BBQ Ranch Shredded Chicken Sliders

Last night I went through my infamous recipe binder and pulled every. single. recipe. that can be cooked on a grill.  Yes I did.  I asked my husband if he will be annoyed cooking on a grill every night and he said no, because he loves grilling.  He has officially requested for me to buy him an apron that says “Grill Master” or something similar.  =P  I am enjoying the grilling, too, because it is more of a joint effort.  I pick out the recipes and prep them, while he grills them as I make the sides.  It keeps him off his video game, also! ;) (that being said, he’s not freakishly obsessed with his games, I just want to make that clear).

Last night we made these BBQ Ranch Shredded Chicken Sliders (see above for a picture of just the slider, and see below for a picture of the whole meal) but we made them as regular burger-sandwiches, as opposed to sliders.  I paired them with a salad of fresh spring greens.  Funny story about the salad – I put a few small squirts of dressing on the salad and mixed it well.  As my husband went to scoop some onto his plate, he started to add more dressing and I told him I already included dressing.  His response? “Where? I don’t see any dressing!”  This is a common theme in our house.  I put on a lot of something, and then he proceeds to add more.  Unless it’s cheese.  Or croutons.  Or hot/spicy spices/sauce.  Then it’s me piling that on.  In any case, the sliders were delicious!  It was basically barbecue chicken.  I used caesar dressing instead of ranch, since we only had a tiny bit of ranch and I think it has been in the fridge for awhile so I didn’t want to risk it.

BBQ Ranch Shredded Chicken Sliders

Ingredients:
-2 chicken breasts, grilled and shredded
-whole wheat slider buns
-4 pieces of monterey jack cheese (I used a small spoonful of shredded)
-1/4cu barbeque sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s – of course!)
-2tbsp low-fat ranch dressing (I used probably only a tsp amount, and caesar dressing)
-garnish (I used lettuce and onion)

Directions:
-Preheat grill (and then obviously grill them).
-Shred chicken into a bowl, mix with barbecu sauce until thoroughly combined.
-While doing the above step, you can toast the buns on the grill, too.
-On each slider bun, add a few spoonfuls of shredded chicken. Top with a teaspoon of ranch dressing, and a piece of cheese. Add lettuce and other garnish.
-Eat and enjoy!!

Puerto Rican Burgers & Grilled Vegetables & Grilled Caesar Salad

My husband, roommates, and I decided to have an impromptu grill night (which also included a Dunkin Donuts run for iced coffee and a movie, Law Abiding Citizen).  My husband decided to make his “Puerto Rican” burgers, which he’s made for me a few times before.  They’re really good (and juicy…).  I use the quotation marks, because he is 1/4 Puerto Rican and when he last traveled there, as a teenager, his cousins made these burgers and he loosely remembers the ingredients.  Then we decided to grill a TON of veggies (asparagus, eggplant, and zuchini). 

And then I decided that I could not have an evening without a recipe from my recipe binder (obsessed?…nah, not me), I decided to try How Sweet It Is’s grilled caesar salad.  Yes, grilled salad.

It was really good, and definitely different, but the original blogger says to grill for 2-3mins, but we grilled it for over 5mins and it barely had a grilled taste, though perhaps because I put it on toward the end and the grill wasn’t as hot.

Puerto Rican Burgers (my husband’s family recipe)

Ingredients:
-2lbs lean ground beef (I used 93% lean – one patty = 3 WW pts)
-4tsp apple cider vinegar (should probably use more for 2lbs of meat)
-a few shakes of Adobo seasoning
-1/4cu bread crumbs (you can probably use more, but that’s all we had left over from a few nights ago)
-whole wheat buns
-desired garnishes (we grilled red onions, and had cheese and lettuce as well)

Directions:
-Mix all ingredients in a bowl (except buns, obviously), cover and marinate for however long you want (we did it for a couple of hours)
-Form patties (we made 7 patties) and grill to desired done-ness

Grilled Caesar Salad

Ingredients:
-one full romaine heart per person (however, this made a BIG salad, so it could certainly be for more than one person)
-sprinkle of salt and pepper
-2tbsp olive oil
-1/4cu caesar dressing (I used way less than this – and because the lettuce is so flavourful and moist from the oil, salt, and pepper, you hardly need any dressing at all)
-2tbsp parmesan cheese (I was out of parmesan – gasp – so I used shredded monterey jack)
-croutons

Directions:
-Preheat grill
-Brush each romaine heart with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
-Grill for 2-3mins (this depends on how hot your grill is, could be longer).
-Take off grill, chop hearts, and mix in a salad bowl with dressing, croutons, and cheese.

Grilled Vegetables (our own concoction)

Ingredients:
-asparagus, ends cut off
-eggplant, sliced
-zuchini, sliced
-a few shakes of Italian seasoning
-a few squirts of olive oil

Directions:
-Place veggies (separately) into a long, rectangular bowl/tub/whatever you have.
-Squirt some olive oil over them and shake up.
-Sprinkle some seasoning on them and shake up (or in the case of the eggplant and zuchini, just turn over)
-Grill for 15-20mins (turning halfway through)

Flavoured Turkey Burger

We got a grill on Saturday.  It was a very “on a whim” idea.  Basically, we got home from helping my husband’s mother move (and eating Sonic) and were puttering around the apartment (I was laying on the couch preparing to go to the gym – don’t judge) and he just decided to get one.  I gave him a price point we couldn’t go over (yes, yes, he’s the “man of the house” but I know our budget and bank numbers forward and backward) and he jumped on google.  He found a great deal on a charcoal grill at Home Depot, and was even able to get some grilling tools, since he was under the established price point.  This all occurred while sweat was dripping down my face doing 30mins on the elliptical (I’m sure you didn’t need to picture that).

Speaking of the gym, there was this girl there, and you know what kind of girl I’m talking about.  I was doing a strength-training circuit of lifting (3 sets of 20 reps on each weight machine, oh yeah) and again, sweat dripping down my face and arms (I had just gotten off the elliptical and it was hot, ok??).  The girl in question was in front of me on one of the step-things, wearing skin-tight shorts that were more like underwear and a sports bra.  On top of that, she was very thin, beach-blonde hair, fake tanned skin, and bending over to stretch her legs.  Yeah.  That’s like the female version of a guy that drives a huge truck.  You aren’t fooling anyone.

Ok, so back to grilling.  Since he decided to buy a grill, I decided to make The Best Turkey Burger (I’m not being boastful, that’s the original blogger’s name for it!).  I love it because it’s super healthy (especially when piling on fresh spring greens and onion) and served with a side of corn.  I feel the need to add a disclaimer that we didn’t not use ALL of that onion (I think we’d have onion-breath for the rest of our lives).  We saved the leftovers in a plastic baggie.  Did I mention I’m back on the Weight Watchers bandwagon?  Pretty sure last week I used up ALL of my weekly allowance points and ALL of my weekly activity points.  My goal for this week is to, well, not do that.

The Best Turkey Burger

Ingredients:
-1ish lbs lean ground turkey
-1tbsp olive oil
-1/4cu seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1.5tbsp worchestshire sauce
-1tsp tabasco sauce (I used Frank’s Red Hot since we didn’t have tabasco)
-1/2tbsp onion powder
-1tsp smoked paprika (yes, it’s different from regular paprika, and yes, I recently discovered it, due to other food blog recipes)
-1tbsp dried parsley (I realized we ran out of parsley, so I omitted it)
-salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
-Preheat grill or skillet
-Add all ingredients in a large bowl and mixe well (use your hands!) until combined.
-Form into 4 patties and cook until heated through.
-THAT’S IT! So easy. And grilled. Love it.

Crispy BBQ Chicken Fingers & Jade Green Vegetables

I have a funny story to announce.  My husband loves condiments.  LOVES.  I’m not being judge-y, as I love condiments too.  But when I go to a lot of trouble to make a spice rub and honey glaze, I’m just a wee bit offended when my sweet husband goes to get barbecue sauce from the fridge, to use as a dip.  He realized the error of his ways, and didn’t end up using it.  But on Thursday, I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner and gave him 3 chicken options.  He opted for this Crispy BBQ Chicken Fingers recipe and confessed to me later that it was partially because it involved barbecue sauce. ;)  I cannot fault him for that!  They were certainly tasty.

I also paired them with stir-fried green beans, which was loosely based off of a Weight Watchers recipe (1 serving = 1 point).  I will include my version of the recipe below (I didn’t have some of the ingredients WW listed, so I improvised, but am pretty sure that using their recipe would change the flavour).  You can click the link above to see the original recipe.  Also, I’m pretty excited that I used that recipe, since it called for 1/2cu of any type of broth, and I happened to have EXACTLY half a cup left over from another recent recipe.  Shazam.

Can I tell you that washing and cutting a pound of green beans is A LOT OF WORK?!  I always do it, but for some reason, on Thursday it felt like so much more work than normal.  Sure, Trader Joe’s pre-cut & pre-washed fresh green beans are twice as much, but they’re also no work at all.  Maybe I should factor time vs. cost when making our grocery budget…

Crispy BBQ Chicken Fingers

Ingredients:
-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips (or buy actual tenders)
-2cu lowfat buttermilk (I made my own buttermilk substitute…actually, my husband did, since I stayed at work late and he was already home, I emailed him detailed instructions of what I needed help with – love that guy)
-1/4cu barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s — I mean, really, what else is there?)
-2cu panko bread crumbs (homemade!!)
-1/4cu whole wheat flour (I only have white flour, so everytime a recipe calls for whole wheat, I just use white…I should really invest in whole wheat though!)
-2tbsp McCormick’s BBQ seasoning (interestingly enough, I didn’t even know if we had any, but lo and behold, we had that exact brand of it!)
-1tsp sea salt
-1tsp garlic powder

Directions:
-Combine buttermilk and BBQ sauce into a baking dish, add chicken, marinate for 2-24hrs (normally I opt for longer = better, however this was a last minute dinner idea, so they only marinated for about 45mins)
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
-Combine panko, barbecue seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and flour into a large bowl (now the reason I actually took the bread crumb picture below is because that BBQ seasoning is legit – the mixture seriously smelled like barbecue sauce! I was really excited, haha). Coat chicken pieces in the panko mix, then lay on a wire rack sitting on a baking sheet (again, I don’t have a wire rack, so I just used a baking dish). Spray each piece with cooking spray or olive oil (this helps make them crispy, which is something I learned a few recipes back).
-Bake for 10-12mins, flip, coat with cooking spray, and then bake for 10-15 more minutes.
-When finished, brush with barbecue sauce.

I officially LOVE making my own bread crumbs.  It is seriously amazing.  My version is loosely based off of the one I linked to…I use whatever extra bread I have laying around, shake in some herbes de province, pulse a few times in the food processor, then bake for a few minutes on 300 (shaking/tossing a couple of times).  Perfection.

Jade Green Vegetables (aka Stir Fried Green Beans)

Ingredients:
-1/2cu any type of broth (I used beef, since I had an open container of it in the fridge)
-1tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
-1/2tbsp sugar
-1tsp olive oil
-1/5tsp sesame oil
-1/2tsp salt
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-1lb uncooked green beans, trimmed

Directions:
-In a small bowl, combine broth, soy sauce, and sugar, then set aside.
-Coat a large wok (or skillet, but c’mon, let’s get real and use a WOK!) with olive oil, and heat over medium.
-Add sesame oil, salt, and garlic, stirring to combine. Heat about 1min.
-Add green beans and stir fry for about 5mins, or until crisp-tender.
-Add broth mixture and toss to coat. Heat through, about a minute or so, and then serve immediately.
-I had about 2 servings, so it was about 2 points. But still wonderful and healthy!

Spicy Honey Pork and Sour Cream & Onion Oven Fries

According to my last post, there were going to be 100000 updates that day, but there were only two.  But hopefully I will be able to post more today.  My husband and I have been busy.  We helped his mother move yesterday and ate at Sonic!  We also bought a barbecue grill yesterday (thank you Home Depot, for selling a decent one at an affordable price).  That also means that we grilled last night (the recipe post for that will be coming soon).  We are also grilling again tonight!  Yay!

In any case, last week I made Spicy Honey Pork (though the original recipe was for Spicy Honey Chicken) and Sour Cream & Onion Oven Fries.  However, it just occurred to me that there was actually no sour cream involved).  It was a yummy night.

Spicy Honey Pork

Ingredients:
-Boneless pork chops
-2tsp vegetable oil (I think I used olive oil)
-2tsp granulated garlic (sub. 1tsp garlic powder, if you don’t have granulated)
-2tsp chili powder (I used one so that it wouldn’t be too spicy for my husband)
-1/2tsp onion powder
-1/2tsp coriander
-1tsp kosher salt
-1tsp cumin
-1/2tsp chipotle chili powder (I didn’t have this so I just omitted it)
-1/2cu honey
-1tbsp cider vinegar

Directions:
-Combine the spices for the rub in a bowl (chili powder through chipotle chili powder)
-Drizzle oil over the pork and press in with your hands, so that the pork soaks it up. Then dredge the chops in the spice rub, coat as evenly as possible on each side.
-Grill for 3-5mins on each side, until cooked through (I pan-fried)
-While the pork is cooking, warm the honey in the microwave, so that it’s less thick. Add the vinegar and combine well. Reserve 2tbsp of the honey glaze, and then take the rest and then brush it on both sides of the chops in the final minute of grilling/frying.
-The original blogger said that it’s messy, sticky, and sugary, and could possible burn, but I didn’t have any issues like that. However it’s better to be safe and warn, than sorry!
-I served the chops with the fries (below) and a caesar salad.

Sour Cream & Onion Oven Fries

Ingredients:
-4-5 yukon gold potatoes, cut into wedges
-3-4tbsp olive oil
-2.5tbsp powdered buttermilk (I omitted this, cuz I didn’t have it)
-1.5tbsp onion powder
-1tsp salt
-3/4tsp garlic powder
-1/4tsp black pepper
-3.5tbsp freshly chopped dill (I didn’t have this, so I used some chives instead)
-2tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a wire rack on top, spray with nonstick cooking spray (we don’t have a wire rack, so I didn’t do that, they still turned out yummy, just didn’t have the char-marks).
-Add potato wedges (we also soaked ours in water first) to a large bowl and coat with olive oil, using your hands to toss, in order to mix evenly. In a smaller bowl, combine buttermilk, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and dill, and mix well. Sprinkle 3/4 of the mixture evenly over the wedges, coating completely. Place potatoes on the rack and sprinkle with parmesan (two things: I waited til they were on the baking sheet to sprinkle with the mixture, because I didn’t have a rack, also, I accidentally included the cheese in the mixture, instead of leaving separate).
-Bake for 20mins, flipping and tossing once, then for 15-20mins more, until golden and crispy. Remove and immediately toss with remaining mix, and even more fresh dill. Serve immediately.

 

Beef Stroganoff

Be prepared for 100000 posts today, as I have been getting so behind, and I don’t want to forget a single recipe.  However, I don’t really know why it matters, since basically two people read this (hello to my husband as well as my former roommate!).   That being said, I’ve noticed that a TON of people have been “liking” my posts.  My favourite likes come from Maggie’s One Butt Kitchen, mostly because how can you NOT like a title like that?  The thing is, I’m not sure if all of these “likes” are coming from legit bloggers/followers, or if it’s just spam-like.  I am really trying to work on getting my readership up, though I’m not looking to be one of those paid bloggers (though if I could get paid to blog, that’d be awesome, but I really would miss doing social work).  Mainly, I blog for my own benefit, but if it benefits others in the meantime, then that is great!

As some of you may recall (I know my husband does, at least, since he eats everything I cook, for better or for worse), I made beef stroganoff a few weeks ago for the first time, as it was something he requested.  I know I’ve eaten beef stroganoff before, although I don’t recall ever ordering it in a restaurant, and I’ve certainly never made it.  The first recipe was kind of a flop (though came from one of my favourite food blogs).  It was WAYYYYY too salty, and not very creamy.  My husband said that he is used to it being creamier.  The upside to that recipe is that the stroganoff itself was a mere 3 ingredients.  But moving right along, I decided I wanted to continue looking for another stroganoff recipe, and settled on this one from foodfanatic.  I feel that it was much better than the first recipe (also, I really enjoyed the tomato-ish feel to it, almost like a really mellow tomato sauce, but also creamy and brothy).  My husband said it was good, also, but felt like it was “missing something.”  Of course, he is not a cook (though he makes a mean Kraft mac’n'cheese, and I am not joking), and on top of that has never made beef stroganoff, so it was hard for him to specify what it might be missing.  He ended up suggesting marinating the beef or adding more spices to the beef, to spice up the rest of the sauce.  He said the sauce was missing a “beefy” flavour (despite adding beef broth).  I kept the little beef bits in the pot when I cooked the broth, but he said that if the beef was not spiced well enough beforehand, then the beef bits might not do much.  So who knows, perhaps I will take that into account next time.

Fun fact: I was trying to figure out what culture/country beef stroganoff comes from, so that I could update the Category for it, and wikipedia tells me it is a Russian dish (Бефстроганов) that originated in the 19th century, however obviously has become popular around the world, and therefore adapted, I’m sure, from it’s original taste, flavour, and ingredients.

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients:
-1.5lbs flank steak, cut into thin strips
-1/4cu flour
-1tsp salt
-1/4tsp black pepper
-4tbsp butter
-1 medium onion, diced
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-8oz mushrooms, sliced (so actually, I *hate* mushrooms, but my husband loves them, so I bought 2 large ‘shrooms and planned to cut them in quarters, so I could easily pick them out, but I ended up making this recipe like a week after I planned to, so they had gone bad, and therefore had to omit the ‘shrooms)
-1.25cu beef stock
-1tbsp tomato paste
-1tsp paprika
-1/2cu sour cream
-chives, for garnish
-whole wheat egg noodles, for serving

Directions:
-In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper. Add the sliced steak and toss thoroughly to coat, then set aside.
-In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium-high, then add the floured steak and cook until no longer pink, about 2-3mins, then remove steak and set aside.
-Add the diced onion to the skillet and cook for 1-2mins, until the onion softens and becomes more translucent.
-Add garlic and cook for 1min, then add the mushrooms, broth, tomato paste and paprika, and cook for 2mins, until the sauce begins to thicken.
-Return the cooked steak to the skillet and heat through (I pretty much heated it through the first time around, so I only cooked it for like 1min at this step).
-Remove from heat and add the sour cream (you can also use yogurt).
-Serve hot over cooked egg noodles and garnish with chopped chives (I used dried, since I couldn’t find fresh).

Thai Chicken Quesadillas

As everyone knows (since I made it clear in one of my last posts) my birthday was a week ago today.  Let me clue you in on a little traumatic history of my birthday (which doesn’t actually affect my life, personally).  The great Lucille Ball died on my 5th birthday.  Tragic, I know.  And now, on my 29th birthday, the late and great country music legend, George Jones, died.  If you don’t know his music, then there is seriously something wrong with you.  Not only that, but the day before my birthday, the country singer Jason Aldean announced separting from his wife (they were high school sweethearts and have two daughters), and then the next day, on my birthday, officially filed for divorce.  Seriously.  Ok ok, I know tragic things happen EVERY day, and to people of all walks of life, not just celebrities, but still.  Way to dampen my birthday, guys.   But in all seriousness, may George Jones (the Possum) rest in peace.

That all being said, I’m sharing a recipe that I made 8 days ago.  My husband and I went on a lovely weekend getaway to the Green Mountains of Vermont and stayed at a quaint little country inn, the West Dover Inn and please, check them out!  The innkeepers (a middle-aged couple and their adult son) are the sweetest people and the inn is very home-y.  We stayed in a suite, complete with a fireplace and a jacuzzi tub!

Ok, so back to this dinner (I realize I got side-tracked again in the above paragraph).  Thai Chicken Quesadillas.  DELISH.  It was three days after my Thai Chicken Enchiladas (they used a lot of the same ingredients, therefore no food went to waste, and really helped my budget – yay!).  However, for this dish, I found SWEET CHILI SAUCE instead of regular chili sauce.  My husband’s taste buds thanked me generously.  Now, the original blogger prefaced her post with how simple this recipe is to make.  I, on the other hand, did not find it so simple.  There are a LOT of steps.  That all being said, it was wonderfully worth it.  We have a quesadilla maker (bridal shower gift!), therefore I used it as opposed to pan-frying (but that obviously works too).  The first quesadilla I made (which ended up being mine, since it was so messy), was way too thick on the sauce therefore was horribly gooey (I guess horribly is the wrong word, since it was still super-yummy).  In any case, I lightened up on the sauce for the second one, which I gave to my husband.  Then of course we used the leftover sauce for dipping.  This was also a one-dish meal, as there were veggies packed inside, and an entire quesadilla is filling enough without having to include a side of rice or beans.

I will now get on to the picture and recipe itself.  Also, no more links to click.  I think this post is a personal record high of links in any of my posts. =P

Thai Chicken Quesadillas

Ingredients:
-1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes (I just shredded mine – I prefer that)
-1/4tsp salt (I went lighter on the salt)
-1/4tsp pepper
-1/4tsp cumin
-1.5tbsp olive oil
-1/2 sweet onion, diced
-2/3cu shredded napa cabbage
-1/3cu chopped carrots
-1 garlic clove, minced
-1/3cu chopped peanuts
-a big bunch of cilantro (I only had half a bunch left, but it was enough)
-1cu grated pepperjack cheese
-4 whole wheat tortillas
sauce
-1/2cu sweet chili sauce
-1/4cu rice vinegar
-1/4cu lite canned coconut milk (I used coconut milk from a half-gallon container in the organic food section, it was cheaper than buying canned, since I needed it for the other recipe earlier in the week, then my husband just drank the leftovers)
-3tbsp brown sugar
-3 garlic cloves, pressed or finely minced
-1tbsp creamy peanut butter
-1tsp-sized knob of ginger, grated
-1 lime, juiced
-1/2tbsp soy sauce

Directions:
-Combine chili sauce, vinegar, coconut milk, sugar, garlic, ginger, peanut butter, soy sauce and lime juice in a saucepan, whisking until combined.
-Heat oven medium heat until mixture comes to a bubble, let boil for 1 minute then reduce to low and let simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Set aside and let cool.
-Heat a large skillet oven medium-high heat and add olive oil. Season chicken with salt, pepper and cumin, then add to the skillet and cook until browned on all sides, about 5-6 minutes. Remove chicken and set on a plate (side note: I had pre-cooked the chicken, as I didn’t realize that cooking it was part of the recipe, so I just heated the shredded chicken a bit, but not for the full 5-6mins)
-Add remaining olive oil with onion, cabbage, carrots and garlic. Stir to coat and cook until slightly wilted but still crunchy, about 3-4 minutes. Remove and add to the plate with the chicken.
-Using the same skillet (or an electric griddle), lay one tortilla down. To assemble the quesadillas, take a bit of cheese to “glue” on each side.
-Add a layer of cheese, half of the chicken mixture, sprinkle with cilantro and peanuts, about 2-3 tablespoons of the thai sauce, then cover with a bit more cheese. Place the second tortilla on top and cook until browned and crisp, and cheese is melted. Flip and cool until golden on the other side. Repeat with the second quesadilla (I used the quesadilla maker, but if you are using a pan/griddle, then follow the above instructions).
-Serve the remaining sauce for dipping!