Buffalo Chicken, Sweet Potato & Carrot Bake!

It's #foodiefriday and this recipe is just TO YUMMY not to share!  Had this for dinner Tuesday and the whole family went back for seconds! 

Buffalo Chicken, Sweet Potato & Carrot Bake
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 45 minutes
Serves:6-8

Ingredients

• 2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 5 whole carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 tbsp. paprika
• 2 tbsp. garlic powder
• 6 tbsp. hot sauce
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 12 slices of turkey bacon, cooked and cut into pieces
• 3-4 green onions, chopped
• pepper to taste

Directions
-Preheat your oven to 400 F.
-In a large bowl, combine together the olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, hot sauce, and season with pepper to taste.
-Add the sweet potatoes, carrots and chicken;  stir to coat.
-Empty the bowl into a prepared 9 x 13 casserole dish.
-Bake in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
-Add the green onions and bacon to the dish and place back in the oven for another 5 minutes to let all the flavors combine.  Makes around 8 servings (1 cup each).

*21DF/21DFX approved!
1 serving = 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green, 2 tsp

Chicken Sausage & Bean Soup

Who doesn't love a recipe that is QUICK, EASY, NO MESS and a FAMILY PLEASER??
My sister shared this recipe a while back and it is one of my favorites by far! 
I always seem to have the ingredients on hand so I can whip it up fast after work and the family loves it!


Chicken Sausage & Bean Soup
Servings 4-6

Ingredients
-1 Tbsp Olive Oil
-1 12oz package fully cooked chicken sausage links, chopped (italian or andouille or your choice!)
-2 garlic cloves thinly sliced or minced
-1 19oz can cannellini beans, rinsed
-1 14.5 oz can no salt added chicken broth
-1 14.5 oz can no salt added diced tomatoes
-1 bunch of kale leaves torn into 2-inch pieces OR 3 cups fresh spinach (or more!)
-sea salt and black pepper

Directions:
1- Heat oil in large saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat.  Add sausage & cook until browned (4-5 minutes)
2- Stir in the garlic and cook for 2 minutes more.
3- Add beans, broth and tomatoes (and their liquid) and bring to boil.
4- Add kale of spinach and sea salt & pepper to taste.  Simmer, stirring occasionally until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes.
Enjoy!

Chopped Buffalo Chicken Salad

I have been on a sort of "salad kick" lately... trying to eat a bit more healthy and also trying to re-create the "tastes" I crave (that are typically un-healthy) and transform them into a lower calorie version.   Last night I had all the ingredients for a salad-- plus chicken breast and some leftover buffalo wing sauce from when I had made Buffalo Chicken Dip.  PERFECT... I'll make a Buffalo Chicken Salad!!

Chopped Buffalo Chicken Salad
makes approx 3 servings

Ingredients:

• (2) Small Chicken Breasts, trimmed (if the breast is large I usually cut it in half for (2) servings)
• (1) Cup Buffalo Wing Sauce
• 2 Tbs Brown Sugar
• (2) Hearts of Romaine Lettuce
• Handful of fresh Baby Spinach (or any other kind of lettuce)
• (1) Large Carrot
• (1) Celery Stalk
• (1) Green Onion
• (1) Medium Tomato
• Handful of Tortilla Chips
• 1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese
• 1/4 Cup Ranch Salad Dressing

Method:

1. Place chicken, wing sauce and brown sugar in saute pan.  Cook over medium heat, turning chicken frequently til cooked through (approx 15 minutes).
2. While chicken is cooking, prep the salad.  Wash all veggies (lettuce, carrot, celery, green onion, tomato).  Peel carrot.   Place Lettuce and spinach in large bowl and chop with Pampered Chef Salad Choppers. (if you don't have them you can chop lettuce on a cutting board with a knife.)  Using a grater, grate the carrot & celery into the lettuce.   Dice the tomato and green onion and add to the bowl.  Crush the tortilla chips in your hands and add to the bowl.   Add the cheddar cheese and Ranch Dressing.   Mix Well.
3. Cut the chicken into small pieces and add back to the saute pan and toss in the sauce.
4. Place Lettuce mixture in salad bowls and top with chicken.
5. Enjoy!

Paleo-ISH Buffalo Chicken Pasta

A couple weeks ago I did a 7-day cleanse and lost 9 Ibs.  It was crazy to see how much you can lose by not filling yourself with processed food and dairy!  If you want to read more about that cleanse you can check it out here:  The GM Diet.  Anyways-- coming off that diet I researched the Paleo diet because it had some of the same characteristics--- I pinned some recipes on pinterest but haven't honestly gotten serious about it-- but a lot of the recipes looked YUMMY.

One of them I pinned was from PaleOMG.com for Buffalo Chicken Pasta because who doesn't love buffalo anything??   I used the "basis" of the recipe from the site but tweaked it a bit because quite honestly the Paleo mayo sorta freaks me out at this point and I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand!  So...in the end that is why I am calling my rendition Paleo-ISH because the basic concept is there but not all of the ingredients are strict Paleo (olive oil, mayo).

Here is what I did:

Paleo-ISH Buffalo Chicken Pasta
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Breasts, cubed
• 1 Carrot, finely diced
• 2 Celery Stalks, finely diced
• 1/2 Sweet Onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 1/2-3/4 cup of buffalo wing sauce ( I bought Wing-Time Brand bc it had no dairy in it)
• 2 tbs mayonnaise (I used Earth's Balance Vegan Mayo)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.   Cut squash in half lengthwise.  Line a baking sheet (with sides) with foil and place squash open-side down on foil.  Roast 25 minutes (or until skin feels soft).  Let cool until easily handled.
2. While squash is cooking-- heat 1 tsp olive oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add finely diced carrot, celery, sweet onion, garlic and cubed. (the more finely diced the veggies the better in my opinion for this recipe!  I used my Pampered Chef Manual Food Processor and it did the trick!)  Saute, stirring frequently until veggies are tender and chicken is cooked (approx 10-12 min).  (at this point I did add some salt & pepper to the chicken/veggies while cooking.)
3. By now your squash should be ready to handle- using a discard seeds.    Start using the fork to pull out the threads of squash making "spaghetti".
4. Transfer squash threads to skillet with veggies and chicken.  Add buffalo wing sauce and 2tbs mayo.  Mix well and heat through.
5. I sprinkled some parsley on there for some color -- If I would have had some diced green onions I would have used them as a garnish!

Enjoy!

~Melissa

Black Bean & Corn Salsa

I LOVE anything I can dip tortilla chips into!  Salsa, Bean Dip, Onion Dip,  ANY DIP!!  I wanted to make something new & refreshing for labor day weekend so I found a recipe this Black Bean Salsa recipe on Food Network that I adapted a bit!  Thanks Paula Dean for a "healthy" recipe with no butter.. haha!
The salsa was a hit so I wanted to share...

Black Bean Salsa
approximately 12 servings

Ingredients:

• (2) 15 oz cans black beans, rinsed & drained
• (1) 17 oz bag of sweet white frozen corn
• (3) large tomatoes, seeded and diced
• (1) small onion diced
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves chopped
• Juice from 1 whole lime
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• salt & pepper

Method:

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl/container than can be covered.  Cover and chill overnight.  You can taste and add more lime juice, salt & pepper to your liking.  ENJOY!

*  I used my onion chopper for the onion & tomatoes and it helped make the prep process go faster!

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I was trying to come up with some new "lighter" dinner options and I stumbled across this Asian Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe from skinnytaste.com.   Andrew loves the lettuce wraps from pei wei & PF Changs so I decided to give this recipe a try!  I altered it a bit from skinnytaste.com so here is my rendition:

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

2 Servings (for dinner)

Ingredients:

• 2 Large Boneless Chicken Breasts
• 1/2 cup water chestnuts
• 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce (I used Reduced Sodium)
• 1 tsp Oyster Sauce
• 2 tsp Sesame Oil
• 2 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp White Ground Pepper
• (3) Cloves Garlic Finely Chopped
• 8 Iceberg Lettuce Leaves
• 2 Tbsp Diced Scallions

First, I combined the Soy Sauce, Oyster Sauce, 1 tsp of sesame oil (save the rest for later), Rice Wine Vinegar, Sugar and Ground White Pepper in a small bowl.

Next, wash & trim your chicken.  I cut each breast into 6 smaller pieces.  Place chicken AND Water Chestnuts in food processor and process until ground.   Place chicken/water chestnuts & sauce mixture in bag and marinate at least 15 minutes. (I prepped my chicken/sauce the night before and marinated overnight- the flavor was great!)

Heat remaining 1 tsp sesame oil in wok or large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook until golden brown.  (stirring constantly- it burns fast!)   Add the marinated chicken mixture and cook until browned/cooked through.  

Spoon Chicken Mixture into lettuce pieces and top with scallions and your choice of sauce.  Here is what I used for sauce: (all found in the oriental section at HT)

• Harris Teeter Sweet Chili Sauce
• Harris Teeter Sriracha Sauce
• Hoisin Sauce

I mixed together all of the above sauces and put it on my wraps!  The hubs liked the sweet chili sauce on his.  On skinnytaste.com they recommend mixing hoisin, sriracha and water to get a yummy sauce.  Mix what you like for your lettuce wraps!  =)


We devoured almost ALL of the recipe!  I had a little bit left to take to work for lunch the next day to make (2) small wraps.  I would definitely recommend doubling or tripling this recipe if you have more than (2) people eating it for dinner! 

Enjoy!

Melissa