Summer Avocado Salad

For the salad:

2 heads of Romaine lettuce (3 if only using Romaine hearts)

1 bunch of cilantro

1 bunch of green onions

2-3 Hass avocados

For the dressing:

2-3 large limes

1 clove of garlic

1/3 cup of extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons of honey

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. After washing all the greens, chop the lettuce into bite-size pieces and place in a large serving bowl. Finely chop the cilantro and thinly slice the green onions, then add to the bowl and lightly toss everything together.
2. If you have a lime juicer, then juice the limes. If not, then roll the limes against a hard surface, firmly pressing down, to break up the insides, then cut them in half.
3. Halve the avocados, remove the seeds, then cut cross-sections in the avocados inside the skin.
4. Drizzle a little lime juice on the avocados to prevent browning, then scoop out the avocado pieces and add them to the bowl.
5. In a mixing bowl, add the olive oil, honey, salt, and pepper.
6. Finely mince the clove of garlic and add it to the mixing bowl.
7. Add/squeeze the lime juice from 2 limes, then whisk everything together. Adjust for taste, as necessary (see notes). 
8. Drizzle half of the dressing across the salad, toss, then continue to add more until desired level of dressing is reached.
9. Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve within an hour. 

Notes

The balance of flavors for this salad depends on a lot on the ingredients you are using. For instance, the recipe calls for 2-3 limes, but the limes I purchased were somewhat small and dry, so it actually took me about 4-5 limes to get the amount of juice that I needed for this. The olive flavor in the dressing was not really noticeable in the end result, but if you are really adverse to the stronger flavor of EVOO then you could use the lighter-tasting olive oil. This recipe also adjusts easily for varying quantities of greens, so just keep tasting/adjusting to your preference; in the end, I increased the quantity of everything a little bit because of the size of the group (still should have made more) and had dressing left over. It's pretty forgiving, just don't overdress the salad and it'll be fine.

Crock Pot Chicken Divan

Layer all in crock pot in the order listed. Cook on high for about 4 hrs. (Can add breadcrumbs to the top if you wish before serving)

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 stick (1/2 C) butter
1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
1 C mayo
1/4 C lemon juice
2 stalks celery (optional)
1 small onion, diced (I have used some dried minced onion and onion powder when I was out of onions)
8 oz cheddar cheese
2 C frozen broccoli
1 dash salt & pepper
breadcrumbs (optional, add to top when it's done cooking)

Serve the dish over steamed rice.

Chocolate Cookie Dough Cupcakes

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH CUPCAKES

INGREDIENTS:

COOKIE DOUGH FILLING:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

CUPCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

COOKIE DOUGH FROSTING:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

GARNISH:
additional mini chocolate chips
12 mini Chips Ahoy cookies

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare the cookie dough filling (see *Tips below): In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to stir together the butter, sugars, milk and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips. Refrigerate for 15 to 30 minutes, or until the cookie dough is firm. Scoop out dough in 2 tablespoon scoops and place it on a cookie sheet. Freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes.

2. Prepare the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with 12 liners. Place the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and salt in a blender. Blend to combine. Add the water, oil, egg and vanilla. Blend to combine, scraping down the sides as needed a couple of times until all is well mixed. Divide the batter between the 12 cupcake liners. Drop a ball of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough into the center of each cupcake. If you would like the cookie dough to bake up slightly, keep the top visible as pictured in the post. If you'd like to keep the cookie dough somewhat raw, push it to the bottom of the cupcake wrapper, making sure that the batter comes up and over the dough.

3. Bake the cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cupcake portion of the cupcake (not tested through the center where the dough is), comes out fairly clean. Cool the cupcakes completely before adding the frosting.

4. Prepare the frosting: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Mix in the flour, milk and vanilla and continue to mix until all is well combined.

5. Assemble: Frost cupcakes with a knife or scoop the frosting into a piping bag and pipe it on decoratively. Sprinkle mini chips on top and garnish with a small chocolate chip cookie.

TIPS:

*You don't necessarily have to melt the butter and refrigerate the dough before scooping. The melted butter just helps the sugar dissolve a bit more so you don't have that grainy texture in the cookie dough. It is necessary to freeze it though.

Source: RecipeGirl.com (cupcakes from this recipe, frosting adapted barely from T

Chicken Chili

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, chopped
1 med onion, chopped
1 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (14 oz each) chicken broth
1 can (4oz) chopped green chilies
2 t ground cumin
2 t dried oregano
1/4 - 1/2 t cayenne pepper
3 cans (14.5 oz each) Great Northern beans, drained, divided
1 C monterrey jack cheese, shredded
chopped jalapeno pepper, optional

In a dutch oven over a medium heat, cook chicken and onion in oil until lightly browned. Add garlic, cook 1 min longer. Stir in the broth, chilies, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low. With a potato masher, mash 1 can of beans until smooth. Add to saucepan. Add remaining beans to saucepan. Simmer for 20-30 mins until chicken is no longer pink and onion is tender.

Top each serving with cheese and jalapeno pepper, if desired. Yield 10 servings.

Banana Chocolate Crater Cake

From: Lauren at Servingfromhome.com

1 cup butter
 2 cups sugar
 2 eggs beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
3 ripe bananas
3 cups flour
 2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
 1 cup sour cream
 1 tsp.cinnamon
 1/2 cup brown sugar
 1 1/2 cups (or more) chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugar.  Add beaten eggs and beat until smooth.  Add vanilla and mashed bananas.  Mix until smooth >Sift flour, baking powder and soda and add to banana mixture, alternating with sour cream.  End with dry ingredients. 

Pour half the batter into a greased 9 X 13 pan.  Combine cinnamon and brown sugar.  Sprinkle half of mixture over batter in pan.Top with half the chocolate chips.  Repeat.  Bake at 350 for forty-five to fifty minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean

Lemon Loaf

Another knock off Starbucks recipe, but this one is "not from scratch" as it uses a cake mix.

Ingredients

Cake
• 1 box yellow cake mix OR lemon cake mix (if using lemon, omit 6 T freshly squeezed lemon juice)
• 5.1 ounce (large/family size) instant Lemon pudding mix (can be replaced with instant vanilla pudding & 2 tsp lemon emulsion/extract)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 8 ounces sour cream
• 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 2-3 lemons)* omit this is using a lemon cake mix
Lemon Topping
• 1/4 C butter, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon emulsion/extract
• 
  

Instructions

Make Lemon Loaf
1. Turn oven to 350F. Line 2 loaf pans with foil & spray with non stick spray, or butter and flour the pans. Set aside.
2. Combine all the wet ingredients and whisk until well combined.
3. Place all dry ingredients in a bowl, add about 1 cup of wet ingredients, beat with a mixer !on low speed! for about 15 seconds, then add the rest of the ingredients and beat on low speed for another 15-20 seconds. DO NOT over beat, or your cake will deflate.
4. Divide batter evenly between two loaf pans.
5. Place in the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes, until golden in color or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven and let rest in the pan for 5 minutes, before removing and allowing to cool on a cooling rack.
Make Icing
7. Beat butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice & lemon emulsion until smooth and supple.
8. Spread evenly on top of both cakes.
9. Allow the glaze to harden up before slicing.
10. This recipe can be used to make a cake, cupcakes or even small individual squares like I did using a brownie square pan (see link to picture below the post).

Onion Peels

This is an Applebee's knockoff recipe

1 large White Onion

Creamy Horseradish Dipping Sauce (Recipe Follows)

1/2 cup all-purpose Flour

1/2 cup Progresso Plain Bread Crumbs

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

1 1/2 cups Milk

4 -6 cups Shortening, as required by your deep fryer *Or fry in vegetable oil in deep fryer

 

Directions

1. Heat the shortening to 350 degrees in a deep fryer.
2. Slice the stem end and the root end off onion, then, with the onion resting on a flat side, cut down through the onion, slicing it in half.
3. Slice each half 4 to 5 more times in a spoke fashion to create wedges of onion.
4. Separate the onion pieces.
5. Create batter by combining all dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
6. Whisk in milk until batter is smooth then let the batter sit for 5 minutes.
7. It should thicken.
8. Whisk batter again.
9. When oil is hot dip each onion piece in the batter, let some of the batter drip off then drop the coated onion piece carefully into the hot oil.
10. Repeat, frying 8 to 12 at a time for 1 to 2 minutes or until light brown.
11. Drain on a rack or paper towels.
12. Repeat until the onion is used up, stacking the newer batches on top of the old ones to keep them warm.
13. When they’re all done, serve the fried onion slices on a plate or in a paper-lined basket with horseradish dipping sauce (recipe below) on the side.

Creamy Horseradish Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon prepared Horseradish
• 2 teaspoons White Distilled Vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Water
• 1 teaspoon Paprika
• 1 teaspoon Ketchup
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon medium grind Black Pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon Dried Oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon Cayenne
• 1 dash Garlic Powder
• 1 dash Onion Powder

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl with a whisk.
2. Mix until creamy then cover and chill until ready to use.