Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Cranberry Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
1 12.5 oz Can Chicken
1/4 C. sliced or slivered almonds (or any nut you prefer)
1/4 C. Cranberry Mustard Sauce (click here for recipe)[
1/4 C. dried cranberries

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together. Serve on whole grain bread or La Choy Chow Mein Noodles.

Recipe by Jen. Enjoy!

Cranberry Mustard Sauce

Ingredients:
½ C. Jellied Cranberry Sauce
1 ½ Tbsp Dijon Mustard
Agave Nectar to taste (about 2 tsp is good for us)


Directions: 
Combine Jellied Cranberry Sauce, Dijon Mustard and Agave Nectar in a small saucepan. Heat and serve.

Apricot Dipping Sauce

Ingredients: 
1 C. Apricot Preserves
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

Directions:
Combine apricot preserves and Dijon mustard. Heat and serve.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Coconut Chicken Tenders

Ingredients:
1 C. Angel Flake coconut
½ C. flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
1 ½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 C. butter or margarine

Directions:
Heat oven to 400°F. Mix coconut, flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in medium bowl. Dip chicken strips into egg, then coat with coconut mixture. Place in a shallow baking pan; drizzle with melted butter. Bake 25 minutes or until chicken is browned and cooked through, turning once. Serve with dipping sauce (see below).

Dipping Sauces:
Recipes adapted from the internet. I am unable to remember their location.

Agave Nectar Rice Pudding

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C. cooked white rice
1 1/2 C. skim milk
1/4 C. Agave Nectar
1/4/ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
In a saucepan, combine the rice, milk, agave nectar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in beaten egg. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

Notes: You may add 2/3 C. raisins when you add the egg, if you desire. You may also sprinkle this with cinnamon. 

Recipe from Jen

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Tortellini, Peppers and Tomato Soup


Ingredients:

4 Tbsp butter
8 cloves garlic
8 C. chicken broth
12 oz  fresh or frozen cheese tortellini
2 – 14 oz cans diced tomatoes, with their juice
2 yellow or orange peppers, chopped
1 16 oz bag shredded carrots
1 Tbsp basil
Parmesan, grated

Directions:
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic, peppers and carrots and sauté until tender. Add broth and bring to a boil. Add tortellini and cook halfway, about 5 minutes for frozen pasta, less if using fresh. Add tomatoes and juice, reduce heat to simmer and cook just until pasta is tender. Stir in basil and cook about 1-2 minutes. Serve with grated parmesan.

I can't remember where I got this recipe, so I can't give proper credit. 
If you recognize it, please let me know where it's from so I can credit 
the correct place. Thank you!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Agave Nectar Ketchup

I made this because we ran out of ketchup and I had a bunch of frozen tomatoes, as well as some agave nectar and decided to try my hand at homemade ketchup. I have always been a Heinz gal myself but really don't like that it has corn syrup in it. Corn syrup does really strange things to my children so I try not to feed it to them very often. I wasn't sure if my kids and my husband would like it and I SURE wasn't sure I'D like it (I'm the picky one in our family), but lo and behold - we ALL loved it! So, it looks like we'll be switching to homemade from now on! I'm so excited!

Ingredients:
1- 28-oz can whole tomatoes (I used about 5-6 tomatoes that I had frozen)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 C. agave nectar
1 Tbsp molasses
1/2 C. cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp garlic powder

Directions:
Heat oil in a large, heavy pan. Sauté onions until soft, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, puree tomatoes in a blender. Add tomato paste and puree another 30-seconds or so.

When onions are soft, add tomato puree and remaining ingredients. Simmer for approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Once mixture has cooled slightly, puree in batches. Cool for 2 hours before serving. 

Makes approximately 2 cups. Keeps for approximately 3 weeks in a well-sealed container.

Enjoy!

Adapted from The Kitchen.com