Cranberry and Almond Chicken Salad

Hey everyone!

We know it has been a while, and there have been a lot of changes in our lives but we are getting the blog back up and running and will be doing weekly posts of the delicious meals that we eat.

This first one is a simple chicken salad recipe that keeps really well in the fridge and gets better every time you eat it. It works great in a whole wheat wrap, lettuce wrap, or just with a good sturdy chip or cracker.

Ingredients:

1.5-2 lbs chicken breast

1 cup mayo

3/4 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2-3/4 cup dried cranberries

~1 Tbsp of lemon juice
Garlic powder
Everglades seasoning
Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook chicken desired way. We would recommend going a low and slow route so that it can shred easily and does not dry out too quickly. So we decided to cook it in a pan with a little olive oil, seasoned with Everglades seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and 1/4 cup of water. Cover this and keep it on a low-medium heat for ~30-45 minutes, or until it can be pulled apart with two forks without too much difficulty. This is going to take you the longest, so measure out the rest of your ingredients so you are ready to add everything together once the chicken is done.

2. Once you have your chicken cooked and shredded, add it to a bowl big enough to mix all of your ingredients together. Then add in your dry ingredients (celery, almonds, and dried cranberries)

3. Add in your mayonnaise and lemon juice, and stir until mixed well. It should look something like this.

We personally wanted there to be more dried cranberries, so we finished it off with a few more on top.

Remember those changes we mentioned (check out that bling!)
More on that later 😁

4. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for ~1 hour to let all the subtle flavors mingle together.

And done!

This chicken salad is delicious and super simple! It is great for a spring lunch or a summer snack 😋

Let us know what you think!

Teia and Alex 

Amazing Breakfast Sandwiches! Bacon, Avocado, Fried Egg and Cheese

Ok so check it, I was in the kitchen the other morning after a great workout (6 mile bike ride, arms and abs day) and wanted something with bacon, but also wanted some avocado on it. I thought, what better way to bring them together than make a tasty sandwich out of it. I pulled out an egg, some bacon strips, sliced some cheese and avocados, and got some slices of italian bread. And the magic began.

Ingredients:

2 strips of bacon

1 egg

1/2 avocado, sliced

Cheese, sliced

2 sliced of bread

Directions:
1. Fry the bacon in a nice sized pan until nice and crispy. While this is cooking, slice up the avocado and the cheese for your sandwich.
2. After the bacon is cooked to desired crispiness, remove and place on a paper towel to cool.
3. In the grease from the bacon, crack the egg, and fry to desired doneness. Teia and I both like a very runny yolk, so I fry mine more over easy.
4. After the egg is cooked, there should still be some grease left in the pan, put the bread down in it and let it crisp up and stack everything on top of the bread.
5. After about a minute the bread should be cooked and crisped up a little bit, remove the sandwich and serve with a glass of orange juice. Or some mimosas. Really whatever you are up to.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this, and feel free to comment and let me know if you enjoyed it.

Alex

Shrimp, Mushroom, and Garlic Alfredo Rotini with Green Onions

I wanted to make a nice, romantic, yet simple meal, for Teia the other night. I decided that I wanted to make it using my own recipe, not one that I could find online, and also one that did not need too many spices.

Ingredients:

16 oz. Rotini pasta

1 Clove of garlic, chopped

1/2 cup mushroom, sliced

1 Can of Alfredo Sauce (I like Bertolli, or Classico)

Green Onions, for topping

Butter

Salt and pepper

Cajun seasoning, for the shrimp

Directions:

1. Thaw shrimp by placing in a strainer and letting cold water run over them. While you are doing this, boil the pasta until cooked, but still firm. 

2. Once pasta is cooked, drain and let sit.

3. Dump the can of alfredo sauce into a saucepan, or the pot used to cook the pasta, and add a half a can of water, to get out all of the extra sauce out of the can. Also, add in a little butter, salt and pepper.

4. In a saucepan, pour the now thawed, and de-tailed, shrimp along with the chopped garlic, mushrooms, and a few slices of butter. Sprinkle with some salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning. Cook until mushrooms are good and melt in your mouth.

5. After the shrimp, mushrooms, and garlic are cooked, add them to the now simmering pot of alfredo sauce.

6. Pour in the pasta now, not too much though so that it stays nice and saucy and creamy.

7. Plate the now all mixed up shrimp, mushroom, and garlic alfredo rotini, and add a few green onions on top, which are lovely with an alfredo sauce

This dish goes very well with a white wine, like a pinot grigio, and makes for a very delicious meal! (Some places you can get a bottle for very cheap, but still very good.)

Alex

Homemade Fish Tacos with a Chipotle and Lime Cream Sauce

So the other day I was really craving some good fish tacos, and I could not find any place around where we live to get them for any price cheap, so we decided that we would make some ourselves. It is a really simple recipe that gives great delicious results!

Ingredients:

A few pieces of a white, flaky fish like tilapia (1 piece of fish makes 2 fish tacos)

4 limes

Dry cole slaw

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup mayonnaise

Flour tortillas

Salt and pepper

Flour (enough to cover the fish)

Oil (for cooking and marinating)

Chipotle pepper

Directions:

1. Begin by cutting and juicing 3 of the limes into a bowl, and adding in about a 1/4 of oil along with the salt and pepper and whatever other spices you would like. Add in the fish and let sit for ~20 minutes.

2. While this is marinating, put the yogurt into a colander lined with a paper towel and let that sit over a bowl for ~20 minutes. 

3. After the fish has let sit for ~20 minutes, flour both sides of the fish until it is completely covered and put into a hot pan with your cooking oil.

4. The fish cooks fast so this step should not take too long, ~2-4 minutes on both sides, and the fish should be just a little crispy. Remove and put onto a paper towel to dry.

5. Next, finish making the chipotle cream sauce. Mix together the drained yogurt, the mayonnaise, and the chipotle pepper. For more heat, add more pepper. And then add about half of a lime's worth of juice and mix together.

6. With the remaining oil in the pan you can choose to quickly cook the tortillas, about a minute on either side, but that is entirely up to you. I like mine crisped up a bit, Teia likes her tortillas to be more floppy.

7. Now it is time to combine all of these together. So start with the tortilla, followed by the fish, the dry slaw, and finally topped with a generous dollop or two of the cream sauce.

8. Teia would also like to say that she put slices of avocado on hers, and she loved it, so that is another little alternative to the recipe.

I hope this works great for people! It really is delicious and goes well with some margaritas ;) 

Glitter Blasted Bottle

So, I absolutely LOVE crafty DIY projects like this one! I've always said, "if it sparkles, I love it!". It was surprising how easy this little activity was. It's just a wine bottle I've decorated to be used as a flower vase.

OK! What you need to try this out:

1) 1 wine bottle with labels removed completely
2) Glue sticks
3) Your choice of glitter
4) Glass paint 
5) Clear sealant Spray Paint 

Alex got this great tradition from his dad where he brings me flowers every time he goes to the grocery store. I'm always surprised and I love how thoughtful of a gesture it is. So I thought since I get them so frequently why not customize my own little "vase" that can match my apartment! Try it out!

Teia

Chicken Stir-fry with Rice

So we just wanted to do a simple, easy, yet delicious dish a couple weeks ago and thought that we would post it.


Ingredients:
4-5 Chicken Tenderloin
A couple handfuls of frozen stir-fry veggies
A cup of cooked rice
Oil or butter (whichever you prefer to cook with)
La Choy's Sweet and Sour Sauce

1. Cut up the pieces of chicken into nugget sized pieces, and put into the already hot pan with oil (or butter).
2. Add in the stir-fry vegetables, still frozen, and cook along with the chicken.
3. After the chicken is cooked all the way through, add in the rice and whatever spices you like for flavor. We used salt, pepper and a Cajun seasoning. Also a little splash of soy sauce for color and taste.
4. Add a little bit of La Choy's Sweet and Sour sauce and enjoy!

Bow Tie Basil Pesto Pasta

So I saw on Pinterest the other day a recipe for a shell pesto pasta with asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes, and I decided to cook some for Teia, because 1) I wanted to cook something nice for her, and 2) I think it was my turn to cook. It turned out fantastic and Teia said it had to go in her cookbook that she is working on! So, I feel pretty good about it and posting it here for people to see. I used bow tie pasta and a basil pesto from the store that I found. I also used sun-dried tomatoes, and sauteed me up some asparagus and garlic cloves. I also cubed up some mozzarella cheese and sprinkled some various shredded cheeses into it. Lastly, I topped it with a fried egg. (Teia loves the runny yolk!)

Here is my recipe:
1 12-oz box of pasta
2/3 cup basil pesto
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, julienned cut
2/3 lb asparagus, cut
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 lb mozzarella, cubed
1/3 cup shredded cheeses (Parmasean, Asiago, and Romano)
1 Fried Egg

Serving Size: 4

1. Cook pasta until done, be careful not to over do pasta, should take about 12 minutes.
2. While pasta is cooking put butter into a sautee pan and add the garlic cloves and cut asparagus.
3. While waiting for everything to cook, cube mozzarella cheese, and measure out the pesto, tomatoes, and shredded cheeses.
4. After the pasta is cooked, strain pasta and then put a little oil in the bottom of the pot and put pasta back into the pot after it had cooled for a couple of minutes.
5. After adding the pasta, add the cheeses first, and then add the basil pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.
6. Add the asparagus and garlic from the sautee pan to the pot and mix everything together until it is a nice homogeneous mixture.
7. Fry an egg to top the plate of deliciousness you have just made.
8. Proceed to demolish this plate along with another second helping.

I hope y'all enjoy!
Alex