Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Cold Noodle Salad with Grilled Chicken


I was watching an Episode of The Kitchen and Chef Jeff Mauro made a Miso-Glazed Salmon Cold Noodle Salad which intrigued me.  I don't care for Salmon so I decided to make it with Grilled Chicken instead.  It was very tasty and good for a change!

Ingredients

2 packages instant ramen noodles
2 tablespoons peanut butter
Juice of 1 lime
1/3 cup Asian Style Salad Dressing
1 cup Asian Style Salad Dressing (for marinating the chicken)
One 8-ounce bag shredded cabbage mix (red and green cabbage plus carrots)
Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
Thinly sliced scallion greens, for garnish
2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless

Directions

Place boneless breasts in a Ziploc along with 1 cup of the Asian Dressing and let sit for at least 30 minutes to a day.

Cook the ramen noodles (minus the seasoning packs) to very al dente according to the package instructions. Let cool.

Mix together the peanut butter, lime juice and 1/3 cup Asian dressing. Toss with the cabbage mix and cold noodles. Let sit for at least 30 minutes in the Refrigerator, tossing a couple times in between.

In the meantime, pat your chicken dry and cook your chicken breasts in a Sautee Pan, Barbequeue or Broil.  Let rest until cooled and slice thinly.  Place on top of the pasta mix and garnish with sesame seeds and sliced scallions.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Carrot, Walnut and Banana Muffins


I love baking and on a Sunday (football day) there is nothing better than making up a bunch of muffins, or homemade bread.  I am trying to eat clean and relatively healthy these days, so I decided to come up with a new muffin recipe. I used Coconut Sugar and Coconut Oil, so there is a hint of Coconut and they are not overly sweet.

These turned out so flavorful and moist, they were gone in a flash.  If I make these again I would mix some sugar with the cream cheese before adding to the batter.  They were almost not sweet enough.

2 cups flour (preferable whole wheat)
1 cup of Coconut Sugar
1/3 cup of melted Coconut Oil
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
2 bananas smashed, approx 1 cup
1 cup of grated carrot
1 tsp cinnamon
few shakes Ginger
3 tablespoons of Flax Seed
1/2 of a Cream Cheese bar cut into squares
Sugar in the raw or Turbinado sugar

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger, flax seeds and cinnamon.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, bananas and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in carrots and walnuts.

Grease your muffin tins well

Evenly fill up the muffin tins, it gave me 14 muffins

Place a square of cream cheese in the middle of each muffin and push down.  Sprinkle a little Turbinado sugar on each muffin before baking.

Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the muffin pan

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