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

Creamy Lemon Chicken

Mmmm. We have a winner! Tonight we made Lemon Cream Pasta with Chicken from Allrecipes. This doesn't mean I can cross out the lemon chicken on the bone from my list, but I don't usually cook with lemon much, so this is still a step in the right direction.

Kaiah helped me this time. She squeezed out the lemons for baking the chicken and she zested the lemon peel as well. I had no idea (because I've never done this...) how long it takes to get just 1 teaspoon of zest. That was a lot of work. But our fingers smelled soooo good!

We squeezed the lemon halves and squeezed cut up lemons for 2 different parts of the recipe. It probably would have been better to have just used the lemon juicer for both parts...

I realized as I was cutting the last bit of lemon that the directions called for cutting them in fourths. I cut mine in eighths, making it much more difficult to squeeze over the chicken...

While Kaiah was stirring the noodles,

and adding the cream, 

I looked up the carbs and calories for each item. For some reason I was having a hard time remembering the equation to get grams of carbs per serving. I figured it out. Did the equation for both the calories (I'm sort of counting mine) and the carbs (for Kaiah's Diabetes).

Now I'll have those calculations every time I make this recipe. Which I think I will! It would be a perfect meal to take to someone who just had a baby, surgery, etc. It was very filling and yummy!

I did make a few changes. We have a family of six so 4 servings would barely be enough. I added an extra chicken breast and put a few more noodles in. Lochlan had seconds, Cambria ate all of hers (which for her at dinner is actually pretty awesome), and the kids rated theirs at a 9 (K) and a 7 (M). I rated mine at an 8. We'll have to see how Cliff likes it when he gets home from work.

Next time I make this I will make a few changes. It definitely needs to be doubled and it could really use some steamed broccoli or some asparagus or something veggie-like to make it more healthy.

Here's the recipe: 

Lemon Cream Pasta with Chicken

Rated: Submitted By: Lisa Ramos Photo By: maimai Prep Time: 1 Hour Cook Time: 10 Minutes Ready In: 1 Hour 10 Minutes Servings: 4

"This deliciously different dish incorporates a classic combination of flavors: lemon, chicken, and garlic. "

Ingredients:

3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 1 lemon, quartered 2 teaspoons garlic powder, divided 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided

2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 1 (8 ounce) package rotelle pasta 1 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place chicken in a lightly greased baking dish. Squeeze lemon over both sides of the chicken breasts and season both sides using 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder and 3/4 teaspoon pepper. Bake for 40 minutes, or until juices run clear and chicken is no longer pink inside.
2.	Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, season the chicken broth with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil and add lemon juice and pasta. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until all liquid is absorbed, about 25 minutes.
3.	Cut cooked chicken into bite-sized pieces and stir into cooked pasta, along with the cream and lemon zest. Cook, stirring, over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Stir thoroughly before serving.

Calories in the whole dish: 2,937 (734 per serving oh dear! That's a lot when written that way!)
Carbohydrates in the whole dish: 195 (48g per serving)

Average rating: 8/10 (in our family)

My First Mystery Ingredient: Orzo

Cliff came home from work exhausted and Kaiah (who has Type 1 Diabetes) has been having an epic blood sugar drop tonight. I hadn't planned on making a whole new dish tonight, but Cliff seemed like that would help him for his lunches at work tomorrow. So while he was chasing her dropping sugars with cereal, juice, candy, and yogurt.... I started looking through our 3 cookbooks. I found a recipe that had things we already had in our cupboard and was healthy! I decided it was a good place to start because it had an ingredient that I know nothing about and for some odd reason it was in my cupboard... probably expired... don't tell Cliff! Anyhoo. I had a box of Orzo, whole wheat non-the-less! So I read the directions, and started to assemble the dish.

 

Ok. So there must be a technique where I don't waste this much chicken. I'm embarrassed to show the picture. I think I just need new knives... It takes me so long to hack them into pieces, that one half of the chicken bits are mostly cooked by the time I put the other ones in the pan.

 

Also, I dripped chicken juice all over the floor. So I had to use an antibacterial wipe to clean the floor and my feet before going on.

 

This is Orzo (some kind of rice-looking pasta).

 

Look! Herbs!

After simmering everything together it looked pretty good. 

I also plan on calculating the carbohydrates and calories of each meal. We have to have the carbs for Kaiah's Type 1 Diabetes and both Cliff and I occasionally go on calorie counting kicks. Of course if the meal is gross I won't bother. :)