Honey Sriracha Chicken

I have spent too many years of my life scared of food. While I'm not exactly at the point of being willing to try anything, I am working at stepping out of self imposed box. Many of you may not think of this type of chicken as "out of the box," but I assure you for me that it is. I tried a pizza at a local restaurant that had honey sriracha chicken on it, and I was floored at how much I like it. So, I went on a search to find a recipe that sounded good and I found this one for Honey Sriracha Grilled Chicken Skewers on Pinterest, and my daughter and I have loved it! I have found another use for this chicken in a pizza variety I'm making of Honey Sriracha Chicken, Spinach Alfredo pizza. Again, this is delicious (blog coming soon) and everyone who has tried it has loved it!

6-8 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into large cubes (I use 2.25-2.5 lbs separated into two batches)
1/2 cup honey or agave
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup sriracha chile sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Cube chicken and place chicken cubes into two quart size freezer ziplock bags, set aside.

In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, sriracha, and salt; whisk well.

Pour  mixture evenly into the two bags of chicken. Squeeze air out of bag and seal bag, coat chicken with sauce.

Here is where you choose which course you're going to take. If you are planning on cooking a bag of the chicken that day, then marinate it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. A few hours would be better. I generally prep a 5-lb or 10-lb bag of chicken at one time and divide it among multiple bags for freezing. The night before I plan to cook the chicken, I pull it out of the freezer and place it in the fridge. When I get home from work the next evening, I remove the bag from the fridge for an hour or so while I do chores around the house. There is already oil in the marinade, so you don't need extra in your skillet before cooking. Just heat up the skillet on medium-high heat; either drain the chicken in a colander or use  tongs to remove chicken and let the sauce drip off. Either way, once the skillet is heated, add the chicken to begin cooking.

I have found that marinade and other juices tend to build while the chicken is cooking and to get a nice char mark on the chicken this liquid will need to be drained during the cooking process. Keep stirring and draining chicken until you have the amount of browning that you desire. This is one of my 15 minute meals - cook a pot of Minute Rice and a veggie and dinner is served.

Chicken al-a-good

A long, long time ago in a land far, far... oops! This isn't a fairy tale; this is the real deal. My mom got this recipe from her cousin (who is sort of like an aunt to me) quite a few years ago, and it just hits the spot! It's not difficult to make... at least my adaptation isn't. The original recipe was a bit time consuming, but I've adjusted. Also, the original recipe (see right) makes a 9x13 casserole. Having a fairly small family, that is just too much food, so what I'm going to give you are the ingredients necessary for an 8x8 casserole. This comfortably feeds two with leftovers.

2 lbs boneless chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
4 oz (1/2 cup) sour cream
1 pack of saltine crackers
1 stick butter

Begin by boiling the chicken until cooked through. Remove from stove and allow to cool until you can comfortably handle it. Dice the chicken into bite size pieces.

In a bowl, mix the sour cream and cream of chicken until combined and smooth.

Layer this mixture over the diced chicken.

In another bowl, melt the butter. I use a metal bowl and melt it on the stove as I'm working on the other parts. You could melt it in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl if you prefer. Before opening the bag of crackers, shift them all to one end, lay the first few flat and begin to crush the crackers working all the way through the bag. Once all the crackers are crushed, add them to the butter, and using a fork, mix the crackers until each one is coated and all the butter is absorbed.

Layer the cracker mixture on top of the casserole.

Bake at 350 degrees about 35-45 minutes, or until crackers are golden brown and the soup mixture is bubbling at the edges.

Grilled Peanut Butter

The tried and true stand-by 10-minute dinner in my house has always been grilled peanut butter. I know, I know! Huh? Yeah, I get lots of "you're fixing what???" every time I make this and post something about it, so I figured, why not share? This is something I grew up with my daddy making for me, and I've made it for my daughter nearly all her life. She's even introduced it to a few of her friends. Apparently, grilled peanut butter and banana was one of Elvis Presley's favorite dishes, but since I don't like the texture of bananas, I'll just stick with my favorite!

Bread

Crunchy peanut butter

Butter

I'll go ahead and warn you, if you've ever made a grilled cheese, then this will be a easy-peasy for you. Put about 1-1.5 Tbsp of butter in your skillet, and turn the heat on med-high. Then simply spread a healthy dose of crunchy peanut butter (yes, I have tried it with creamy, and while it works in a pinch, it will run out of the sandwich a whole lot more) on one piece of bread. Then butter one side of the other slice of bread.

Once the butter in the skillet is hot, place the sandwich, butter side up into the skillet. Be sure not to let it sit too still. I like to shake the skillet back and forth slightly to move the sandwich around. Cook for a couple minutes until the bottom is brown, then flip the butter side down and cook for a few minutes more.

Sometimes we serve it with fries; sometimes we serve it with chips. Add some grapefruit or cantaloupe, and you've got a tasty and very quick meal.

Sautéed Brussel Sprouts

I don't hate fruits and vegetables by any stretch of the imagination, but I am a rather picky eater. So, I'm always on the lookout for new ways to try the varieties that I do actually like. The only way I had ever tried Brussels sprouts was steamed with a bit of butter and salt. When I saw this recipe on Pinterest for the Best Brussels Sprouts, I knew I needed to try it. While my daughter wasn't thrilled with them, I enjoyed them so much that I fixed them again! With one making, I also added some Hollandaise sauce, and it was phenomenal. It was a very simple recipe, and you can adjust it to make more or less. I'll give you the ingredients as the recipe calls for, but I actually only used about half a bag of Brussels sprouts, which was just a bit more than enough for my daughter and I.

3 cups brussels sprouts, halved

1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
2 Tblsp olive oil
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Add brussels sprouts, black pepper, garlic salt and 1 Tbsp of olive oil to a skillet. Cook over a low heat allowing the brussels sprouts to brown on each side before flipping them.

After about 10 minutes add 1 more tablespoon of olive oil and seasoned bread crumbs. Cook for another 10 minutes, flipping occasionally. The edges should be browned.

Meatloaf

Several years ago, I was having a conversation with my best friend, and I mentioned that I really wanted a good meatloaf recipe. She said she had one, and she quickly wrote down the ingredients and directions. I looked at what she had written, and I couldn't believe it could be that easy. When I tried it, I couldn't believe it was that easy AND tasted that good. Thank you, Romayne, for this wonderful recipe!

2 lbs ground beef

1 packet onion soup mix

1 egg

2/3 cup milk

3 Tbsp brown sugar

6 Tbsp ketchup

2 Tbsp mustard

Mix the ground beef, onion soup mix, milk and egg together until combined.

Press the meat mixture into a loaf pan. I bought a meatloaf pan specifically for this purpose, and also bought one for my best friend to thank her for giving me this recipe! The pan has two layers - the normal shape loaf for the meatloaf, but there are holes in the bottom to drain out all of the fat that cooks off, and then there's an outer layer to, of course, catch the grease. They aren't terribly expensive, so if you prepare meatloaf, even occasionally, then this is a great investment for you.

Next, combine the brown sugar, ketchup and mustard in a bowl and stir until smooth. I actually used brown spicy mustard, because I had some open and I rarely use mustard and definitely didn't need two bottles in my fridge. It worked just as well for my taste.

Spoon the mixture on top of the meat mixture. Just to let you know, I was preparing this to cook the next night, so to keep the plastic from sticking, I stuck two toothpicks into the meatloaf - that's what they're doing in this picture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Slice, and enjoy!

Unstuffed Bell Peppers

I find it rather funny... growing up my mom used to make this meal, and I would meticulously pick out every piece of bell pepper that was in it. I never, ever thought I would make this myself. About 10 years ago, I was at a vegetable stand getting some fruit and vegetables for me and my daughter and I saw these bell peppers in a basket and they just looked so pretty. I picked one up and squeezed it and then smelled it, and I had never smelled anything so amazing. I bought them, brought them home and made this meal. I make it at least once a month now. And now it's my daughter's turn to meticulously pick out all traces of pepper in the mixture. This is a very easy meal to make, and the leftovers warm up very well, which is great for lunches. It's also very flexible. You can make as much or as little as you want or you can have it more meat heavy or more rice and bell pepper heavy, which is how I make it.

1 lb ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

1-2 small to medium jalapeños

2-3 tsps minced garlic

2-4 cups uncooked instant Minute rice (white or brown works fine, and sometimes I mix them)

1-3 green bell peppers

2-4 cans tomato sauce

season all salt

Brown the ground beef in a skillet large enough to hold the whole meal. I season my ground beef with season all salt. It's lower in sodium than regular salt and I just like the flavor better. While the beef cooks, dice up the bell pepper, onion and jalapenos and set aside. 

With just a very light bit of pink left to the meat, add the jalapeños and onion and continue cooking until the beef is thoroughly cooked. Add the garlic and mix well.

Now here's the hard part... pour in as much rice as you want for the mixture of meat to rice that you desire. Afraid I have never once measured how much rice I use, but I guess it's about 2 or 3 cups. Add the bell pepper, and pour the tomato sauce over it all. 

I usually use one to three 15 oz cans of tomato sauce depending on how much rice I add. This batch I added more rice than usual and ended up using two 15 oz cans and a small one. The most important part is that when it's all mixed together it needs to be soupy. Not swimming in tomato sauce, but it cannot be dry. This is what cooks the rice and bell pepper.

Put a lid on it, reduce the heat to med-low or med, and simmer for about 20 minutes. The rice will be tender when it's done. You need to stir it frequently to ensure it doesn't stick or burn, but that's it. What I love most about the recipe is that the bell pepper cooks some, but still maintains a bit of crunch to it. Lots of flavors in this meal. And as I said, it's super EASY to make, and it reheats very well. Let me know if you try it and alter it any!