BBQ Chicken Salad with BBQ Lime Cilantro Dressing

BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad

• 3 cups lettuce of choice (I like Romaine)
• 1/3 cup corn
• 1/3 cup black beans
• sliced red onion
• sliced avocado
• handful grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cooked grilled chicken breast (I cook mine with bbq sauce in crock pot)
• ¼ cup BBQ Sauce
• ¼ cup cheddar cheese

Ranch dressing

1. Place lettuce into a salad bowl. Layer with corn, black beans and tomatoes. Dice cooked chicken breast and mix with BBQ sauce. Top over salad and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Drizzle with ranch dressing or dressing below.

This makes about 2 servings. Adjust ingredients as needed/desired!

Dressing:

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• 1/2 tespoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Quick Danish-y pastries!

Cream Cheese Squares (allrecipes.com)

• 2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup margarine, melted
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Press one can of the crescent rolls into the bottom of the prepared pan. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Spread over the crescent layer. Unroll the second can of crescent rolls and lay them on top of the cream cheese layer. Do not press down. Pour the melted margarine over the entire pan. Combine the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the top.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is crisp and golden.

I've had this recipe for about a year and we really enjoy it. I usually half the recipe and bake it in a 9-inch round pan. You don't need all the melted butter; just a few tablespoons to cover the top crust.

I love cream cheese danishes and this is an incredible version that is pretty cheap and very tasty! It is best served cold. Oh....and a little goes a long way!

Delicious Alfredo!

Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 2 t. garlic powder
• 8 oz. cream cheese (I use Neufchatel)
• 2 cups milk (I use 1%)
• dash of pepper
• 2/3 c. parmesan cheese (I use Kraft Parmesan in the green container)

1. In medium saucepan over medium heat, melt margarine.
2. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, whisking until smooth.
3. Add milk slowly, blending it in to sauce.
4. Add parmesan and pepper, cooking a few more minutes until desired consistency.
   

I have had this recipe for several years now and it is so good! You can use whatever additions you like. We like chopped tomatoes with broccoli or spinach. Diced chicken works great with those veggie combinations as well. But my kids just like their white sauce, well, white. So we just add the veggies for the adults. Sad, yes, but hopefully their taste buds will mature...

Also, good rolls taste great dipped in this sauce!

Two Zuke recipes compared

Zucchini Casserole (allrecipes.com)

• 4 cups sliced yellow squash
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 35 buttery round crackers, crushed
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Place squash and onion in a large skillet over medium heat. Pour in a small amount of water. Cover, and cook until squash is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well, and place in a large bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together cracker crumbs and cheese. Stir half of the cracker mixture into the cooked squash and onions. In a small bowl, mix together eggs and milk, then add to squash mixture. Stir in 1/4 cup melted butter, and season with salt and pepper. Spread into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cracker mixture, and dot with 2 tablespoons butter.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Zucchini Casserole 2
(allrecipes.com)

• 4 ounces herb-seasoned dry bread stuffing mix
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 4 cups cubed zucchini (I sliced mine)
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a small bowl combine stuffing and butter. In a separate bowl combine zucchini, carrots, onion, soup and sour cream. Mix in 1/2 of the stuffing mixture, then spread into a 9x12 inch casserole dish and sprinkle the remaining stuffing on top.
3. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes (mine took 10-15 minutes longer, so slice thin! You can also saute zuke and onion in a skillet for 5 minutes and cut of 30 min of oven time).

These were both good ways to use zucchini. Russell and I enjoyed the second recipe best; the one with stuffing and cream of chicken soup. The first one is worth making again too, but we liked the flavor of the second better. It also held up better second day. The first recipe kind of gets soggy with the crackers and the moisture from the zucchini.

Moist Blueberry Pound Cake

• 1 box Butter Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup sugar (I sprinkled brown sugar in this amount on pan and on top of cake instead)
• 3/4 cup oil (I did about 1/2 cup oil and the rest water)
• 3 large eggs
• pinch salt
• 2 cups blueberries (mine were frozen)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease a Bundt pan.
3. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oil, sugar, and sour cream.
4. Add eggs, mixing well. Stir in vanilla and sprinkle in salt.
5. Fold in blueberries.
   
6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
7. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Invert onto serving tray to completely cool.
8. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

I have a few recipes for blueberry pound cake, but this was the least fattening with results not noticeably different! It is very moist and a cake that feels like you can snack on it all day. And with the healthy blueberries, why not? If you like cinnamon streusel this could be a good cake to add it to, swirling it in the middle of the cake. Yum...I'll do that next time.

How can you go wrong?

Grasshopper Pie

• 1 store bought oreo pie shell (or make one at home)
• 1/2 gallon mint chocolate chip ice cream
• cool whip
• caramel (optional)
• hot fudge sauce
• coursely crushed oreo cookies (optional)
  

1. On the bottom of the pie shell, drizzle caramel and hot fudge sauce.
   
2. Soften ice cream, and scoop into the pie shell until 3/4 of the way full.
   
3. Top with cool whip and top that with the oreo cookies.
   
4. Drizzle more caramel and hot fudge sauce and put back in the freezer to firm up.
   

This is a great dessert. You really can do whatever you want with it; do a different ice cream, crush chocolate chip cookies for the crust, whatever you like. I like to make it in a cake pan so there is more room to work with. I also like making my own crust from crushed oreos and a little butter.
Let it soften before serving for optimal taste. Mmmmmm..

Another great variation: bake a chocolate cake mix using a cookie sheet. Follow all instructions on box, but only cook it for about 15-18 minutes. After cool, top with fudge sauce and then scoop out softened ice cream (about 10 cups ice cream). We like mint choco chip or strawberry. Cover that with whipped cream and freeze. This is another easy winner that feeds 20-30, depending on how many you need, how tall you stack ice cream.

Another unique dish!

Crock Pot Indian Tomato Chicken and Rice
(serves 2 adults well)

• frozen chicken pieces--enough to feed your family (I used 1 big breast)
  
• 1 can tomatoes (I used crushed)
  
• 1/2 diced onion
• 1/2 t ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 t ground coriander (I didn't have, but garam masala has coriander in it)
  
• 1/4 t cayenne pepper
• 1 t garam masala (1/2 t to add now, 1/2 later. You can buy this at the grocery store in the McCormick "gourmet" collection. It's a combination of coriander, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper and cardamom. Used to flavor Indian dishes)
• 1/2 cup plain non fat yogurt (I used sour cream)
• cooked rice

1. Put your chicken pieces into the crock pot and add the can of tomatoes and all of the spices, minus 1/2t of the garam masala.
2. Don't add the yogurt yet.
3. Cook on high for 2 12 hours or until chicken is done.
4. 30 minutes before serving, stir in the yogurt, and taste. Add the other 1/2 t. of garam masala, or to taste.
5. Serve over rice.

This was another good Indian dish! I am really liking these interesting spices. Changes things up a bit. The kids liked dipping rolls into the sauce and didn't think it was too spicy. They are not rice fans. The sauce was good, but I thought it might need a little sugar? I just have taste buds that really like sweet things. But we enjoyed this.