Using up leftover chicken

After I made my chicken and dumplings, I had some shredded chicken left over. I was going to make chicken tacos with it, but the picky eater husband didn't want that. Since I did want tacos, that is what I made for me, but for him I made Buffalo Chicken wraps....super simple and it was quite a hit.

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Cooked chicken (enough for 2 burrito wrappers)- we used shredded, but any kind you like will work (baked tenders, fried tenders, cubed chicken breasts, etc)
1/4 cup hot sauce (I used Texas Pete)
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Burrito wrappers (we used low carb)
2 slices of cheese (we used American)

1. In medium saucepan, heat hot sauce and butter over medium heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Add chicken to sauce and stir to combine. Allow to heat through.
3. Spoon 1/2 of the chicken over the middle of 1 burrito, top with american cheese. Repeat for second burrito. Wrap edges up like burrito. Enjoy!

Super easy and only takes a few minutes to make!

Chicken and Dumplings...From Scratch

With the weather cooling down, I wanted to make something hearty. We have both been battling a cold, so I knew some chicken soup would help us start to get better. Well the hubs, as I have mentioned previously, is quite the picky eater. If I was to make a yummy chicken noodle soup, he would only eat the chicken and the noodles and pick out all the vitamin packed veggies. In order to avoid wasting all those yummy veggies, I decided I would make chicken and dumplings. I saw Tyler Florence making his from scratch while watching the Food Network, and I was inspired. The dumplings were way too dense (I used a Paula Deen recipe). They may benefit from adding more water. They were tasty, but still not perfected.

Chicken and Dumplings
(Printable Recipe)

1 whole raw chicken, rinsed
1 whole garlic head
Seasonings to your taste (I used a McCormick Montreal Chicken spice and salt, but feel free to use fresh herbs- which my kitchen lacks currently)
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup flour
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp ice cold water
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. In a large stock pot, place chicken and spices. Cut through equator of garlic head and place in pot (leave skin on). Cover chicken with water. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 1 hour.
2. Remove chicken from the water. Strain stock over large bowl (make sure to reserve stock as this will be the broth part of the gravy). When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and shred chicken.
3. In same large empty stock pot, over medium high heat- melt butter. Add flour and cook for 1 minute. Add stock to pot and bring to a boil. Stir in can of cream of chicken soup and allow boil. If gravy is to thin, you may make a slurry of 1 Tbsp of corstarch and 1/4 cup water and add to pot. Allow this to boil to thicken. Add chicken to gravy. Meanwhile prepare the dumplings.
4. In a medium bowl combine flour, salt and cold water. Mix to combine (will be stiff dough, but you may want to add more water as mine were VERY dense). Roll dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut dough into 2 inch squares. Drop dough into boiling liquid. Stir so all dumplings may sink and cook in the gravy. Allow to cook until dumplings are floating and 2 minutes more.

Now you can add veggies to this recipe if you like. For me, I made a bag of frozen mixed veggies and served my helping over that.
Instead of these dumplings, you can also make a drop dumpling using a biscuit mix. These turn out light and fluffy instead of the doughy dumplings.

A Few of My Favorite Things

The hubby cooked last night and he says his recipe is a "secret," so no recipes today. He made ribs, by the way, and they were fantastic.

Since I am not able to provide a recipe...and since I am TOTALLY bored at work, I thought I would blog about some of my favorite things....snacks, ingredients, tools, etc.

Snacks

So, we have been trying to eat more low carb, high fiber, low fat snacks. Here are some we love.

True North Nut Clusters

These are so delicious! I buy at least 1 large bag at Sams club every week. They are organic and there is only cane syrup as a sweetner. Makes these a low carb snack full of the "good fats."

Fiber One Granola Bars- Oats & Chocolate

My cousin has a blog that helps save you money (savingyoudinero.com). She has posts where you can free samples from time to time. One of the samples I got was a Fiber One kit with this granola bar. Now I am not a huge fan of Fiber One cereal, so I was pretty skeptical. I tried it and was blown away with how delicious it was! I kept dreaming of eating some more of it. Each bar has 9 grams of fiber...so it is a pretty healthy snack, at least I like to think so.

Emerald Cocoa Roasted Almonds
Yes, I know it's another nut snack, but these are just so good. They have a chocolate powder on the outside of the nut and they taste pretty similar to oreo cookies. SO good!

Crystal Light

This just makes water so much more enjoyable. I only use half of the on the go packs for a bottle of water; otherwise it is too strong for me. I truly do find myself drinking more water when I am having Crystal Light. I am trying to get my hubby to switch from soda to crystal light.





Ingredients

There are those ingredients that you turn to almost every time you cook. We have a few choice ones that I would like to share.



Tones Garlic Powder

This ingredient gets used just about every day. I LOVE garlic. My husband likes the flavor, but not the bits of garlic when you use fresh. For a compromise, we use this. This brand is the most flavorful I have ever used. In the past, I have tried other brands, but they lack much flavor and you need to use a lot, but not this product. In fact, on the back it even tells you how much to use in comparison to if you were using real garlic.



Splenda
I use Splenda to sweeten drinks, bake, etc. I am on the fence about how I feel about using artificial sweetners, but switching from regular sodas and sweet teas to those sweetened with Splenda helped me lose a lot of weight.



Hidden Valley Light Ranch
The only Ranch dressing I like (besides from restaurants) is Hidden Valley. The light is so delicious you wouldn't even be able to tell it was light. I use this every day on salads for lunch. I also use it in place of egg when I am breading chicken. I marinate the chicken in the ranch dressing, then bread with seasoned flour and bake. It comes out so delicious. My hubby always asks me to make this for him.



Oven Fry

My husband doesn't each much fish, but he loves fried catfish. I am certainly not going to fry anything because of the extra fat, and the mess. When we found this product, it was a great compromise. The coating comes out so crispy and delicious. It is so easy to use. Just moisten the fish (you can rinse it or use milk or egg), then coat with the seasoning and place on baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes and viola, dinner is done!


Dreamfields Pasta
This pasta is a low carb pasta. You could certainly never tell. It looks, smells, and tastes just like normal pasta. I make so many sides for my hubby using this pasta. According to some websites, you shouldn't cook the pasta in the sauce as it allows it to "release" the carbs. Same thing goes for overcooking.

McCormick Grill Mates Barbecue Seasoning
We love this seasoning. It is so delicious on chicken, ribs, pork chops. I also make barbeque wings at times using this seasoning.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts...Calzone and Buffalo

We have been going to the Land and Sea Market lately after realizing they have pretty good prices on meats. We have tried over half of their stuffed chicken breasts and we love them. I decided to try my hand at it tonight and YUM. They turned out great! We usually get two flavors and split them so we can each taste one. So, in tradition, I made two flavors....Calzone and Buffalo. I have to say, the Buffalo version I made, I prefer over the Land and Sea Market's. The calzone is about equivalent. I can't wait to try different variations!

(Printable Recipes)

Calzone Stuffed Chicken Breast (makes 1, increase ingredients to make more)
(Printable Recipes)

1 chicken breast pounded flat
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
2 Tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
3-4 Pepperoni slices (I used turkey pepperoni)
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a bowl, combine ricotta, mozzarella, tomato paste. Place mixture in center of flattened chicken breast. Top with pepperoni slices. Roll chicken breast around filling, tucking in sides. Place seam side down in a baking dish. Pour water around chicken breast (until about 1/2 inch up side of chicken). Cover baking dish with foil. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
3. Remove foil and continue baking until cooked through (at least 10 minutes more).


Buffalo Stuffed Chicken Breasts (makes 1, increase ingredients to make more)

1 chicken breast pounded flat
3 oz cream cheese (I used reduced fat)
3 Tbsp shredded cheddar cheese
2 tsp hot sauce (I used Texas Pete- you can add more or less to your taste)
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a bowl combine cream cheese, cheddar, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Place mixture in center of flattened chicken breast. Roll chicken breast around filling, tucking in sides. Place seam side down in a baking dish. Pour water around chicken breast (until about 1/2 inch up side of chicken). Cover baking dish with foil. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
3. Remove foil and continue baking until cooked through (at least 10 minutes more).

Soft, Delicious Oatmeal Cookies

Photo courtesy of http://allrecipes.com/Cook/13222627/Profile.aspx


Well our house is up for sale. We got a call from someone who wanted to look at it. I have heard that one trick when showing your house, is to bake cookies. It makes your house seem comfortable and "homey." I have also heard that using cinnamon in your recipe is good. Being that it is fall, the house should smell like something baking with cinnamon. My husband is the pickiest eater, so apple pie was out, coffee cake was out, gingerbread was out, and the list goes on. I decided to make oatmeal cookies. I looked online for a recipe and came across on on allrecipes.com. It had a 5 star rating, so I thought, it couldn't hurt to try it. When I was making it, I got a little taste of the dough....AMAZING. The BEST cookie dough I have EVER tasted! The cookies come out soft and stay soft....so tasty.



Oatmeal cookies

Recipe courtesy of Allrecipes.com

(Printable Recipe)



1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 cups quick cooking oats

Optional add ins- raisins, chocolate chips, toffee bits



1. Cream together sugars and butter. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in vanilla.



2. In a seperate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon. Add mixture into butter/egg/sugar mixture and stir together until well combined. Add oats to mixture and stir until well combined. If you are adding toppings, add them in with the oats.



3. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.



4. Preheat oven to 375. Grease baking pan. Using a cookie scoop or palms of your hands, roll dough into walnut sized pieces and place 2 inches apart on baking pan. Flatten dough balls (you can use a fork dipped in sugar, the palm of your hand, or the bottom of a glass).



5. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool at least 5 minutes on the baking pan before moving to wire rack to cool.



Next time I make these, I will be adding toffee pieces. I may add chocolate chips too. So yummy. I brought them to work and got rave reviews!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

I just love pot roast. With the mornings and evening being cooler, I have been in the mood to make it. In Florida, the afternoons are still pretty warm, so I wanted to make it in the slow cooker to avoid heating the house with the oven.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast
(Printable Recipe)

5 pound boneless beef roast (I like the shoulder roast)
1-2 cans (depending on thickness desired) cream of mushroom soup (I also like roasted garlic cream of mushroom)
32 oz beef broth
Following veggies- use as much or as little as you like
Small red potatoes- halved
Carrots- peeled and cut into large pieces
Celery- cut into large pieces
Onion- diced (I did not use this as my hubby has an aversion to onions)
Garlic powder and salt to taste
Cooked egg noodles

1. Put beef and veggies into slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt and garlic powder.
2. Pour cream soup and broth over beef and veggies.
3. Put slow cooker on low for 6 hours. If you don't have that much time you can also put it on high for about 3-4 hours.
4. Take meat out, slice and then place back in gravy.
5. Serve over egg noodles. Delicious!

Ginger/Garlic Beef Stir Fry

I got this recipe a LONG time ago while watching a show on the Food Network called How To Boil Water. I have made this for myself a Million times. I made it for my family many times and they LOVE it. I cannot make it for my husband, though, because he doesn't eat onions, garlic, ginger, or chunks of tomatoes....all of these ingredients in this DELICIOUS recipe. I changed a few things along the way which I will type in the recipe. I hope you all enjoy it!

Ginger/Garlic Beef Stir Fry- altered recipe from the Food Network's How to Boil Water (their recipe is called Beef with Scallions, Tomato, and Ginger)

1 pound beef cut up into bite sized pieces (original recipe calls for flank steak, I use top round steaks or mock tenders, whatever is on sale)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
Original recipe calso alls for 2 Tbsp dry sherry- I have used it and haven't and don't really miss it
3 tsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp sugar
1 bunch of scallions cut into 2 inch pieces- seperate whites and greens
1 Tbsp chopped/grated ginger (I have used garlic as a complete substitution or use half garlic and half ginger)
1 pound of tomatoes cut into large pieces (a little bigger than bite sized)
Original recipe calls for hoison sauce...I don't like it!

1. In a large bowl, mix together soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil, cornstarch, sugar and sherry if you are going to use it
2. Put beef into mixture and allow to marinate for a least 10 minutes.
3. Heat pan and add beef mixture with all liquid and scallion whites. Cook without stirring until beef is pink (about 1 minute). Transfer to a bowl
4. Return pan to heat and add 1 tsp sesame oil. Add the ginger/garlic and cook until just fragrant, about 30 seconds.
5. Add the scallion greens and tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are slightly soft.
6. Add beef back to pan and cook until heated through and sauce has thickened.
7. Enjoy!

Original recipe courtesy of Food Network