Make-It Monday

Chicken Fajita Salad

Prep time: 10 min

Total time: 40 min

makes 4 servings, 2 cups (500 mL) each

recipe by: kraft

Ingredients:

1/4 cup lime juice

1 tsp. chili powder

1 lb. (450 g) boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 each red and green pepper, quartered

8 cups torn leaf lettuce

1/4 cup chopped red onions

1/2 cup Kraft Double Cheddar Light Shredded Cheese

1/4 cup Kraft Calorie-Wise Rancher's Choice Dressing

Directions:

MIX lime juice and chili powder; pour over chicken in shallow dish. Turn chicken over to coat both sides of each breast. Refrigerate 20 min. to marinate. Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade.

HEAT barbecue to medium heat. Grill chicken and peppers 5 min. on each side or until chicken is done (170ºF) and peppers are tender.

CUT peppers into thin strips; place in large bowl. Add lettuce and onions; mix lightly. Place on 4 plates. Cut chicken diagonally into thin strips; place on salads. Top with cheese and dressing.

 

kraft kitchens tips

How to Use Your Broiler

Cook chicken and peppers under the broiler instead of on the barbecue.

Special Extra

Make some fun and delicious wraps by serving this salad in large flour tortillas!

serving size = 2 cups (500 mL)

per serving 240 Calories

**I cooked my peppers and my chicken on my George Foreman Grill and they were wonderful. I also added Corn chips to our salad, making it even more delicious! 

The Hunger Train

Trevor has this thing that he likes to call The Hunger Train. He is referring to the amount of food that he eats. At the beginning of the week, he eats way more than at the end of the week. Well, tonight I think Tyler jumped on the train. At supper, he ate 4 hot dogs without buns (and wanted to eat mine as well), a whole mango (it was quite small), a glass of juice, a dallop of potato salad and some ripple chips. We couldn't believe it. I've never seen someone his age eat so much at once.

Make-It Monday

I can't believe another week has passed already! Time seems to be flying by lately. Here is today's recipe. I made it on Friday, and it was a big hit with everyone in our house. We loved it!

Chicken and Dumplings
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Serves: 8
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• ½ cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 whole Chicken, Cut Into Pieces (cut Up Fryer) (I used 8 boneless, skinless thighs)
• Salt And Pepper
• ½ cups Finely Diced Carrots
• ½ cups Finely Diced Celery
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
• ½ teaspoons Ground Thyme
• ¼ teaspoons Turmeric
• 6 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• ½ cups Apple Cider (I didn't have this, but it was delicious without as well!)
• ½ cups Heavy Cream

      Dumplings:

• 1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Yellow Cornmeal
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1-½ cup Half-and-half
• 2 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Parsley (optional)
• Salt As Needed

Preparation Instructions

Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then dredge both sides in flour.

Melt butter and olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat. In two batches, brown chicken on both sides and remove to a clean plate.

In the same pot, add diced onion, carrots, and celery. Stir and cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium-low heat. Stir in ground thyme and turmeric, then pour in chicken broth and apple cider. Stir to combine, then add browned chicken. Cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

While chicken is simmering, make the dough for the dumplings: sift together all dry ingredients, then add half-and-half, stirring gently to combine. Set aside.

Remove chicken from pot and set aside on a plate. Use two forks to remove chicken from the bone. Shred, then add chicken to the pot. Pour heavy cream into the pot and stir to combine.

Drop tablespoons of dumpling dough into the simmering pot. Add minced parsley if using. Cover pot halfway and continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Check seasonings; add salt if needed. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

*Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
Source: Pioneer Woman

Hunger Games Casting

I have been following the news for the Hunger Games movie, as I am interested to see who they pick to play the characters. It was announced that they have chosen Katniss. Jennifer Lawrence will be filling the role. Check her out here and let me know what you think of their choice. I personally would have gone another way. I thought that Danielle Chuchran (check her out here) would have been a good choice. There is a video on YouTube of the scene where Rue dies, and she plays Katniss in it and is very good. Check out the video here

Make-It Monday

English Muffins

1 cup hot water
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp honey
2 tsp salt
4 cups flour
2 tsp instant yeast
3 Tbsp softened butter
Cornmeal

Mix water, milk, honey and salt. Add 2 cups flour & yeast. Mix until loose batter. Cover, let rise 1 hour. Add butter and remaining flour. Roll dough on cornmeal surface to 1/2" thick. Cut into circles. Rise until doubled. Cook on buttered hot griddle @ 350 degreese until light brown. Turn once while cooking.

*I have never made these, but really want to. I just haven't seemed to be able to find the time to do it yet. If anyone gives them a go, let me know how they turn out.

Also, if anyone has a good banana bread recipe, I'm on the hunt for a new one. Jacky-Trevor said he really likes yours, but I'm too lazy to get around to calling. Could you email it to me?

Ice Fishing

On Saturday, Tyler and I went ice fishing with Trevor's Dad and his brother Russell. I actually caught a fish. I was the first one. I have pictures, but no computer to put them on right now, so you'll have to wait. We asked Tyler if he wanted to touch the fish, and he just proceeded to hit it across the back a couple of times. It was pretty funny.

Tyler and I spent the afternoon out a Wizard Lake with Trevor's family on Saturday. Trevor wasn't able to come because he was sick. I was sick Thursday and Friday, missing work, and then he was sick Saturday and Sunday. It was a bad bug. Fever, chills, sweats, shakes, aches, sore throat, headache, stomach ache. Anything you can think of, it was in this bug! Good times. We think that maybe this is what Tyler had on Monday, and not heat exhaustion. It was brutal.

Major Malfunction

Trevor bought a new hard drive for our computer and was in the process of installing it when something went horribly wrong. Everything on our hard drive was erased. Everything. Pictures. Music. Movies. You name it, it's gone. We are going to send the drives to a place in California to see if they can recover the data for us. I hope it works. We have a lot of pictures and videos we would really like back, especially our most recent ones on our trip.

A Trip to Paradise

Our trip to Mexico was awesome! Tyler was really good on the flight down, and then he slept the entire flight on the way back. He ended up with a little heat exhaustion the day we came home, but is doing good now. Our resort was really good. We liked it a lot. It had 5 different places to eat, which was nice. It was right on the beach, so we spent a lot of time there, as well as at the pool. Tyler loved it.

There was a zoo at the resort. We went there at least once every day. Tyler loved the monkeys. He got to touch the monkey by the pool one day.

They had this shallow area between the two big pools. It was perfect for Tyler to play in.

Playing on the beach. Tyler would run from the water as it came on shore.

Here is Tyler "Mimming" as he called it. He was really good at staying afloat by himself with his tube on. I was pretty impressed.

This is me on a boogie board. It was pretty fun. I've never done it before.

Trevor went surfing every day. He really liked it.

Beautiful Sunset.

Our pool area at day.

Another nice view.

The pool area at night. It looked really good.

This trip was so good. We would recommend this resort to anyone. It has a kids place where you can leave your kids during the day if you want to do anything. We didn't use it, but it seemed pretty good. I got the best massage of my life while there. It was 1 1/2 hours long and it was 5 different types of massage methods. It was very nice.