, salt and pepper. To serve, place chicken breast on the plate and top with salsa.

Serves: 6


Corn on the Cob with Chili Lime Butter

6 ears corn on the cob
1 stick butter, softened
Juice and zest of one lime
2 teaspoons chili powder
Salt and pepper, to taste

Boil corn on the cob for 10 minutes, or until tender.

Combine butter, lime zest, lime juice, chili powder, salt and pepper in an small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush on hot corn. Serve immediately.

Serves: 6

chicken parmesan burgers

We all know about the totally delicious diet buster we order at Italian restaurants... crispy fried chicken covered in thick marinara sauce and tons of cheese. And it doesn't stop there - put all those calories over a huge plate of pasta and you've got Chicken Parmesan. Be still my heart.

If you're looking for a lower calorie option with the same great flavors, this burger is just the thing. It's a juicy burger made from ground chicken, topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves.

I didn't add much seasoning to the ground chicken, so the authentic chicken flavor shines through. The tomato sauce is such a great accent.

Start by making those juicy chicken burgers. I made 3 of out a pound of meat, but you could easily make 4... or 2 if you're really hungry. 1/2 pound chicken parm burgers? I think so.

I like to drain tomato sauces before I use them. This is a good trick when you're making pizza and you don't want watery tomato sauce. My mom taught me this (Hi, Mom!).

Put a strainer lined with a coffee filter over a mug and pour your sauce in. You will be surprised how much water drains out! You are left with a lovely, thick tomato sauce. You could also do this by heating the sauce in a saucepan until bubbly, then just let it simmer and reduce down.

So now the burgers are cooked and resting. The tomato sauce is drained.

Here is where it gets really complicated. Spoon sauce over the burger, sprinkle with cheese and top with fresh basil leaves. Shew! My recipes are so complex.

Now you get to bite into this beautiful creation.

Dripping with tomato sauce and cheese... I will take this version of the classic any day.

Enjoy!

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Chicken Parmesan Burgers

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1 pound ground chicken
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
Cooking Spray
2 cups jarred marinara sauce
1/2 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
4 fresh basil leaves
4 whole wheat hamburger buns, toasted

Place tomato sauce in a strainer lined with a coffee filter. Drain water from sauce and set aside.

Combine ground chicken, pepper, salt and garlic powder in a large bowl with your hands. Form 4 equal sized patties. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray. Place patties in pan and cook for 6-8 minutes on each side or until cooked through.

When burgers are done, put them on the bottom of the toasted hamburger buns. Spoon 1/4 cup marinara sauce over burger. Top with cheese and 1 basil leaf. Place top bun on top and serve immediately.