Best Chicken Salad EVER.

I'm not just saying that... I have tried many, MANY chicken salads over the years and I keep coming back to this one.  I have had this recipe for almost 20 years and can remember making it in every house I have lived in.  I found it in a Bon Appetit Magazine years and years ago, we're talking the 1990's people...  and every time I make it, it just makes me happy.  It also makes other people happy AND wanting the recipe!  So now thanks to my blog, everyone has it.

It was part of an article called "A Weekend in the Snow" and had a whole menu with Enchiladas,(which are AMAZING too and I'll post those some day too) "drunken" beans, pico de gallo and a mexican chocolate cake.  Need to try the cake some day.  But today I bring you:

Fiesta Chicken Salad w/ Lime-Cilantro Vinaigrette:

This is a picture I just took from the Bon Appetit article and posted it on Instagram and FB.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of my actual salad since I always forget to take photos of this staple recipe in my house.

Again, I'm the girl who doesn't follow along with the recipe so I will post the actual recipe and then share what I do differently.  You can choose which to go with based on your own taste buds...

Vinaigrette:

1/2 Cup Chopped shallots

1/4 Cup fresh lime juice

1/4 Cup Chopped fresh cilantro

1 Tbs. Minced Garlic

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

Salad:

3 Cups chopped red leaf lettuce

3 Cups chopped napa cabbage*

1 Cup diced cooked chicken

2 Plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped*

1/2 Red bell pepper, thinly sliced*

1/2 Yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced*

1/2 Avocado, peeled and diced

1/3 Cup crumlbed tortilla chips

1/4 Cup fresh corn kernels (or frozen and thawed)

1/4 Cup Pumpkin seeds, toasted*

1/4 Cup Sliced Onion*

1/2 Cup Crumbled queso Anejo (or feta cheese)*

Fresh Cilantro*

Fresh Lime*

For Vinaigrette: Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl.  Gradually whisk in the oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  **I like to put all the ingredients in a blender instead and combine to make a more creamy texture.

For Salad:  Combine all ingredients except cheese in a large bowl.  Toss with vinaigrette to coat.  top with cheese. 

Ok, here's my take on the recipe:

I am kind of a picky eater if you haven't noticed already.  I'm not a fan of tomatoes and that stems from a long ago childhood trauma.  Want to hear the story?  Probably not, but I'll share at the bottom for those interested... :)

Anywhoo....  My families not a big fan of bell peppers either.  (me more than them, but no scary story to go with this one unless you consider my mom's stuffed green bell peppers that I HATED to eat b/c they were pretty scary... sorry mom)

So needless to say, I leave out the tomatoes and peppers unless I'm feeling adventurous and throw in some very, VERY thinly sliced yellow bell peppers.  As far as the lettuce goes, I don't just use red leaf lettuce because I feel like it's too wimpy so I also add romaine lettuce in a 50/50 ratio and then use less of the napa cabbage.  Depending on how many people you are serving, I use WAY more avocado than the recipe calls for.  Probably a 1/4 -1/2 of an avocado per person.  For the chicken I like to use a grilled chicken, not just cooked chicken.  I think it adds more flavor to have a grilled chicken with some lime and seasoning on it.  For the seeds I like to use either sunflower seeds or pepita nuts.  I sometimes toast the nuts, but it's not necessary.  For the corn, I just use organic frozen corn that I thaw but I do think fresh would be best.  For the onion, I use organic green onions and I chop those up with some cilantro in my Pampered Chef Food chopper.  I like to add this combo to the salad to have some fresh cilantro IN the salad as well as the salad dressing.  For the cheese, I like to use Atheno's "herb & garlic"  feta cheese.  It has the best flavor in my opinion and is easily available in your grocery store.  I usually plate each persons salad with all the ingredients and then add the cheese and tortilla chips on top.  I LOVE Trader Joe's Blue Corn Torilla Chips, so I crumbled those on top for a little more color and taste. Usually, I let them put their own salad dressing on their salad b/c I know everyone likes a different amount and I don't want to drench the salad in vinaigrette.

I hope you ENJOY!  I LOVE this salad and could eat it several times a week.  In fact when I'm trying to shed a few pounds this IS what I eat several times a week and it's just so full of flavor that you don't feel like you are dieting!!  Now I don't know what the calories are on this b/c way back when I found this recipe they weren't doing the nutritional value of recipes.  I imagine it's got a good amount of calories with the oil, cheese, avacado and nuts, but those are all healthy in my book (if you only use a little feta and tortilla chips) and I'm telling you I've lost weight while eating this on my diet plan.

My overall review is:

Preperation:  EASY, BUT ABOUT 45 MINUTES OF PREP TIME (INCLUDING THE CHICKEN)

Directions:  TRUE TO WORD, BUT I LIKE MY TAKE ON THE RECIPE BEST...

Presentation:  COLORFUL.  All the colors make this a beautiful presentation and great meal with guests.
Would I make it again:  YES, and have for almost 20 years.

I know this another NON-PINTEREST recipe, but I have to share some of my all-time FAVS... and then ADD them to PINTEREST!!  

Ok, for those interested in my "story"

My favorite uncle would come over a lot when I was a kid for dinner and I guess he knew I was NOT a fan of tomatoes.  My parents grew tomatoes in the back yard so they were plentiful and my mom would try to put them in every recipe imaginable.  But I wasn't having it... So my uncle would taunt me with a tomato and tell me to eat it. No way buddy.  But one night I guess he figured he'd "help" me like tomatoes...   (Didn't work)  So he chased me around the house with it and as I'm screaming, running and laughing in a terror stricken way (oh man... I can just hear it now, lol), sure enough he caught up with me and... shoved the WHOLE tomato in my mouth!  I'm telling you the tears were flooding, the mouth was gagging and I'm pretty sure he lost the "FAV" Uncle spot at that exact moment!  And to this day... I WON'T eat a raw tomato.  I'll eat EVERY other form of tomato... tomato sauce, (not chunky though) tomato paste, sundried tomatoes, ketchup, pizza sauce... everything but a raw stinkin tomato! So THANKS Uncle #&^%... you know who you are.  I still love you, but NOT raw tomatoes.  Never gonna happen.  

So moral of the story... Don't force kids to eat things because it doesn't work.  It may work for a funny story they can tell their kids and then have their kids not like raw tomatoes either (yes, true story)... but it doesn't get them to suddenly LIKE what they just don't like.  Ok people?  

What's even funnier is... I married a guy who DOESN'T LIKE RAW TOMATOES!!!  Yay me!  He has no traumatizing story to go with his dislike... but you've gotta love that I found my "tomatoless" SOULMATE~

Hope you enjoy the recipe... tomato or tomato-less.

Laura

When all things come together PERFECTLY...

I have a present for you.

I have been working all weekend on my blog banner and sidebar, and I mean ALL weekend.  I'm so proud of myself for figuring out how to add my photos and create a banner and so I'm going to pass along my happiness in the form of a dessert!

Here's a photo from last weekend in Las Vegas when I actually had this dessert...for about the 20th time.

Photo from the Desert Companion

Ok, this is pretty much HEAVEN on a plate.  It's Emeril Lagasse's "Individual Shortbread Pecan Pie" and it's NOTHING like Pecan Pie.  Because I don't even like pecan pie.  This is AMAZING.  I discovered this dessert years ago on a trip to Las Vegas and dinner at the Venetian Hotel where Emeril Lagasse has a restaurant called Delmonico's.  Lucky me, I had a bit of room left for dessert and tried THIS.  From the very. first. bite. I was in heaven.  Picture this...

I took my fork, took the perfect proportion of pecan pie and ice-cream and brought it to my awaiting mouth and indulged my taste buds. Instantly my eyes closed, my lips curved into a huge grin and a little rumbling of laughter started from deep within.  Yes, it was THAT good.  And every time I have it, this same reaction takes place.  My dear hubby just looks at me and smiles that "I love that this brings her so much joy" smile. {ya, he's a keeper}

So quite a few years back we asked for the recipe one night when we were there for dinner.  We are not past asking for recipes that we LOVE, I mean the worst they can say in NO.  Luckily for us, they said YES and all it took was a little schmoozing and maybe a couple "Andrew Jacksons"...  I gave them my email address and a few weeks later I got an email with the recipe!  WOW, I feel so privaledged.

So I'm going to pass it along to all of YOU so don't say I never gave you anything.  I will tell you that I've never made this though.  I've always said I was going to, but never did.  So I don't know how easy or hard this is or how many this makes.  It may need to be reduced b/c this could be a huge amount for restaurant quantity.  But if you DO make it, let me know how it turns out!

Individual Shortbread Pecan Pie:

2 lbs. Butter
2 Cups Brown Sugar (packed)
4 Cups Oatmeal
6 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tsp. Salt

Cream the butter and sugar.  Add the oatmeal, flour and salt.  Mix until just combined.  Chill before rolling.  Here's where I don't have any clue b/c they did not add:  I imagined you roll out the dough and fill individual ramekins with the dough.  How many, I don't know...  They also did not say how many pecans, so I would fill the ramekins with the dough, then add chopped pecans to your desire.

Pecan Pie Filling:

2 lbs. Brown Sugar
8 oz. Butter (softened)
1 1/2tsp. Salt
20 Eggs
5 Cups Dark Corn Syrup
2 Tbs. Vanilla Extract

Cream the butter, sugar and salt.  Add the eggs a little a a time. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and mix until blended.  Pour over pecans into the shells.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until done.


Here's my own photo of my recent indulgence:

A gift people... a gift.

Taco Tuesday!

Here's a GREAT recipe for Taco Tuesday!

My family LOVES Mexican food and "Taco Tuesday" is pretty much a weekly event at our house.  So I thought I would share this recipe I tried from Pinterest back in December and I'm making again TONIGHT. (with a little variation, details below)

Here's the picture and link to the original poster:

Crock Pot Beef Carnitas Tacos

Here's the recipe according to the original recipe:

Ingredients:

2 lbs flank steak

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

for spice rub—

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

for serving—

corn tortillas

avocado slices

cilantro

your favorite salsa

limes

Directions:

Mix together all spices in a small bowl. Rub the spices all over your flank steak—be generous here! Then, place your steak at the bottom of your crock pot.

Cover the steak with the chopped onions, bell peppers and jalapeno pepper. Turn heat on LOW and cook for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, remove meat from crock pot and shred with a fork. It should be incredibly easy to shred. You can either stick the shredded meat back in the pot for another hour or serve as is.

To serve, heat your corn tortillas in a skillet on the stove. Spoon some carnitas on a tortilla then top with salsa, avocado, cilantro and a squeeze of lime.

Enjoy with a margarita for best result.

Here's my take on it and what I plan to do tonight...

As far as the recipe goes, I followed it pretty closely but I didn't use the red pepper just because we are not big fans of bell peppers.  But I did use everything else and it turned out AMAZING!  We all LOVED these tacos and I loved how easy they were.  Just prepare the beef in the morning and stick it in the crock pot and you are good for dinner.  We were in a hurry that night b/c of a School Christmas Program and it was the perfect thing to eat quickly.  I almost wished we had time to savor and enjoy it a bit though. :)

Now tonight I wanted to make this again, but I didn't get to the grocery store until noon.  You need 8 hours to cook the beef...  So I did buy the flank steak, (and I'll freeze it for another time) but I also bought already prepared and shredded beef:

This was easy to find, even at my Henry's which is a "health food" grocery store.  So since I didn't have the 8 hours needed today, I plan to put this plain shredded beaf in my crock pot and add the seasonings, the onions and jalapeño and cook it for about 2-3 hours instead!  I think this will work out and I'll put a note on here after I make it tonight and let you know how it tasted and what was a good cooking time for the already cooked meat.  I'm sure the original way is much better and I would suggest doing it that way if you have the time, but I'm excited to see how this QUICK version will turn out too!

My overall review is:

Preperation:  EASY 

Directions:  TRUE TO WORD and I like to change things up and they still tasted great (imho)

Presentation:  YUMMY.  I mean doesn't that picture at the top make you want to eat this right now!?
Would I make it again:  YES, and I'm excited to try this tonight with my quicker version.  But I do plan on making it again with the original recipe too.

Enjoy!

UPDATE:  The family liked the easy version just as much!  It was moist and flavorful and took a LOT less time.  But tonight I'm going back to the original version so I'll see what they think again.  This is SO easy and I Love having something in the crockpot all day and when dinner comes around, it's pretty much ready!  No fussing in the kitchen while homework is being done.  LOVE it.

A Cookie for anytime of year!

When I first made these cookies I found on Pinterest, it was the Holidays.  So I thought about waiting to post this recipe until we approached next Christmas Season, but then I thought "Why?  This is my new FAVORITE cookie... why wait a whole year to make them again?"

So here it is:

Oatmeal Peppermint Dipped Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest and I've linked the original poster of this recipe above.

I don't know about you, but I always seem to have left over candy canes that I end up putting in the freezer and saving.  So I figured this might be a good time to get those out and make these for a Valentine's Day treat!!    I mean, I like peppermint all year round and I don't know why we have to "save" it for Christmas...  So I'm turning them into my Valentine's Day cookie for the girls!

Here's the recipe:

• Cream until fluffy:
• 1 C butter
• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 C sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• Add:
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 C regular oats (not instant)
• 1 C Andes Peppermint Baking Chips or other chip. (mint or white chocolate)
• 2 C white chocolate, almond bark or Wilton Vanilla Melts for dipping
• Crushed candy cane for sprinkling.

I  didn't use Andes Chips or bark, I just bought Ghiradelli (or you could use Nestle) White Chocolate Chips for both the chips to go inside and for melting on the outside.  You'll need at least 2 bags.

Instructions:

• 
  
• Cream together butter and sugars. Add in the vanilla and eggs.  Combine the dry ingredients and mix in.  Add in white chocolate chips.  Dough can be formed into a roll and refrigerated or frozen or baked right away.  Use a scoop or spoon to shape dough into a ball and place on cookie sheet.  These are somewhat big cookies, so I could only make about 8 per cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until light brown on the edges and cooked through.
• 
  
• After they are completely cooled, you can add the melted chocolate and the crushed candy canes.  I like to put the candy canes in a small ziploc baggie and take a big mallet and pound on the bag until they are crushed.  The kids love to do this part and I just make sure the bag is sealed and I put a towel on top of the bag so the bag doesn't explode!  Then melt the white chocolate until a nice smooth  consistency.  I like to put the choc. chips in a 2 cups glass measuring cup and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Then I take it out, stir and repeat for another 30 seconds.  This usually takes about 4-5 times before it's all melted, but it's best to do it in short segments so the chocolate doesn't burn.  When it's all melted, dip one end of the cookie into the chocolate about 1/3 - 1/4 of the way, depending on our much chocolate you want on each cookie.  Lay on a parchment lined cookie sheet or on the countertop and sprinkle with crushed candy cane.  Allow to set up... or not,  if you LOVE warm melted white chocolate.  (yes, I think I ate more in this state than the finished state :)  Here's a picture of the ones I made:

My overall review is:  

Preparation:  EASY

Directions: TRUE TO WORD

Presentation: VERY FESTIVE FOR ANY OCCASION

Flavor: FANTASTIC, a chewy oatmeal cookie with a burst of peppermint and white chocolate

Would I make it again: YES, just counting down the days...

These are GREAT cookies and my mouth is watering just thinking about them.  Unfortunately, I'm trying to shed a few pounds so I will have to wait patiently for Valentine's Day to arrive so I can have a "cheat day" and make these!!

Hope you enjoyed this post, I'm sorry it was a while in between this and my last one.  I was in Las Vegas enjoying some of my FAVORITE food and lost track of time...  I will talk more about one of those experiences next week and you will NOT want to miss it.  It's my ALL TIME FAVORITE DESSERT, and I have the recipe!!!  It's an amazing dessert from one of the TOP restaurants in Las Vegas and it's their signature dessert... and I scored the recipe!!  (had to pay a little for it, but it was SO worth it! )

I've linked my Pinterest Boards at the top and here for you to check out and start following if you're interested.  I have many interests including food, so maybe you'll find some other inspiration over on Pinterest and you might even want to join me in ITALY each year as I host a weeklong event in Lake Como, Italy!!

Ciao,

Laura

I'll leave you with a photo of my daughter's "thumbs up" on these: