Spicy Chilli Sauce Chicken Fingers and "Whit" Dip

Last night Cameron, Whit, Kyle, and I made some Spicy Chilli Sauce Chicken Fingers, roasted vegetables, sweet potatoes fries, and Whitney's spinach dip, aka "Whit" dip, for the Cowboys game!

Spicy Chilli Sauce Chicken Fingers

I made this with the Hot Asian Chilli Sauce... It was very hot! Thankfully Kyle, Whit, and Cameron all like spicy food, and we had ranch to help with the heat. But I would recommend a more mild chilli sauce.

Ingredients:

• 20 chicken strips, thighs, or 4-6 chicken breasts
• 12 oz Chilli Sauce (I used the Asian Spicy Chilli Sauce (green cap))... But I would recommend a mild Chilli Sauce, unless you like a lot of heat!
• 1/3 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 tsp dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• Ranch and/or Blue Cheese Dressing for dipping

Directions:

In a bowl or plastic bag, combine chilli sauce, broth, oil, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and reserve about 1/4 cup for basting.

Add chicken and marinate for at least 2 hours, or over night.

Either preheat a grill and grill the chicken until white in the middle. Or preheat an oven to 400 degrees and cook for 20 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink!

Enjoy with some ranch and/ or blue cheese dressing!

"Whit" Dip
This is Whit's take on Spinach Dip, it might not be very healthy, but it is delicous! Great to munch on during the Cowboys game! (I like it best with Wheat Thins!)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz sour cream
• 1 cup of mayo
• 2 cups Parmasen
• 2 cups Colby Jack cheese, more for topping
• 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed (or fresh, whilted)

Directions:

Combine in a bowl sour cream, mayo, parm, and colby jack cheese. Then add spinach and transfer to a baking pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Top with more colby jack cheese and bake for 15 minutes!

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash and Apple-Almond Salad

Since I don't have a job this summer, I have become a personal chef for my family. And since I've been home, I am going to focus,  a majority, of my meals on being healthy.

Tonight's meal is vegetarian as well as extremely healthy for you.

For the salad, I used the same herb dressing I made on May 19th in the "Spaghetti and meatball" post.

Apple-Almond Salad

Toss the salad dressing with romaine lettuce, toasted almonds, crumbled blue cheese, and sliced Granny Smith apples.

Butternut Squash Soup with Onions and Apples

Soup Base:

• 1 rib of celery, chopped ("rib" is one piece/stick, and "stalk" for the entire thing/bunch)
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 cups butternut squash, peeled and seeded
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
• 1 quart vegetable stock or water, more may be needed
• salt and pepper to taste

 Garnish:

• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 onion, large dice
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and cored
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 2 tablespoons non-fat yogurt (or Greek yogurt)
• 6 sprigs fresh dill, washed

In a soup pot, sauté the onion, celery and carrot in the oil over medium heat until the onion is golden, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add the squash and garlic cooking 5 minutes, stirring. Add the oregano and stock and simmer about 15 minutes or until the veggies are soft.

The easiest way to cut squash is to peel the skin off with a vegetable peeler. Then cut the squash in half. The bottom half is filled with seeds. Cut the two halves again and scoop out the seeds and discard (the seeds are similar to pumpkin seed and can be toasted). The chop into pieces.

While the soup base is cooking, sauté at medium-high heat 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil and diced onions. Cut the apple into a large dice and when the onions are golden, add to the pan, sautéing 2 to 3 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add the dill and set aside.

Place all of the soup base -- cooked veggies (except the curried onions and apple mix) and liquid -- from your pot in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and silky. More chicken stock may be needed to adjust consistency to your liking. You may also use an immersion blender so that no transfer between pots is necessary. Be patient with the immersion blender, it takes a bit longer to blend together. (I used my new immersion blender that Josh gave me for graduation!)

Return the pureed soup base to the soup pot and add the curried onion and apple. Simmer for 2 minutes. Season to taste and adjust consistency. Serve hot or, on warm days, chilled. Garnish with a dollop of yogurt and a sprig of fresh dill, chives, or herbs of your choice.

This meal was extremely filling and healthy. The soup is only 95 calories! Serves 6!

SAE: Three Appetizers!

Only two more meetings left! :( I looked up a ton of new recipes this week and made three different appetizers for SAE. I think I am the first sweetheart to ever make a seafood dish, and it was delicious.

When I am searching for recipes for SAE meetings, I look for flavor, easiness, and quickness. I need something that the boys will enjoy, but also that I'll want to make again.

My favorite part about cooking today was when Ryan and I made homemade pastry shells!

HEB ran out of pre-made pastry shells, so I bought fillo paper and we made them from scratch. They are pretty easy, but really messy. We just followed the directions (for the most part) on the box and came out with some pretty good looking pastry shells and pastry crackers (aka: wantons for another recipe!).

First, we cut up the paper into squares, we had different sizes because we weren't sure which size worked. We dipped them in butter and wiped off the excess butter. Then we formed the paper into the mini-muffin tins and baked for 10 minutes! We thought it wouldn't turn out at all... But they did!

The three appetizers I made for this meeting were:
1. Spicy Seafood Shells
2. Cheese Blintzes
3. Blue Cheese Biscuits

Spicy Seafood Shells

This was so delicious, and the favorite of the guys at meeting. In the future, I think I might add a little more spice. But still so delicious this way!

 Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2/3 cup shredded Swiss cheese
• 1/3 cup chopped onion (about half an onion)
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp hot pepper sauce (tobasco)
• 3-5 dashes Old-Bay Seasoning
• 1 (4 oz) small shrimp, frozen and thawed, or canned and drained (if you want to use a little more... Go ahead!)
• 1 (8 oz) can crab meat, drained and flaked
• 3 (2.1 oz) packages mini fillo tart shells
• paprika 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a medium baking sheet.

In a medium bowl, mix together mayo, Parmesan cheese, Swiss cheese, onion, Worcestershire sauce, spice, and hot pepper sauce. Gently stir in shrimp and crab meat.

Form fillo dough into shells. Fill shells with the mixture.

Arrange stuffed shells on baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven 7 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. 

Sprinkle with paprika before serving. 

Cheese Blintzes

The best words to describe this sweet snack is heavenly. I know the sour cream sounds weird, but when you mix it with the blintzes when they're hot out of the oven, they are to die for. They were so good, I even forgot to take a picture of them... Ryan and I are already planning on making them at the lake next weekend!

Ingredients:

• 1 (1 lb) loaf white bread
• 4 Tbl white sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• 2 tsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 pint sour cream

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. 

Trim crusts from bread and roll the slices flat. 

In a small bowl combine sugar and cinnamon to make a mixture. 

 

In a large mixing bowl, mix softened cream cheese, milk and vanilla until smooth. Spread this mixture onto each slice of flattened bread. Roll each bread slice up. Dip bread/cream cheese rolls in melted butter, roll the blintzes immediately in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Cut rolls in half. Arrange the blintzes on the prepared cookie sheet. 

  

Bake for 10 minutes. Serve with sour cream. 

Blue Cheese Biscuits

These little biscuits are really easy and inexpensive. I had all of the ingredients on hand, and although I used blue cheese... You can try this recipe with any kind of cheese, that melts well. It was a great snack/appetizer, but you could also make it as a side/roll substitution.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 (10 oz) package refrigerated biscuit dough
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 5 oz blue cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate, or baking sheet, with non-stick cooking spray. 

Slice each biscuit into quarters, arrange then in the prepared pie plate. Pour melted butter over the biscuits, then sprinkle the biscuits with blue cheese. 

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. 

ENJOY!