Quick and Easy Dinner #5: Chinese Chicken Salad

In the spirit of the warm weather and many outdoor barbeques going on for Memorial Day, the last dinner in my Quick and Easy Dinner series is a Chinese Chicken Salad. It's so easy to put together and is really filling. 

Ingredients
1 bag pre-cut Romaine lettuce
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 can Mandarin oranges
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 package Ramen noodles (yes you read that right...read the directions below to find out how you use them)
1 cooked chicken breast, cubed

Dressing
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp vinegar (Apple Cider works best)
1 Tbsp sugar

Directions

1. Pour lettuce in a large serving bowl and set aside.

2. Slice up strawberries. Open and drain can of Mandarin oranges. Add to salad.

3. Add almonds and sunflower seeds to salad. (if you don't like either of these nuts, the salad will still taste good without them, but they add to the flavor)

4. Crush up the bag of Ramen noodles to break apart the noodles (while they are still in the package). Pour half of the package into the salad. Do not add the flavor packet.

5. Cube chicken and add to the salad.

6. In a saucepan, over low heat, heat up the vinegar and sugar to dissolve the sugar in the vinegar. After it is dissolved, remove from heat and pour into a small bowl with the olive oil. Mix the 2 liquids to combine.

7. Pour dressing over salad and toss to mix in all ingredients.

Serve right away and enjoy this summery and fresh dinner :)

Thanks to my mom for showing me how to make this easy dinner.

Quick and Easy Dinner #4: Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

Continuing my quick and easy dinner series for the month of May, I've whipped up my latest creation: Crock Pot BBQ Chicken. It's so easy, just take 5 minutes of your time in the morning and 5 more when you get home from work and you have a delicious dinner to enjoy.

Ingredients
12-16 oz barbeque sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's) 
4 oz beer or water
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Special tools: crock pot

Directions
1. Place chicken breasts in crock pot and add barbeque sauce and beer or water (I used Michelob Golden Light).

Chicken with BBQ sauce and beer before cooking

2. Turn the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. If you're home, you may want to stir occasionally, but this isn't necessary.
3. Remove the chicken and shred it. This is very easy; just use 2 forks to pull apart each chicken breasts. If you do this right, it will naturally pull apart. You will end up with 1 breast looking like this:

4. Add the shredded chicken back to the crock pot, stir the sauce and chicken together, and let sit for 10-15 minutes. 
5. Serve on hamburger buns and with your side of choosing. To stay on the healthier side, I went with broccoli. 

Kudos to the blog How Sweet it Is for giving me the idea for this recipe.

Quick and Easy Dinner #3: Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry

My third recipe in my quick and easy dinner series is beef and vegetable stir fry. If you're a vegetarian, have no fear, just cut out the beef. No fresh veggies? You can use frozen veggies. 

Ingredients

1 lb stir fry beef (or any steak cut into strips)

2-3 cups Fresh vegetables, chopped

    Green and red bell peppers

    Broccoli

    Cauliflower

    Carrots

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 Tbsp corn starch

1 Tbsp cold water 
Cooked rice

Note: You might also consider adding some canned water chestnuts and/or baby corn to the vegetable mixture. Feel free to experiment with what you like.

Directions

1. In 1 skillet, start cooking the beef over medium heat. No need to season it, you'll do that with the soy sauce later. 

2. In another skillet, put a little olive oil in the pan and then add the vegetables. Cook these over medium heat, flipping them over regularly. 

3. As you're doing this, start cooking the rice. Personally I prefer brown rice because it's a little healthier, but you can use white as well. 

4. Once the meat has browned on the outside, drain any grease from the pan and move the meat to the edges. Add the vegetables and continue to cook them if needed. (If you use frozen vegetables instead, add a lid to the pan once you add the vegetables to steam them). 

Vegetables after adding to the meat. They still need some cooking time.

5. As the meat and vegetables cook, mix together the soy sauce, corn starch, and cold water in a small bowl. (If you don't have corn starch, the recipe will be fine without it. The corn starch only helps to thicken the sauce). Once the meat and veggies are done, move both to the outer perimeter of the pan. Next pour the soy sauce mixture into the center of the pan. Once it starts to bubble and thicken, mix it with the meat and veggies. 

Once the rice is cooked, spoon the stir fry mixture onto the rice like below and enjoy your quick and easy dinner!

Thanks to my mom for teaching me how to make this easy dinner.

Quick and Easy Dinner #2: Cranberry Chicken & Parmesan Crusted Asparagus

Continuing my series for the month of May on quick and easy dinners, I've got a great one that requires very little prep: Cranberry Chicken with rice and Parmesan Crusted Asparagus. Both recipes require very few ingredients and will allow you more time to rest your feet after a long day.

Ingredients

Cranberry Chicken

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 can whole cranberries

1 packet French onion soup mix

3/4 cup Catalina salad dressing

Parmesan Crusted Asparagus

1 bunch thin asparagus spears

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Black pepper

Salt
Garlic salt

Directions

Cranberry Chicken

1. Preheat oven to 325

2. Spray 9x9 in pan or pyrex dish with cooking spray and place chicken breasts in dish

3. Mix together cranberries, French onion soup mix, and Catalina dressing in a separate bowl. Then pour mixture over chicken breasts.

4. Cover pan with foil and back for 1.5 hours. Uncover the pan for the last 20 minutes. (If you don't want to wait this long, bump the heat up to 350 and bake for 1 hour). 

5. If you don't make the asparagus, 10 minutes before the chicken is done, cook rice to serve with chicken. Personally, I prefer Minute Whole Grain Brown Rice. If you do make the asparagus, refer to the directions below.

Parmesan Crusted Asparagus

While the chicken is cooking, prep the asparagus. 

1. Rinse the asparagus in the sink and then spread out on cookie sheet (it's ideal if your cookie sheet has edges). 

2. Drizzle olive oil over asparagus sheers and toss to coat each one. Then spread them out in a single layer so that no spear is on top of another. 

3. Sprinkle Parmesan over asparagus and season with black pepper, salt, and garlic salt to taste. 

4. After you've pulled the chicken out of the oven, cover it again with the foil to keep it warm. Bump the heat up on the oven to 425 and bake for 12-15 minutes or asparagus is just tender. 

5. Once the asparagus is in the oven, begin cooking rice to serve with the chicken.

The Parmesan Crusted Asparagus recipe is adjusted from one I found on allrecipes.com. Thanks to Rachel and Chad for sharing it with me :)