Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

Okay something other than strawberries.  I think I'm going to have to make this for dinner this week.  We love enchiladas!  and this looks scrumptious!

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

6 Tbsp honey

4.5 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 lb cooked chicken, shredded (you can also use shredded pork. That's what I did here.)

flour tortillas

colby or monterey jack cheese, shredded

10 oz. can green enchilada sauce

Mix first 4 ingredients together and toss with shredded chicken. Let it "marinate" for at least a half hour. Pour some green enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 10x10 casserole dish or 9x13 pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese. Pour the rest of the can of green enchilada sauce over enchiladas then sprinkle with more cheese. (When using a 9x13 I like to use 1 1/2 10 oz. cans) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. (Put it under the broiler at the end to make the cheese brown and crispy on the top.) 

REVIEW (6/29/11):  Made this last night.  It was good but a little too sweet for us.  But we're not big sweet meat people.  Also, we could not taste the hotness of the chili powder at all.  So next time, I think we will double the chili powder or add Tabasco sauce  or something to make it more spicy to counteract the sweetness.  I used chicken but I'm sure it would be good with pork too, as she suggested.

Strawberry Vanilla Pancakes

Another yummy looking strawberry recipe from mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com.


Strawberry Vanilla Pancakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (yes 2 Tablespoons, trust me it's awesome)
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

Chop up the berries and lightly sprinkle with some sugar.  In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Pour in the milk, oil, egg and vanilla, and mix until well blended. Stir in the strawberries. Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat, and coat with butter or cooking spray. Pour batter into desired size of pancakes. Flip with a spatula when bubbles appear in the center. Cook until golden brown on the other side. They smell so good as they cook. The vanilla wafts up and makes the kitchen smell great.

Strawberry Julius

Yet another yummy looking strawberry recipe.

1 c. water
1 c. milk
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries*
1 tray of ice

Mix all in a blender.

*You can make this into an orange julius by substituting a small can of frozen orange juice concentrate for the strawberries. You can also sub other fruit for the strawberries.

Strawberry Quick Bread

I can't wait for strawberries to come in season to try this yummy looking bread!  I saw this recipe on mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com.

Strawberry Quick Bread
1 cup fresh strawberries
1-1/2 cups and 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaf out, and cool completely.

REVIEW:  Great for the strawberries that are getting close to being overripe!  We loved this recipe!

French Dip Sandwiches

 I found this on ourbestbites.com.

1 2.5-3 lb. beef roast (you can use a frozen roast if you want)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
2 1-ounce packages dry onion soup mix
2 c. water
2 cans beef broth
8 oz. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
6-8 large buns (or more...6 would be VERY generous servings!)
Swiss, provolone, or mozzarella cheese, shredded or sliced.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat and rub roast with salt and pepper.

When very hot, carefully place roast in pan and sear on all sides. You're not cooking the meat, you're just browning it quickly on all sides to add flavor and seal in the juices.

Place in crockpot and sprinkle with onion soup mixes. Pour water and beef broth over roast.

Cook 8-10 hours on low or cook 4-5 hours on high and another 3-4 hours on low. It's hard to screw this part up; basically, the longer it cooks, the more tender it will be. But you know it's done when you pop a fork in it and the meat just falls apart. When meat is ready, shred with a fork.

Place meat in crusty rolls. Top with cheese and broil open-faced in the oven or toaster oven for a few minutes, until bread is golden and cheese is melty.

Ladle juices into small cups for dipping and enjoy!

FREEZER DIRECTIONS:
Prepare roast through the searing step; after meat has cooled, place in a plastic freezer-safe container (think Gladware), cover with onion soup mix and boullion, and freeze. When ready to cook, pop it straight into the crockpot (frozen), add 2 cups of water, and set to high until warm or, even better, simmering. Turn to low; cook for a total of 8-10 hours.

REVIEW:  I made this and it is YUM, YUM, YUM!!!!  Definitely recommend!

Sugar Cookies

I'm still on the look out for a good sugar cookie.  I found this one on OurBestBites.com.  Maybe I'll try this with our Christmas cookies this year.

1 C real butter (no substitutions!)
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t almond extract (you could use vanilla instead)
3 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Add in eggs and extract and mix to incorporate.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.

Shape the dough into 2 flat disks and wrap in waxed paper and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours. If you want your cookies to hold their shape well, the dough needs to be chilled properly. A great tip to speed things up is to immediately roll dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper and place on a flat surface in the fridge. It will chill super fast and be ready to go in no time.

When you're ready to roll out dough lightly sprinkle flour onto your work surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin.

Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes. The baking time really depends on how you like them. If you like them really soft under-bake them. In my oven, about 8 minutes does it. However if you're making large cookies, or ones with small parts or heavy frosting, you might want to be careful because they might break when they're super soft.

About 8 minutes will get you a really soft cookie, a few minutes longer (when they start to just brown around the edges) and you'll get just a little crispiness around the edges and then a soft center, bake even longer (and roll thinner) and you'll get a buttery, crispy cookie that will just melt in your mouth. Any way you do it, they'll taste good. Remove onto cooling racks when you're done and let cool completely. I honestly think these even taste better the second day.

Butter Flaky Pie Crust

The pie crust recipe I usually use has shortening in it.  Well, I was just at the store and I forgot that I needed more shortening.  So I decided to look online to see if I could find a recipe using butter and I did!  I found this recipe on allrecipe.com.  That is my go-to recipe finding place.  This recipe sounds sooo yummy because....well you know butter is much much more yummy than shortening!  and I'd rather cook my pies in the morning, so this is perfect for me.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/4 cup ice water

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a flattened ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

So I have my water in the freezer getting really really cold.  Guess I should go put my flour in the freezer too.  I because I know the secret is having extremely cold ingredients.  I hope my pies turn out well!  Oh, I'm making an apple pie and a pumpkin pie.  I'll add those recipes if they're good later.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I found this recipe on melskitchencafe.com.  I will be making this tonight.  I hope its a hit....it looks soo yummy!

*Serves 4-6

Chicken:

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt and pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg. Fry in a little oil until brown but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish. Mix sauce ingredients (below) together and pour over chicken.

Sauce:

¾ cup sugar

4 tablespoons ketchup

½ cup vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic salt

Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Turn chicken every 15 minutes so it is evenly coated with the sauce. Serve the chicken over rice. 

*Note: if you like extra sauce, double the sauce ingredients - pour half over the chicken and follow the baking directions in the recipe and pour the other half in a small saucepan. Cook the sauce on the stovetop at medium heat for 8-10 minutes until it simmers and thickens. Serve it on the side of the chicken.

UPDATE - I made this and I loved it!  I'm glad I had leftovers for the next couple days!  I wasn't a big fan of using the sauce for dipping....it was definitely very vinegary.  But I felt the chicken was saucy enough for us.  I served it with white rice and broccoli on the side.  Definitely a keeper!

2nd UPDATE - The first time I made it I could it at a higher temperature and for less time.  It was absolute yummy.  The second time I followed the recipe's time and temp.  But they were way too cook and it was not as good as the first.  Maybe that's because I cut my pieces truly bite-size. So I think I will from now on cook it at 350 or 375 for 20-30 minutes (I'm pretty sure that's what I did the first time.)

"Rotisserie" Slow-Cooker Chicken

Yet another recipe from ourbestbites.com.

1 whole chicken, small enough to fit in your slow cooker

Salt-based seasoning (Seasoning salt, Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper with salt in it, etc. Just make sure salt is one of the first ingredients on the label.)

OPTIONAL:

Whole garlic cloves, peeled

Fresh herbs

Make 3 balls of aluminum foil and place them in the bottom of your slow cooker. These hold the chicken off the bottom so the hot air can circulate all around the chicken and so it's not stewing in its own juices.

Rinse chicken, including the cavity, and pat dry with paper towels. Place the chicken on its back so the breast is facing up and the legs are on the plate. If you want (and I actually strongly recommend that you do UNLESS you're looking for a neutral flavor), pull the skin up all around the chicken. This does involve sticking your hand between the skin and the breast.  Slice a few garlic cloves in half lengthwise and stick them under the skin. You can also arrange a couple sprigs of fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, and/or sage under the skin. This makes a very pretty chicken when it's all cooked and adds a lot of flavor.

Rub salt-based seasoning VERY liberally onto the skin of the chicken. Place chicken breast-up on the foil in the slow cooker, cover, turn heat to low, and leave it alone for 7-8 hours.

Key Lime Pie and Graham Cracker Crust

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  I made this for a women's religion meeting tonight.  It was rich, but very yummy!  I even used fat free milk and sour cream.


1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice (or half lemon juice and half lime juice)
1 tablespoon grated lime zest



-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
-In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime rind. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.
-Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. DO NOT BROWN! Chill pie thoroughly before serving. Garnish with lime slices and whipped cream if desired.


*I forgot to get a lime to zest, so I didn't add that and it was still good.  I'm sure it would yummy to add it in, but don't stress if you don't have it.  I also did half lemon and half lime juice b/c I didn't see key lime juice in the store and I didn't feel like juicing 20 key limes.


Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter or margarine, and cinnamon until well blended . Press mixture into an 8 or 9 inch pie plate.  Bake at 375 degrees  for 7 minutes. Cool. If recipe calls for unbaked pie shell, just chill for about 1 hour.

Guitless Alfredo Sauce

I found this recipe on bestbites.com!  I think I will trying this one very soon.  We love alfredo in our house! We might have to reduce or cut out the garlic in this house....for the picky eaters!

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese


Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender.Process until smooth and set aside.

In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Stand above the pan (but not close enough to scald your face) and inhale. Ahhh...butter and garlic. Okay, now get cooking again. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly.

Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.

This sauce can used for so many things. Here's a few ideas:

-Over pasta (obviously)
-As a dip for breadsticks
-As a sauce on pizza (this is the garlic cream sauce I was referring to in this recipe) and a half batch of sauce covers 2 medium pizza's.
-Mix it with pesto for a creamy pesto sauce
-Mix it with marinara for a creamy marinara sauce

**UPDATE/REVIEW - I made this the other night and the kids loved it!  Dylan said it tastes just like Brick Oven!  I guess it must be good!  I only used 1 clove of garlic and it was good for us.  Next time I might experiment and put in 2 cloves and see if we can handle it.  I also forgot to put the salt in it and I think it needed it.  It was really easy to make and we will make it again!

Tinted Sugar

I wanted colored sugar sprinkles for the sugar cookies last night.  However, I didn't want to spend the money on them, nor did I have time to go to the store.  I remembered seeing somewhere that you could color sugar with food coloring.  I looked up on the internet to make sure I did it right.  I found these instructions.  Very easy to do!

1. Place the granulated sugar that you need for your recipe into a Ziploc plastic bag.

2. Add a drop or 2 of dye to the bag. Let the color drip on the inside of the bag instead of directly onto the sugar. If using a thick-concentrated coloring, put some dye on a toothpick and wipe it onto the inside of the bag

3. Close the Ziploc bag. Shake and massage the bag with your fingers until the color is evenly distributed throughout the sugar and all the clumps are removed.

4. Add more color if the color isn't dark enough or add more sugar if it is too dark.