365: No Repeats

Just wanted to let you know that I have been trying out more new recipes, so far I have liked all of them and a couple I have totally LOVED, but I don't think that I can publish them here as they are copy-right protected. But I have gotten them from the book 365: No Repeats by Rachel Ray. So that I don't get in trouble for posting her recipes here, I will just tell you the numbers of the ones that I have LOVED and will make again, if you have the book, or want to check it out from the library to try those same recipes, you are free to! I am not doing a new one every day, but I am trying at least one a week, usually two and I am not doing them in order...
LOVED #1, 11, 27
I also thought that #29 was okay, Shawn liked it more and I also tried #157 and it was very different than what I usually do and I didn't love it, but my Dad really did, which is good since he was the one who picked that one out!
I will keep you updated as to the ones I love, but sorry, I don't think that I can post them here!

Gourmet Chicken Sandwiches

Chicken:
2 T minced Garlic
2 T olive oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
pounded to 1/4 in thick
pepper

Roast garlic in olive oil until brown. Grind fresh pepper over one side of chicken and place chicken pepper side down in the oil/garlic and cook through (approx 12 minutes)

Rosemary Mayo:
4 T Mayo
4 tsp digon ustard
1 T fresh rosemary finely chopped (I used dry and it worked fine)

Mix together.

Baguette bread
Swiss cheese

Place Rosemary Mayo over Baguette Bread. Lay chicken on top of Mayo. Lay 1 slice swiss cheese on top of chicken. Wrap in foil and bake at 275 for 10-15 minutes.

Stuffed Chicken Croissants

2 C cubed cooked chicken
16 oz. soft cream cheese
4 cans crescent rolls
6 T melted butter
4 T soft butter
1/2 t pepper
1 can drained mushrooms
2/3 c Stove Top Chicken stuffing mix
Large can Cream of Chicken Soup (Campbell's is the best)

Combine chicken, soft butter, pepper, mushrooms, and cream cheese in mixing bowl. Spoon this mixture into the center of an open crescent roll and roll up, sealing it up into the shape of a dough covered ball. Drop into melted butter and roll in stuffing mix.

Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Use cream of chicken soup for the gravy.

Chickien With Peanut Curry Sauce

Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons canola oil
* 1 1/2 pounds chicken breast, cut in 1-inch pieces
* Salt and pepper
* 8 ounces frozen cut green beans, thawed (recommended: C&W)
* 8 ounces frozen pepper strips, thawed (recommended: C&W)

For sauce:

* 1 1/2 cups light coconut milk
* 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth,
* 1 tablespoon red curry paste
* 1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons lime juice, plus wedges for garnishing
* Coconut Rice, recipe follows
* Cilantro sprigs for garnishing

Directions

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add cut up chicken, season and saute until cooked through stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add green beans and pepper strips and continue cooking for 3 minutes.

While chicken cooks, start the peanut curry sauce. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together all ingredients for the sauce. Pour sauce into a frying pan over the chicken and vegetables, stir to combine. Turn heat up to high and bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 6 to 8 minutes. Serve over Coconut Rice or plain steamed rice.

Coconut Rice:

3/4 cup light coconut milk (recommended: A Taste of Thai)

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 lime, juiced

2 cups instant rice

1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut, toasted

In a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk, chicken broth, lime juice, and instant rice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat and cover for 7 to 9 minutes. Fluff rice with fork and stir in toasted coconut. Serve.

Note: To toast coconut, place in dry frying pan over medium-low heat stirring occasionally until golden brown.

The result:
Oh, my gosh!!! This was so good that I broke my weight-loss rule and took seconds! The thing is, I still want even more! I loved this so much Shawn and Lucas are still eating it for dinner and I had to blog about it! The only thing I *might* do differently would be to make it more like 1/2 c to 3/4 c peanut butter, to make it peanutbutterier! This was so good- by the end, it was almost like eating candy! Good times!!!

Junior Mints Mini's No Bake Cheesecake

Junior Mints Mini's No Bake cheese cake:
1 oreo pie crust
1 pkg cream cheese
1/3 c sugar
1/2 pkg whipped topping (4 0z)
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 pkg Junior Mints Mini's (divided)

On High speed whip cheam cheese, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Blend in whipped topping until fully incorporated. Fold in 3 oz of Junior Mints Mini's. Spread mixture over pie crust. cover and chill if refrigerator 4 hours. sprinkle top with rest of Jr Mint's mini's just before serving.

The result: actually this is halved from what it called for. It called to make your own crust, but I just don't have time for that, and it is actually cheaper to buy the crust than it is to make it when you consider what you pay for the ingredients! So, my sister made this for me (shelley and her kids have been visiting over the past week, it has been TONS of fun!) while I was working on other things- I think it turned out pretty darn good, I love mint, chocolate and cheese cake, which this satisfied all of these cravings!!!

Chicken Chimi in the Oven

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups salsa
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pound cooked, shredded chicken breast meat
• 1 cup refried beans
• 6 (10 inch) flour tortillas

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until tender. Stir in salsa and water. Season with chili powder, cumin, and cinnamon. Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth. Return mixture to the saucepan, stir in the chicken, and cook until heated through.
3. Spoon an equal amount of refried beans down center of each tortilla, and top with equal amounts of the chicken mixture. Fold tortillas over the filling, and secure with toothpicks. Arrange seam-side down in the prepared baking dish, and brush with the remaining olive oil.
4. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, turning every 5 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.

Our result: we liked this, I have to admit, I was a little leary of the cinnamon, but it made for an interesting new flavor that was a fun variation on what normal chicken Chimichunga's taste like. All, in all, good stuff!

P.F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons oil
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup water chestnut
• 2/3 cup mushroom
• 3 tablespoons chopped onions
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4-5 leaves iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon hot mustard
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions

1. Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.

2. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.

3. Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.

4. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.

5. Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

6. Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.

7. Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.

8. Remove chicken from the pan and cool.

9. Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.

10. As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.

11. Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.

12. When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.

13. With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.

14. Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.

15. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups".

16. Top with"Special Sauce".

The result: We really liked this- although we have done Chicken lettuce wraps a slightly different way before and when we did those we used boston, or Butter lettuce, and I liked the way that rolled better- and the other wraps we had used some peanut sauce (you can buy it at the store in the asian food section) which we LOVED on this as well- all in all, I think we will do this again!

Marshmallow Peppermint Popcorn

1/2 c finely crushed peppermint candy canes
1 c mini marshmallows
1/4 t salt
1/4 c popcorn, 1/4 c oil, 1/4 c sugar

Mix the first 3 ingredients and set aside. Make the popcorn and pour the marshallow and candy cane mixture over the popcorn and stir well- the marshmallows will melt into the popcorn and be yummy!

Zuppa Toscana (Tuscan Soup)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
• 1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 5 (13.75 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 6 potato, thinly sliced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 bunch fresh spinach, tough stems removed

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook the Italian sausage and red pepper flakes in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crumbly, browned, and no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook the bacon in the same Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain, leaving a few tablespoons of drippings with the bacon in the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in the onions and garlic; cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Pour the chicken broth into the Dutch oven with the bacon and onion mixture; bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes, and boil until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the heavy cream and the cooked sausage; heat through. Mix the spinach into the soup just before serving.

The result: We really liked this soup, although we didn't even bother trying to give some to the kids- if there aren't noodles in a soup, they inherently don't like it. Plus I got a *little* bit heavy handed with the red pepper flakes, so it was a bit spicy. Also, we did the spinach thing, but it didn't really add to the soup, nor have a strong flavor, so when I had leftovers, I didn't bother with it and they came out wonderfully. Will we ever have this again- you bet!!!