Grilled Chicken Salad & Fried Spinach

Since I've been neglecting my blog lately, I'm going to share 2 recipes with you today! It's summer and these 2 recipes are great summer time recipes. They're both recipes that I made up totally on my own. The first is a grilled Chicken salad. Chicken salad sounded really really good one day when the temperatures out side were way above 100 degrees. I decided to grill the chicken because it sounded really good, plus using the grill outside wouldn't heat up the inside of the house! Smart huh? We tried the salad in several different ways of serving and they were all really good. We tried it on a bed of lettuce & tomato, on crackers, on a sandwich and even on it's own. Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken Salad

3 Chicken breasts, grilled and cut into chunks

5 Hard boiled eggs, cut into pieces

3-4 Stalks of celery, chopped up

1/4 cup sweet pickle relish

1/4 cup mayo

1/2-1 cup miracle whip

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 small box of raisins

1/2-1 cup chopped pecans

Mix all ingredients together and serve cold.

The next recipe is Fried Spinach. Our neighbor has a garden that is going crazy right now and she insisted on me taking a bunch of spinach, but there are very few ways I like spinach served. I have had fried spinach in a restaurant before and when I searched the Internet I couldn't find a recipe. Everything I could find was just frying spinach and that was it, but I wanted it battered like I had at the restaurant so I had to come up with my own batter. This batter is a thin batter, that's why it says 1/2 to 1 cup of milk. You want it to just barely cover the leaves so you can still taste the spinach under the batter. I think this would be really good on other vegetables and maybe some meats. If you try it on other vegetables, please send me a picture to add to this post to share with other people. I think the next time I go to the farmer's market, I'm going to get some onions to try it on! I know you'll enjoy this!!

Fried Spinach

2 cups flour

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 - 1 cup milk

Oil or shortening for frying

Heat oil to 350 degrees F.

Put 1 cup of flour on a plate.

Mix flour, egg, salt, pepper and baking powder in a shallow bowl. Mix enough milk in to make a thin batter. Dip spinach leaves into flour and shake off excess. Dip leaves into batter and place into oil. Turn once the bottom is brown and dry the other side until it is also brown. Place fried spinach on paper towel and sprinkle with more salt.

Spinach, washed & dried (water & oil don't mix!!)

Lemon Pepper Chicken

There isn't a photo for this recipe. When we plan to spend the day out fishing, hiking or whatever else we plan I like to put a crock pot meal together. This last weekend, was one of those days. This was the first time I made this recipe and I will NEVER EVER EVER EVER roast a chicken in the oven again and is also the reason why there isn't a picture. When we got home from the lake and pulled the chicken out, it was so tender it fell apart. I wanted a pretty picture of the chicken on the plate, but it didn't work. We had to use slotted spoons to take the chicken out of the pot because it kept falling off the forks. When I went to put away what was left, I had to problem taking the meat off the bones, plus there was wonderful broth to make chicken noodle soup for dinner the next night!
Hope you enjoy this tender chicken recipe! If you make this recipe and are able to get a good picture of it and wouldn't mind sharing it with me and everybody else, leave me a comment.

Lemon Pepper Chicken

1 whole chicken

lemon juice from 1 lemon

lemon pepper

onion powder

garlic powder

salt

1/2 cup chicken broth

Sprinkle lemon juice and spices over entire chicken. Place the chicken in the crock pot and add chicken broth. Cook on low 5-7 hours.

Enjoy!

Praline Cookies

I was looking through my pile of cookie recipes I want to try and foudn this one. I only had 1 egg and 1 stick of butter in the fridge so when I came across this recipe, I was really excited. I also didn't want to have to refrigerate the dough and wait for it to chill, I needed instant satisfaction!
These cookes are sooooooooooo good! When I remembered I hadn't taken a picture of them yet, there was only one and a half cookies left (there was a little bit of an accident when the cookies came out of the oven and were being transfered to the cooling area so there were a bunch of half cookies on the first cookie sheet). I had to try the batter and was a little worried I wasn't going to get many cookies because the batter was so delicious. I definately got instant satisfaction with the batter. I couldn't wait for the cookies to cool enough to hold in my hand to eat one. The burning sensation on my fingers and on my tongue were worth it!!!
Hope you enjoy these as much as we did. I was told I can never make just 1 batch ever again though. They're extremly easy and yummy! Enjoy!!

Praline Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg, unbeaten

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Beat together butter, vanilla, brown sugar and egg until smooth. Sift flour with cream of tartar and beat into mixture. Add nuts.

Measure out level teaspoons of dough on greased baking sheets.

Bake 12-15 minutes.

Chicken & Ham Roll-Ups

This is a really really easy and quick meal. It tastes really good, too.

Chicken and Ham Roll-ups

3 cups cooked rice

1 1/2 cups chopped, cooked chicken

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted, divided

1/4 cup finely chopped celery

1/4 teaspoon pepper, divided

6 slices fully cooked ham (or 18 thinly sliced ham lunch meat)

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon ground thyme

2 teaspoons dried chives

Paprika

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spread rice in a greased 11x7x2 inch baking dish; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine chicken, 1/3 cup soup, celery and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Place 1/4 cup on each pice of hap (or 3 thin slices) and role up. Secure with a toothpick if necessary. Place ham rolls, seam side down on top of rice. Combine sour cream, milk, thyme and remaining soup and pepper; spoon over rolls.

Bake for 15 minutes and then sprinkle with cheese and paprika. Bake for another 5-10 minutes until bubbly.

Remove toothpicks before serving.

Enjoy!

Brown Sugar Porkshops

Here is the meat to the grilled meat and potatoes meal. These porkchops are definately well worth the work it takes if it's a pain to get your grill out and going.

Brown Sugar Porkchops

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup apple juice

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

salt & pepper to taste

2 teaspoons cornstartch

1/2 cup water

6-8 boneless porkchops

1. Preheat grill for medium heat.

2. In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, apple juice, soy sauce, ginger and salt & pepper. Bring to a boil. COmbine water and cornstarch in small bowl and whisk into brown sugar mixture. Stir until thick.

3. Brush grate lightly with oil before placing porkchops on the grill. Sear both sides of the porkchop and then start glazing while the porchops finish grilling.

Enjoy!

Grilled Potatoes

One of the best parts about summer is being able to use the grill more. I think grilled meat tastes so much better. I found a recipe to make a side dish on the grill and then of course I modified it a little bit. I'll share with you the side dish today and since I haven't blogged in awhile, I'll share the pork chop recipe with you later this week.
Your potatoes ill look a little different because the original recipe said to add the cheese at the beginning. I usually share a recipe with you after I make the final changes to it and I know it's perfect, but this is a small change. Adding the cheese at the beginning makes the cheese melt and run to the bottom and makes a crunchy layer of cheese on the bottom of the foil.

Grilled Potatoes

3 large potatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick

1 medium onion, chopped

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cups your favorite cheese blend

1/2 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

Preheat grill to medium heat.

Put potatoes and onions in a piece of heavy-duty foil (about 18-inches square) that has been coated with nonstick cooking spray.

Top potatoes and onions with butter, seasoned salt and pepper. Close up foil and place on grill. Grill, covered for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add cheese and bacon and grill for 5 minutes longer. Remove from grill and serve.

Enjoy!

Carmel Pecan Coffee Cake

Hope you have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend! I don't think we'll be doing anything exciting, but I'm sure I'll be doing some baking.
This recipe I have had in my stack of recipes I've pulled from magazines and newspapers that I've been collecting for years and have been planning on trying. It is really good, but for some reason most of my carmel went to the bottom and then when it set up, it was a pain to get it out of the bottom of the dish. It's still really good though. Enjoy!

Carmel Pecan Coffee Cake

Batter

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 envelopes (5 teaspoons) yeast

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup very warm water (120-130 degrees F.)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Cinnamon Sugar Topping

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Carmel Pecan Topping

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans

1. Mix batter ingredients and pour into sprayed 9 1/2-inch deep dish pie plate.

2. Combine cinnamon sugar topping ingredients in small bowl.

3. Stir together corn syrup, brown sugar and butter in small bowl.

4. Top batter evenly with cinnamon sugar topping.

5. Spoon the caramel pecan topping evenly over the batter.

6. Bake by placing in a cold oven; set temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake 25-30 minutes, until lightly browned and firm in center.