Day 21: SW Chicken Salad

Extremely simple, quick to make, and incredibly yummy! Plus: bonus...it's killer healthy too! I used to make this recipe with breaded frozen chicken nuggets, but of course those aren't GF, so now I used grilled chicken.

To save on time and money, I buy those big $6.00 bags of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts and have SD grill up the whole bag at once. Then I cut up everything and use half for this dinner and save half for another meal.

This meal is also really versatile, because you can throw in almost any kind of misc. leftovers, like black beans, etc. that go along with the whole southwest theme.

Day 21: Southwest Chicken Salad
SW Chicken Salad

With breaded chicken strips above, or with grilled chicken below.

SW Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

Lettuce

Tortilla chips, crushed

Corn

Red Pepper, chopped

Shredded Cheese

Chicken

Dressing:

Equal parts of BBQ sauce, Ranch, and Salsa...mmmm!!!

Directions:

1. Assemble your salad with toppings of your choice.

2. When you crush the tortilla chips on top of your salad you absolutely MUST crumble them just like Jack Black did in the Movie Nacho Libre! I'm not a big fan of that movie, but that scene was seriously hilarious!

Day 11 & 12: Chicken Rice Bake

I don't know why everyone loves this so much. It seriously doesn't look like much of anything that would taste all that impressive, but for whatever reasons my family completely LOVES this dish! So much so that my kids have been known to literally fight over it...no joke, my absolute pickiest eater EJ loves this dish more than almost anything else I make.

I like this recipe because it's incredibly simple to throw together and it's a great comfort feeling food on a day when it's cold outside or when you're not feeling well...kind of like the way chicken noodle soup just somehow has that comfort feeling all built in. It's also very filling, so no side dishes required and for us it also usually makes enough for 2 dinners or at the very least it's enough for dinner and a few lunches the next day depending on how hungry everyone was for dinner that night.

For the GF version it does take a little more prep to make the cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup from scratch, but you can always make this in bulk ahead of time and store in the fridge so you can just dump it in when you're ready. Since I used homemade cream of mushroom soup in the Tater Tot Casserole back on 10/03, I made enough to store a batch in the fridge to save me time in this recipe.

Day 11 & 12: Chicken Rice Bake
Chicken Rice Bake

Chicken Rice Bake

Ingredients:

1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (or 1 batch of GF recipe below)
Onion powder or onion salt
Garlic salt
Pepper
Lawry’s
Paprika
Frozen Chicken breasts

***The secret to this dish tasting so great is in all those spices. I don't measure them, but I would guess I use at least 1 tsp. or a little more than that of the onion salt, garlic powder, and Lawry's seasonings.

GF Cream of Chicken Soup

2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp potato starch
3 ½ cups chicken broth
1 cup light cream or milk
2 cups finely chopped cooked chicken

---for cream of  mushroom soup just substitute cut up chicken pieces with sliced or chopped up mushrooms. I typically use shredded canned chicken here or I've often made it without the chicken or mushrooms and it still tastes great in this dish. For the mushrooms I usually buy a small can of sliced mushrooms and chop them really tiny with my Pampered Chef food chopper.

Directions:

1. Make GF cream of chicken or mushroom soup.

2. In a large 9 x 13 cake pan pour in instant rice and water and stir. Add in onion powder, garlic salt, Lawry's, and pepper to taste. Mix in with rice and water until well blended. You may need to add more water to make sure the 9 x 13 dish is totally full. I normally use about 4 cups of rice with equal parts water, the cream of chicken or mushroom soup and sometimes more water. The pan should be almost totally full to the brim, no less than 1 cm lower than the top of the dish after the chicken is in.

3. Place frozen chicken breasts on top of rice. They should be somewhat in and on top of the rice, not fully submerged. Sprinkle with paprika all over, slightly lighter on the rice areas and a little heavier on top of the chicken.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 min.

Shown above with the whole chicken breasts. I usually use 2 really large chicken breasts and then cut them up into bite sized pieces and mix them in to make the chicken go further. Once this dish is ready it seriously goes FAST, so we were already into eating last night when I remembered to snap a couple of photos. See? It doesn't look like much, but it's a great, simple recipe to keep on hand!

GF CrockPot Cream Cheese Chicken Recipe

I needed a dish I could throw in the crockpot and not have to worry about all day. This was great, everyone really liked it and the somewhat different flavor it had from usual chicken recipes we eat. They all had the exact same comment, that it was really good, but the flavor was just a little bit too strong. We attributed it to the 2 tablespoons of Italian seasonings, so next time I make this I would definitely cut that down to 1 tbsp.

I used 1 box of Quinoa colored spiral pasta which honestly didn't look like 1 box would be enough to feed all of us, but it really made a ton after it cooked up...so much that we were all full from dinner and SD took this to work for lunch 2 days last week!

GF CrockPot Cream Cheese Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

--2 cups homemade cream of mushroom soup

--frozen chicken--enough to feed four adults

--2 T Italian seasoning

--1/2 t celery seed

--1 T onion powder

--1 T sugar (weird, I know.)

--1/4 t black pepper

--1 t kosher salt

--2 cloves minced garlic

--block of cream cheese (to add later)

or you can make it with:

--1 can cream-of-something soup

--1/2 cup chicken broth

--frozen chicken pieces

--packet of Italian salad dressing mix

--2 cloves minced garlic

--block of cream cheese (to add later)

Directions:

1. Put everything except for the cream cheese into the crockpot. 

2. Cook on low for 6 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and begins to shred. Shred the chicken with two large forks, and mix in the block of cream cheese. 

3. Switch the crock to high and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is fully melted. Serve over pasta. 

KW had to have a picture of his dinner taken too.

GF Sweet and Sour Chicken

One of the foods my family has been craving and missing since going gluten free is the sweet and sour chicken from Panda Express (and the Orange Chicken, which I also need to find a replacement recipe for!). It's now off limits because of the breading on the chicken.

Fortunately I had tried this recipe before with the store bought frozen popcorn chicken and knew it was a very delicious meal, so the only change to make it GF was to replace the popcorn chicken with boneless/skinless chicken. It's a little more work to cook and cut up the chicken, but it's so well worth it when you're in the mood for Chinese food!

For the fried rice I used instant brown rice because that's what I had on hand, but I've also used instant white rice with this dish. I didn't have any fried rice seasoning packets, so I opted instead to add some seasonings from my pantry (soy sauce, Lawry's season salt, a little garlic powder, onion, etc. but nothing too overpowering  because you don't want your rice to have too strong of a flavor that will take away from the sweet and sour sauce).

 

  

GF Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 medium green pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 can (20 ounces) unsweetened pineapple chunks
• 3 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (La Choy is GF)
  
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (or potato starch)
  
• 1 package (12 ounces) frozen popcorn chicken (or cooked & cut up boneless, skinless chicken)
  

Directions:

1. For GF version, cook and cut up chicken into bite size pieces, set aside.

2. In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry green pepper and onion in oil for 3-4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add chicken.

3. Drain pineapple, reserving the juice in a 2-cup measuring cup; set pineapple aside. Add enough water to the juice to measure 1-1/3 cups; stir in the vinegar, soy sauce and ketchup. 

4. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and cornstarch. Stir in pineapple juice mixture until smooth. Gradually add to the skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. 

5. Add pineapple. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 4-5 minutes or until heated through. 

6. (For non GF version, otherwise skip this) Meanwhile, microwave chicken according to package directions. Stir into pineapple mixture. Serve immediately. Yield: 4 servings.

 

Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 envelope fried rice seasoning (or your favorite spices from the pantry)
  
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 green onions, chopped (optional)
  
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 cups cold cooked instant rice (white or brown)
  
• 1/2 cup peas
• soy sauce (optional)
  

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine seasoning mix and water; set aside. 

2. In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry onions in oil for 2-3 minutes. Add egg; stir until scrambled. 

3. Add rice and peas; stir-fry until heated through. Stir in seasoning mixture; stir-fry 3-4 minutes longer or until heated through. Add soy sauce to taste. Yield: 4 servings.

Smothered Chicken & Potato Rosettes

This dinner was a huge hit! Nobody had any idea that this chicken was covered in mushrooms (along with cheese and bacon) so everyone ate it and raved about it! The secret to hiding mushrooms in the dish was that I used my Pampered Chef chopper to almost mince the mushrooms up into tiny little pieces.

If I had told my kids there were mushrooms in it, they would have turned up their noses and complained, but instead I got tons of rave reviews telling me I should definitely make this again!

The potatoes weren't supposed to be baked, but something just didn't sound right to mix in raw eggs and then eat (even though it tasted great & I never would have known if I hadn't mixed them in myself) so I decided to bake these potato mounds for a little while and they turned into these awesome potato/biscuit creations which the kids thought were really fun.

Smothered Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each)
• Garlic powder and seasoned salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 jar (4-1/2 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions (optional)
  
• 1/2 cup bacon bits

Directions:

1. Flatten chicken to 1/4-in. thickness. Sprinkle with garlic powder and seasoned salt.

2. In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, brown chicken in oil for 4 minutes; turn.

3. Top with the mushrooms, cheese, green onions and bacon. Cover and cook 4 minutes longer or until chicken is no longer pink.

Yield: 4 servings.

Extremely simple & VERY good!!!



Potato Rosettes

Ingredients:

• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion (optional)
  
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Directions:

1. Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender; drain.

2. Transfer to a large bowl; mash potatoes. Beat in the cheese, egg, onion, sour cream, salt and pepper.

3. Cut a hole in the corner of a pastry bag or heavy-duty plastic bag. Insert large star tip #409. Fill bag with potato mixture. Pipe potatoes into eight mounds on a greased baking sheet. Cover and freeze for up to 1 month.

4. [Optional: Baked on greased baking sheet at 350 for 10-15 min. or until slightly brown and firm.]

To use frozen potatoes: Place on a microwave-safe plate. Cover with waxed paper; microwave on high for 6 minutes or until heated through.

Yield: 8 servings.

To use frozen potatoes: Place on a microwave-safe plate. Cover with waxed paper; microwave on high for 6 minutes or until heated through.

Pizza Par-TAY!

Another area that's a struggle when you're GF is finding a decent pizza crust. You can no longer fall back on the "let's just order a pizza on the way home" routine on busy nights.

Chicago Connection is a small pizza chain that has recently added gluten free pizzas to their menu. We have never eaten there before, as it's not our favorite pizza chain, but decided to give them a try.

We've tried their pizza twice (both gluten free and regular) in the last month and both times it's been incredibly AWFUL!!!! The gluten free crust crumbles and falls apart at the slightest touch. It's pretty expensive and my description this last time was "barely tolerable" for this pizza alternative.

But since I've had some great luck with substituting GF flour blends in some of our regular favorite recipes, I thought I'd experiment with our family's all time favorite homemade pizza.

The original recipe is one that has been passed along through several families in our church, all exclaiming how unbelievably amazing this pizza is. For the original recipe, you can click here where I provided lots of pictures with the instructions.

So I decided to give it a try. The dough was incredibly different looking from the soft consistency I was used to. Instead of being soft, doughy, and easily rolled out with a rolling pin, this GF dough was much more like a very thick playdough.

After spreading out the dough on this cooking stone I seriously contemplated throwing it out, because I assumed it was going to turn out awful. But I decided to give it a try anyway, and topped the dough with sauce, pepperoni, and TONS of cheese.

I cooked the pizza for the exact same amount of time as the regular recipe calls for and let it sit for about 10 min. after baking to let the cheese set and firm up a bit so it's not so runny when you slice it. Everyone waited patiently for the pizza to cook, some even had a fun time with a game of tug of war as they waited.

And here it is as I started to slice it up, looking promising.

The slices held their shape together perfectly and didn't fall apart at all in your hands. I walked around the house giving small bites to everyone to taste test and EVERYONE totally LOVED this pizza!!!!

This wasn't at all one of those, "oh well, it's not bad, and hey it's GF so it's okay I guess," kind of responses, but instead it was an “Oh my word that’s seriously delicious and family members are fighting over slices it’s that good!” type of pizza! It tastes so close to how this pizza usually tastes when it’s non GF, and everybody LOVED it.

Just to emphasize this a little more, we had bought some pizza from our favorite pizza store for those people who could eat it…and EVERYONE turned down eating that store pizza over eating this homemade GF pizza!!!!

Recipes don’t usually make that big of an impact in my house, somebody always hates it (so I usually consider a recipe a success if 4 out of 6 people eat it) so it was such a joy to have everyone love this dish for a change! We had a few leftovers of both the store bought favorite and this homemade pizza...and the store bought pizza is still in the fridge while the homemade slices are totally gone!

Since SD is struggling so much with eating red sauces these days, I made the 2^nd pizza (because 1 batch makes 2 pizza crusts) with a homemade alfredo sauce.

We grilled up some chicken on the BBQ, and added that to the pizza with a ton of cheese and everyone also LOVED this pizza!

It’s such a great feeling to make dinner and instead of your family simply tolerating it and eating it because you said so, instead they’re RAVING about how incredibly delicious it is!!!! Esp. EJ, who hates EVERYTHING I make, she commented that she liked both pizzas but she loved the alfredo one the best!

It was a VERY happy cooking night in our home, a very happy pizza experience!

So here it is, my out of this world homemade gluten free pizza! (Again, for the original version of this pizza you can go here).

Homemade GF Pizza

Dough: (makes 2 pizzas)
1 1/3 cup warm water
2 tablespoons active dry yeast (or 3 packets)
2 tbsp sugar (white)

2/3 cup shortening
4 cups flour (GF Flour blend: 2 cups white rice flour, 1 cup tapioca flour, and 1 cup potato starch all mixed well together)
3 tsp. xanthan gum

1. Blend the first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside for 10 min. to let rise.
2. In a large bowl add shortening, flour, and xanthan gum and mix thoroughly until blended. Pour in yeast mixture and blend until dough forms.
3. Roll out into 2 pizza doughs, add your favorite toppings and bake at 425 degree for 10-12 min. (all ovens are different, so watch your closely and adjust time as necessary!).

4. Make sure to let this pizza cool for 10 min. BEFORE slicing to set up!


I used my electric mixer to blend the dough on the lowest speed and that worked very well. I flattened the dough directly on the baking stone because it didn't hold together very well before cooking (which is why I think a little more xanthan gum would be helpful), but held together extremely well after baking. Enjoy!

GF Chicken Kabobs

Most meat marinades out there contain gluten, which can be really frustrating with summer BBQ time just ahead. I found this alternative for a homemade chicken marinade at Angela's Kitchen, and it was really good and flavorful!

GF Chicken Kabobs

Marinade:

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup GFCF soy sauce/tamari sauce

½ cup olive oil

2 t dried oregano

1 t dried basil

1 clove garlic, mince (I was out of fresh garlic so I used about 1 tsp. garlic powder)

½ tsp ground pepper

For kabobs:

2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 2” chunks

1 green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow or orange bell pepper

2 medium onions

8 oz. whole button or baby portabella mushrooms

While SD and I would love these grilled veggies, my kids won't eat them, so I simply added pineapple chunks between the chicken pieces (which of course they didn't eat either, but whatever. Go with what your family likes).

Directions:

1. Mix marinade ingredients in a bowl. Put chicken in a zip close style 1-quart freezer bag. Pour half of marinade into bag with chicken. Remove as much air as possible and seal. Squish marinade around chicken in bag. Place in the refrigerator for several hours.

2. Wash vegetables and chop peppers and onions into pieces about 1 ½” leaving mushrooms whole. Marinate vegetables with the other half of the marinade in another bag for at least 30 minutes.

3. Alternate chicken and veggies on kabob skewers. Discard chicken marinade and reserve veggie marinade. Grill until chicken is done, basting with leftover vegetable marinade. You may also broil kabobs in the oven. Broil 10 minutes, flip kabobs and broil 5-10 minutes more until chicken is done. Keep an eye on them. If the veggies seem to be cooking too fast for the chicken, lower rack from heating element and flip often. Serve over rice.

I usually marinade all meats overnight, but this time I only had about 5 hours and there was still plenty of flavor on the meat. The kids all loved this one. I served the kabobs with some fruit and a side of homemade potato salad.

Crockpot Brown Sugar Chicken Revisited

So this crockpot recipe for Brown Sugar Chicken turned out pretty good the first time I made it, but I wasn't totally satisfied with the results.

Mainly because, while it was good and flavorful, the chicken was too sweet!!! So this time I added a whole bag of baby carrots and reduced the amount of brown sugar in the recipe to 1/2 cup. I also used a little more chicken than I had the first time (I think I had used less than what the recipe called for) which really made a big difference in how much leftover juices were in the crockpot.

I'm getting better at cooking rice that isn't still chewy. The carrots really helped with the flavor this time!!! Everyone except KW ate this dish and really loved it! EJ and I felt the carrots were still a little too sweet, so next time I'll plan to cut back the brown sugar to only 1/3 cup and I think that will make this dish just about perfect for us.

See how nicely the spices soaked into the chicken tinging it brown above? We didn't pour any additional juices over the rice this time and that really helped cut down on the sweetness factor. The chicken was amazing again...I've never seen chicken that shredded like pork with the touch of a fork before. Definitely a keeper recipe now that we've adjusted it to what our family likes. Sometimes you just have to play with a recipe a little to get it right.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

I picked this recipe up from a friend because my objective was to make something healthy & delicious for my family...but also very quick & simple. I think I could've cooked the dish a little longer, but I threw it in the oven and had to leave the house, so I left directions to pull it out when the timer went off, but otherwise I would've left it in a little bit more. It was fully cooked, but could have been a tad more.

Anywho...SD and I really loved this dish! It was incredibly flavorful and did I mention simple? The kids all ate parts of it, but I have extremely picky kids when it comes to veggies and no one likes the same kinds...so IK only wanted the corn, EJ liked the carrots, and LA liked the green beans, and apparently none of them liked the peas. Sheesh!

I would definitely make this again, but I'd probably break it up into individual smaller pot pies and freeze them so SD could take them for lunch or I could pull them out of the freezer for quick meals. Plus I could make them with just the veggies each kids likes. If your kids aren't nearly as picky as mine, then this will be a welcome new recipe to your collection!

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

1 pkg (of 2) Pillsbury pie crusts
1 lg (family size) can Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup, (or I used 2 small cans)
1 small onion diced (optional)
2-3 cooked chicken breasts diced
1 small bag frozen veggies thawed ( I used the corn, peas, carrots, green beans mix)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400. Spread one of the crusts in the bottom of a pie plate.

2. Mix remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Add to pie plate.

3. Cover with the second crust and cut holes in the top to vent.

4. Bake for 40 minutes. I was a little concerned about the edges of the pie crust burning so I covered them with aluminum foil and it worked great.

CrockPot Brown Sugar Chicken

Another great recipe from the Crockpot Lady.

This recipe was another very easy dish to throw together. Half of my family really loved it, and the other half really liked it, but thought it was a little too sweet.

So next time I'll probably omit the broth poured over their rice...and maybe reduce the amount of brown sugar a little in the recipe because it honestly was a little surprising just how sweet the initial flavor was...not in a bad way at all, just a little unexpected.

But it is something I'll definitely make again, because I've never made chicken that tender before!

Ingredients:

--12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or 6 boneless, skinless breast halves

--1 cup brown sugar

--1/4 cup lemon-lime soda

--2/3 cup vinegar

--3 cloves smashed and chopped garlic

--2 T soy sauce (La Choy and Tamari wheat free are GF)

--1 tsp ground black pepper

The Directions:

1. Use a 5-6 quart crockpot for this recipe.

2. Plop the chicken into your crockpot. Cover with the brown sugar, pepper, chopped garlic, and soy sauce. Add the vinegar, and pour in the soda. It will bubble!

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-9 hours, or on high for 4-5. The chicken is done when it is cooked through and has reached desired consistency. The longer you cook it, the more tender it will be.

4. Serve over a bowl of white rice with a ladle full of the broth.

Chicken, Carrot & Onion Stuff

Okay, this is a made up recipe, so that's seriously the best name we can think of for it. My uncle threw this together one night and (while it may not look like it) it's seriously an incredibly delicious dish! Plus, who can beat the simple 3 ingredients!

Chicken, Carrot, Onion Stuff

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Carrots
• Sweet Onions
• Oil
• Lawry's season salt, to taste

Directions:

1. In a large frying pan slice up and grill 1-2 onions until a dark, caramelized brown. Set aside.

2. Cut up and cook chicken in bite sized pieces.

3. Add carrots to chicken...you can slice up fresh carrots, or when in a hurry just throw in a bag of frozen carrots straight from the freezer.

4. When carrots are soft, add in onions and sprinkle on Lawry's season salt to taste.

See, I told you it was really simple! Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken Pasta

It's not an excellent picture, because this photo honestly doesn't begin to do justice to this AMAZING meal!!! Seriously, it's so incredible, I think I'm going to have to add it to my grocery list right now.

Creamy Chicken Pasta

• 2 cups uncooked penne pasta
• 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 cup sliced green onions
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• Shredded Parmesan cheese

NOTES: For my family, I omitted the mushrooms, onions, and capers. I also prefer to use thick linguine instead of penne pasta. For SD and I, I also add some grilled onions and red and yellow peppers

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute mushrooms and onions in butter for 4-5 minutes or until tender. Add wine or broth and garlic. Bring to a boil; cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 5 minutes.

3. Combine flour and water until smooth; gradually add to mushroom mixture. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cream. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 4-5 minutes or until heated through.

4. Drain pasta. Add the pasta, chicken, capers, salt and pepper to cream sauce. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Yield: 5 servings.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

A very simple, easy meal to throw together. SD and IK loved it. EJ liked it except for the beans, and LA liked it except she said it was a little too spicy for her.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce, divided
4 oz cream cheese, cubed
1 1/2 cups salsa
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 can (15 1/2 oz) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chiles
10 flour tortillas (6 inches)
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Mexican cheese blend
Shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, sour cream, and sliced ripe olives, optional

1. Spoon 1/2 cup enchilada sauce into a greased 13in x 9in x 2in baking dish.
2. In a large saucepan, cook and stir the cream cheese and salsa over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until blended. Stir in the cooked chicken, beans and chiles.
3. Place about 6 tablespoons of chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down over the sauce. Top with remaining enchilada sauce; sprinkle with cheese.
4. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Serve with lettuce, tomato, sour cream and olives if desired.

Recipes to Rival: Garlic Chicken Carrot Dumplings

So my post is a little late today since I've been having some posting problems preventing me from posting this yesterday. But nevertheless, here it is, my very first Recipes to Rival September Challenge!

The recipe for September's challenge was Shrimp Dumplings.

But, since only 2 people in our family like shrimp, I decided to make a few substitutions on the filling. Instead, we had Garlic Chicken & Carrot Dumplings & they were awesome!!! I chopped up the chicken, carrots & garlic into a really fine mixture.

The recipe said to use a steamer basket to make the dumplings. Well, I don't own one, so I tried to use a makeshift steamer with my large pot, colander, and a lid.

But this process didn't work very well and the dumplings ended up sticking to each other.

So then I decided to pan fry the dumplings.

But they didn't cook evenly. The dumplings ended up slightly burnt in some areas and still doughy in other areas.

Okay, one last try. I rolled out some more dough, shaped them a little bit differently this time, and decided to deep fat fry the dumplings.

And they were AWESOME!!!!!!! These dumplings tasted totally amazing and the ENTIRE family loved them!!!! Which is really amazing, considering at least one of the six of us (usually EJ) hates just about everything.

The recipe was incredibly easy to follow and we decided there are just about a million different filings you could use this dumpling recipe for! Next time we'd like to try a breakfast dumpling with eggs, cheese, bacon and sausage.

Here's the recipe (the original shrimp dumpling recipe is listed below mine).

Garlic Chicken & Carrot Dumplings with Hoisin Dipping Sauce

Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Makes 24

Dumplings
2 cups cooked chicken
1 cup cooked carrots
1/2 garlic clove
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon hoisin Chinese dipping sauce
3 dashes of hot red-pepper sauce
24 dumpling wrappers (see recipe below)

Dipping Sauce (optional, you can choose your own though this one is very tasty!)
***We used hoisin dipping sauce to dip the finished dumplings.

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger or 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1. Coat a steamer basket with a non stick cooking spray and set aside. In a small saucepan, soak the mushrooms in boiling water to cover for 15 minutes, then drain. Remove and discard the stems; cut the caps into quarters.

2. In a food processor, combine the mushroom caps, scallions, and garlic and whirl until coarsely chopped. Add the shrimp and whirl until finely chopped. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in the turkey, soy sauce, oil, and red-pepper sauce.

3. Place 1 tablespoon of the shrimp mixture in the center of each dumpling wrapper. Dampen the edges with water, the fold up the sides around the filling, pleating the edges. Place in the steamer basket, leaving 1/2 inch of space between the dumplings for the steam to circulate. Set over boiling water, cover, and steam for 15 minutes.

4. For the dipping sauce, in a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, oil, and ginger. Serve the dumplings hot with the dipping sauce.

HOT WATER DOUGH:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups boiling water

In a stainless steel bowl mix flour and salt. Slowly add hot water to flour in 1/4 cup increments. Mix with chopsticks until a ball is formed and the dough is not too hot to handle. On a floured surface, knead dough until it becomes a smooth, elastic ball. Place back in bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rest for at least 1 hour. Working on a floured surface with floured hands, roll out dough to form a long 'noodle', 1-inch in diameter. Cut 1/2-inch pieces and turn them over so the cut sides are facing up. Flatten with your palm and roll out thin using a rolling pin. The dumpling wrapper should end up about 3 inches in diameter.

And now for the original recipe dumpling filling:

Shrimp Dumplings

4 large shiitake mushrooms
3 scallions
1/2 garlic clove
8 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 ounces ground turkey
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
3 dashes of hot red-pepper sauce
24 dumpling wrappers (see recipe below)

Homemade Pizza

Homemade Pizza

Apparently my blog has become all about food, oh well, here's another recipe that will just blow you away. It's once again incredibly easy & tastes FAR better than any store bought pizza! I got this recipe from a friend at church.

Homemade Pizzas

Dough: (makes 2 pizzas)
1 1/3 cup warm water
2 tablespoons yeast
2 tbsp sugar (white)
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups flour (white)

1. Blend the first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside for 10 min. to let rise.
2. Add shortening and flour and mix thoroughly until blended and dough forms.
3. Roll out into 2 pizza doughs, add your favorite toppings and bake at 425 degree for 12 min.

I used my electric mixer to blend the dough on the lowest speed and that worked very well. I flattened the dough on a lightly floured surface using a large wooden rolling pin.

Because I'm picky enough to prefer the edges be nice and round and pretty, I used my pizza cutter to cut around the edges to make them nice and smooth.

And of course you then have to fold over the edges just like they do at the pizza store.

Next add some spaghetti sauce as you pretend you're a pizza pro.

Followed by your favorite toppings, this one is half pepperoni, half plain cheese.

And bake. Look at how unbelievably delicious this pizza turned out! In just 12 short minutes!

We made a couple of other varieties too, BBQ chicken pizza, substituting BBQ sauce for the spaghetti sauce and precooked grilled chicken strips.

And chicken alfredo with red and yellow peppers....mmmmMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It looks amazing, has an incredible soft crust that bakes perfectly, and a totally BEYOND amazing taste!

This is a really fun recipe that the kids enjoyed helping with too. Of course, nobody enjoyed the huge aroma of the yeast as it set and rose for about 10 min., but other than that it was a lot of fun. Oh! I almost forgot to mention, this pizza is INCREDIBLY FILLING!!! For a family of 6 like us (including a teenage boy), 2 pizzas were plenty! Next time I'd like to experiment with rolling the dough into personal pizza sizes. If you don't have a large family you could try dividing this recipe up into smaller individual sized pizzas and freezing them for later.