Okay, so immediately after tasting this, I realized what everyone was raving about! The sauce has a great flavor, just the right amount of sweetness and spice. It is also such a simple recipe...which of course makes meals 10 times better! There is no BOURBON in this recipe...who knows why it is called bourbon?? Anyone? Anyway, it is delicious, my hubby said it is one of the best chicken dishes I have ever MADE! Points with the husband can never hurt. I even made this recipe once without the crused red pepper flakes and it was equally as divine. Enjoy!
Bourbon Street Chicken
Printable Version
Chicken
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 Tbs. oil (for frying)
4 Tbs. cornstarch
Sauce
1 garlic clove (minced)
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup apple juice
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce (or Bragg Liquid Aminos to be GF)
Cut chicken breasts into bit sized pieces, and lightly dust with cornstarch. Heat oil in your wok or frying pan and fry chicken until lightly browned. Drain chicken on paper towels and set aside.
In a separate bowl combine all sauce ingredients. Pour into wok or frying pan and bring to a boil. Add chicken back to the pan, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve over rice or quinoa...delish!
Serves 4.
Recipe from Blog Chef
O chocolate chip cookies, I only like you straight from the oven. Piping hot in my hands, melting in my mouth deliciousness. Well, guess what? I ate these cookies after they had completely cooled, and kept going back for more! That really never happens in my house, so I was elated to have to as an addition to my chocolate chip cookie recipes! The cornstarch in these cookies helps them to be extra chewy in the middle, and the large amount of butter compared to shortening makes them flat...which my hubby requires!
Flat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Printable Version
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tbs. cornstarch
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
4 Tbs. butter flavored shortening
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cornstarch together into a large bowl.
Beat the butter, shortening, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until just incorporated, about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the dough and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet, or use a silpat. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are golden around the edges but still soft in the middle, about 9-11 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely.
Recipe highly adapted from Food Network Magazine
Makes 60 small cookies
I have been absolutely, 100% craving this meal for about 3 weeks now. Actually, for about 1 1/2 years! My husband is an anti-tuna, anti-casserole kind of man. I honestly think he would laugh, barf, and run out the door to get some fast food if I made this for him for dinner. No, I KNOW that he would do all of those things! However, I adore this meal. My amazing friend made this for me all the time when we were roomies, and I am still addicted. It is a blast from the past...and a delicious one!
Tuna Noodle Bake
Printable Version
3 Tbs. milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
12 oz. noodles
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1 can tuna
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook noodles according to package directions, drain and rinse. Mix noodles, milk, tuna, soup, and 1/4 cup cheese together and put into a casserole dish. Season with salt and pepper. Top with the remaining 1/4 cup cheese. Bake for 20 minutes and Enjoy!
Recipe from Brianne
Serves 2.
Our new addiction. Like Hubbs asks for this Smoothie EVERY, yes every single night. I was literally just grabbing ingredients from my fridge and freezer, and this is what we came up with, complete yumminess:) We always have V8 Fusion on hand, but if you don’t, plain old OJ does the trick, too. This is the perfect icy treat for a snack on any night you choose, or EVERY night you choose!
Mango Peach Smoothie
Printable Version
1 Cup Mango Peach V8 Fusion (or Orange juice)
1 ½ cups vanilla yogurt
1 ripe mango, peeled, seed removed, and diced
1 ½ Tbs. honey
1 tray ice cubs (about 14)
Combine all igredients in a large blender, blend on low for 60 seconds, and Enjoy!
Makes three 8 oz. servings
I love easy chicken dishes! By easy I mean under 30 minutes, one pan to clean, and ingredients I almost always have on hand. (Yes, I always have fresh ginger on hand. Did you know you can peel and freeze ginger, then grate it from it’s frozen state right into your meal?! It works wonders!) I have made this recipe a few times, and I have made quite a few alterations to the original. What I came up with we really enjoyed-and hope you do, too!
Honey Sesame Chicken
Printable Version
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” chunks)
Oil (for deep frying)
Sesame seeds (for garnish)
Batter
4 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 egg white
Sauce
1 ½ tablespoons oil
4 tsp. ginger (minced)
4 Tbs .garlic (minced)
2 tsp. salt
6 Tbs. honey
6 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
⅔ cup water
⅔ cup sugar
2 tsp. accent
2 teaspoon cornstarch (mixed with 1 Tbs. water)
In a large bowl mix all batter ingredients together until smooth. Cover and allow the batter to site for at least 30 minutes. Add the chicken to the batter tossing to coat.
Heat a deep fryer to 350 degrees. Fry chicken bits in patches for 2 minutes or until batter becomes firm. Drain on paper towels.
To make the sauce. Heat 1½ tablespoons of oil in your wok. Add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add salt, honey, vinegar, and water. Mix well. Combine 1 teaspoon of water with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. Add to the sauce and Simmer for 2 minutes.
Return chicken to pan and Coat chicken with the sauce. Garnish with sesame seeds. Serve with rice or quinoa
Recipe highly adapted from Blogchef.net
Serves 4.
My hubby went on a cake baking kick on his last break from school. I was his expert Sous Chef, and it was so much fun! We loved cooking together, and I like taking directions from him for a change! This is a traditional red velvet cake. Nowadays red velvet cake is served with cream cheese frosting. I have always devoured it and praised the cream cheese...well, my mind has officially been changed. This traditional pudding-like frosting is STRAIGHT-FROM-HEAVEN. No joke. I am pretty sure I ate about ¼ of this cake, good thing we shared with some friends or I would have devoured a lot more! The cake itself is fluffy and moist all at the same time. We followed the directions to a “T”, and I will never venture from them again!
Red Velvet Cake
Printable Version
Cake
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for pans, sifted
2 tbsp. Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. red food coloring
1 tbsp. distilled white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
Frosting
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Make the cake: Heat oven to 350°. Butter and flour two 8″ cake pans, and set aside. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside. Whisk together buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla in a bowl; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, alternately add dry ingredients in 3 batches and wet ingredients in 2 batches. Increase speed to high and beat until batter is smooth, about 5 seconds. Divide batter between prepared pans, and smooth top with a rubber spatula; drop pans lightly on a counter to expel any large air bubbles. Bake cakes until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cakes cool for 20 minutes in pans; invert onto wire racks, and let cool.
Make the frosting and assemble cake: Whisk together sugar and flour in a 4-qt. saucepan; add milk and whisk until smooth. Stirring often, bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook, stirring constantly, until very thick, about 5 minutes. Remove pudding from heat; cool. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat butter and 1/4 of the pudding on medium-high speed until fluffy and smooth, about 1 minute. Add half the remaining pudding, beating until smooth, and then add remaining pudding and vanilla. Increase speed to high and beat frosting until white and fluffy, about 3 minutes. To assemble, place one cake on a cake stand, and spread with 1 1/2 cups frosting. Place second cake over frosting; cover top and sides with remaining frosting; chill to firm frosting. Serve at room temperature.
Serves 10-12
Recipe from Saveur Magazine
O my. My tummy feels sick because I just ate, well, way too many of these little morsels. I wanted to hoard them all to myself, and at the same time, share them with the neighbors so they would think I was amazing:)! It worked! I ate my fair share and spread some around to some lucky friends. I mean, what can go wrong with nilla wafers, cream cheese, lime juice and lots of sugar, right? Nothing! These were divine. I would almost say that they are a rival to my amazing sister-in-laws lemon bars, which I just realized I haven’t posted yet! O my gosh I will get on that right away! The lime in this recipe could easily be replaced with lemon, if that’s your fancy! Enjoy the creamy deliciousness, and, if you feel so inclined, invite me over for a bite!
Creamy Lime Bars
Printable Version
40 Nilla Wafers, finely crushed
1 cup flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold real butter
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 Tbs. flour
5 Tbs. grated lime peel, divided
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
powdered sugar (for dusting)
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 8-inch square baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Spray lightly with non-stick spray and set aside.
In a bowl, combine Nilla Wafer crumbs, 1 cup flour and the brown sugar. Chop butter into small pieces and then cut into crumb mixture with a pastry blender. (A fork works great if you don’t have a pastry blender).
Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 min.
While crust is cooking, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 2 Tbsp. flour, and baking powder; mix well. Blend in 3 Tbs. lime zest, and lime juice and then pour mixture over crust.
Bake 25 to 30 min. or until center is set. Cool completely. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and remaining 2 Tbs. grated lime peel just before cutting into 1” squares to serve. Store leftovers in refrigerator.
Recipe adapted from Ourbestbites.com
Makes about 36 1”x1” bars
