Pimento Cheese Crisps

I found this recipe over the summer and made them for a party.  Then in December, my church used the same recipe for our big Christmas party, and I realized how great these would be for the holidays!  They are similar to the cheese straw recipe I posted 3 years ago, but spicier and easier to make (since you don't have to squeeze the dough through a cookie press).  I've made them several times now, and they always turn out great!

Picture from:  The Runaway Spoon

Pimento Cheese Crisps
(from The Runaway Spoon)
Ingredients:
1 (4-ounce) jar diced pimentos
8 ounces sharp cheddar
½ cup (1 stick) cold butter
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
Dash of cayenne pepper
A generous pinch of salt
A few grinds black pepper
½ cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Rinse and drain the pimentos and place them on paper towels. Pat them dry and then leave them for 10 – 15 minutes to air dry.

Grate the cheese and the cold butter together in a food processor. Switch from the grating blade to the metal blade, then add the flour, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne salt and pepper. Process until the dough just begins to come together and looks moist and grainy. Add the pecans and process until the dough begins to pull away from the sides and form a ball. Add the pimentos and pulse a few times until the dough is a ball.

Dump the dough onto a piece of waxed paper, scrapping out all the pimento pieces from the bowl. Knead the dough a few times just to incorporate and distribute the pimento pieces. Cut two more lengths of waxed paper, divide the dough into two portions and place each portion on one waxed paper length. Form each onto a log and roll tightly, pressing in to form a nice solid log. Twist the ends like a candy wrapper. Refrigerate the logs for at least an hour before baking, but you can refrigerate them for two days or freeze them for 3 months.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the rolls from the fridge and slice into medium-thick wafers, about 1/4 inch each. Place on the baking sheet with a little room to spread and bake until golden around the edges and firm on the top, about 10 – 12 minutes. Cool on the pans for a few minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool.
Makes about 3 dozen

Chicken and Avocado Salad with Lime and Cilantro

Kent and I made this the other night.  The original recipe says that it makes 4 servings, but it was really closer to just 3 lunch servings or 2 dinner servings.  But, it was super good!!  It definitely has a Mexican feel (Kent added a little tequila, too).  This recipe comes from a link to no-heat lunches, so I think I'll definitely be making this again to take to school!

Picture from: Kalyn's Kitchen

Chicken and Avocado Salad with Lime and Cilantro
(Recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen)

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded into large pieces
2 medium avocados, diced
1 T + 1 T fresh squeezed lime juice
salt, to taste (I didn't use too much salt because you can always add more at the table.)
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (or chop it more coarsely if you prefer)
2 T mayo or light mayo

Instructions:
Shred the chicken apart until you have 2 cups of chicken shredded into fairly large chunks. Dice the avocados into medium-sized pieces, mix with 1 T of the lime juice, and season avocado with salt to taste. Thinly slice the green onion and finely chop the cilantro. Mix mayo and 1 T lime juice to make the dressing.

Put the chicken into a bowl large enough to hold all the salad ingredients. Add the sliced green onions and dressing and toss until all the chicken is coated with dressing. Add the avocado and any lime juice in the bottom of the bowl and gently combine with the chicken. Then add the chopped cilantro and gently mix into the salad, just until it is barely combined.

Serve right away or chill for a while before serving. This could be served inside pita bread or sandwich bread, but we just ate it as a salad. (I would imagine this would be fine in the fridge overnight but I didn't have any left over when I made it!)

Lazy Sushi Bowl

This is another great Asian dish!  It has a lot of ingredients and takes some time, but it's really good.  My friend, Lacey, and I made it for dinner one night, and then I took the rest for lunch the next day.  This is a great way to have a sushi-feel at home without having to actually roll the sushi.  You could definitely add seared tuna if you want fish.  Most of these ingredients can be found on the international aisle at the grocery store.

 

Picture from: Veggie Wedgie

Lazy Sushi Bowl

(From Veggie Wedgie)

serves 3

Ingredients:
-1 cup sweet brown rice
-1 cup shelled edamame beans
-1 cucumber
-1 small avocado
-2 spring onions
-1 tsp fresh ginger juice
-2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
-1 tbsp soy sauce
-1 tsp wasabi paste
-1 tbsp sesame oil
-2 tbsp black sesame seeds
-2 nori sheets

Directions:

Cook brown rice with water as instructed in the package. Blanch edamame. Chop avocado and cucumber very small. Mix ginger juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, oil and wasabi. Pour over cucumber and avocado and let it marinate while the rice is cooking. When the rice is done, mix everything together and toss well. Before serving sprinkle with black sesame seeds.  For the nori, you can either use scissors to cut it up in small pieces and garnish the plate.

Garlic Parmesan Edamame

I found this recipe on Pinterest and made it along with the sushi bowl recipe that I'll also be posting.  So easy and so yummy!!  If you generally like edamame, you'll love this!

Picture from: Keeping up with the Joneses

Garlic Parmesan Edamame

(recipe from Keeping up with the Joneses)

Ingredients:

1 (16 oz) pkg frozen edamame in shell
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt to taste

Steam edamame in microwave until slightly warm and not frozen. The kind I buy at Sam's comes in microwave steaming bags, but 28 cooks says you can throw the edamame in a ziploc bag with about a tbsp of water, seal it, leaving a small opening for steam, and heat it on high for 2 minutes (*I acutally tried this, and it works!). Drain and set aside.

In a small food processor or blender, combine olive oil and garlic. Process until well-combined. Heat a wok over medium high heat. Add edamame and toss for a few seconds. Add garlic oil and saute for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Add breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and salt and toss until well coated. Serve immediately. Eat like regular edamame, eating the pods and leaving the shell.

Spicy Sweet Glazed Chicken

This is a recipe from a great site that my sister-in-law sent me.  I've tried several recipes, and this is one of my favorite.  They are all made to be able to cook immediately or to easily freeze and thaw.  I'm always looking for easy chicken recipes, and this one's great!

Spicy Sweet Glazed Chicken
(from When the Dinner Bell Rings)
Ingredients:
2 Teaspoons Minced Garlic
2/3 cup Apricot Preserves
1/3 cup Soy Sauce
1/3 cup Ketchup
1 Teaspoon Tabasco Sauce
1 1/2 Pounds Chicken Pieces

Directions:
For immediate cooking: Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Place all ingredients into a
large baking dish, turn chicken to coat. Bake until chicken juices run
clear (45-60 minutes for chicken pieces, or 20-30 minutes for chicken
breasts).

For freezing: Place all ingredients into a 1 Gallon freezer bag. Lay flat
in freezer.

To thaw and cook: Take the bag out of the freezer the night before, make
sure the baggie is completely closed. Place the Bag on a shelf furthest
from the freezer (It works best if the bag is laying flat, although this
may not be the best option with a side-by-side fridge/freezer). Preheat the
oven to 350 F. Empty the contents of the bag into a large baking dish and
bake until the juices run clear (45-60 minutes for chicken pieces, or 20-30
minutes for chicken breasts).

Per serving: 277 Calories (kcal); 12g Total Fat; (37% calories from fat); 16g Protein; 28g Carbohydrate; 70mg Cholesterol; 1145mg Sodium
Food Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 1 Fat; 2 Other Carbohydrates

Watermelon Margaritas

I have gotten behind on blogging again.  So, please scroll down to see a few of the recipes I've been making lately that I just back blogged.

This is a recipe that we made last week to take to a friend's house for the fourth of July.  These are super tasty and were a big hit!  I feel like we'll be making these again this summer!  We multiplied this recipe times three to make enough to take with us but didn't have enough limes, so we used some lemons and an orange to get enough citrus - it still tasted great.

Photo from:  wearenotmartha.com

Watermelon Margaritas (Serves 2):
From: wearenotmartha.com

1 1/2 C watermelon, chilled, seeded and cut into pieces
1/4 C lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 C silver (white) tequila
1/4 C Triple Sec (or Cointreau)
8 large ice cubes

Directions:
1.  Chop the watermelon into pieces.  Seedless watermelon will be much easier to work with!
2.  Put the watermelon pieces into the blender with the lime juice.
3.  Add the tequila, triple sec, and ice cubes.  Blend until you get a smooth consistency.
4.  Garnish with a lime!

Potstickers

Obviously, I've been on an Asian food kick lately!  I've had a few recipes that I wanted to try, so last week I finally got around to it.  These potstickers are amazing!  But, they're also pretty time-consuming, so just be prepared.  I didn't use the bok choy, so I can't say for sure how that would turn out.  The wonton wrappers were pretty easy to use - you can find them in the produce section usually.  Mine were square, so I ended up with triangles instead of semi-circles like in the picture.  The first night we made them, we followed this recipe, but I will say that I was very worried about the frying and steaming in the same pan - so be VERY careful if you try to do this.  We went ahead and made all of the potstickers and kept half in the fridge overnight.  The next night we didn't fry them, we just steamed them in a large pot with a steamer tray.  This seemed much safer - but of course this makes them more like dumplings and less like potstickers, but they still have the same flavor.  I found the sauce recipe on a different website and definitely recommend making it to serve with the potstickers.


Photo from: blogs.babble.com

Potstickers from: blogs.babble.com
Ingredients:
1 cup finely shredded bok choy or napa cabbage (optional)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 lb. lean ground pork
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. soy sauce (or to taste)
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 pkg. wonton or gyoza wrappers, thawed if frozen
canola oil
chicken or veggie stock, or water

If you’re using it, toss the cabbage with salt in a medium bowl and let stand for 5 minutes. Pick it up in your hand and squeeze out the excess liquid, draining it as well as you can. Add the pork, green onions, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar and sesame oil and mix it all up with your hands.

To fill wontons, place a small spoonful of filling in the middle of each wrapper; moisten the edges with water (just use your finger) and fold over, pressing the edge tightly to seal. Place seam side up on a cookie sheet, pressing lightly to flatten the bottom. Cover with a tea towel to prevent them from drying out. (Dumplings can be prepared up to this point, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours or frozen.)

When you’re ready to cook the potstickers, heat a drizzle of canola oil in a largeish skillet set over medium-high heat. Place half the dumplings at a time in the skillet and cook for a minute or two, until deep golden brown on the bottom, shaking the pan a few times to keep them from sticking. Don’t crowd the pan too much.

Pour about 1/4 cup stock or water into the pan. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes – this will allow them to steam, cooking them through.

Makes 2 – 3 dozen potstickers.

Each: 45 calories, 1 g total fat (0.2 g saturated fat, 0.4 g monounsaturated fat, 0.3 g polyunsaturated fat), 3 g protein, 5.9 g carbohydrate, 5.2 mg cholesterol, 0.4 g fiber. 20% calories from fat.

Potsticker Dipping Sauce
From: goodcheapeats.com

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh minced ginger (I buy this is a tube so I always have some)
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 Tablespoons sugar

Combine all ingredients in glass dish.  Serve with potstickers.