Chicken Taco Salad

I decided to switch things up with my taco salad the other night. I usually just use ground turkey (which is still amazingly yummy) but decided that I wanted to use up some chicken breasts I had sitting in the fridge. This has to be one of the quickest, meals I have ever put together in my life. How simple. I personally like to throw some homemade Pico De Gallo (gave the recipe yesterday) on top to give it that extra homemade feel. This meal will come together in 10 minutes or less, so its the perfect weeknight, I don't feel like cooking but want something delish meal!
Also, down below in my side notes I have a homemade recipe for Taco Seasoning if you don't have any or you can't use the store bought ones for one reason or another!

Pico De Gallo

Oh yes. Look at me getting all creative in my picture setup! Ha...not really.
I absolutely LOVE fresh homemade salsa! Oh boy. In fact I love it so much that my "taster" chip..usually turns into half of it disappearing before it makes it to the fridge. Oops. The thing I love about it, you can adjust the heat of it all depending on your own personal preferences!
Serve this deliciousness on top of Taco Salad (recipe to follow tomorrow), in burritos, nachos, alone..you name it...it will be good on it!

Emerald Chicken

Oh man! I have been waiting to try out this recipe. If you haven't been to the hole in the wall restaurant Chino Bandido, you need to. It is the weirdest combination of Mexican and Chinese fusion food I have ever had and it is FANTASTIC! We stopped there the other night and ordered a large assortment of different meats in many combinations but my favorite was their Emerald Chicken.
Now the chicken alone was nothing great, in fact it really wasn't even that good BUT they had this relishy sauce that they put on top of it that completely changes the flavor and knocks it out of the ball park! I recently made this relish(?I guess thats what I will call it?) to go on top of some of my roasted chicken breasts and it was BOMB! The simplicity of it is unbelievable and is full of flavor. But you will have to check out the ingredients to see just how simple this thing is! But I'm telling you...this one...is one you NEED to try!

Roasted Chicken Breasts

Last night I had a complete recipe fail on a recipe that looked and sounded absolutely fabulous! I had such high hopes for it and honestly couldn't wait to post it because the pictures looked sooooo beautiful and delicious. I'm glad I can always rely on this recipe to turn out good :)
I have really been enjoying going back to basics with my cooking. When I first started this blog I posted a lot of the recipes I used to have when I was younger that had a lot of "pantry" items in them and really didn't have anything fresh. I used to think that you couldn't eat a chicken breast unless it was coated and deep fried, or covered in soupy goodness, or don't forget the trusty marinade. Now don't get me wrong, I love recipes that use all of those different ways of cooking, in fact I have many recipes on this very blog that use those same techniques, but I will tell you what. When I take a piece of chicken, and leave it alone with the bare minimum of seasonings, it always turns out to be the best chicken ever. Its all in how you cook it. This recipe is more of a method of cooking because I have started using this method on pretty much everything; fish, vegetables, etc.

Give it a try. It won't let you down. You will be amazed at how incredibly juicy and flavorful it is just by keeping it simple! 

Lime, Coconut, Curry Chicken

Yes. You take the Lime and the Coconut and stir it all up.  I know you were thinking it, and frankly I was singing it as I typed it.
This is a fantastic marinade for chicken. At first I was a little skeptical because it marinades in coconut milk but I'll tell you what...Its like chicken curry without all the soupy mess! Grill it, fry it, bake it, who cares. Just cook it and get that jazzy bit of song in your belly! I bet you money that while you are zesting your lime and have that can of coconut milk sitting next to it, you will be humming that tune just like me. (Okay I won't actually bet you money because frankly I always lose bets and don't really feel like dishing out a bunch of money to people I don't even know)
Top it off with some fresh squeezed lime juice and cilantro and you've got yourself a tangy delicious bit of chicken!

Roasted Spaghetti Squash

Yes another side dish my friends. OR a great replacement for spaghetti noodles or really any other kind of pasta.
I absolutely love spaghetti squash. Growing up I never liked squash at all, and even now I'm not a huge super fan....BUT spaghetti squash has always been a squash that I do enjoy. Its kind of funny how many people have no idea how to cook a good vegetable side dish. Growing up I learned that you boil everything, not that that is bad, but it sucks all the flavor out of your food. Here is a secret to amazing vegetable sides...
ROASTING! Roasting vegetables adds so much amazing flavor.
Now, back to the squash. I really think you should give it a try even if you say you don't like squash. Spaghetti squash has such a different flavor then other squashes because it isn't mushy like others when you cook it. It pulls apart into strands, which not only is fun to do, but makes it have more texture.

Grilled Corn on the Cob

Oh corn! Sweet delicious corn. I love living in Arizona. Why you may ask....because I can get corn all summer and fall  for a fairly decent price. Where I grew up, I swear you could only buy corn on the cob in September and then it would only be available for like a month.
As I was looking through the corn at the grocery store I was contemplating which method of corn on the cob I would be using. Boiled, baked, steamed, or grilled! DING DING...grilled!
I LOVE grilled corn on the cob! I have come to realize that it isn't as scary as I always thought it was. Grilling the corn adds so much flavor to it. Getting those nice char marks...mmm. I have found that there are three typical methods of grilling corn on the cob, in foil, in the husk, and directly on the grill itself. So here is a mini tutorial on how to grill corn on the cob all three ways! Enjoy!

Triple Citrus Chicken Marinade

Happy Monday All! I love Mondays. People always think that I am crazy when I say that or that I am joking. But I really do love Mondays. Its a brand new start to a week. There are no mistakes in it yet. For example...
Didn't eat to healthy over the weekend? That's okay start again on Monday.
Didn't exercise as good as you wanted to? That's okay, start again on Monday.
Your house is a disaster from playing all weekend? That's okay you have a whole week to get it clean before its a disaster again!
My list of "oopsies" and "oh wells" could go on for miles but you get the picture.
So here is a recipe that fits into a few of those "I will start again on Monday" sayings. Its healthy, its simple, its easy, its fresh, and clean up is a breeze. The best part of grilling food to me is that usually there is no clean up, the food always taste fabulous, and it keeps the heat out of the house (now that I am living in Arizona that is always a plus when cooking now)
This chicken is great alone, or I would think it would be fantastic chopped up and put on a salad with some fresh orange segments and a cilantro lime dressing..mmmm. I personally served mine up with a side of grilled corn on the cob and some grilled zucchini.

Mango Coconut Chia Pudding + Other Variations

Yes you read the title correct. Chia. Just like those wonderful commercials we all remember seeing while we were growing up "Cha Cha Cha Chia". I have noticed that using chia seeds is another ingredient that people are starting to branch out and try so I figured I might as well jump on the train and see why. Chia is an excellent source of omega fatty acids and full of minerals, vitamins and fiber. Aside from making pudding, you can add them to smoothies, muffins, or throw them in some cereal.
I wanted to try out this recipe that I found on my always favorite site, SkinnyTaste, because I knew that this would be a recipe that my husbands patients could eat for breakfast. Its simple and easy to put together, throw it in the fridge overnight, and BAM breakfast is ready to go whenever you need it. The chia seeds give the pudding the texture of a tapioca pudding, but the chia seeds in themselves don't really have much of a flavor. This recipe is so versatile that you could throw in any combination of fruits and eat a different variety every day of the week! 

Oldies but Goodies

You know, sometimes I feel that really good recipes get left in the dust because you only see the newer stuff on here. Today I got thinking about some of my all time favorite recipes. The reason I started this blog initially was so that I could put all my favorite recipes online and eventually turn it into a cookbook for myself to have at home so that I could get rid of all my cluttering recipe cards and cookbooks. That hasn't happened yet but someday it may. I've had requests from some people to bring out some of my favorites that you may not see often due to to many recipes being put in front of them. So I will pick my favorite oldies from most categories and have the links to click on. Thank you so much for all my friends and family who have been with me and encouraged me to keep up this blog. If you ever have any requests or suggestions I would love to hear them!

Chinese Lemon Chicken, Sauce

Last night I tried out this recipe that I found on Pinterest. I have a recipe on here that tastes VERY similar to this one but I personally like my coating on the chicken a lot better. So since I didn't like the coating in this recipe I decided to just add the sauce, because it was pretty good.  I decided to include it since some of you may or may not want to try multiple sauces. I don't know which one I liked better. So my advice, if your going to try it, would be to make my original Lemon Chicken, Hunan Style, and then check out the ingredients for the sauces in each recipe and see which one sounds better to you. They both have some interesting ingredients, and some that may even turn you off, but I promise they are both great.

Orange Jello Salad

Today is one of those days where I could whip up a batch of this salad and just snarf the whole thing down. Its cold and refreshing on a hot summer day. Yes it may not be the healthiest thing for you but I will tell you what, its healthy enough for me. Its got mandarin oranges in it, what else do you need. ;)
This is a recipe that my mother in law makes for holiday's and special dinners. So for my husband it brings back special memories. I am trying to continue the tradition of making this for special holidays or in this case I want to make it just because it is hot outside. I think the reason I like this salad recipe more then others that I have seen online is the fact that it doesn't have cottage cheese in it...which is fantastic because cottage cheese makes me want to barf, and that isn't a good thing.
It's simple, quick, and doesn't require a lot of ingredients.

Brazilian Limeade

Last night I was reminded how much I love this drink. We went to a restaurant called Fogo De Chao which is a Brazilian restaurant that is pretty sweet. Its very very very similar to Tucanos but they have different meat selections. I am usually not a drink orderer so I of course ordered my usual water, when one of our friends said, oh no you must have the Brazilian Lemonade. So long story short, I pounded down a few of these bad boys and didn't regret it at all. I had made this a while ago for some cookout we had with a bunch of family and it tasted very similar to the kind I had last night. I guess technically if you were to go to Brazil it would be called a "lemonade" but that doesn't make sense to me since there isn't one lemon in it so I don't see any harm in calling it limeade...don't sue me please :)

Roasted Salmon

As of the past few months I have been trying to make foods more basic...you know? Take it back to how they used to prepare food. Simple. Clean. Delish! I used to always think you had to marinade everything or cover everything up with some sauce, but lately I've been sticking to plain old olive oil, salt, and pepper and roasting and everything comes out amazing. Not only is keeping things simple less expensive, but its also healthier. Last night I made the most amazing mouth watering salmon and it was fantastic. I've made it a few times this way and it has never failed me yet.
I don't usually go out and buy fresh fish. Its to expensive for me right now, so the closest thing I have found that has a really good flavor is the frozen Atlantic Salmon from Costco. The pieces are nice and thick and have that REAL fish flavor, instead of the other bags of fish you buy at most grocery stores that are thin and...well only slightly resemble fish. Anyway, the Costco kind is what I happened to be using this time.

Chicken and Quinoa Soup

The other day I was craving some good old fashioned chicken noodle soup. I have no idea why since it was over 100 degrees outside but for some reason I couldn't get it out of my head. So I headed to the fridge and pantry to see what I could use and this was this is what I ended up with. It was great. Now I personally didn't want to make homemade noodles and I also didn't want to add egg noodles because I wanted it to be able to work for those who are doing the diet that Sam uses for his work. This is a good base recipe for the soup. By all means feel free to toss whatever veggies or whatever tickles your fancy. I just personally wanted mine nice and basic. Enjoy!
(BTW aren't my photography skills amazing 😂😂😂)