Chicken Lettuce Wraps...Try it!

By popular demand (ok, for Em and Alyssa), here is the infamous Chicken Lettuce Wrap “recipe”. Now if you haven’t realized yet, I don’t generally follow recipes (same with Alfie), I am one of those pinch here, dash there, stir and taste kind of cookers, which makes it tricky to share recipes. But most of the recipes I do are really easy and pretty tough to mess up, so here we go…

Ingredients:

Ground Chicken (or turkey works well too)

Sesame Garlic Sauce (the Wegmans version works well too)

Chili Garlic Sauce aka Asian Hot Sauce

White Vinegar

Spicy mustard

Soy Sauce

2 Garlic Cloves

Water chestnuts, diced

1 Head of Iceberg Lettuce



First off, Alf and I have made these a TON and it was such a pain in the rear trying to get large enough lettuce leaves to really dig into the meal. So finally, when we were going to make a huge batch for a party we gave good ole’ PF Changs a holla and to ask if we could buy their lettuce cups, hoping they would share their secret, and they did!! So first fill a LARGE bin or bowl or if your sink is partitioned plug half of it and fill it with ice and water to create an ice bath. Next take your head of lettuce and with the core facing down, slam it onto the table… like SLAM IT. This will make the core “pop” and easily removable. Then place that de-cored head of lettuce into the ice bath to soak. Got it? Let us move on… hahahah get it?? Lol pun…lame, I know.

Next get a deep pan and drizzle some olive oil in it. Place two minced garlic cloves into it (or 1 tbsp of pre-minced garlic), once it is aromatic…oo big word… add in your chicken. As your chicken is cooking, get your water chestnuts. You can buy them diced, but then do some extra chops to make them even finer. *Side note: I am NOT a fan of water chestnuts, like I typically will pick them out of my meal, BUT this MAKES the dish and if you look very closely at PF Changs they in fact have water chestnuts in theirs as well.* Ok, go back to your chicken and make sure it is cooking, and break it apart like you would ground beef. If you have one of these,
 

it will make your ground meat cooking experience a whole lot easier

Once the chicken is cooked, add in your water chestnuts. Then add in a good drizzle of the Sesame Garlic sauce… enough to flavor your chicken. To make a little go a long way, use less Sesame Garlic and add in some soy Sauce. Tasting as you go, to make sure you like the flavor. Let it simmer to mesh all the flavors for a minute or 2, then take it off the heat.

Now to make the sauce, or Alfie Juice as we call it… At Changs you know how they come to your table and mix your sauce right there? And on that tray they have a few things: Soy Sauce, A red thick Sauce, Mustardy stuff, and White vinegar. Ahh so technical I am with the names.

In your own bowl, start with a dollop of sesame garlic sauce. Add in some soy sauce, enough to dilute it. Next determine how spicy you want it. The Asian hot sauce is HOT, so use VERY little. Add a bit to the sauce. In the event you made it too spicy, vinegar is typically used to cut the heat, so add some of that and then reflavor it (since it may taste too tangy from the vinegar) with more soy sauce or more sesame garlic sauce. Alfie likes to put in some spicy mustard, which is also an option, but that is a personal taste preference.

Now go back to your beautiful head of soaking lettuce. The leaves should fall off far easier now ( you are supposed to soak it for an hour, but really who has that time??) Remove some leaves and dry it between some paper towels or a dish towel. Once dry, fill with your chicken, drizzle on some Alfie Juice and get to eating!! BUT WAIT!! What about those white crunchy noodles?!? Well we have tried high and lo how to replicate those crispy white noodles they have, but can’t for the life of us figure out them bad boys! So instead we use crispy chow mein noodles.


Sprinkle a few of those on and mmm. BANGARANG! (10 points if you can guess the movie that is from…)

Enjoy!

RAMEN POST! RAMEN POST!

Soo at CCC Night (thats Coffee, Crafts and Conversation Night. Yeah thats right be jealous. Its a fantastic group of ladies and we totally get our craft on!) I was talking with Sohl aka Sarah and Alyssa aka Alyssa about our mutual enjoyment of Ramen noodles.

Sidenote: is it RAH-men or RAY-men??

Anyways, i shared how i doctor them bad boys up so they are much more fabulous than the usual noodles with the drab seasoning packet. So by popular request :) here they be, my FAVORITE ways to "upcycle" an otherwise boring bowl of ramen noodles.

FYI: i use the chicken flavor, cause it's the best. Just sayin...

Egg Drop Ramen
*I only make this on the stovetop, cause its egg and getting food poisoning is not my thing*
Add water to pot, boil, add noodles, add flavor packet (nothing different here)
Then, righhhhht before you would take the noodles out,
Put an egg on your head, crack it, let the yolk run down, let the yolk run down, let the yolk run down.... haha kidding.
Crack an egg in and stir stir stir quickly....BAM egg drop soup...Ramen style!

Sesame Garlic Ramen
In the asian aisle, grab something like this:


(So you can justify the purchase you can also use it for stir fry or for seasoning your faux PF Chang lettuce wraps...remind me to share that recipe....delish!)
While your water is boiling put a hearty dollop (prob about a tablespoon- overflowing) in a bowl, Add the flavor packet, add a few shakes of soy sauce to the same bowl (but not too much or else you will be dying of thirst later and your fingers will be little swollen sausages from all the salt...lol)
Then, if you like it spicy add a pinch of this chili garlic sauce (found in the same spot as the Sesame Garlic Sauce)




(And i mean pinch, this stuff is like sucking on Satans teat, its that hot, so use sparingly)
Add a bit of water from the pot and stir, to blend it. Then add in your noodles and remaining water.

Cheesy Ramen
*this is Alfie's recipe (It was one of the few things that stayed down when i was pregnant and pukin' galore. Annnd with that visual...)
Before opening the bag, "crush" all the noodles (not to a powder...geez, but into small little pieces) ... (Huh, believe me when Alfie did this i was like WHAT THE!! YOU'RE BREAKING THEM!!??, but its better cause then you can eat it with a spoon and get the yummy cheese broth, and who doesn't love cheese broth??)

Prep as normal (with seasoning packet) and add it to your bowl. THEN right before you would settle in to eat, BAM, add 1 kraft single (breaking into pieces as you add it) and stir until blended so there are no cheesey chunks. Thats it. It will blow your Ramen loving mind! I remember alfie making it for me, and being all "whatever" until i ate it and HOT DANG so much better! Oh and should you want it spicy, add a pinch of the above mentioned Satan Sauce.

And thats it!! Any other I'm-out-of-college-but-still-lovin'-Ramen folks out there?? Or any other suggested ways?? pass them along. Cause momma loves herself some ramen....

Yum Yum... in my Tum Tum

Confession: Planning meals has saves us A. LOT.

One of my favorite things about Pinterest is its abundance of great ideas. My current favorite being the Menu boards (which I have up in the house and which people question me about). I used to scoff at the idea of planning meals. Because come on, I can't pack one outfit per day for a trip, how in the world would I be able to select one meal each day weeks in advance. So we continued to spend willy nilly on food without really stopping to think about it. Then, as I was looking at our budget I saw how much we were literally throwing away by eating out so often and I was shocked. So I started planning our meals. It started off by planning a few days and then shopping for groceries for those few days. Then a few days turned into a week and then every other week and now I think we plan out almost 3 weeks. And the savings is ridiculous. I haven't sat down to figure the exact number but the fact that we now do groceries once every 3 weeks (occasionally a trip or two for eggs or bread) and that that 1 grocery bill is under $100 tells me momma be doing goooood!!

Alrighty, so remember my love for excel?? Well of course I use that to create a Menu/calendar template! I start with my handy dandy calendar (made in excel) broken down by weeks then days. And I start filling in meals that we like. This usually includes of a taco night once a week, a frozen pizza night once a week and leftovers every Thursday (alfie plays pool that night) oh yeah and lots of chicken, we love chicken!

Then I toss in a night of "easy" pasta (which is almost ALWAYS lasagna, I love (meatless) lasagna, extra points if it has spinach but Alf doesn’t like that so... yeah its usually without spinach.) and a few days of "new" recipe favorites from the last month.

Then I hop back on Pinterest and look for NEW recipes. I usually look for things that are easy or look amazing (yeah I totally judge a book by its cover and recipes by their pictures). Or I browse my friends blogs and get some highly recommended stuff.

Once I have 90% of the calendar filled (Remember I leave Thursdays for leftovers oh yeah and Sunday lunch for eating out and of course I figure in a night of something crazy easy, like soup and salad or soup and sandwiches). I figure out what I need to make each dish versus what I have on hand already and create a shopping list.

And surprise surprise!! We actually stick to it! Now we don't always do the exact meal planned for that day, sometimes we switch around based on what we are feeling and what the day was like. And one thing that has certainly surprised me is that the 3 week planning, will often provide PLENTY of meals beyond 3 weeks. Now I do have to say, I eat anything and Alfie is a simple eater (i.e. homeboy could live off of cereal, nachos or frozen pizzas) so the only real constraint is picking things Colton will eat, which luckily again, is very easy (he takes after his momma).

BUT last night we FINALLY tried a meal that was on our menu for the 2 weeks or so and just haven’t had time to make. But in hind sight was SOOO easy and tasty that I wish we hadn't waited this long to make it! It is originally a Pampered Chef recipe with some fancy name and fancy cheeses but I LoMag-itized it for us (oh and renamed it)...

Easy-Peesy-Cheesy Mexican Chicken Bake

1.5lbs of chicken breasts (about 3 ample breasts...lol id guess they were a C cup)
2 (7oz.) cans of salsa verde (its the green stuff in the Mexican aisle - I used Herdez)
1 (2 cup) bag of Colby Jack cheese
1/2 bag of Authentic Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips
A Taco seasoning packet

Ok, so I am ALL about easy. And this recipe is easy and again passed the Alfie test. Another thumbs up. AND I am sure it can be tweaked for ALL sorts of flavors. I bet you could make it enchillada-esque with beans and corn. Use regular salsa and Mexican or taco flavored cheese! But I am getting ahead of myself....

First, finely chop the chicken and sauté on the stove (if you like onions add those in, if not no worries). Sprinkle taco seasoning to taste. (We did minimal since Colton would be eating this.)
Side note: Do this ahead of time!! Had I thought about it, I would have cooked the chicken the night before, so that all I had to do was combine everything and have had an under 10 min meal! We also thought boiling and shredding the chicken would work better, and then sprinkling on the taco flavor OR boiling it in taco broth (i.e. water with the taco seasoning in it). If you try it let me know!

Next, in a microwave safe dish (I used my white corning ware oval baker) put down a good layer of tortilla chips. Break when necessary, but give it a good bed of chips. Then add in half your chicken and then pour half your salsa verde (or 1 can since you use 2) and sprinkle on half your cheese. Repeat your layers (add more chips, then chicken, then salsa and finally top with your cheese).

Ok on to the hard part: put the cover on and put into the microwave for 5 to 7 minutes (I did 6 minutes and it was perfect). THAT'S IT! Crazy how easy this is!! I love it!

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and enjoy! I was pleasantly surprised with this recipe. Since I am NEVER a fan of soggy chips I was very apprehensive that it would be sloppy mush BUT the chips that turned soggy tasted exactly like a corn tortilla!! (Duh Kimi they are CORN tortilla chips!! sheesh) So I felt like I was eating an authentic enchilada minus the effort. Alfie and I both had seconds...ok thirds! I love that it is soooo easy, that it was done in the microwave, that I can do the work ahead of time AND that you can really tailor this to be what you like. I am looking forward to adding this to the menu again!

Ps. I just had leftovers for lunch and it was STILL amazingly good! Give it a try and let me know what you think!!

How Goes it?!

Soooo anyone else hungry?! Cause I sure am! I do great all day, and then under the cover of darkness, my inner food monster comes out and eats everything in sight! Like yesterday, a nice healthy Mexican salad for lunch at Hot Rositas and then a healthy dinner of Rosemary chicken and salad. Side note: have you had the rosemary marinade from Wegmans?! O.M.G. it may be the best chicken marinade I have had in a long time. Shameless plug: Go buy it, RUN to buy it; it was sooo delish on my salad. Drizzle a bit of EVOO and a few squirts of lemon juice as dressing and no joke, that’s all you need. But after eating that I was still kind of hungry, cause an hour later I had cheese and crackers. grrrr. But I shared some with Alfie...kind of. You see, I KNOW Alfie likes cheese and crackers, and we only had 2 sandwich slices of colby jack left, so the fatty/selfish in me decided to wait until I had happily devoured 1 slice by myself, to offer up a piece to him. Shortly after he says,"20 in 10, hand them over". Luckily I had scarfed down half already, so his attempt to score a better portion help my diet failed.

But to be fair, he kind of did it to me too....Last Saturday we had a day of errands that started bright and early, and just as we were packing up to head out Alfie commented on how he when we stopped at Wegmans, he was going to get a Cheese Bialli, because "I ALWAYS get one when I go" BUSTED. You see, he doesn’t come home with any. Which means he buys one and EATS IT IN THE CAR!!? So of course I jumped on it and said "wait, you get one every time?" at this point HE knows that I have connected the dots and he is about to get checked. So of course in disbelief I say" YOU EAT IT IN THE CAR". Now, we literally live like 3 mins from Wegmans, so he would have to devour it in order to finish before he got home. Who does that?? Ok, well I would technically do that to, but that’s beside the point. At least he had the decency to look shameful :) And I GUESS it’s better than bringing that temptation into the house. Right??

But now that I have you hungry, I will share my MOST FAVORITE recipe these days. It is way flavorful and way easy and healthy too!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup :( makes about 6 servings) about 240 calories per serving
1 can of Black beans (with its juice)
1 can of corn (drained) (or 1/2 a frozen bag)
2 chicken breasts
2 cans of rotel diced tomatoes
2 cans of chicken broth (ready to serve)
1 can of water
2 heaping spoonfuls of sofrito (Spanish gold) (since most don't have this dice 1/2 an onion and mince/press 2 or 3 garlic cloves)
1 salsa flavoring packet (I like mild, but you can pick medium if you want a kick)

Ok now for the hard part.... put it in the crock pot...all of it, together. **tip, wait until last to put the chicken in, that way you can taste the broth to see how it flavors for you and give it a good mix.
Cook on low for 8 hours (or I’m sure high for 4) and when it’s done shred the chicken (it will fallllll apart...mmm) It tastes great alone, or even better with a dollop of sour cream (light or fat free.... 20 in 10!!) and some cheese (fat free cheddar) and of course some broken up tortilla chips. If you think about it is wayyy healthy since its chicken, broth, tomatoes, beans and corn.

Alfie gave it a thumbs up, so we know it must be tasty :)

The best part, besides it being so easy is that you can tailor it to what you want. More soupy? Add in more broth. Thick and chunky? Add less water. You can add kidney beans or cilantro, a squirt of lime, more chicken, less chicken, canned salsa... It can really be whatever Tex Mex soup or stew you like! Enjoy!

**FYI Update: my wonderfully longtime (we go back to highschool..yo) friend Emily tried this using frozen chicken and said it worked perfectly!! Just be sure to add an extra half hour or so. Oh yeah and she said it was delish, sooooo easy and made a ton (which it does!!)!**

My Go-to Summer Sammy

Thought you all might enjoy this summer sandwich I tweaked. It’s a spin-off of Panera’s Mediterranean Veggie sandwich! Half of theirs is a wopping 300 calories! My waistline friendly version is for a full sandwich PLUS my version of black bean soup which together come in at 300 calories!! For soup AND sandwich! Give it a try!

Ingredients:
1 Arnold 100 calorie bread roll/bun thingy
2 tablespoons of sweet roasted red pepper hummus (can prob use any flavor) – 40calories
A less than a 1/4c of feta cheese (a 1/4c is 60 calories)
Cucumbers
Red onions
Romaine lettuce
Jalapeños (sliced in a jar)

Spread hummus on bread, layer cucumbers, jalapeños, red onion, feta and lettuce. (200 calories) Sooo Simple!

Add soup (100 calories for 1/2cup) which if I make it is just black beans from a can (momma be lay-zzzzyy), with minced garlic and some salt/pepper, and maybe additional seasonings to taste. Mash a little and add some water for extra brothy goodness and YUMMY!