Chopped Salad with Pears, Pecans, & Cranberries

For my entire life I've disliked lettuce. Iceberg, romaine, that purple stuff... it all just tastes like leaves. Yuck. It's actually pretty embarrassing when I'm at weddings and fancy dinners and they serve salad and I have to make the waiter take away my still-full salad plate. I push it all into a dense clump on one side of the plate to make it look like I ate half of it. Or I make Jeff eat half of mine. 

Anyway, fast forward to about a year ago - I started eating spinach salads (spruced up with strawberries and walnuts and yummy raspberry vinaigrette dressing), and I actually kind of liked them. So I decided that I like spinach, but not lettuce. It was a grand development because I could at least order a spinach salad at a restaurant and eat some of it (this was a huge blessing for all those law firm interview dinners I went to last summer!). 

Fast forward a little more to a few weeks ago, and all of the sudden - I realized that apparently I now like romaine lettuce too. Iceberg and arugula and that purple stuff - all of those I still hate. But somehow I figured out how to eat romaine lettuce and enjoy it. I ate like three Caesar salads in one week when I first discovered it.

Anyway, with my new found love for romaine lettuce tucked in my back pocket, I found this recipe on Pinterest and had to give it a shot. It's totally delicious!

Yum!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:

1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped (about 6-8 cups chopped lettuce)

2 Bosc pears, chopped

1 cup dried cranberries

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

8 slices turkey bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled

6 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Poppyseed dressing

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Directions:

1. Combine the lettuce, pears, cranberries, pecans, bacon, and feta cheese. 

2. Drizzle with the poppyseed dressing and balsamic vinaigrette (I used about 60% poppyseed and 40% balsamic). {If I were you, I'd drizzle the dressing after putting the salad onto plates so you can have leftovers without wilty lettuce!}

3. Eat!

(chopped romaine)

(with the feta, pecans, pears, bacon, and cranberries)

(yum!)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!

Dijon Chicken Linguine with Mushrooms and Almonds

Well, Spring Sort-of-Break is over and I'm back at school today. It went by altogether too quickly. Let's kick off the week with a new recipe!

I happened to have leftover chicken, linguine, mushrooms, white wine, and dijon mustard sitting in the fridge/pantry, so I was ecstatic when I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest. How often do you come across a great recipe and just happen to already have all the ingredients that you need? Maybe that happens to y'all all the time... but me - never ever. This was an exciting day!

Anyway, the result was a delicious dinner (and some great leftovers too!). 

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:

1/2 package linguine, cooked (you can cook it while you're cooking the chicken)

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders

1 1/2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms

3 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves minced garlic

salt and pepper to season

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds (I did mine in a frying pan, and it was so much better than my usual method, the toaster oven!)

4 oz white wine

2 cups heavy whipping cream

3 tbsp Dijon mustard

Chopped chives (optional, for garnish)

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add chicken breasts and garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken on each side until completely cooked. Remove chicken breasts from the pan and set them aside (somewhere they'll stay warm, like a lowly heated oven). 

2. Pour the white wine into the skillet and simmer until its volume is reduced by half. Then, add the whipping cream and Dijon mustard. Simmer until the sauce thickens.

3. Return the chicken to the sauce, add the mushrooms, and simmer for another 3 minutes. 

4. Serve the chicken and sauce over cooked linguine, and sprinkle with the toasted almonds and chives before serving. 

(cooking chicken - I used tenders here rather than breasts)

(toasting almonds)

(sliced mushrooms)

(cooking chicken)

(cooking pasta)

(cooked chicken)

(simmering white wine)

(chicken staying warm in the oven)

(sauce cooking)

(after adding the mushrooms)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Jambalaya (with Chicken, Sausage, and Shrimp)

• After our trip to New Orleans, I was inspired to cook some Cajun food of my own. This jambalaya was a great success!

Recipe adapted from here.

• 
  
• Ingredients: 
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 pound andouille sausage, sliced
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice, drained
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 large green bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp dried parsley
• 2 tsp Cajun seasoning (I used Tony Chachere's)
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 pound frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined and thawed

Directions:

1. In a slow cooker, mix the chicken, sausage, tomatoes, onion, green pepper, celery, and chicken brother. Season with oregano, parsley, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, and thyme.

2. Cook on look for 7-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours. Add in the shrimp during the last hour of cooking time. 

3. Serve over white rice.

(chicken + sausage)

(mixing everything in the slow cooker)

(cooking...)

(all done!)

(delicious jambalaya!)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!

Honey Soy Glazed Salmon

I told you I had some Lent seafood recipes coming your way! This one is really lovely... I think this is my favorite way to cook salmon! Plus... just 250 calories per serving!

I have to tell y'all a story though. The first time I cooked this was also the first time I ever purchased fresh salmon (rather than the frozen fillets, which are much cheaper and thus my usual purchase). I bought a beautiful 1.5 lb fillet, and I was all excited until I got home and pulled it out of the packaging and realized it still had the skin and scales on one side. I was all "Jeff! This looks like a real fish! Oh my gosh... it's all scaly! Eww it feels like a fish!"

The next twenty minutes consisted of me, using my fillet knife for the first time (it's a miracle that I even knew which one in the knife block was the fillet knife), shouting things like "ahhh there are scales going everywhere!" I've figured it out though since then (here's a website with instructions for anyone else like me), and I'm proud to say I've conquered my fear of salmon scales.

The moral of the story: this is a delicious recipe, and it's well worth a little scale snafu. :o)

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
4 salmon fillets (4-6 oz each, you can just buy one large fillet and cut it up)
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
4 tsp Splenda or Stevia
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat your broiler to high. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, soy sauce, Splenda/Stevia, and garlic.
3. Place the salmon on the baking sheet, and brush both sides of the salmon with the glaze. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Broil for 4-5 minutes on one side, then flip the fillets and broil another 4-5 minutes on the other side (or until cooked through).

(this is what you start with... see how it doesn't look like there are scales on the other side?)

(honey + soy + Splenda + garlic powder)

(after the first 4-5 minutes)

(All ready to eat! Mine always get a little broken when I flip them...)

(See all that black stuff on the pan? That's why you want to line the baking sheet with foil!)

(yummy!)

(Jeff really likes peas.)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!

Blueberry French Toast with Blueberry Sauce

This is a great recipe. It's perfect for Saturday morning breakfast in bed, or for an easy delicious breakfast when you have visitors at the house. Plus, after you make it, you can eat the leftovers for dinner when your husband's out of town for work and you don't feel like cooking for one (not that I did that or anything...). ;o) You can even make it ahead of time and refrigerate it overnight, then just stick it in the oven in the morning!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
French Toast - 
12 slices Texas toast (it's just thickly sliced bread, Sunbeam and Mrs. Bairds make it), cut into cubes
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, cubed
1 cup blueberries
12 large eggs
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 cups milk

Syrup - 
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup blueberries
1 tbsp butter

Directions:
1. Spread 1/2 the bread cubes into a lightly greased 9x13 pan.
2. Sprinkle cream cheese cubes and blueberries over the bread cubes. Top with the remaining 1/2 of the bread cubes.
3. Mix together eggs, milk, and syrup. Pour over the bread cubes and cover the pan with foil (you can stop and refrigerate it at this point if you want to make it the night before and bake in the morning).
4. Bake at 350 degrees, covered with foil for 30 minutes, then without the foil for another 30 minutes (or until fluffy and golden).
5. While french toast bake is cooking, make the sauce! Cook the water, sugar, and cornstarch in a saucepan over medium heat until thickened. Stir in blueberries and simmer for 10 minutes. Add butter and stir until melted.
6. Serve the sauce over the french toast! Yumm!

(bread layer #1)

(cream cheese and blueberries)

(bread layer #2)

(eggs + milk + syrup)

(all mixed up!)

(ready for the oven!)

(baked to perfection!)

(Mmmm!)

(sugar + water + cornstarch, thickening)

(you want it to be thick like this before you add in the blueberries)

(sauce!)

(finished blueberry sauce)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!

Cranberry White Chocolate Oat Cookies

Whenever I have leftover dried cranberries (like after making this apple strudel), I make these yummy cookies! They're quite tasty and fellow-law-student-approved. 

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:

1 cup sweetened dried cranberries

1 cup orange juice

2/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a bowl, soak the cranberries in the orange juice for 30 minutes. 

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg. Add in the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, making sure to evenly distribute the baking powder and baking soda. 

3. Drain the cranberries and stir into the dough along with the white chocolate. Do not overmix!

4. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets.

3. Bake at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 3 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

(soaking the cranberries in orange juice)

(dough minus cranberries and white chocolate)

(cookie dough!)

(ready for the oven!)

(oven time!)

(fresh out of the oven!)

(mmm!)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!