Cajun Chicken Salad

This salad is absolutely the best chicken salad ever to cross my lips. It started with our monthly Penzeys ad arriving in the mail. Kevin snatched it and hovered over every page. Then he announced that we simply had to go to Penzeys to buy some Cajun seasoning. Without checking the store hours, we arrived half an hour before they opened, and fiddled around in Uptown for a bit.

When we got home we started cooking. And cooking. And cooking. In all, we had three different Cajun spiced meals in three days. Was it extreme? Just really, really tasty.

Something about the chicken being coated with seasoning and pan-fried makes them incredibly tender and juicy. There is just enough of a kick of flavor to keep it interesting and make you want to dig in for another bite. And then another one.

Cajun Chicken Breasts with Salad

3 4-6 oz chicken breasts (or whatever)

2 T Cajun seasoning

2 T oil

Wash chicken and pat dry. Sprinkle with a thick layer of Cajun seasoning. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 4-6 minutes per side depending on thickness. Adjust the heat down a bit if the chicken is browning too quickly or up if it isn't sizzling. Remove from pan and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing into bite-sized pieces.

Salad:

1 head romaine lettuce

1 head leaf lettuce

1/2 tomato, diced

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 avocado, thinly sliced

Dressing:

1 T Italian seasoning or salad dressing base

1 T water

1/4 C red wine vinegar or regular white vinegar

1/3 - 1/2 C olive oil.

Whisk everything together

Wraps and Homemade Tortillas

Wraps are a great lunch on a day off. Kevin helped saute all the vegetables, and we both enjoyed a completely homemade lunch.


The tortilla recipe is originally from Oh She Glows. Somehow her tortillas were a lot rounder. It's a mystery to me how she did that - this one is the roundest of the bunch. We had to make this recipe twice before they came out right. The first time it was way too sticky, and I am not sure what we did wrong, or what changed the second time.

Here is a picture of everything in the wrap - lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, red peppers, cheese, and ranch. Kevin also put hot sauce on his. Next time we will add some black beans, but there weren't any thawed this time.

Does anyone want to volunteer to clean up the kitchen?

Homemade Tortillas

- 2 cups flour (whatever kind you want - we used a mixture of white, wheat, and corn meal)
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1 T Olive Oil
- 3/4 cup hot water

Preheat a skillet to medium high heat. In a bowl, mix all ingredients well. You may not need all the water to form a soft ball. Cover and let sit in a warm place for 20 minutes.

Divide into 8 equal parts and let sit, covered, another 20 minutes.

Roll each ball out to a 6- or 7-inch circle shape. . Then take the rolling pin and roll from the center outwards, back and forth a few times as you go around the circle. When it starts to get thinner, take your left hand (if you’re right handed) and turn the tortilla a couple inches. Use your right hand to use the rolling pin (holding in the middle) and roll from the center outwards. Keep turning and rolling until it is paper thin.

Place a tortilla into the skillet and watch until bubbles form. This won’t take long. When the bottom is lightly brown (or there are darker spots), flip over, press down once or twice, and cook for about 30-45 seconds, or until smoke appears.

Cook remaining tortillas, watching carefully, and place on a plate, with wet paper towels in between them. Refrigerate for later or remove the paper towels and freeze.

Artichoke Chicken on Whole Grains

This recipe comes straight from the FlyLady emails. It is one of our favorite meals, and we use it whenever company comes over because it makes us feel fancy. We usually bat our eyelashes as they say it looks good, then smile demurely and thank them for the wonderful compliment.

Never mind that we eat cold cereal just as often as a real dinner. Please don't let our secret out.

We get the jars of artichokes at Aldi's, and it comes with olives, pimento, and artichokes. We then leave out the red peppers and mushrooms. The sauce made out of the artichoke marinade is what makes it yummy, so we experiment with the other ingredients.

Artichoke Chicken

1 jar of marinated artichokes

3 chicken breasts

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 jar roasted red peppers, sliced

3/4 C chicken broth

1/2 C apple juice (or more chicken broth)

1 T cornstarch

2 cups barley, steamed like rice

Drain the artichokes into a skillet on medium high. Cube raw chicken with kitchen shears, then cook it in the liquid for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in mushrooms. Cook 4 more minutes until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in artichokes and peppers.

In a medium bowl, combine apple juice and corn starch. Gradually stir into chicken mixture. Boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute until thickened. Put grains on your plate and top with chicken mixture.

White Chicken Chili

We've got beans. Bunches and bunches of them. Right before Christmas we ran out of beans in the freezer. We usually cook up a couple of pounds and freeze them in sandwich sized bags. I went downstairs to the food storage closet and *GASP* there were no more black beans. How could this be? Immediately I called Amanda, my sister-in-law, and told her that I absolutely needed some beans. Would she pick them up from the bean mill for me? I wasn't playing games - I needed 50 pounds of white beans, 50 pounds of red beans, and 100 pounds of black beans. Now we have our year's supply of beans, and now we are in dire need of some recipes to actually use them.

As it turns out, the black beans weren't ready so we still don't have them. It makes me tear up a little. *sniff*

I have been wanting to try a white chicken chili for awhile. We were both leery of it because chili just isn't chili if it doesn't have any chili powder. Alas, we had to leave our preconceived notions behind and take a leap of faith in our bean-using adventure.

This is a simple recipe. Basically, you throw all the spices together, let it simmer, and then throw in the beans and chicken. One bite and we realized that it is really very good. Really really. The cumin, which I usually don't like, gives it a familiar chili flavor, and it is very filling.

Here is the original recipe.

White Chicken Chili

1 small handful food storage onions, or 1 small onion
1 can chopped green chili peppers
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
3 cups chicken broth

2 cooked chicken breasts
3-4 cups cooked white beans (or 3 cans)
1/3 cup shredded white cheese (I used mozzarella)

1/8 cup parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil and throw in the frozen chicken breasts. You do not need to thaw them first. Let them boil for a few minutes, until they are white all the way through. Then chop them into bite sized cubes.

If you are using a fresh onion, saute it in a little oil. Otherwise, put the food storage onions, green chilies, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and chicken broth in a soup pot and let it boil a few minutes. Throw in the beans, chicken, and cheese and stir it up. Heat everything thoroughly then take it off the burner. Alternately, you can add cheese to just your own bowl.