Chicken Barley Chili

My mom introduced me to this delicious and easy recipe that makes great leftovers. And she found it on the back of the Quaker Quick Barley box. I had a couple friends over to sample it and they approved. So give it a shot yourself.

Ingredients
1 (14 1/2 oz) can tomatoes diced, undrained
1 (16 oz) jar/can salsa or tomato sauce
1 (14 1/2 oz) can chicken broth
1 cup QUAKER Quick Barley
3 cups water
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 1/4 oz) can whole kernel corn
3 cups chicken breast cooked and diced (about 3 chicken breasts)

Directions
1. Cook chicken in the oven for 30 minutes at 350. Dice into cubes and set aside.
2. In a large soup pot, combine the first 7 ingredients (tomatoes, salsa, chicken broth, barley, water, chili powder, and cumin)
3. Over high heat bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to low.
4. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add beans, corn, and chicken. Increase heat to high until chili comes to a boil. 

6. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for another 5 minutes, or until barley is tender. 

Top with shredded cheese and sour cream and enjoy. 


Credit to Quaker Oats for this recipe

Grilled Cheese with Avocado and Chicken

I was hoping I would have a recipe to share with Thanksgiving leftovers, but my family finished them off already! We didn't have much to start with...apparently we were all really hungry on Thanksgiving :). So instead, I'll share this really quick lunch or dinner idea--I had some leftover chicken in the fridge that I wanted to use and I found avocados at the store that looked delicious. So I decided to combine them both into this delicious grilled cheese sandwich.


Ingredients
2 slices wheat bread
2 slices provolone cheese
Half an avocado, sliced
Half a cooked chicken breast, sliced
1 tsp butter

Directions
1. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Place one slice on a skillet, butter side down and set the other slice aside. 
2. Slice chicken breast into this slices. Slice avocado into wedges. 
3. Place one slice of provolone on the bread slice in the skillet. Layer chicken slices and avocado slices on top. Add the next slice of provolone followed by the second slice of bread.

1st slice of break with cheese slice, chicken, and avocado

4. Grill each side of the sandwich in the skillet over medium heat until each side is golden brown and the cheese is melted.
5. Slice in half and enjoy the warm and delicious sandwich.

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 #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 :)

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

So I'll admit it, the Hellman's commercial got me...it looked so good, I just had to try it. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

4 tsp Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425

2. Combine mayonnaise and parmesan cheese in a bowl.

3. Arrange chicken in greased baking dish and spread mayonnaise mixture. Then sprinkle with bread crumbs (like below).

4. Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Here's how it looked when I took it out of the oven.

5. Serve with veggies or pasta on the side.

Emily's Thoughts

So I know what you're thinking...a dish based on mayonnaise doesn't sound very appetizing. But I don't think this really tastes like mayonnaise. And you can thinly spread the mixture on the chicken to have a lighter taste to the dish.