Teriyaki Chicken Salad

While I love to cook and plan what I will cook, there are those days where you get so hungry and that you need a quick recipe. Having a few key ingredients on hand and with the help of my friend, Virginia, we cooked a quick meal that was done in 15 min. The "15 minute fix" is an appropriate name, because in a short time you can create a meal that will fill you before you think about eating the plate by itself, which honestly there are days the plate looks appealing.

Teriyaki Chicken Salad
serves 2


Ingredients:


Teriyaki sauce (low-carb):

2 cloves of garlic, finely diced

1/4 cup soy-sauce (preferrably low-sodium)

1/4 cup water

2-3 splenda packets (to taste)

1/4 tsp ginger powder

2 tbsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

Protein and Vegetables:
1/2 carrot
baby spinach or mixed field greens
1/4 lb asparagus
white button mushrooms
1/2 bell pepper
cooked, sliced chicken breasts (such as Trader Joe's frozen, grilled chicken breast strips)
Olive-oil cooking spray


Recipe:


1. After finely chopping the garlic, whisk together the teriyaki sauce. Leave aside.
2. Spray a medium sauté pan with olive oil. Sauté sliced vegetables, including the mushrooms, asparagus, and carrots until tender but crisp, approximately 4-6 minutes at medium heat. 
3. Add the cooked chicken strips to the pan with the teriyaki sauce. Saute until heated throughout. 
4. Plate chicken with vegetables on top of a bed of baby spinach or mixed greens (shown here).


Enjoy the food, not the plate.

Sweet treats from Guest Bloggers

I am so excited. This week, two best friends of mine, one being my fiancé, sent me yummy recipes for sweet treats. The first is a gluten-free recipe and the second is for some chewy oatmeal cookies. I am hoping that a cookie remains in the next day or so when I visit my fiancé in North Carolina. Try out the recipes for yourself and let us know what you think!

Banana Irish Cream (gluten-free)

Ingredients:

• 1 small-medium banana, cut into chunks, at least 4 hours 
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 4 tbsp sugar  
• 2 tbsp Bailey's Irish cream 
• Handful toasted chopped pecans (optional) 
• 1/2 banana in slim slices for garnish (optional)

Recipe:

1. Place metal bowl and whip into the freezer.  Meanwhile, place frozen bananas in food processor.  Blend on med-high until creamy.  Scoop out and place into a bowl.  Place in the freezer.

2. Remove the metal from the freezer and pour in the whipping cream.  Whip on low for one minute, then increase the speed.  This might take 5 minutes.  When the cream forms, add the Bailey's and sugar and whip just to combine.  Top bananas with cream.  Save some of the bananas for a garnish.

3. Slice the remaining unfrozen banana thinly.  Chop the toasted pecans.  Garnish with both.

Eat and revel in the fact that you're not eating more than 230 calories.  :-)

Recipe from B. Riley, guest blogger

Guilt-Free Oatmeal Cookies 

(15 min. prep, 25 min. total)

 Recipe adapted from recipezaar.com, recipe #238738

I was faced with the task of making something for a work pot-luck and I decided to utilize my baking skills. I was able to create a very tasty guilt free treat.

Approximately serves 36

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) Smart Balance 50/50 butter blend

22 packets of splenda (slightly less than 1 cup of sugar equivalent)

2 eggs (I used “best of the egg” no cholesterol liquid eggs)

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups Quaker Old Fashioned Oats

Ingredients:

Add in the order, as you see fit: nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, craisins, etc.

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Microwave butter sticks for about 35 seconds and add in sugar, beat.
3. Add eggs and beat well.
4. Add flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix well. 
5. Add vanilla.
6. Stir in oats and the add-ins.
7. I used a tablespoon and dropped cookies onto greased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 11 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe from C. Jones, guest blogger

Banana Cookies with Zing

Do you love Bananas? I really don't, thus they often end up highly ripened in my pantry. I was looking for ideas about how to use these ripe bananas. I was inspired by a cookie recipe from 101cookbooks, another food blog that publishes creative recipes. While I don't love bananas, per se, I do love a cookie. I mean, who doesn't love cookies.


I came up with my own version for a cookie recipe, using bananas as the base, but also incorporating some crystallized ginger, made by my mom in a way that preserves the zingy flavor of the ginger. This is the best crystallized ginger I ever had.


Also, I managed to forget to add any oil or butter to the recipe (as posted below) and they still came together and tasted great. A fat-free cookie treat.

Banana Cookies with Zing


Ingredients: 

2 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups bran cereal (finely ground)
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup crystallized ginger (finely ground)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup pecans (ground but not fine)

Recipe:

(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

(2) In a large bowl combine the bananas and vanilla extract. Set aside. 

(3) In another bowl whisk together the ground cereal, almond meal, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. 

(4) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. 

(5) Fold in the pecans. The dough is looser than a standard cookie dough, like a drop cookie. 

(6) Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. I baked these as long as possible without burning the bottoms and they were perfect - 17 minutes was perfect in my oven.

(7) Allow to cool 10-20 minutes before serving (if you can wait that long).

Makes about 2 dozen bite-sized cookies.

Update

It has been a while since I have posted. I have been working on submitting my dissertation. This process is finally complete!! Hurray!

Look forward to some yummy posts in the next days/weeks. I have been trying out a few recipes, such as, Energy cookies (Banana with Crystalized Ginger), Banana bread, and more.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience and support.