Chicken Caesar Salad

This dish is a very very simple recipe to throw together when you want something quick and easy. I decided to do this a couple days ago and finally got around to it for dinner this evening.

Ingredients:
1 cup Italian Caesar Salad Dressing (FAT FREE)
1 lb Chicken Breast
Salad Mix
Bacon Bits
Parmesan/Romano Cheese Mix
Olive Oil

Alright, seems quite simple doesn't it?

Well that's because it is!

The marinade is literally just the Italian Caesar Salad Dressing. That's it. Boom, so easy. I put it in a bag due to the ease of marinating the Chicken in it.

I cut the Chicken up into smaller strips so it would cook faster and absorb the marinade quicker. Then into the marinade the Chicken goes!

I put a saucepan on the stovetop and turned the heat to medium. I added in a drizzle of Olive Oil.

About 15 seconds after turning the heat on, I poured the marinade and Chicken into the saucepan.

I turned the Chicken strips over about 2 minutes later.

This is what the look like when done. Total cook time should take about 6 minutes, but check to be sure by cutting one of the pieces open.

After they were done I turned off the heat and got my Salad Mix out. It is a simple Salad Mix from the store so I did nothing more than take it out of the container, wash it, and plate it. To this I added some Bacon Bits (fake bacon but tasty) which the Chicken went on top of. Topped with a healthy dose of Parmesan/Romano Cheese Mix. Enjoy.

Root Vegetable Salad

This recipe has been bouncing around inside my head for the past couple weeks and I finally found Parsnips so cooking had to happen! It's my first time cooking something like this, so this should be fun!

Ingredients:
5 Parsnips
10 Carrots
7 Red Potatoes
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Italian Herb Mix
Olive Oil

Turn your oven to 400 degrees BAKE. Make sure it's empty.

Now this recipe I began by finding Parsnips at the grocery store for once! I then gathered everything together.

I went in order Parsnips first, Carrots second, and Potatoes third. By that, I mean I cut them into large pieces as evidenced by the cut up Parsnips in this picture.

I did my best to mix them up and ended up having enough cut to fill two entire glass cooking dishes with the ingredients.

I then poured on a heavy dose of Olive Oil. On top of that I added 2 pinches of Sea Salt, 3 of Ground Black Pepper, and 1 large pinch of Italian Herb Mix. This is per glass dish. Then they went into the oven. Yes, I was cooking these at the same time as I was cooking Sweet Potato Fries.

They should cook for about 45 minutes.

Take them out and use a spatula to serve. I dusted with some Italian Herb Mix. Enjoy.

Zesty Chicken

So after mixing together the Zesty Chops, I decided I was not done making food Zesty. However, using the same marinade to make pork and chicken Zesty was not to be had. I had to Zesty it up even more!







Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken Breasts
Caesar Salad Dressing
Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
Lime Juice
White Wine
Italian Herb Mix
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Ground Black Pepper

I began by trimming the Chicken Breasts and slicing them lengthwise in half. I then turned my attention to the marinade. I used 1 cup Caesar Salad Dressing and 1 cup Honey Mustard Salad Dressing. I topped this off with a 1/2 cup of White Wine and a heavy dash of Lime Juice. Mix together.

Add in the 1/2 cup Italian Herb Mix, dustings of Garlic Powder and Onion Powder, and as much Ground Black Pepper as you want. Mix. Once mixed, add in the Chicken. Let sit for about 30 minutes.

Use a saucepan with medium heat. Once it is heated, add in the marinade and Chicken. Cover.

Make sure to stir every minute or two to make sure the Chicken cooks properly. It should be done in about 10-15 minutes, I cut them open to check out done they were. If not done, cook some more!

I took them off and served with some spicy rice I cooked up in my rice cooker. Enjoy.

Shrimp a la Salad

I decided that a seafood dish was needed to be done. So, I created an amazingly tasty one.











Ingredients:
1/2 lb Shrimp
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Teriyaki Sauce
3/4 cup Sake
1 cup Port Vino
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Italian Herb Mix
dash of Ground Black Pepper
dash of Garlic Salt
Salad
Salad Dressing (I used Catalina)
1 sm Tomato
Asiago Cheese

I started off mixing all the ingredients together but the Shrimp, Salad, Salad Dressing, and Tomato. I then whisked it all together into a consistent mix, which of course the Shrimp then went into. I marinaded it this way for approximately 10 minutes.

I turned my stovetop to medium heat and put my large saucepan on. Once it was warming up quite well, I poured the Shrimp and marinade directly into the pan. I made sure each Shrimp was not overlapping another so as to not mess up the cooking times.

I stirred this on occasion and once the Shrimp turned orange/red then were done so I turned off the heat. I had a small salad ready with a small sliced Tomato. I then used two skewers to skewer 4 Shrimp and place on top of the salad. I added a small amount of dressing to the side of the skewers along with a pinch of Asiago Cheese. Enjoy!

Stir Fry Salad

I was poking around several cookbooks this past week and noticed several variants of a stir fry salad meal. Well, I like to think of it as a lunchtime snack during the great amount of heat we are getting here in Texas.

So I grabbed the ingredients and went to work. It was quite simple when looking at it since I had everything at hand already.

Ingredients:
3 LG White Button Mushrooms (sliced)
5 Scallions/Green Onions (diced)
1 Handful of Snap Peas
5 Florettes of Broccoli
Frozen Peas and Corn
Sesame Seed Oil
Vegetable Oil
Teriyaki Sauce
Stir Fry Sauce
Soy Sauce
Sake
Salad Mix
Italian Salad Dressing
Parmesan Cheese

I grabbed my trusty Wok and poured some Vegetable Oil into it and let it cover the bottom and part of the side(by moving the Wok around, not putting in an entire bottle of Oil!), then turned the heat on to med-high.

Once I saw that the oil was heated properly, I added in the frozen vegetables. I also added in a little bit of Sesame Seed Oil at this point. Stir. Let them cook for a minute or three since they have more cooking going on since they were frozen.

After that, I added in the Sake, mushrooms, scallions, snap peas, and broccoli. Don't be afraid to be liberal with the Sake since most of it burns off anyways. You will most likely get an amazing blast of vegetable smells at this point. It's amazing. Don't forget to stir a lot here.

A few minutes after this, I added Teriyaki Sauce, Soy Sauce, and Stir Fry Sauce to the mix. Lots of stirring here to make sure the sauces get to everything in the Wok.

Cook until your frequent tastings of the stir fry taste about right. Turn off the heat.

NOW...you grab your Salad Mix and put some on a plate, making sure to wash them as well. Then once those are on the plate, a light dusting of Parmesan Cheese and the plate is ready for stir fry. So pile on however much stir fry you can handle in one sitting on top...or just enough so it is a good mix.

On the side you probably noticed the dipping sauce/salad dressing...well, that is a mix of Sake, Italian Salad Dressing, Teriyaki Sauce, and Soy Sauce. It is quite tasty and simply stirred together. Enjoy.

Summertime Lunch

So today I decided that my girlfriend needed a tasty lunchtime snack because she was quite famished. So I decided to use the Capresi Skewers with a small salad and guacamole.

I won't have an overall recipe with this post since the Capresi Skewers are already mentioned in this blog. The only recipe I will say was new, was the basil sauce used in the Skewers recipe, and by new I mean changed. I changed the recipe to equal parts olive oil and italian caesar dressing plus the basil and herbs mixed in. I sprinkled that on the skewers and salad, and added the guacamole to the side. Enjoy.