Chickpea Salad

Lunch is my hardest meal of the day. Breakfast is usually tea with oatmeal or cereal or fruit. As I make my grocery list and go shopping, I plan my dinners. But lunches? Easy if there are leftovers in the fridge. Not so easy if there's no leftovers. I tend to eat a lot of egg salad or tuna salad just because I can't think of anything else and it's easy. But that gets boring. In order to chance it up a bit, I decided to make chickpea salad. Oh my god, so so so good. I have a new favorite, easy, heathly lunch!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1 15-ounce can of chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), drained, rinsed, and dried
1 celery stick, chopped
2 tablespoons onion, minced
1-2 tablespoons mayo (I tend to go super light on mayo. It's all personal preference)
1 tablespoon lemon juice, optional (sometimes I add it, sometimes I don't)
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
salt and pepper, to taste
a dash of garlic powder, optional

Directions:
Coarsely mash the chickpeas (you can use a fork, potato masher, I use a meat mallet) in a bowl. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Serve on bread, with crackers or veggies, or eat as is.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chickpea Recipes:
Chickpea Veggie Burgers 
Hummus without Tahini
Cinnamon-Sugar Roasted Chickpeas 
Roasted Pumpkin Chickpeas
Sweet and Salty Chickpeas
Skinny Chocolate Chip Cookies (Made with Chickpeas)

Cheddar Ranch Chicken

Another easy, tasty chicken recipe. It's hard to go wrong with chicken, cheddar cheese, and ranch.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
4 chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ranch dressing seasoning (the powdered kind)
1/3 cup cheddar, shredded
1/4 cup panko

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Grease an 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange chicken breasts in the pan in a single layer.

In a medium bowl, mix together mayonnaise, ranch, and cheese. Spread the mixture on top of the chicken. Sprinkle panko on top of the chicken and lightly spray the top with cooking spray. 

Bake for 25 to 30 mins or until chicken is cooked through and the panko is lightly browned.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes:
Melt-in-your-mouth Chicken 
Lemon Pepper Chicken with Garlic Potatoes
Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas
Chicken Nugget Casserole 
Orange Chicken with Fried Rice
Parmesan-Seared Chicken

Lemon Pepper Chicken Sandwiches

I so wished I had made more of the lemon pepper chicken so I could have made more of these sandwiches. I didn't know I could love lemon pepper chicken any more than I already did. The key to these sandwiches, other than the mouth-watering chicken, is the Italian seasoned canned tomatoes. Normally I'd used fresh tomatoes on a sandwich, but I didn't have any, and there were some leftover canned tomatoes in the fridge so I just went with it. Oh so good.

Ingredients:
3 lemon pepper chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (recipe 1, recipe 2--I used recipe 2)
8 pieces of sandwich bread
1 14.5-ounce can Italian seasoned canned tomatoes, drained
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Mayo, optional
Onion, optional
Cucumber, optional

Directions:
Set oven to broil. Lightly grease baking sheet with cooking spray.

Shred the chicken breasts. Divide chicken, tomatoes, and cheese evenly among 4 slices of bread. Places the sandwiches open-faced on the baking sheet. Place the remaining 4 slices of bread on the baking sheet as well and broil until bread is toasted and cheese is melted, 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove from oven and add mayo, onions, or cucumber as desired.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes:
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Captain Morgan Chicken with Ginger Rice
Chicken Enchiladas with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Chicken Patties
Chicken Stuffed with Ricotta, Pesto, and Sun-dried Tomatoes 
Chicken with a Honey Mustard Sauce 

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chicken

I wanted a super simple chicken recipe with a lot of flavor that I didn't have to marinate first, and that's how I found this recipe. No marinating, not a lot of ingredients, and incredibly moist and tasty.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used low fat)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.

Cut chicken breasts in half horizontally so you have 4 thin chicken breasts. Place the chicken in the baking dish.

In a bowl, mix together mayonnaise, Parmesan, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Spread mixture over the chicken breasts. Don't put it on too thick.

Bake for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Melt-in-your-mouth chicken with soy wax beans

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes:
Pizza Inspired Chicken 
Potless Chicken Pot Pies
Provincial Chicken
Orange Chicken with Fried Rice
Parmesan-Seared Chicken

Pull Apart Pizza Bread

Dinner the other night was an interesting mixture--sweet and sour chicken (three or four chicken breasts, a small jar of sweet and sour sauce, a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, and a healthy dose of garlic powder in the crockpot for 5-6 hours on low) and pull apart pizza bread. I had planned on making my Tomato and Artichoke Chicken, which would have made at least a little more sense with the pizza bread. But the husband loved the random meal--sweet and sour chicken just happens to be one of his favorites (I feel eh about it) and he definitely loves anything pizza. I may have been indifferent about the chicken, but I think I loved the pizza bread just as much as he did.

Recipe adapted from my Pull-Apart Spinach and Cheese Bread recipe.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, divided

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup mayo

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 

64 pepperonis 
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 cans of crescent rolls

Pizza sauce or marinara sauce for dipping

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray. (I used a loaf pan but only because I couldn't find my bundt pan).

 

Combine melted butter and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix together the mayo, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, oregano, pepper, and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder. Set aside.

 

Separate crescent roll dough into 16 triangles then cut each triangle in half lengthwise so you have 32 small triangles. Roll out the triangles to make them slightly bigger. You may want to lightly sprinkle your work area with flour to prevent sticking. Place 1 pepperoni on the dough then spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of cheese mixture into the center of each triangle, place a second pepperoni on top of the cheese mixture, and pull the dough around the filling to form a ball. Press the edges of the dough together to seal. Dip each ball in the butter mixture then place in the bundt pan.

 

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until the bread turns a golden brown. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes. To remove the bread from the pan, place your serving plate upside down over the pan then turn the plate and pan over. Serve with pizza sauce or marinara sauce.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Pizza Recipes:
Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Homemade Pizza Rolls
Ricotta, Basil, and Sun-dried Tomato Pizza 
Pizza Inspired Chicken
The Pizza Quiche
Pizza Zucchini Boats

Pesto Tuna Wrap

Canned tuna is one of my lunch staples. When I don't know what I want to eat, it's my go to and it's always good. However, tuna salad can get old. I change it up a bit, but it's still tuna salad. Well, I had some pesto left over from my chicken stuffed with ricotta, pesto, and sun-dried tomatoes, so I added it to the tuna. Wow. It's like a whole new, refreshing dish.

Ingredients:
1 8-inch wheat tortilla
5-ounce can tuna, drained
1 tablespoon mayo (I tend to go really light on the mayo, so you may want to double it)
3 tablespoons pesto (I use Knorr)
sun-dried tomatoes or diced tomato (to taste)
onion, diced (to taste)
cheddar cheese, shredded (to taste, I tend to add a lot)

Directions:
Mix the tuna, mayo, pesto, tomatoes, and onion together in a bowl. Spread the mixture down the center of the tortilla. Sprinkle with cheese then fold the sides over the tuna mixture. Now, I like my tortilla warmed in the microwave, just 30 seconds, but I know a lot of people blanch at warmed canned tuna, so you don't have to warm it.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Red Onion Mayo and Sandwich Ideas

A month or so ago, I was looking for non-dessert apple recipes for our surplus of apples, and I came across Paula Deen's Grilled Apple, Bacon, and Cheddar Sandwich with Roasted Red Onion Mayo (which I highly recommend!). But Paula's red onion mayo recipe didn't work for me. She roasted the onion in the oven--mine kept burning. She also pulsated the onions and mayo together in a food processor--I didn't want to dirty my food processor and have another dish to clean. So I came up with my own version. I make sandwiches just because I'm craving the red onion mayo.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon butter

small pinch of sea salt

small pinch of granulated sugar

1 medium red onion

1 cup mayonnaise 

Directions:

Slice the onion lengthwise and make the strips as thick or thin as you’d like. Add the olive oil and butter to the skillet and heat over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer or ripple, add the onions to the pan. Stir to coat the onions then spread them out evenly in the pan. Reduce heat low and sprinkle with salt and sugar to aid the caramelizing process. Stir every five minutes to avoid burning the onions. You will notice the onions browning and shrinking the longer they cook. Once your onion reach the color, texture, and flavor that you want, remove them from the heat. Mine take between 20 and 30 minutes. 

Remove the onions from the skillet and allow them to cool. Once the onions are cooled, coarsely chop them and mix them with the mayo in an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator for at least an hour so the onions have time to infusion the mayo.

Sandwich Ideas:
Spread the red onion mayo on your typical lunch meat sandwich or your hamburger/turkey burger/veggie burger. I also use it to make chicken salad. Mix 1 cup chicken with 1/4 cup red onion mayo, a dash or two of black pepper, finely diced apples, and two pieces of crumbled bacon. Spread on a roll and add a slice of cheddar cheese. This mayo is also amazing on grilled cheese sandwiches.

Enjoy!

~Krissy