Pan-Fried Chicken with Hoisin Cranberry Sauce

It's that time of year when cranberry recipes make their appearances.  Even if it's canned cranberries.  The sauce that goes with this chicken has hoisin sauce in it, which I couldn't find at Walmart.  When I went to Hannaford to look, I went to the "international" section and couldn't find it there either.  I texted my sister to find out what the heck hoisin sauce was.  Then I called my husband and he googled it too.  Both of them found Hannaford's website which said what brand they had; my sister even texted me the picture.  It wasn't there.  I was getting mad.  I got what I thought would be a good alternative, based on a recipe Steve found for homemade hoisin sauce.  Then, because Steve found out it was "like Chinese barbecue sauce," I thought I would check by the ketchup and mustard, where the normal barbecue sauce is.  And there it was.  What weird product placement.  So all this made me mad at the recipe before I had even begun.  But it ended up being yummy enough that it was okay...from Simple & Delicious Oct/Nov 2012.

Pan-Fried Chicken with Hoisin Cranberry Sauce
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
 Sauce:
14 oz can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Flatten chicken slightly; sprinkle with salt, pepper, and ginger.  Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls.  Coat chicken with flour, dip in eggs, then coat with crumbs.

Cook chicken in oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 4-6 minutes on each side or until no longer pink.

Combine all sauce ingredients in a saucepan; heat through.  Serve with chicken.

Emma & Nathan didn't want the sauce on theirs.  Sam loved the sauce.  The chicken was juicy in the middle and the coating was crispy.  The sauce was very good.  It tasted very Chinese-y.  Almost like the sauce on the ribs you get at a Chinese restaurant, but not as thick.  And, no MSG.  Sam and I had some of the leftovers for lunch today, and the chicken wasn't crispy anymore, but I think the sauce was even better.

Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse

We were going to have this for home fellowship last week, but then it got cancelled, for various reasons.  Emma and I decided to make this today, since we had already bought all the ingredients.  Emma loves Nutella, so I was thinking of her when I picked out this recipe.  It was very easy, and she did the whole thing herself, with just a tiny bit of help from me reading the recipe and helping with the measurements.  It's from Simple & Delicious.

Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse
1 3/4 cup cold milk
1 pkg (3.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup nutella
1 3/4 cup cool whip
Additional cool whip for garnish

Whisk milk and pudding mix in a large bowl for 2 minutes.  Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft set.  Whisk in Nutella until smooth.  Fold in whipped topping.  Spoon into 6 dessert dishes.  Chill until serving.  Garnish with additional cool whip before serving.

We just left ours in a big bowl and spooned servings out of it.  And I actually didn't get to try it, except for licking the spoon after we made it, because I went to work.  But Steve and the kids greatly enjoyed it.  And Emma was so proud that she had made it herself.

Beef Macaroni and Cheese

This was an easy recipe from Back of the Box.  All I had to buy were the tomatoes.  That is exactly the ingredient they want you to buy, so they got me on this one.  Tonight was a good night for an easy one because I worked the last two nights and only slept a few hours today.  It is similar to chop suey...our family calls it goulash.

Beef Macaroni and Cheese
1 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
14 oz can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
1 cup elbow macaroni
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Brown beef and onions until no longer pink; drain if necessary.  Add tomatoes with their juice and water; bring to a boil.  Stir in macaroni.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until macaroni is tender.  Stir in cheese.

See how easy?  When I was making this I thought it didn't look that great.  But once I got to the last step and added the cheese, it really came together and looked yummy.  Nathan doesn't like cheese (IF and only if he knows it's there...) so I scooped out a little bit for him before I added the cheese in.  Everybody loved this and it was really so easy.  Definitely keeping.

Chicken Sticks with Pineapple-Peanut Sauce

This is from Back of the Box.  I made another chicken recipe one time with peanut butter and it was really tasty so I wanted to try this one, too.  The featured ingredient is the pineapple.  They want you to buy Dole but I bought Great Value.

Chicken Sticks with Pineapple-Peanut Sauce
8 or 9 metal skewers (I used wooden ones, soaked for 30 minutes, because I don't want to have to wash skewers along with everything else...)
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Cut chicken into strips 1/2 inch wide and 3 or 4 inches long.  Thread two to three strips of meat onto each skewer.  Arrange skewers on broiler pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup juice (don't bother with this step...I drained mine and got exactly 1/4 cup juice, and you end up combining it all anyway).  Combine crushed pineapple, reserved juice, peanut butter, brown sugar, lime juice, curry powder, and ginger in blender or food processor.  Cover and blend until smooth.  Reserve 3/4 cup sauce for dipping; set aside.  Brush part of the remaining pineapple sauce over chicken.  Broil chicken 4 inches from heat, turning once and brushing with sauce, for about 10 minutes or until meat is no longer pink.  Discard any remaining sauce used during grilling.  Serve chicken with reserved pineapple sauce for dipping.

This was SO fabulous.  The sauce smelled great before it ever got near the chicken.  It reminded me of a cross between chex mix seasoning and Watkins ground beef seasoning (only my mom & sister will know what that is...) but don't let that throw you.  Once I ate it on the chicken it was unbelievably good...all the layers of flavor, the subtle pineapple with the peanut butter and a hint of the chex mixy-ness.  We are definitely keeping this one and having it again.  Really, so so good.

Blueberry Ginger Muffin Tops

This is from Back of the Box cooking.  We always have blueberries now, because of our blueberry bushes.  So I didn't have to buy anything special for this recipe, which is always convenient, AND lets me make more new things during the week. The thing they want you to buy for this recipe is the oatmeal.  This recipe is like muffin batter, but a bit thicker, and you bake them on a cookie sheet instead of muffin tins, so you just get the tops of the muffins. 

Blueberry Ginger Muffin Tops
1 1/2 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned)(I used quick)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground ginger
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease large cookie sheet.  Combine oats and sugar.  For streusel topping, combine 1/4 cup oat & sugar mixture with 1 tbsp of the melted butter in a small bowl; set aside.  For muffins, add flour, baking powder, and ginger to remaining oat mixture and mix well.  Combine milk, remaining melted butter, and egg; add to dry ingredients just until moistened.  Stir in blueberries.  Drop by measured 1/4 cupfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.  Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over batter, patting gently.  Bake 20 to 22 minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve warm.

First of all, not enough streusel topping, I only had enough for a scant smattering on 10 of the 12 muffin tops.  Secondly, the kids didn't really like these.  Nathan didn't even want to try one.  Emma and Sam both tried them,but they didn't like the oatmeal.  Steve and I liked them though.  And I had a leftover one for breakfast with my coffee this morning and I thought they were good.  I couldn't really taste the ginger in them, though.  To me they were just like oatmeal blueberry muffins.  So pretty good, but why make something again that I know the kids won't like?  So, not saving...

Southwest Pulled Pork

My new Simple & Delicious came a couple of weeks ago, and this is the first recipe I have marked to try.  It makes a lot of pulled pork and you have it on rolls.  Then it has 2 recipes you can make with the leftover meat, but I didn't like the looks of either of those, so I froze the leftovers to have pulled pork sandwiches again soon.

Southwest Pulled Pork
1 boneless pork shoulder butt roast
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I left this out)
1 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
2 cans (4 oz each) chopped green chilies
1 cup chicken broth
kaiser rolls, split

Cut roast in half (I removed all the fat I could at this point, too).  Combine the chili powder, brown sugar, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne in a small bowl; rub over meat.  Transfer to a 5 qt slow cooker.  Top with onion and chilies.  Pour broth around meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until tender.  Remove meat; cool slightly.  Skim fat from cooking juices.  Shred pork with 2 forks and return to slow cooker; heat through.  Serve on rolls.

This was quite good.  It almost had the taste of taco seasoning.  All the kids liked it, even Emma who hates to chew meat, because it was nice and tender.  It makes me excited when I can freeze the rest, too.  Good easy meal that smelled great...a keeper! 

Drop Cornmeal Biscuits

I heart drop biscuits and drop cookies, because I hate to knead and roll out dough.  Not that I will never do it, because sometimes I will, but I like so much better a recipe that you just drop the dough.  We had these tonight with Yummy Chicken Soup, which is one of the first "new" things I ever tried way back when I first started doing new recipes.  It's still one of my favorites.  I thought these biscuits would go well with it.  The only featured ingredient here is Land O' Lakes butter, which of course I did not buy.  However, I did have to run to the "snack store" which is like 1 minute from my house to pay twice as much for butter as I would at any normal store because I only had 1/2 of a stick left instead of a whole stick.  That made me so mad that I bought some diet pepsi too.

Drop Cornmeal Biscuits
1 3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup cornmeal
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have it [and who has buttermilk laying around?] use 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar plus enough milk to equal 1 cup; let stand 5 minutes)

Preheat oven to 450.  Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add buttermilk; stir until mixture is just combined (if batter is too thin [and how would I know, this being the first time I've made this?] stir in 1 to 2 tbsp additional flour).  Drop by 1/4 cupfuls, 1 inch apart, onto greased baking sheet.  Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.

These came out perfect!  Even Nathan liked them.  They were great dunked in the soup, and I think they would be good with chili too because of the cornmeal.  But it wasn't overpowering cornmeal, it didn't have the texture or the yellow color of a corn muffin.  Definitely will make these again!

Morning Melts

One of Steve's 2 specialties when he cooks are breakfast sandwiches (his other one is quesadillas).  When I saw this recipe in the Back of the Box cookbook, I marked it to make because it sounded good and easy, and I love having breakfast for supper.  I threw down my challenge to Steve when he got home last night...it went something like "I hope you have money in your pocket and that you're ready to run."  He looked confused.  I said "because tonight I'm giving you a run for your money."  Still confused.  I expounded.  "Because I'm making breakfast sandwiches for supper, and that's one of the things that you make."  Anyway my throw-down was a total fail.  But supper was yummy, despite the fact that Steve didn't look even a little bit nervous...the featured ingredient was Nature's Own english muffins...we had ours on Thomas english muffins from my freezer (and before that, from the bread store).

Morning Melts
4 english muffins, split
1/3 cup peach preserves (I used apple jelly that I had left from a different recipe)
2 tbsp honey mustard
8 slices Canadian bacon (have you seen that movie, by the way?  Hilarious.)
8 eggs (I only used 6)
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp butter
8 slices colby/jack cheese
snipped fresh chives (optional)

Place english muffin halves on foil-lined baking sheet.  Broil until lightly toasted (like 1 minute).  Combine preserves and honey mustard in small bowl.  Spread evenly over toasted english muffins; top each with 1 slice Canadian bacon (one of John Candy's last movies *sniff*).  Broil 1 to 2 minutes or until heated through.  Remove from oven; set aside.  Whisk eggs, water, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add egg mixture.  Cook, stirring and gently lifting edges to allow uncooked eggs to flow under cooked portion (like an omelet, so that it stays on the english muffins easier, rather than clumps of eggs that will fall off).  Evenly divide eggs over each muffin, then top each with 1 cheese slice.  Broil 2 minutes or until cheese is melted and lightly browned.  Sprinkle with chives, if using.

Emma had hers without the jelly/mustard mixture.  Nathan had his completely deconstructed, with the english muffin (toasted with butter and cinnamon sugar) next to some scrambled eggs and the meat (which I assured him was just ham despite it's unusual name).  We had hash browns on the side.  Overall a yummy easy meal.  For interested parties, Canadian Bacon is available streaming on Netflix.  At least it was the last time we watched it.

Grilled Pineapple with Lime and Coconut

As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it.  I love fresh pineapple, and lately I have been loving lime.  We had this with the Honey-Spice Drumsticks recipe that I just posted.  I found this recipe in an All You magazine that I did not purchase, but was passed to me by my mom.

Grilled Pineapple with Lime and Coconut
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
Zest and juice of 1 lime (who has time to zest a lime?  Not I.  I just used the juice)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 pineapple, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch thick wedges

Place coconut in a small skillet over medium heat.  Cook, stirring frequently, until golden and lightly toasted.  Transfer to a bowl and set aside.  Preheat grill to medium.  In a small bowl, combine lime juice and brown sugar.  Oil grill.  Put pineapple wedges on grill and cook, turning once, until softened and browned in spots, 7-8 minutes total.  Transfer pineapple to a dish and dot with lime juice mixture.  Just before serving, arrange pineapple on a platter and sprinkle with lime zest and toasted coconut.

This smelled great, and tasted pretty good, too.  The pineapple itself wasn't as tasty as it could have been, although Emma and I are forever ruined for fresh pineapple because the last one we had was in Haiti, at the breakfast buffet at the Visa Lodge.  It was the yummiest tastiest fruit I have ever eaten.  Of any kind of fruit.  We kept saying to each other, "I can't believe how good this is."  And then when our friend and fellow globe-trotter Jen sat down at the table, we were gushing about it to her, too.  So the one I bought at Hannaford for this recipe was just sad.  It's like when you want a cup of coffee at work at 3 in the morning and all that's left is instant.  Okay wait, maybe it's not THAT bad.  But you see what I'm saying.  So this was a good recipe.  But I was left feeling like it could have been so much better...

Honey-Spice Drumsticks

This is last night's dinner, from Back of the Box Cooking.  The thing they want you to buy is Heinz ketchup (which I won't, because I listen to Howie Carr...I buy Hunt's) and worcestershire sauce (which I already have, and is the Walmart brand).  Steve is not a huge fan of dark meat, but it is easy to get off the bone for the kids, so I like that.  I got a package of 12 drumsticks and I froze the other 4 to throw in next time I make homemade broth.

Honey-Spice Drumsticks
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (I used 2 tsp dried)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp pepper (that's a lot of pepper)
8 chicken drumsticks, trimmed

Stir ketchup with honey, orange zest, orange juice, worcestershire, rosemary, garlic, cumin, and pepper.  Divide in half.  Toss one half with the drumsticks and marinate for 30 minutes.  Reserve remaining sauce mixture.  Discard the marinade and grill the chicken, turning occasionally, for 15 minutes (I used the broiler pan in the oven...I would have used my Foreman grill but I used that for the pineapple recipe we had with this which I am posting separately).  Brush chicken all over with reserved sauce and grill for 5 minutes more or until no longer pink near the bone.

Okay so making this in the oven took way longer than 15 minutes...it took closer to 45.  That made me mad at the chicken before I even tasted it.  And it wasn't that great.  Too much of a weird mix with the sweetness of the honey, and then the cumin, and the rosemary.  Just wasn't a good combination.  Not keeping.

"Black Gold" Black Bean Soup

This was our meatless recipe for the week.  I don't do it faithfully, but do try to have one meatless meal per week (for cheapness and for healthness).  We have a few things that I make often, like Corn & Black Bean Quesadillas.  And lots of times we have breakfast for supper and have scrambled eggs and some kind of muffin or other bread.  And then once last month we had blueberry pie and ice cream.  That was fun.  I have tried a lot of meatless recipes, but so far I only have 6 in my keeper book.  Those are recipes that we really liked and will make again (not counting breads).  So I need to boost my repertoire.  My vegetarian sister in law has been passing me a lot of recipes, which I always give her credit for when I try.  So far her banana bread has been awesome, and it's in the keeper book along with her black bean burgers.  She also gave me a recipe for dairy-free corn chowder, so stay tuned for that when it gets a bit more fallish.  This soup came from Back of the Box Cooking.  I'm not sure why it's called "Black Gold."  Sam and I figured it could be a Texas recipe (since "black gold" was a nickname for oil when they found it in Texas); or that it was such a tasty soup it tasted as good as gold (ummm, how does gold taste?).  The recipe offers no insight into the name, so you can make your own conclusions there.  The featured items in the recipe are Hain (never heard of them) chicken broth and canned corn, and Garden of Eatin' blue tortilla chips.  Which I did not purchase.

"Black Gold" Black Bean Soup
 2 (14.5 oz cans) chicken broth (I used 4 cups of homemade vegetable stock)
5 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot (I bought matchstick carrots so no prep work)
12 cup chopped red or green pepper (I used red)
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained (I used 1 1/2 cups frozen)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Fresh cilantro for garnish
Tortilla chips for serving

In a blender, puree 1 can (or 2 cups) of chicken broth with 3 cups of beans.  Set aside.  In a large saucepan (I used a dutch oven), heat oil.  Add onions and carrots and saute for 3 minutes.  Add red pepper and garlic and saute additional 1 minute.  Add coriander and cumin and cook another 30 seconds.  Add remaining broth, pureed beans, remaining black beans, corn, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Garnish with cilantro and serve with tortilla chips.

Sam and Steve decided they wanted to put shredded Mexican cheese on theirs.  The little ones and I did not.  Nathan laboriously picked only the corn and carrots out of this soup, and he wanted his with Ritz crackers instead of tortilla chips.  Emma ate it but didn't really like it.  Steve and Sam both liked it.  I thought it was good, not great.  Not good enough to keep, anyway.  Also, Emma was rating on a 5 star scale, where the soup got 3 stars, and the tortilla chips got 4.5 stars.  Then Nathan wanted to rate his meal too.  He told me that the lower the number of stars, the more he liked it, and "remember, more stars is worse I like it."  So he gave the Ritz crackers 1 star, which means he REALLY liked them.  He gave the soup 50 stars (bad).  And he gave the one tortilla chip he tried 100 stars.  So bad.

Chocolate Chip Sweet Cream Scones

We had this for dinner last night, with scrambled cheesy eggs.  I already have a scone recipe that is very yummy, but it starts with a pancake mix, and then for the chocolate you are supposed to use chopped Hershey bars.  Of course that is yummy, but also expensive.  So when I saw this one I wanted to try it to see if it could replace my expensive(r) scone recipe.  To make Nathan want to eat these, I told him they were breakfast cookies.  They are really more like biscuits, but I couldn't tell him that.  This is from Back of the Box Cooking.  The thing they want you to buy is the half and half, butter, and egg, all from Land O' Lakes.  Well, I get my butter from the Land O' Sam's Club, I get my half and half from Walmart (the cheapest brand), and I get my eggs from my neighbor.  So I didn't have to buy anything special to make this recipe, I already had everything.

Chocolate Chip Sweet Cream Scones
1 3/4 cup flour
3 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold butter (5 1/3 tbsp from a stick)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)
1 egg, slightly beaten
4 to 6 tbsp half and half

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.  Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in chocolate chips, egg, and just enough half and half so dough leaves sides of the bowl (I had to use like 8 tbsp before that happened).  Knead dough lightly 10 times on lightly floured surface.  Roll into a 9-inch circle; cut in 12 wedges.  Place wedges on ungreased baking sheet.  Brush tops with remaining egg (but...you only told me to use one egg...I brushed mine with melted butter).  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove immediately from baking sheet and serve.

So, yummy and easy.  Definitely replacing my old one with this one!  The kids all liked these.  We had the rest this afternoon for an afternoon snack (great with a cup of coffee, although I was the only one who wanted one...).  They definitely tasted better fresh and warm, rather than warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds like we did today.  But still good.

Beans and Rice (Diri ak Pwa)

Finally I attempted Haitian beans & rice.  I do have a beans and rice recipe that I make and we all love, but it's not Haitian.  It has smoked sausage, chicken broth, and ketchup, among other things.  We've had beans and rice several times on our various trips, and it has a certain flavor and texture that I wasn't sure I could duplicate.  But I thought it was time to try.  Thursday night we had people over for dinner from Corinth that are going to Haiti in February.  Steve told them I would make Haitian food.  I have made a few main dishes so I decided to go with Koden N (Haitian Turkey) except I made it with two whole chickens, cut up, this time, instead of Fred Flintstone turkey parts.  I thought I should do better than minute brown rice for a side dish.  So I took the plunge.  This is from A Taste of Haiti.

Beans and Rice (Diri ak Pwa)
1 cup dried kidney beans
3 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 scallion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups long-grain rice
2 whole cloves
1 green scotch bonnet pepper (I used a jalapeno)
1 thyme sprig
1 parsley sprig

To cook dried beans, wash beans and drain.  Place in saucepan with 6 cups of water and 1 tsp salt.  Bring to a boil.  Lower heat and boil on medium-low heat, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hours.  When skins wrinkle, taste to see if they are fork-tender.  Drain and reserve liquid for cooking the rice.  This gives the rice a nice color and lots of taste.

Heat oil in cast iron pot (I don't have one...I used a Dutch oven) on medium heat.  Stir in garlic, onion, scallions, 2 tsp salt, and pepper to 2 minutes.  Add and stir the cooked beans and fry for 5 minutes until the beans are crisp.  Add 4 cups of liquid (reserved bean liquid plus enough water to make 4 cups) and bring to a boil.  Add rice and cloves.  Stir and boil and until water (mostly) evaporates.  Lower heat, stir rice, and place the whole pepper, thyme, and parsley on top of rice.  Cover and let cook on low for 30 minutes (mine only took like 15).  Remove pepper, thyme, and parsley.  Stir before serving.

I just saw another recipe for this that added a tablespoon of butter when adding the rice, which I think is a good idea because the rice did stick together more than I liked.  But that is my only complaint.  Steve and I both thought it was similar to what we have had in Haiti.  It made a lot.  We had 6 adults and 3 kids eating it, and we still have about half of it leftover, and everybody had good-sized servings, and some people had seconds.  So definitely enough for a crowd, which you always have in Haiti.

Mandarin Orange Chicken Salad

This was another meal we had this past week, maybe on Tuesday.  It's from Back of the Box cooking, and for this one they wanted you to buy a certain lettuce, mandarin oranges, and green onions (all Dole).  But I didn't.  I just buy (and mostly, just do) what I want.  For lettuce I bought a Romaine mix.  I mostly like iceberg lettuce, but I know that doesn't really help you much.  I have made great strides in the last year and can now tolerate romaine.  I still do not want leaves and grass (or sprouts...ew) in my salads, but at least my lettuce is mostly green now, rather than transparent.

Mandarin Orange Chicken Salad
12 oz pkg salad blend
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped or shredded
15 oz can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup pea pods or bean sprouts (I left both of these out)
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted (I left these out, but wish I had some to put on there...I just overlooked it when I was making my list)
1/2 cup asian salad dressing (I bought Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame...but not because they wanted me to.  It was a Dole recipe, not a Kraft...but I bet they are in league together...)
1/2 cup chow mein noodles (that is not enough...I must have used at least 3 times that much)

Combine lettuce, chicken, oranges, green onions, and almonds in a large bowl.  Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with chow mein noodles.  4 servings.

This came out so great!  It was just enough for the 5 of us.  Of course Nathan only liked the chicken out of his, and Emma didn't like the dressing.  But Sam asked for extra dressing and ate all of his.  Steve and I thought it was great.  And it was very easy; I made the chicken ahead of time, so all I had to do was throw everything together and dinner took like 5 minutes to get ready.  Definitely making again!

BBQ Potato, Bacon, & Corn Salad

Here we are at the start of September!  So excited to start making soups again, and yummy fall things.  I made these recipes last week, but been too busy to post them.  So by all rights they should be under August.  But oh well.  So this recipe is another one from the Back of the Box Cookbook.  The featured ingredients are the ranch dressing, barbecue sauce, dijon mustard, and bacon (all Kraft products, and I didn't buy any of the ones they wanted me to...).  I detest mayo.  So a potato salad recipe without it is right up my alley.  I already have one that uses potatoes, leeks, and Italian dressing.  But this one sounded good, too.  We had it with "meat on a stick" as the kids say, which was smoked sausage, pineapple, green pepper, and potatoes with a pineapple/brown sugar glaze on skewers.  A good end-of-summer type meal.

BBQ Potato, Bacon, & Corn Salad
1/3 cup ranch dressing
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
2 tbsp dijon mustard
3 lbs small red potatoes, quartered and cooked
11 oz can corn, drained (I used leftover fresh corn)
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped red peppers
1/2 cup diced red onion
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Mix dressing, barbecue sauce, and mustard in a large bowl.  Add all remaining ingredients except bacon; mix lightly.  Sprinkle top with crumbled bacon.  Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

When you are boiling the potatoes, make sure you don't cook them til they're TOO soft.  I cooked them too long because I got distracted, and when I was stirring them with the other ingredients, the potatoes got a little "mashy."  It didn't affect the taste though.  Steve & I thought this was great.  Definitely one I'll keep and make again, but I'll have to make it to bring to parties and picnics, because (predictably) the kids weren't too keen on this one.