Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad

Yeah yeah the picture is from ourbestbites, I know. Sorry. Saturdays are complete chaos around these parts, zipping from one activity to the next and I somehow managed to prepare three crazy meals yesterday in an attempt to use all of the produce in our fridge that was um...getting a little old (since I took a quick little jaunt to St. George a day after a Costco run, bad idea!). Anyway I made this salad last night for a family party and everyone LOVED it! I think the secret to making people love something is to put crispy tortilla strips on top ;)

Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad
by: Ourbestbites.com

Salad:
4 cups chopped Romaine Lettuce
2 cups chopped grilled chicken (I didn't do the chicken, still good!)
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, washed (and I cut them in half)
1/3 cup vertically sliced red onion
1 avocado, cubed
1 15-oz can bacl beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, rinsed and drained

Dressing:
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2/3 cup light sour cream
1 1/2 tsp adobo sauce from canned chipotle in adobo sauce (one can will last your entire life, you can freeze the chiles and remaining sauce in an ice cube tray for easy use!)
1 teaspoon chili powder
4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional : Crispy Tortilla Strips
To make the tortilla strips fill a frying pan with 1/4 inch canola oil. Slice corn tortillas with a pizza cutter to be pretty thin, when oil is hot (it should sizzle when you flick water on it, not spatter, if it spatters it's too hot), throw in the tortillas and stir frequently till they are golden brown. Remove with slotted spatula and place on a plate with a paper towel on it, sprinkle with salt. Try to not eat them all before you serve your salad.

I watched a documentary the other day about doing a juice cleanse. I'm trying to gear up for that. I could post a lot of awesome juice recipes ; )

Chicken and Roasted Broccoli

I used to have a good laugh when watching old movies and the housewife would suffer from "sheer exhaustion" after a trip to the grocery store, or something ridiculous. She'd sweep her wrist up to her head and collapse on the couch and be rendered useless for days. But now... I kind of get it. Not to that extreme, but there is something about going to Costco that sucks up my will to live and while it may not render me useless for days one thing is for sure - I NEVER feel like making dinner after a Costco run. I think part of the problem is that after you go to Costco and spend a small fortune you still have to go to another store to get all of the knick knacks and paddywhacks you need to complete your grocery list. Exhaustion.

So as a general rule I pick up a rotisserie chicken at Costco and find a way to make that work for dinner. Which was great until we got kind of sick of plain old rotisserie chicken. This recipe is the perfect solution for your Costco shopping trip dilemma, all of the items can be purchased at Costco, it's easy to whip up and tastes delicious. Enjoy!

Chicken and Roasted Broccoli Salad with Goat Cheese
By Perry's Plate , Natalie calls this a salad but if I called it a salad Blaine wouldn't eat it for dinner : )
For the roasted broccoli and pepper:
1 large head of broccoli (about 1 3/4 lbs), cut into 1-2 inch florets
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste

For the rest of the salad:
4 T olive oil
6 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
a couple pinches of crushed red pepper flakes
pinch of dried oregano
juice from 1/2 a lemon (about 2 T), plus additional lemon wedges for garnish
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (rotisserie chicken!)
3-4 ounces of goat cheese, crumbled

To prepare the broccoli:
Heat oven to 500 degrees and place a sturdy baking sheet on the lowest rack. Place broccoli florets and peppers slices in a large bowl and toss with olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper.

Working quickly, remove baking sheet from the oven and spread broccoli and peppers into an even layer, placing the florets cut-side down when possible. Return to bottom rack of the oven and roast 10-12 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked through and there are caramelized spots scattered throughout. Be sure not to cook until the tips of the florets turn black.

To prepare the rest of the salad:
Heat 2 T olive oil, sliced garlic, and pepper flakes in a small skillet over med-low heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic is soft and begins to turn golden brown, about 5-7 minutes. Add chicken to the skillet and cook until heated through, about 3-5 minutes. Remove chicken-garlic mixture from heat; stir in oregano and lemon juice.

Toss roasted vegetables with the chicken-garlic mixture and an additional 2 T of olive oil in a large salad bowl. Gently fold in the goat cheese crumbles and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Grilled Malibu Chicken

A couple of sad things. But not like that sad of things.... upon coming home from my week long trip to Oregon I came down with the worlds worst headache. Completely debilitating, you remember this because I droned on and on about it a couple posts ago. Anyways, so a week later I am minding my own business on a family campout and I look down to notice that I am completely covered in red bumps. And of course as soon as I notice them they start itching like crazy. Neckline to toe (thank goodness my face was spared!) I was completely covered. Bug bites and grass allergies were ruled out because I was wearing long pants the whole time I was there. I was quite perplexed. As it turns out.... I'm allergic to amoxicillin (sp?), which is just downright awesome. So, just log away in your brain that you can get an amoxicillin rash eight days after you start taking it, or even later than that. So I looked really awesome there for a few days, went to church wearing a coat and long boots in the middle of a heat wave. It was awesome.

Secondly, we spent our fourth of July in the Urgent Care Clinic getting STAPLES in my sons head. Yeah. Not sure what happened but he smacked the back of his head really hard on the corner of our blasted coffee table. I am a little bit proud that I've gone my whole life without stitches and that I've managed six years of parenthood without them. So I had to restrain my child while they stapled his head shut and my dreams of becoming a nurse were shattered as I nearly passed out, vomited, and wept through the process.

Third sad thing, our grill has been broken for a year, so when I make this Grilled Malibu Chicken I have to make it on the George Foreman which requires getting tricky with aluminum foil, and a big cheesy mess. So, don't take your grill, your unitchy body, or your child's naturally concealed skull for granted.

We love this chicken, it knocks my socks off every time!

Grilled Malibu Chicken

from Patio Daddio BBQ via Tasty Kitchen via Perry's Plate

6 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
2 T BBQ seasoning (I used Montreal Steak Seasoning)
12 slices deli ham (thin)
6 slices canned pineapple
6 slices Swiss cheese
1/2 cup pineapple juice (from the can)
4 T butter, melted
1 T plain yellow mustard
1 T honey
1 T molasses
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp chili powder

(The original recipe suggested pounding the thicker parts of the breasts to make them more uniform in thickness, but I simply sliced through them horizontally to form two thin breasts out of each one. They cook faster this way, the meat goes farther, and it's more flavorful when you're using sauces or marinades.)

Season both sides of each breast with the seasoning, cover and refrigerate at least an hour (unless you don't have an hour, in that case just season both sides and go for it).

Combine the butter, pineapple juice, mustard, honey, molasses, Worcestershire sauce and chili powder a medium mixing bowl and whisk until smooth, then set aside.

Prepare your grill for two-zone cooking (direct and indirect) at medium-high heat (about 400º). Or if that last sentence makes you panic, turn on your grill-pan, or George Foreman, to medium-high heat.

Quickly grill one side of each breast and each pineapple ring over direct heat until they are seared and have nice grill marks, about two minutes. Flip each breast and ring, brush with the sauce, and cook another two minutes.

Move the chicken to the indirect part of the grill (or a not-so-hot part of your pan) and brush the top of each with the sauce. Top each breast with two slices of ham and drizzle the ham with the sauce. Put a slice of cheese then a pineapple ring on each breast and drizzle yet again with the sauce. Continue cooking with the grill lid down (or in my case, a piece of aluminum foil. . . grill masters are rolling their eyes, I'm sure) until the internal temperature reaches 160º, about 10 minutes.

Rumbi Rice Bowl

I am having a love affair with Rumbi. What I miss the most about Texas (besides fall, winter, and spring) are all of the awesome local restaurants. The good news is that Utah has some great chain restaurants that aren't in Texas, so it's almost as good. Almost. Rumbi not only has the best fries (sweet potato/regular mix) but the kids meal is enough to feed me, and that's kind of how I roll. But really, this post isn't meant to be an ode to Rumbi, it's an ode to rice bowls that taste better than the ones you can get at Rumbi. These bowls are easy to make and taste delicious!

Rumbi Rice Bowls

by: favfamilyrecipes.com

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 carrots, peeled and grated
3 celery stalks, washed and sliced
1 zucchini, chopped into small cubes
1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli florets
2 cups chicken, grilled and cut in to small cubes
Spicy Hawaiian teriyaki Sauce (see below)

Heat vegetable oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrots, celery, zucchini, and broccoli (pretty much equal parts of all vegetables, add more or less depending on your personal preference. I doubled the vegetables (besides celery, the scourge of the earth according to my husband) and because I had so many vegetables I doubled the oil as well. Saute ONLY until vegetables are crisp tender. The recipe says 1-2 minute tops, I sauteed mine for 10 minutes and they were still crisp tender, if I would have only gone two minutes I would have chipped a tooth on my carrots. Serve over rice with chicken and a healthy smattering of Spicy Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce.

Spicy Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce

3/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce (in the Asian section of the grocery store, we used the one in the clear plastic jar with the green lid. You can add more if you like it spicy or reduce if you can't take the heat. I think our sauce is super spicy, so I reduced it to 1 1/2 teaspoons).
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
pinch of salt
pinch of brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water

Combine teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, garlic sauce, ginger, salt and brown sugar in small saucepan. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Combine cornstarch and water and SLOWLY add to sauce for thickening. You want it to be slightly thicker than the teriyaki sauce was. Allow to simmer for about a minute. Serve over your rice bowls.

PS Buying broccoli from Costco in the big bag (the fresh kind), is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me. It's like a vegetable bomb, we have to eat an absurd amount of broccoli around here to beat the expiration date, but it's really good. Because broccoli is awesome. Lookin' at you Janssen.

PPS It was so hard to find an angle to take this picture where there was not a crazy mess in the background. My whole house was clean then I decided to make dinner thirty minutes before we were supposed to leave to my daughters kindergarten graduation. That was really not smart. And, because I know you care, we were in the very back row for the program and she was sitting in the front for of kindergartners. I could not see her AT ALL during the program. I was so very, very sad.

Balsamic Chicken Pasta with Fresh Cheese

I like to think I am the kind of person who will try anything once. I am also the kind of person who really likes cheese (with the exception of blue cheese, due to an unfortunate incident while I was pregnant that I prefer to not talk about. At least on a recipe blog. *shudder*). I think I had tried little crumbles of goat cheese before and it seemed pretty gross to me. Perhaps a little bit too much like blue cheese for comfort. This dish, however, not only has me buying goat cheese, it has me buying goat cheese from Costco, and frequently from Costco at that. Which is really saying something! This pasta is one of the finest pastas around, it's easy to make, has a unique flavor, and I just can't get enough of it!

Balsamic Chicken Pasta with Fresh Cheese
by: www.perrysplate.com

2 T balsamic vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
6 T extra virgin olive oil
1 c fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
2 c shredded cooked chicken
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 c small fresh mozzarella balls, halved or cubed mozzarella (3/4 inch)
1/2 c crumbled soft goat cheese
8 oz linguine ( I would estimate that I only use the type of pasta called for in a recipe like 15% of the time, I just use what I have on hand. In this case it was fettuccine. But if I had to do it over again I would have used spaghetti noodles or something a little more...round)

Cook linguine according to package directions; drain. Saute bell pepper in a small skillet over medium heat until limp, about 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl; slowly whisk in oil. Stir in 1/2 c basil.

Place pasta, chicken, cooked peppers, mozzarella, goat cheese, and remaining basil in a large bowl. Pour dressing over top and toss to coat.

Kristi's Notes: I've messed around with this pasta quite a bit. Sometimes I use a rotisserie chicken from Costco, sometimes (usually) I omit the chicken all together and substitute in mushrooms (just slice them and throw them in when you cook the red pepper). I've also found that you can reduce the amount of oil in the sauce by about a tablespoon or two and it doesn't affect the taste of texture of the pasta much (I'm so ridiculously healthy...ha!). I hope you give this recipe a shot, it really is delicious. And I should note that you can buy goat cheese at Costco for much less than anywhere else. I've learned to even kind of, sort of, slightly like goat cheese on other things too. Baby steps.