Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese Chicken Salad Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1/2 lb. white chicken meat, cooked and shredded
1/4 cup soy sauce (use wheat-free soy sauce for gluten-free version)
1 teaspoon sherry
1 Tablespoon sugar

High smoke point cooking oil, such as grapeseed oil, corn oil, or peanut oil
2 oz. bean threads (one bunch)
4 green onions, shredded lengthwise
1 small head of lettuce (romaine works), shredded
2 Tablespoons chopped toasted almonds
2 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Sauce:
2 Tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
3 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp dark sesame oil
3 Tbsp vinegar

* Serves 4 to 6

METHOD

1 Using two forks, shred the cooked chicken (if you don't have any already cooked, poach chicken pieces in simmering water until no longer pink inside). Mix soy sauce, sherry and sugar in a bowl and add the chicken. Let soak for 10 minutes. Remove chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Fry the shredded chicken in a little cooking oil on medium high heat to make it a little crispy and to bake in the seasoning. Set aside.

2 Put 3/4 inch of high smoke point cooking oil (such as grapeseed oil, or peanut oil) into a small saucepan. Heat on high heat until when you flick a drop or two of water into the oil it sizzles. Take one bunch of the dried bean threads and gently break them up a bit. Test the oil by putting one bean thread into the oil. If the oil is hot enough, the bean thread will almost immediately sizzle and puff up. That's when you know the oil is hot enough. Working with a few bean threads at a time, put them in the hot oil. As soon as they puff up, remove them carefully with tongs and place them on a paper towel to cool. The paper towel helps remove any excess oil. Set aside.

3 Cut your green onions, shredding them lengthwise as shown. Toast your chopped almonds, or chop your toasted almonds; toast your sesame seeds. (Heat a thin skillet to medium high heat, add the seeds - or nuts, don't do them both together - stir frequently until they begin to brown, remove from heat, they will continue to cook. Let cool to room temp.)

4 Mix all of the sauce ingredients together, in the order listed. Just before serving the salad, mix all of the salad ingredients together - lettuce, chicken, bean threads, almonds, sesame seeds, and sauce.

Bringing Healthy Back to Navajo Tacos

Mmm, navajo tacos are so good. Warm, buttery fry bread, covered in slimey chili and salad. When they made these for lunch at my old job I got giddy, I frolicked, I didn't think about how bad they are.

But, I've been thinking about that lately, and have come up with a solution.

Start with a low-cal healthy pita bread such as:The best part about them:This isn't a fancy health-food store item, I got it as Super Wal Mart right next to the unhealthy pitas, and the even more unhealthy tortillas.

Healthier Navajo Taco

5 pita breads
2 c. vegetarian chili (I used a red bean and lentil that they're selling in bulk packages at Costco now - Amazing!)
lettuce (I also mixed some fresh cilantro into my lettuce)
black beans, drained rinsed
corn, drained
tomato
cucumber
guacamole
fat free sour cream
a few tortilla chips for crunch, if desired.

Warm the pita bread in your microwave for 30 seconds, it becomes warm, soft, and pliable. Top the pita with vegetarian chili, and every other awesome taco salad food that you like. Sticking with the healthy theme of the evening, I left the cheese off and used only fat-free sour cream.

*Leave off the sour cream for the lactose-free version.

Happy Cooking!

Eating Out at Home: Earl Cobb Wrap

Have you ever had the Earl of Sandwich’s Earl Cobb wrap? They claim it to be on their Lighter Side menu, but to see the huge chunks of cheese they use made me question just how low cal it could be.

And yet, I adore it. Here I’ve done my best to recreate its glory at my house, but cut some calorie corners. In doing so I’ve discovered the perfect meal for both men and women. Just look at what happened at our house (somewhat romanticized, but not too far from true):

Josh comes home from work to find the whole house smelling like fresh cooked bacon.

Josh: Mmm, bacon. Whatcha cookin’ good-lookin’?
Me: Bacon, chicken, buttermilk ranch sauce, you know, nothing special.
Josh: Wow, sounds great.
Me: Hmm, this bacon is so crumbly and this sauce is so slimy, we should keep it together with these vegetables and low-cal wraps.
Josh: Sounds good, let’s eat.

And we did and we were both thrilled. I didn’t even tell Jay that it was turkey bacon until the meal was over. He only shrugged and said, Huh?

Here’s the game plan to make this scene a reality at your house:

Earl’s Cobb Wrap

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked, roughly cut
• 4 slices turkey bacon, cooked till crispy, crumbled
• 2 heads of Romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1 cucumber, peeled and sliced in half moons
• chopped tomato
• dried cranberries
• cubed cheddar cheese
• non-fat buttermilk Ranch dressing*
• low-cal wraps (I used Flat-Out light wraps, they’re only 90 calories, but still really big and soft)

Combine ingredients in the quantities that you like, wrap up and enjoy!
Kim’s notes:

I first cooked the bacon, then cooked the chicken in the same pan with the drippings, but any cooked chicken will do. I combined them both in one bowl, stirred and then refrigerated them until needed.

*To make the fat-free Ranch sauce, I used a packet of Buttermilk Ranch dressing powder, stirred it into a container of fat free sour cream, and then mixed about half of the ranch-sour cream with skim milk until I had the consistency I wanted. This made for a great and normal Ranch flavor, instead of a diet flavor.

Broccoli Slaw Salad

HEB offers a bagged "rainbow salad:" hearts of broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage and carrots - which adds some color. I usually cut the recipe in half for the fam. Add some cubed grilled chicken and make it a meal. I think it's even better the second day!

2 bags (3-ounce) Ramen Noodle Soup in Oriental flavor
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 bags (12-ounce) bags broccoli cole slaw (in the bagged salad section of the grocery store)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
Chopped green onions, for garnish

Dressing Mix:
3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup brown or white sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 ramen noodle seasoning packets

Put the ramen noodles in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin while melting butter in a large skillet over low/medium heat. Add the crushed noodles and slivered almonds to the skillet and saute, stirring occasionally (keep temperature at low/medium heat). Meanwhile, whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Place the shredded broccoli into bowl and toss with the noodles, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. Garnish with chopped green onions. Refrigerate a couple of hours before serving.

Nod to Cesar, That's a Wrap!

Doing salad bars for dinner is fun and it pleases everyone since they get to pick what they like. Tonight we went for Chicken Cesar wraps, with homemade dressing. This is lactose-free, fat free, and has a lot of tang, but I was pleasantly surprised to see both of my boys gobble it up.

Homemade Cesar Dressing
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard (I used a honey dijon)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 c. apple sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
3 Tbs lemon juice (I think I might reduce this the next time to 2 and taste it)
1/4 c. fat-free mayo

Combine all ingredients and mix well until there is an even, creamy consistency.

Helpful hint: Make the dressing in the morning allowing it to sit and chill in fridge for most of the day for the flavors to really blend.

Use dressing sparingly since it has plenty of kick. For our wraps we used black beans, carrots, Romaine lettuce, green onions, tomato, shredded chicken, parmesan cheese, and croutons, but you can use whatever would be most enjoyable for your family.

candied pear salad

{{this was served at the Women's Conference in March}}

Salad:
spinach
craisins
brie cheese (cubed)
fresh pears (these were sliced very thin)
candied almonds

To candy almonds, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a sauce pan. Add 1/2 cup nuts, stir and add 1/2 cup sugar and dash of salt. Cook over medium heat until sugar melts. Be sure not to burn the nuts. Spread on waxed paper to cool.

Salad dressing is Briannas Home Style Blush Wine Vinaigrette with Cuisine Perel D'Anjou Pear Vinegar.

Add about 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the bottle of salad dressing.

Strawberry Mozzarella Salad

{{this was served last December at the RS Christmas Party}}

Add lettuce (the above was butter lettuce, which I'm not sure what that is, but I guess any kind of nice green lettuce will work)

slice up some strawberries.

We had bought the small mozzarella balls and sliced those up, but I think those mozzarella sticks will work good too.

Then, crush up some candied pecans (we loved the glazed Pecan Pie flavored Pecans).

Add those three ingredients to the lettuce.

poppy seed dressing:

1/3 c red wine vinegar

1 tsp yellow mustard

3/4 c oil

1/3 c sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp poppy seeds

Normally, one could add 1 tsp finely chopped red onion, but I had forgotten it, and it was still delicious! I did not pour all of the dressing over it, maybe about 1/4 cup. I saved the rest in one of my new "oh so cute" mason jars. Add the dressing at the very last possible minute, otherwise salad greens will wilt!!