Ultimate Chicken Salad

 Summer snuck up on us and surprised us with limitless options for fun and exploring. One of our favorite things to do is have little picnics and pack sandwiches. A few weeks ago I felt a little miffed because we ran out of lunch meat and I wasn't sure what to throw in the cooler to eat on our picnic. All I could find in the fridge was leftover chicken breast from grilling the night before so I created this recipe. Since our family loves it so much I thought the only thing left to do was share it! I also made it with leftover roast beef instead of the chicken and my father-in-law said it was delicious!

Just be warned- I am a little picky so I tried to share exactly what I used.

Ultimate Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts, marinated with Daddy Hinkle's Original Instant Meat Marinade and grilled over charcoal, cooled, and cubed into about 1/4" cubes
• 5 large boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 C cheese, cut into 1/4" cubes
• 4 Claussen pickle spears, pureed with approximately 1/4 C sugar
• 1 to 1 1/4 C Miracle Whip
• Approximately 2 T mustard

After you grill your chicken, immediately wrap it in tin foil to lock in the juices. Put the chicken in the fridge and start boiling your eggs. Once the eggs are done and cooled back down a little bit start chopping the chicken, eggs, and cheese. Throw it in a large bowl. Puree the pickles and sugar (I used my Magic Bullet). Put all the ingredients into the bowl and just stir it all up and you're set for sandwiches!

If you don't know me very well, then I will clear one thing up- I hate gas grills. I think they are so disgusting and if you're gonna cut corners like that you may as well cook your food inside on the stove. No one has ever successfully convinced me otherwise. I love charcoal grilling. It is simply the only way to go.

Obnoxiously Rich Chocolate Cake

Every now and then I make something that is so naughty I just have to share. Today I made my own spin on the Black Magic Cake off allrecipes.com. I cut the recipe in half and then baked it in a pie pan. Once it completely cooled, I flipped it onto a platter and added my own frosting.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 block cream cheese at room temp

3 T coco powder

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

1T lemon juice

3-4 T milk

1 tsp real vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients with a mixer on high for 3-4 minutes. Adjust the amount of milk according to the texture you want your frosting. 

Smear the frosting all over your cake, top with rasberries, and drizzle with melted dark choclate. Refrigerate and serve cold!

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

3/4 C softened butter

3/4 C brown sugar

1/2 C white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 C vegetable oil 

2 C flour

2 tsp corn starch

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 T coco powder

1 1/2 C chocolate chips

1/2 C chopped walnuts 

•Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

•Cream the butter and sugars. Next add your vanilla and egg and mix well. Then add in the vegetable oil. 

•Next you can either combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, or do like I do and just put all the dry ingredients on top and then use your beaters to just stir it around before turning it on to mix it all in. 

•Mix well.

•Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts and using a large cookie scoop place the dough on a lined air-bake cookie sheet. 

•Bake the cookies for 12 minutes and allow them to cool before eating. 

With a large cookie scoop you will have around 15 cookies.

(I don't even buy parchment paper anymore- you can get reusable liners almost anywhere these days! I found mine on amazon for around $6 and with my prime account I didn't even pay shipping!)

Fresh Veggies for Lunch

I recently began only eating vegetables I have purchased from the local market or grow myself. I haven't had the opportunity to explore growing all year in a green house so right now I am limited to what they have stocked at the Eastside Market in Manhattan.

I threw together a mess of vegetables last week inspired by a spread in my Better Homes and Gardens magazine that consisted of whole carrots, asparagus, pearl onions, oversized mushrooms, sliced garlic, parsley, & rosemary. I started with extra-virgin olive oil and put the carrots in while I prepped the rest of the vegetables. Then I tossed it all in and let it cook for a few minutes. Last week I topped it with salt, pepper, and a bunch of freshly grated Parmesan. What a rare treat that was because I'm used to eating whatever toddler food is left on the kids' plates after lunch is finished. Waste not, want not.

This week I used the same veggies except I subbed shallots for the pearl onions. Then at the end I put a generous amount of honey and a bit of soy sauce right at the end and shook it up to coat then placed the pan to the side for a few minutes while tended to a rather foul smelling diaper. Mommy-duties call...

I am obsessed with this particular mix of vegetables and today's version was so delicious! 

Creamy Ranch Pasta Recipe

I apologize for my absence, but I'm back now! Classes starting threw my schedule off. I feel pulled in a million directions... good thing God can handle it!

Anyways, recipe-

Creamy Ranch Pasta Recipe-

Ingredients:
1 8oz package Cream Cheese
1 1oz Packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix
1/3C Sugar
2C Small Shell Pasta Noodles
1C Frozen Peas
Bacon Bits
Italian Style Bread Crumbs
Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Method:
Using a hand mixer, blend together the Cream Cheese and Ranch Seasoning Mix until smooth then add sugar, blend well. I added a few tablespoons of milk to make mine a touch softer. Cook your noodles in a medium pot of boiling water until they are your desired texture. Place frozen peas in your strainer and pour the pasta noodles and water over the peas (this is how I thaw mine). Rinse with cold water until cool. Stir your noodles into the cream cheese mixture. Grate Parmesan Cheese over the pasta and stir in. Grate a little extra for the top. Spread some Bacon Bits over the top and follow with your bread crumbs. Refrigerate or serve immediately. Serve cold. Approximately 10 servings.

A Simple Flan Recipe

I wanted to share a dessert recipe that I grew up on. My mother would make it and then cover it with foil and put it in the refrigerator and like a good mother she shook her finger at us and in her most stern voice told us to stay out of it until it's cool. BUT as good little children, we never listened. We would come flying through the kitchen, pull the foil up and drag our little fingers through. By the time it was time to eat our flan we had left little finger streaks over every inch of the top of the custard. I will always have fond memories of sneaking into the flan!

Flan

1. 2 cans evaporated milk (12 oz)
2. 2 cans sweetened condensed milk (14oz)
3. 6 eggs
4. 1 cup sugar
5. 1 cup brown sugar
6. 2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the over to 325 degrees F. Take the brown sugar and push it into the bottom of a 13x9 glass cake pan. Mix all the other ingredients really well and then pour it over top of the brown sugar. If the brown sugar comes up it'll be okay- it goes back down when it cooks. I use a 10x15 cake pan to place the 13x9 into and then fill the 10x15 up with about 1.5-2" of water then place into the oven. Bake for approximately 1 hour until you can insert a butter knife into the center and it comes out clean. Cover and cool in the refrigerator overnight and serve cold. 

You can also use custard dishes or pie pans to bake in. When you make it smaller you can just flip the flan dish over and let the brown sugar run over the flan, or simply flip each slice over and spoon the brown sugar over top.

My favorite way to switch this up is to take a dry chocolate cake mix and pour it out over top of the flan before baking, bake, and then dust any excess powder off the top. It makes a yummy chocolate layer over the top!