Sesame Pasta Chicken Salad

This one's from my friend Ashley. I'm not sure where she got it... probably All Recipes. 

I tried a similar one of these the other day and I like Ashley's so much better even though it calls for some ingredients that I only use for this salad, they keep well in the fridge or cupboard. 

Sesame Pasta Chicken Salad

1/3 c sesame seeds

16 oz bow tie pasta

3/4 c veg. oil

1/2 c light soy sauce

1/2 c rice vinegar

1 and 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/4 c sugar

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp black pepper

chicken (torn up into small pieces)

1/2 c cilantro

1/2 c green onion

carrots and celery cut into small cubes

Add first 9 ingredients together to mix and put in some sort of jar, or salad dressing server. I reused a jelly container that you squeeze out. It works great! And Mix or shake. 

Then pour over the rest of the ingredients. 

This recipe can be made the day before an event with the sauce on it and it only gets better and more flavorful the longer it sits. This recipe is simply delicious goodness.

Rating: 8
Carbs: Just try to measure out the noodles. Everything else is pretty much free (maybe add 5 grams for the sugar dressing).

Mac and Cheese - The Ultimate Comfort Food

This recipe is not an experiment... unless you count my attempts at memorizing more of my favorite recipes. This one is so easy I've done it. No need for the recipe folder anymore with this delicious stand-by. I bring this dish to friends who have recently had babies, mom's who are worn out from checking their daughter's blood sugar all night and are feeling sick, and to my mom's house when she is watching all the kids and has better things to do than cook...

I got this recipe from my friend Teri a long time ago. People rave about it. It's made at least every two weeks around here.

Homemade Mac and Cheese:

3 cups of dry Macaroni noodles
6 TBSP butter
6 TBSP of flour (white or whole wheat)
4 cups of milk
4 cups of shredded cheese... I use a mixture of Mozzarella and Cheddar.
Salt and Pepper

Boil the noodles (I use whole wheat) until soft and drain.



Meanwhile in another pot (or it works really well in a cast iron dutch oven) melt butter.

Stir in flour.

Then add  milk and heat until the mixture thickens up. You will need to stir frequently.

When thickened, remove from the heat and stir in cheese.



Add salt and pepper to taste and stir the sauce into the noodles.

Bake at 350 for 35 min. If you use the dutch oven, just put the whole thing from the range into the oven. It turns out so golden and wonderful.

You can bake it like this with just cheese and noodles, but I will frequently put cut up ham or bacon in there too. It's SO GOOD! Some day I'll add the final picture. It looks so pretty too.

The little people and the big guy always snarf it and I haven't had them rate this, but they would all probably say 9-10.

Rating: 9.5
Carbs: 25 grams per 1 cup cooked

I'm Never Buying Hamburger Buns Again

I found this recipe on a new site I've been following since I met her at a mutual friend's party. She has a fun and diverse blog called dreadlock girl.

I decided to try this recipe out for the first time on my whole Bible study. I made a triple batch and fully expected I might ruin it and have to go buy buns for the end of the year party... But I didn't!!

Everyone loved them! They consistently rated it a 9 or 10 out of 10. Sooo I will be making these again for sure! I didn't use them for hamburgers though. We sliced them in half and put chicken salad inside. SO YUMMY!

Anyway, here was my attempt:

I bit off a little more than I could chew and was trying to cook homemade Mac-n-Cheese while uploading pictures to my computer at the same time. Next time I'll work in phases... because I took longer than the 5 min it takes for the yeast to become fluffy... and it overflowed! But not before I got a picture of it :)

 We have a lot of people in our group and many of them are little :) so I divided one of the 3 batches into 16. I don't have a "dough scraper" so I used a butter knife. I think it worked ok... I was trying to be gentle when forming it into balls because I think they say the more a dough is handled, the tougher it becomes. I don't know...

Anyway, I made some with the egg topping that the recipe calls for and some with a melted butter topping.  I think I'll go with the butter. I also didn't use sesame seeds. I also don't have parchment paper, so I used wax paper and probably won't do that again. It stinks in there! My Silpat pan liners were awesome (as usual).

Both turned out really well... except the egg one had bits of fried egg around the bottom of each roll from where it dripped down. Maybe I need to get one of those paintbrusher things for food too...

Here is the recipe from her site (I inserted my own pics from some of the steps):

Light Brioche Buns (for Hamburgers and Much More)


Time: 1 hour, plus 2 to 4 hours’ rising

3 tablespoons warm milk
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened.

1. In a glass measuring cup, combine 1 cup warm water, the milk, yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat 1 egg.

2. In a large bowl, whisk flours with salt. Add butter and rub into flour between your fingers, making crumbs. Using a dough scraper, stir in yeast mixture and beaten egg until a dough forms. Scrape dough onto clean, unfloured counter and knead, scooping dough up, slapping it on counter and turning it, until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes.

Almost done...

Done :)

 3. Shape dough into a ball and return it to bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using dough scraper, divide dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange 2 to 3 inches apart on baking sheet. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let buns rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours.

 5. Set a large shallow pan of water on oven floor. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush some on top of buns. Bake, turning sheet halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Yield: 8 buns.

Notes: For a very quick one-hour rise put the rising dough in your oven (make sure it is off) and pour the boiling water from the last step of the recipe into a shallow pan on a lower rack (if you have two racks in your oven). Then close the oven quickly and let the dough rise in this sort of greenhouse and you will not need to wait very long for it to double. Then your water is already in there for the last step. I do this for all my bread now since one of my favoirite friends told me this oven greenhouse trick.


Rating: 9.5
Carbs: 25 grams per 1/16th, 51g per 1/8th

Thanks Bethany! This one's a winner! Maybe I'll make them again today :)

Update: 7-9-11 I keep making these and they are soooo good. A couple of times they have been too sticky to knead, so I just add a little flour and that does the trick. Also I have experimented with different amounts of whole wheat bread flour. It didn't rise as well... but I may not have given it enough time. Anyway, I found that with 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of white, it was pretty healthy and still tasted really soft and good.

Here are a few more things we have done with them:

They taste good just by themselves or with butter and jam on them.

They are awesome with Barbequed Chicken from the slow cooker!

And tonight we finally tried a good old hamburger. SO GOOD! It was nice and hot outside today so I just set them in the sun to rise and it took about half the time. Yum.

Parmesan Chicken Tenders

I tried a new chicken dish that we will definitely be making again. This chicken was so good it got this reaction from Cambria:

Cambria! The kid who rates all of our new experiments a 2 or lower... She ate the whole thing and asked for seconds... and she rated it a 24 :)

I found this recipe in the Barefoot Contessa Family Style Book I got from the library:

Parmesan Chicken Sticks:

1.5 lbs skinless boneless chicken breasts (3-4)-(I used a bunch of chicken tenders instead)
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 extra large eggs
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Unsalted butter
Bamboo skewers (6-10 inches long) or ice cream sticks (I skipped this part)

Slice chicken breasts on a cutting board diagonally into four or five strips.

Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate. Beat the eggs with 1 tbsp of water on a second plate. Combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese on a third plate. Dredge the chicken breasts on both sides in the flour misture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and roll in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly to coat.

Heat 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook the chicken strips on medium-low heat for about 3 minutes per side, until cooked just through. (I found that it took a little hotter or longer than this to achieve the crispy golden effect). Don't crowd the pan. Add more butter and oil and cook the rest of the chicken breasts. Serve each strip on a skewer or stick.

Yum! It was so good. This pic doesn't look so hot because I forgot to take a picture of it until they were half eaten and roughed up a bit...

Cliff rated it his first 10. The other kids and I rated it an average of 8.5.

Carbohydrates: 5-10g per piece

Calories: (I don't know yet...)

A Frittata Minus the Eggs?

I needed to use up the rest of the Gruyere cheese and I had all the other ingredients as well. It was looking like we'd have a yummy Frittata for dinner. Only I didn't have all the ingredients. I didn't have any eggs.

I had just researched egg substitutes for the waffles that morning (I used apple sauce). It worked well. But while I was looking up possible substitutions I noticed tofu was on the list of replacements. We don't eat tofu. We aren't vegetarians or vegans... but I did pick up 2 boxes at the store last time I was there to add it to my weird ingredient list.

I served it to the kids. They rated it a 5 or so. I rated it a 7. I made it on a day that Cliff worked late, so when he came home and started to snarf it, I didn't tell him what was in it until his plate was empty. When I told him it was tofu, he said, "Yuck! It's just wrong to eat tofu!" To which I said, "But you liked it." He had to agree and went back for seconds :)

 It's fun learning substitutions. I also learned that you can substitute ground flax seed for eggs in certain dishes. I think I'll start a substitution section too. I tend to need that info a lot.

Tuna Salad

I got this one off of a blog (Mckmama) She just throws stuff together, so I probably made it slightly differently than her. We have already made this twice now Cliff loves it so much! It's relatively healthy too.

Mix together: 

Tuna and mayo

then add (all finely diced): 

tomatoes

cucumbers

onion

green pepper

then mix it in with the tuna and mayo and add:

corn

chopped cilantro

sea salt

You can serve it over lettuce, have it plain, put it in a tortilla as a wrap, or eat it on french bread. 

 Rating: 9 (It's really good!)

Calories: It depends on how much mayo you like...

Carbohydrates: < 5 grams depending on how much corn you like. This is virtually a "free food!!!" When you have a Type 1 Diabetic in your family, yummy recipes like this are a must.

We'll definitely be having this regularly.... especially on hot summer days :)

Curry Chicken Salad

I had a delicious curry chicken salad sandwich from a little restaurant at the base of the Golden Gate bridge last year. I have been wanting to attempt to make one of my own ever since...

I tried this recipe:

2 pounds chicken
olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
1.5 mayo
1/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup chutney
3 TBSP curry powder
1 cup diced celery
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1/4 cup raisins
1 cup whole roasted cashews

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put chicken on a pan and rub skin with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 35-40 min, until chicken is just cooked. Cut chicken into small/medium pieces.

For the dressing, combine mayo, wine, chutney, curry, and 1.5 tsp of salt into a bowl of a food processor (I used a blender, because I don't have a food processor). Blend till smooth.

Combine all ingredients. Add celery, scallions, and raisins. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow flavors to blend. Then add cachews.

I served it on sliced of the No Knead Bread.

I really enjoyed it, but it did have too much curry. Next time I'll only put 1.5 TBSP of it. I'm a big fan of chicken salad and I LOVE cashews, so I rated it higher than the rest of the family.

My rating: 6
My family's rating: Average 3
Calories: 3,487 in the whole thing
Carbohydrates: 222 in the whole thing.