Buffalo Chicken Salad

Michael and I love buffalo chicken wings and boneless buffalo wings. I came up with this as a guilt free way to enjoy the same flavour.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Ingredients: (per person)

1 grilled chicken breast

3/4 c. iceberg lettuce

3/4 c. romaine heart

1-2 tbsp. blue cheese or ranch dressing

1-2 tbsp. buffalo sauce (I used "Moore's Buffalo Wing sauce")

Tear the iceberg lettuce into small pieces, remove the thick ribs from the romaine heart and tear the leaves. Toss the lettuce with the salad dressing. Chop the chicken into bite size pieces and toss with the buffalo sauce. Put the chicken on the lettuce and serve immediately.

Whenever I'm barbecuing I like to add a few boneless skinless chicken breasts lightly coated in canola oil. In a zip top bag they will last for a while in the fridge and make for easy meals.

Cilantro Salsa and Cheese dip

I developed this recipe recently because while I love restaurant salsa I've really never enjoyed any that I've bought. I wanted an easy alternative to spending $20 for a meal at a Mexican restaurant and then filling up on the free chips and salsa.

Cilantro Salsa

Ingredients:

1/4 c. minced onion

1-2 small cloves garlic

1 c. chopped lightly packed cilantro

2 c. seeded chopped tomatoes

1/4 c. minced pickled jalapenos

1-2 tbsp. pickled jalapeno juice (to taste)

Finely mince the onion and jalapenos. For a less spicy version you can seed or partially seed the jalapenos first. Crush the garlic into a paste, I like to use a garlic press and put it through twice. Toss everything together and serve with tortilla chips.

To do this in a food processor, pulse the onion and jalapenos separately from the tomatoes and the cilantro. You also need to make sure that the tomatoes are fully seeded or the seeds will be chopped and taste a little bitter.

This will last for a long time in the fridge, I have also frozen it before, it loses some of its color but still tastes great.

Cheese Dip

Ingredients:

1 1/1 c. shredded cheese (I used "fiesta blend")

1/4 c. milk

1/4 c. sour cream

1 tsp. chicken bouillon

hot sauce or minced jalapenos (optional)

Stir together all ingredients but hot sauce or jalapenos. Microwave on high 30 seconds at a time until fully melted. Stir in hot sauce or jalapenos to taste and serve with tortilla chips.

Add a can of refried beans, some ground beef with taco seasoning and a few corn tortillas for an easy supper.

Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage Rolls

This recipe is loosely based on Oma's recipe for stuffed cabbage.

Ingredients:

8-10 cabbage leaves
large pan with boiling salted water

filling:
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground turkey
1/3 c. diced onion
2-3 tbsp. water
1 c. cooked rice
salt and pepper to taste

sauce:
1/4 c. diced onions
1 tbsp. corn or canola oil
1 c. water or broth
1 28 oz can pureed tomatoes
1/2 c. shredded apple
or
1/2 c. chopped raisins
3 tbsp. sugar
salt to taste

To make the filling brown the onion and ground meat until well cooked. Stir in the rice, salt, and pepper. Add just enough water that it will stick together. Set aside to chill.

For the sauce first carmelize the onions then add the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30-45 min.

First remove the outermost 1 or 2 cabbage leaves and use a paring knife to remove the core. place the whole cabbage in the pan of boiling water, this will make it possible to remove the leaves without them ripping. As soon as the leave start to soften and lossen use a pair of tongs to remove them one by one. I would recomend using a larger pan than this because things got kind of crowded.


As you get farther down into the cabbage you may need a paring knife to seperate some of the leaves.

Boil the leaves for 5-8 minutes or until soft.

Once the leaves have cooled enough to handle use a paring knife to remove the hard rib from each leaf.

Put about a 1/3 c. filling on each leaf.
Fold up the bottom and then fold over the sides, then roll upwards and place seam side down.

Place the rolls seam side down in a casserole.

Pour on the sauce and bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 350.

Halloween

Well it's the week after Halloween so I've been combing the clearance aisles for next year, I always find it amazing what you can get at the end of the season.

Michael and I hosted a small Halloween party this year. I thought I would share some pictures.

Our buffet table

A close up of my Haunted Gingerbread House.

Mark as a cross dressing zombie!

The devil having no luck tempting an angel.

Michael was a serial killer, I was an evil faerie, and Nikki was a pimp, but our camera ran out of batteries. :(

The Menu

Mummy Hand Cheese Log

Boneless Bat Wings

Undead Nachos

Ghost Dinner Rolls

Bubbling Swamp Mud

Drinks

Blood and Body Parts

Graveyard Mud

Watch for some of the recipes under different names. My mom is addicted to my spinach artichoke dip (bubbling swamp mud) and has been begging/threatening me to publish the recipe.