A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Oven Baked Tandoori Chicken

I don't pretend for even a minute to be any kind of authority on Indian cuisine.  My experience is limited to a few heavenly experiences at the local Indian buffet at Taj Mahal, a few jarred sauces I poured over chicken, and a family favorite recipe of Honey-Mustard Curry Roasted Drumsticks that Gene clipped out of the newspaper a long while ago.  But my curry roasted chicken and recent Indian buffet experiences were enough to get me interested enough to start reading and pinning recipes on Pinterest.

Tandoori Chicken by A Fridge Full of Food blog

 

 

Baked Chicken (or Beef) Fajitas

 

We've all seen the recipes on Pinterest that look great but turn out only so-so, IF we're lucky.  This is one of the good ones.  So easy; so fast; so delicious!  The concept is easy, cut chicken (or flank steak) into fajita strips and the vegetables into strips, and then toss with a little olive oil and seasonings and bake.  That's it.  They were dynamite.  My next project:  tortillas from scratch.

 

 

Baked Chicken (or Beef) Fajitas

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse, inspired by multiple Pinterest photos

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4  (5 oz) chicken Breasts, cut into chunks or strips  (Great use for flank steak as well)

1 red bell pepper, cut into strips

1 green bell pepper, cut into strips

1 large onion, cut into crescents

4 oz fresh mushrooms, quartered

2 Tbsp  olive oil

1 lime, juice and zest

2 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Chili powder

Optional:  1-2 tsp red pepper flakes

8-10 Fajita sized Tortillas

Garnishes:  Lettuce, shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream, jalapenos or green chilis, or Avocado Salad (more of a Mediterranean twist, but delicious with this)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Prepare chicken and vegetables and place in bowl or directly into 9"x 13" baking dish. 

2) Pour/sprinkle rest of ingredients over top and toss all the ingredients together until seasonings evenly coat the chicken and veggies.

3)  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and veggies are nicely roasted.  Turn once in middle of cooking.

Chicken, veggies, and seasonings can also be prepped the day or morning before and left in a bowl or baggie to marinate prior to baking.

Nutrition per 2 tortillas and 1/4 fajitas:  Calories:  386;  Protein:   34;  Carbs:  39;  Fat:  11;  Fiber: 4.

Copycat KIND Bars

These are absolutely dynamite! Seriously, I can't say enough good things about them.  Not only do I love them so much I'll be making them every few weeks for my work lunchbox, everyone I gave them to at Christmas loved them, and I took a bag of remnants, little clusters of nutty goodness that fell apart a bit when I cut the bars, into work one night and shared them with the nurses and aides on 3West and was asked for the recipe multiple times.

A huge Thank You to Monica Matheny of The Yummy Life blog for these recipes. I'm not going to try to reprint the recipe here because her post includes step by step pics and eight different flavors of KIND bar copycat recipes.  My first batch was the Fruit & Nut Delight. My next foray will be the Almond and Coconut--YUM!

Click here:  Copycat KIND Bar Recipes

 

Spring is Here: BLT's with Avocado Salad

 Spring is here!  BLT's are my favorite sign (right after planting the tomato and pepper plants in containers on the back porch.)  We broil the bacon in the oven and our secret ingredient this year is Avocado "Salad", a tangy blend of chunked avocado with balsamic vinegar and spices.  For recipe, click here:  Avocado "Salad". 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pinterest Recipes: Avocado "Salad"

 Has anyone else seen this photo on Pinterest and been intrigued?  It kept coming up and every time I would think "I love avocados...need to do this someday."  Someday became a couple of days ago and here's the shocker:  even my husband who hates avocados loved this on his BLT!  Seriously, it's sooooooooooo good. 

If you go to the blog web site http://www.neringa-blogas.com/ you'll find it's not in English but the Pin itself had these directions:  "Avocado with black pepper  1 avocado at maturity  1 v. tablespoon of soy sauce  1 v. tablespoon lemon juice  1.5 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil  freshly ground black pepper  pinch of spicy smoked Paprika    combine soy sauce, lemon juice, oil and chilli powder. Pour over avocado, sprinkle with black pepper." 

I saw a different version that said to refrigerate for two hours to overnight.

I was also intrigued by the overnight directions.  Avocados are hard to keep at my house because, like I said, my husband doesn't like them and I'd prefer to only eat half at a time but I hate wasting the browned edge from the second half I store.  I've tried the plastic wrap, leaving the pit in, and lemon tricks but none work perfectly well, in my experience. But I've never tried oil to stop the oxidation.  I think this recipe will work. Our avocado "salad" got finished off the night I made it with both of us eating it but I think either the oil trick might work or the fact that the balsamic vinegar I used browns the avocado a bit anyway the oxidation wouldn't be noticeable.  It's not like the oxidation changes the flavor of the avocado anyway, it's just a head thing I can't get around even knowing it doesn't mean anything.

This is delicious!  The combination of tart vinegar (or soy sauce/lemon juice in the original) with the spices and creamy avocado was spectacular, alone, and as a condiment/salad on our BLT's.  I also tossed the last spoonful of it later onto a salad and skipped the dressing. 

My version was a bit different but still in keeping with the original intent:

Glenna's Avocado "Salad"

Recipe by Glenna Anderson Muse

Adapted from Pinterest

 

Ingredients:

1 ripe Avocado, chunked

1 Tbsp good Olive oil

2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar

Cavender's Greek Seasoning to taste (or simply salt and pepper works well too)

Optional:  Sriracha sauce to taste

 

Directions:

1)  Toss avocado chunks gently in olive oil, covering all sides of each.  (Use a bit more oil if needed).

2)  Add rest of ingredients and lightly toss as well.

Eat as is or add as a condiment or compliment to sandwiches, salads,  or grilled meat.

Nutrition per 1/4 recipe:  Calories:  111;  Protein:  1;  Carbs:  4;  Fat:  11;  Fiber:  4:  Potassium:  244 mg;  Vitamin C:  8% RDI.

 

 

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Pinterest Recipe: King's Hawaiian Roll Mini Baked Ham Sandwiches

I've been seeing this recipe for King's Hawaiian Roll Baked Mini Ham Sandwiches for a long time. It looks and sounds great, but to be honest, I've been burned on some Pinterest recipes. The more loudly it proclaims "Best (fill in the blank) ever and only (fill in the blank) ingredients!" the more I now tend to ignore it.  But. I will say that this recipe is delicious.  I've seen several versions on Pinterest but I went straight to King's Hawaiian Rolls web site itself to get the recipe and it came out nicely.  The baked on sauce adds a little zing, a little salty crunch, and a little savory to the sweetness of the rolls. Yummy!

Pinterest Recipe: One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese

 

 You know how you, okay: me, pin a million recipes on Pinterest that look good or proclaim to be "the best ________ ever!" and you, okay: me, either never get around to trying them out or I do try them and they are lackluster at best? 

This one (photo to left) works--it's a keeper! 

It's called chili mac but, to be honest, it's what we called, when I was growing up, Mom's goulash.  The differences are the cheese, the beans, the chili powder, and the best of all: ONE POT!  I know, right? That last part made my little heart skip a beat.  ONE POT.  No cooking the pasta separately and the skillet to brown the ground beef, etc.  Just brown, drain, dump in cans from the pantry, pasta that tastes even better from having cooked in the sauce, and it's a done deal.  To most people, that's called a weeknight dinner win-win.  To me, as a 12-hour nightshifter with a non-traditional work schedule, it's work night or sleep day win-win.

To get the recipe, click below: 

One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese from Damn Delicious blog

Nutrition per 1/8th recipe:  Calories:   153;  Protein:  12;  Carbs:   13;  Fat:   6;  Fiber 1;

Cook's notes:

I did make a few changes, no reflection on the original recipe, I just had to work around what I had in my pantry and fridge.  I used double the amount of meat (hubs is a big meat eater) half of it ground beef and half ground sausage.  I used large shell pasta instead of macaroni simply because that's what I had, I doubled the amount of cheese, used kidney beans only, and used shredded "Mexican" cheddar/monterey jack mix, again, because that's what I had on hand. 

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Pinterest Recipe: Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole (Two Versions)

The greatest thing about the invention of the Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole is the ease of it. I've made cordon bleu from scratch, and while it's not hard, it takes time.  The casserole combines both the basic elements of traditional cordon bleu: chicken, ham, and swiss cheese, along with a built in sauce for that creamy, dreamy, yumminess that is chicken cordon bleu.

I pinned two different recipes for Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole on Pinterest and this was the night I finally got around to moving it from my "wish" list to my "been there/done that/plan to do it again" list. 

This recipe (on the left) from Recipe Sweet was my biggest inspiration. I liked the sauce made from scratch, although I spiced mine up a little differently and I used whole pieces of chicken rather than rotisserie, not that there's anything wrong with using rotisserie chicken, it can be a great time-saver. I just used what I had on hand.  I prefer white meat and Gene prefers dark meat so it was easy to make a His and a Hers side to our casserole, along with a last minute thought on my part of adding broccoli to cook in that wonderful sauce, added to the Hers side, of course, since Gene hates broccoli.  But for non-broccoli-haters, it would be good strewn throughout the casserole to bubble away in the sauce.

My second inspiration was this Pinned recipe from Little B Cooks for a quick put together. The sauce is made from Cream of Chicken Soup which cuts the time down to almost negative minutes putting this one together and there are times when that is a HUGE plus! Both of these recipes call for pre-cooked chicken, rotisserie or other, which can save oven time but I started with the uncooked chicken breasts and thighs I had on hand. Either works beautifully. 

Slow Cooker Brown Sugar and Balsamic Pork Loin

        

 Pinterest Recipe? Why yes, yes it is.  And an excellent one at that. Easy to put together in the slow cooker and melt in your mouth yumminess!

After clicking several links, I finally tracked it down to Danielle at Let's Dish who adapted it from Wendee who posted it to Allrecipes.com (links below to their versions).  I adapted it slightly from Danielle, mostly to accommodate that I used boneless country ribs instead of a tenderloin or loin. The ribs have more fat in them  so I didn't add the water to either step in their recipes and did remove most of the melted fat (with a turkey baster--great fat removing tool) before adding the sauce.

We will definitely be making this again. 

Recipe by Danielle at Let's Dish, which she adapted from a recipe called Herb Roasted Pork by Wendee on Allrecipes.com

I've adpated it slightly from both so I'll post my version.

Banana Bread Brownies

 

I kept seeing a Banana Bread Brownies recipe on Pinterest and even pinned it myself. What a clever idea, I thought, especially for those of us who don't care for chocolate all that much or often.  Banana bread brownies...something about it just sounds right.

And it is.  So right.

Baked in a large jelly roll pan, the brownies make 35 pieces and come out to be little squares of OMG delciousness. 

I looked at the recipe I had pinned, one that had been adapted from another recipe, and looked at the original as well. Then I changed a bunch of stuff, not because anything was "wrong" with the original recipes, but because I've been trying to eat a little cleaner by add more whole grains to our diet, change out sour cream for Greek yogurt, use honey instead of refined sugar, etc., and I know from experience with banana bread that it's a great vehicle for whole grained flour.  Banana bread made with half whole wheat is actually tastier, in my opinion, than banana bread made with all all-purpose flour (and Gene can't tell the difference). 

These are truly not to be missed!