More Strawberries

I didn't use to be a fruit in my salad kind of gal, but a few years ago that all changed, and I've never looked back!

Some of my fave salads are sweet and savory and this is definitely one of them.  Extremely easy to make and very tasty.  I added chicken for a little boost of protein to get me through the day, but you could also serve this along side dinner if you wanted.  Or make a large bowl of it and bring it to a BBQ, everyone always secretly loves the girl that brings the greens to the BBQ. :)

Again this recipe comes from one of my favorite websites www.skinnytaste.com.

Find it here.

And don't forget the gorgonzola (use blue cheese if you prefer), it gives this salad that perfect zing!

ENJOY!

XOXO
Paige

Another Enchilada Recipe

I know this isn't the first enchilada recipe that I have shared with ya'll.

But, seriously, this is not a joke, it is THE BEST!

In fact, so far, this is the best enchilada recipe I've ever tried.

And its "lighter", pffff who would ever believe that!?!

And check out the Logan Rating to see if he agrees...

The only other thing that is even worth taking up more of your time, with which you should be spending making these, is that I added about twice the amount of cumin and chipotle peppers than the recipe called for. NOW GO!  COOK!

ENJOY!

Lighter Chicken Enchiladas

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6-8oz each)

S&P

2 T vegetable oil, such as safflower

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp ground cumin

1-2 T minced canned chipotles in adobo

1 can (14.5) low sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup water

8 corn tortillas (6 in), warmed

1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese (2 oz)

In a large skillet, bring 1 inch water to a boil.  Add chicken, and season with salt; cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.  Simmer 5 minutes; remove skillet from heat.  Let chicken steam, covered, until cooked through, 12-14 min.  Transfer chicken to a medium bowl; when cool enough to handle, shred with two forks.

While chicken is cooking, in a medium sauce-pan, heat oil over medium.  Add garlic; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 min.  Add flour, cumin, and chipotles to taste; cook, whisking, 1 min.  Whisk in broth and the water; bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, and cook, whisking occasionally 5-8 min; season with S&P. 

Transfer 1 cup sauce to bowl with chicken, toss to combine.

Preheat oven to 400.  Spread 1/4 cup of remaining sauce evenly in a 8inch square baking dish (or whatever you have).  Fill each tortilla with chicken mixture, dividing evenly; roll up tightly, and arrange, seam side down, in baking dish.

Cover with remaining sauce, and top with cheese.  Bake until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling, 15-20 minutes.  Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4.

Logan Rating: *****

Chicken Pasta Salad

Somehow, all the 'in progress' photos from this meal were deleted.  Don't ask me how, but they are gone.  So this is what you get, just finished product photos. Luckily this is an easy recipe, so the photos of the process are really quite unnecessary anyway. 

This is a cold chicken pasta salad, which is actually quite good warmed as well...so you can eat it either way, whichever your taste buds prefer more.

I liked it cold, Logan liked it hot...you choose.

This recipe calls for greek yogurt (which is what makes it lighter than your average pasta salad), and as I went to grab the Greek yogurt from the fridge I realized I made an epic mistake while grocery shopping.  Aren't those the worst kinds of mistakes, really?

Instead of plain yogurt I bought vanilla!!!!!!!! EPIC FAIL!

You can't put vanilla yogurt in a pasta salad!

So after grieving for a minute and attempting to ask a neighbor to save me, I put on my big girl pants, sucked it up and began to think of a solution.

It was about 6pm and this meal had to be finished before Logan left for work at 6:45pm (he works nights).  So a trip to the store was out of the question.

After almost settling with mayonnaise, because I just couldn't think of anything else I saw the ricotta cheese.  I mixed some ricotta with a little bit of 2% milk and it had a very similar texture and consistency as yogurt. SUCCESS! 

And to my surprise it actually tasted really good too!

I plan to someday make this recipe as it was intended to be made, but for now I will just bask in the glory of my success. 

Try it with yogurt!  Don't buy vanilla!  And let me know!

ENJOY!

Pasta Salad with Chicken, Raisins, and almonds

2 T unblanched almonds

1 lb boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves

S&P

8oz whole wheat penne or other short pasta

1 cup plain low fat yogurt

1/2 cup golden raisins (optional, but highly recommended)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley (I can't believe I actually used parsley)

1 T finely grated lemon zest, plus 2 T fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350.  Spread almonds on a rimmed baking sheet; toast in oven until darkened, tossing once or twice, 10-12 min.  Let cool, then coarsely chop.

Place chicken in a large saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, season with salt and reduce to a bare simmer.  Cover and cook 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and let chicken stand, covered, until cooked through, 12-14 min more.  Remove chicken from liquid.  When cool enough to handle, shred into bite size pieces.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente according to package directions.  Reserve 1/4 cup pasta water.  Drain pasta then rinse under cold water to stop the cooking, drain well.

In a large bowl, stir together pasta, chicken, yogurt, raisins (if using), parsley, almonds, and lemon zest and juice.  Thin sauce with reserved pasta water if necessary.  Season with S&P.  

Serve chilled or at room temp.

Serves 4.

It is all I can do most days to keep my cat (Olive) from jumping into my photo shoots and eating all the food on the plate. -pictured above

Logan Rating: ***

Chicken Milanese

Look at that divine looking piece of chicken? 

I have leftover in the fridge that I am tempted to heat up and eat, yes it is 8:23 in the morning, that is how much this photo makes my mouth water.

This for those of you that don't recognize it (I never would have 2 days ago) is Chicken Milanese.

This dish is very similar to the Italian's version of Scallopine, but Milanese itself is most commonly found in South American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile to name a few.

While it seems that there are several versions of this dish out there, they all have a few things in common....whatever meat is being used is thin cut or pounded, the meat is breaded, and when serving the breaded meat is topped with some kid of green salad (most often arugula).  

I do believe this version of the recipe (from "Fresh Flavor Fast"-another one that counts towards my tally) is a pretty traditional one.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

The one big difference I know, is that this particular Chicken Milanese is baked instead of pan fried, which does make this a little lighter than some, but I don't think takes away from the flavor at all.

Traditional or not, this was absolutely delicious!  While I will admit I was skeptical of the arugula salad on top, but it was absolutely delicious, if you are going to make this you just CAN'T leave it out! 

*Side note: I've really grown to love arugula and its peppery taste and it's perfect in this dish!

Also while this is not a throw together in 5 minutes kind of meal, it is pretty quick and can easily be done on a busy week night, start to finish no more than 30 minutes, NOT BAD!

You must make this, I beg of you, you will love it! 

And if you do, please don't forget to leave a comment and tell me how it went!

ENJOY!

Chicken Milanese

1 1/4 cups dried bread crumbs

1/4 cup plus 2 T olive oil

1/3 cup all purpose flour

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

S&P

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 to 2 lbs)

2 T fresh lemon juice, plus lemon wedges for serving

5 oz baby arugula

1 small red onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 425.  On a rimmed baking sheet, toss bread crumbs with 1/4 cup oil until well combined; spread evenly on sheet.  Cook, tossing once, until golden brown, 6-8 minutes.  Place flour, eggs and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls; season each with S&P.  Place a wire rack on the baking sheet.  Working with one at a time, place chicken breasts between two large pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet or the bottom of a small heavy pan, pound each piece until 1/2 in thick.

(Look who's pounding the chicken)

Pat chicken dry with paper towels.  Dredge chicken in flour, turning to coat both sides, then shake off excess.  Dip chicken in eggs, coating completely and allowing excess to drip back into bowl.

Coat entirely in bread crumbs, pressing firmly to adhere.

Place breaded chicken on rack, and bake (without turning) until browned and just cooked through, 10-15 min. (I had to cook mine for about 20 minutes because we didn't pound them quite thin enough)

When chicken is almost done cooking, whisk together remaining 2 T oil and lemon juice in a salad bowl; season with S&P.  Add arugula and onion; toss to coat.  Serve salad over chicken, with lemon wedges on the side. 

Serves 4.

           Logan Rating: ****
EDIT: Logan says *****!!!! (see comment below)

Herbed Chicken and Balsamic Potatoes

As promised a real blog post!

These 2 recipes are from the "Light" version of the Everyday Food collection, which I am becoming more and more obsessed with the more I use it.  All of the recipes are less than 500 calories and none of them taste like it.  Its exactly how i like to cook, all the taste, without all the guilt!

So this herb butter chicken I paired with the balsamic potatoes and I also made some rolls to go with it.

As if the potatoes weren't enough carbs.

The recipe calls for chicken cutlets, but I had trouble finding some at the store(weird I know) so I simply split chicken breasts in half, and it worked perfectly.  The reason you don't want to use the whole chicken breasts is because they would take too long to cook as they are much thicker than the cutlets.  And this chicken recipe really is all about quick cooking time, but gourmet flavor.

The potatoes are so incredibly simple, but unlike the chicken, they do require quite a long cooking time. In fact mine were a little crunchier than they should have been since I didn't allow for enough time. (SHAME SHAME)

I originally planned on making this for just Logan and I (as usual), but then we had some impromptu friends over.  Well the friends weren't impromptu, but the gathering was.

And this was perfect for a dinner for 4, we had 2 cutlets leftover and that was it.

And unless my guests were lying to me in order to not hurt my feelings, 

Everyone LOVED it!

So have some friends over and make this meal, they will love you for it!

ENJOY!

Chicken Cutlets with Herb Butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

8 thin chicken cutlets

S&P

2 T olive oil

3/4 cup dry white wine

2 T cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3 T finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (YUCK) or mint

(or a combo of both)

*I used oregano and thyme

Place flour in a shallow dish.  Pat dry chicken, then season with S&P and dredge in flour to coat.

In a large skillet, heat 1 T oil over med-high heat.  Working in batches, cook chicken until browned, 1-3 minutes per side, adding more oil to skillet as needed.

Transfer each batch of chicken to a plate and tent loosely with foil to keep warm.

Add wine and accumulated juices from chicken to skillet and bring to a boil.  Cook until liquid has reduced by half, about 4 min.  Return chicken to skillet and turn to coat. 

Remove skillet from heat and swirl in butter and herbs. ( I took the chicken out again and then drizzled the sauce over the top once plate, just seemed easier since the chicken didn't all fit well in the pan).

Season with S&P.  Serve Immediately.

Serves 4.

Balsamic-Baked Potatoes

1 1/2 lbs small potatoes, scrubbed and halved or quartered

( I only had russets, so I chopped them up fairly small to decrease baking time, didn't work that well)

3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

8 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

5 sprigs thyme

S&P

Preheat oven to 425. In a 8in square baking dish, combine potatoes, brother, vinegar, garlic, and thyme; season with S&P.  

Bake until potatoes are tender (whoops) and liquite is reduced to a glaze, about 1 1/4 hours (oops), tossing twice.

Serves 4.

Logan Rating: ****

Light Chicken Salad

Happy Saturday to you all.  

I'm drinking coffee, lounging on the couch, and blogging..my favorite morning routine.

This chicken salad was something I made for lunch on Thursday (my day off) and it was tasty.

This is a perfect thing to make a lot of and then eat as leftovers for the entire week.

You won't get sick of it, because A) it delicious and B) you can eat it any number of ways.

You could eat it as pictured over a bed of greens, or on a sandwich, or in a wrap or by itself, maybe with some fresh fruit or with a bag of potato chips, really the possibilities are endless.

Did I mention that its also SUPER easy, and its fairly quick, the only thing that really takes time is cooking the chicken, which you could totally do ahead of time. 

This is yet another awesome fresh summer meal. 

I got it out of this cookbook, so its also super healthy, which you all know I love!

ENJOY!

Chicken Salad with Lemon-Yogurt Dressing

1 1/2 tsp dried tarragon

2 tsp grated lemon zest, plus 1 T fresh lemon juice

S&P

4 bone in skin on chicken breast halves (I used boneless skinless)

1/3 cup plain low fat yogurt

1 T plus 2 tsp olive oil

3 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped

4 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced

6oz mesclun aka fancy lettuce (about 6 cups)

Preheat oven to 425.  Rub tarragon, 1 tsp zest, 3/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper under skin of chicken (or just all over if your using skinless).  Place chicken on a rimmed baking sheet: roast until cooked through, about 30 min.  Remove from oven and let cool.

In a large bowl whisk together yogurt, 2 tsp oil, remaining 1 tsp zest, and 1 tsp lemon juice, season with salt.

When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove and discard skin and bones; thinly slice meat lengthwise.

Add to bowl, along with tomatoes and scallions; toss to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining 2 tsp lemon juice and 1 T oil.  Add mesclun; toss to coat.  Divide among four plates and top with chicken salad.

(I also drizzled my greens with about 1/2-1 tsp balsamic, I loved the extra tang)

Serves 4. 

Logan Rating: ***