Southern Chicken & Biscuits

I’m not into the Superbowl, but I like the snacks and the commercials. This would be a fun and easy game time food.

I was feeling especially southern when I planned this meal. I made a top-your-own crispy chicken sandwiches on biscuits. I went all-American on mine with ranch, lettuce, tomato, and cheese.
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They were good, but tough to keep together to eat. I’d recommend making smaller biscuits than I did!

Ingredients:

Crispy chicken breasts or tenders
biscuits
veggies: lettuce, tomato, onion
sauces: ranch, honey mustard, bbq, mayo
cheeses: cheddar, Swiss, American

Directions

Bake biscuits according to package.
Bake chicken until heated through or until cooked through.
Prep toppings and let eaters top-their-own.
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Build-your-own or top-your-own makes for a low-prep meal or for very easy entertaining.

What I Ate: Turkey Cranberry Brie Panini

What I Ate is a series of posts that don’t exactly warrant a recipe, but hopefully are inspiring if you’re stumped for dinner ideas, or if you’re new to cooking…these guys are easy. Has this week felt like a doozy to anyone else? Easy dinners keep us all sane. Nobody is at his or her best when hungry.

Paninis are the best. I like that they totally simplify dinner, only use a few ingredients, are pretty cheap to make, and provide leftover staples. What more could you want out of dinner? I served a salad bar and paninis to a group and it was a hit. I think both are customizable and crowd-pleasing.

For this particular one, I wanted something that felt seasonal or winter appropriate. Paninis are great in the summer to avoid heating up the oven, but anywho…I digress.
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Ingredients:

wheat nut bread
4 oz sliced turkey, per sandwich
3 oz brie
¼ can whole berry cranberry sauce
2 tbs strawberry jelly

Directions:

Heat a grill pan, panini press, or frying pan over medium heat sprayed with non-stick spray.
Assemble sandwiches with cranberry spread on one side, turkey slices, and brie slices.
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Grill sandwiches a few minutes on each side until crisp and until cheese is melted.
Serve and enjoy!

I love brie with berries. I added some jam to the cranberry sauce so it wasn’t quite as tart. I splurged for carving board sliced turkey so it was more like real off the bird turkey breast. It was worth it. It wasn’t a very veggie-centric menu but it was fast, cheap, and flavorful.

I love my press. I use it regularly and love that it has removable plates (grill, griddle, and waffle inserts) that are dishwasher safe. It is super handy for quesadillas and opens flat to be a larger 1-sided surface. It is really helpful to multi-task or do a few at a time but a frying pan will work well too. It even lets me unhinge the top so it closes evenly and doesn’t squish the back of the panini more than the front. Genius.
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I served these bad boys with some sweet potato tots for a super easy dinner to keep the nightly options varied!

Cost:
Carving board turkey breast: $6.47 (served 2.5, for $5.16 for 2 people)
Brie: $4.99 (served 4, for $2.5 for 2 people)
Cranberry sauce: $1.99 (served 8, for $0.49 for 2 people)
wheat bread: $3.49 (served 8, for $0.87 for 2 people)
total: $9.02 for 2 people, or $4.51 per person. Your fav lunch spot charges LOTS more than that.

Planning your weekly menu? Sliced chicken or ham would be good too. Don’t go buying ingredients you won’t use again! I love whole berry cranberry sauce. In fact, it’ll prob sweeten up my smoothie or be the star of my oatmeal since it isn’t just for dinner to me!

Caesar Chicken Salad Sandwiches

This is a super quick one. I also recommend whipping part of it up in advance. I JUST got back from vacay (don’t worry, I’ll tell you ALL about it!) so this is an even more timely meal. Everything came from the freezer!
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Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, marinated in Italian salad dressing
2 tbs mayo or Greek yogurt
1 tbs Greek dressing (or Italian dressing)
2 tbs creamy Caesar dressing

Directions:

Boil or saute chicken until fully cooked through.
When cooled, shred into chunks using 2 forks
Mix in mayo, and both salad dressings.
Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, or whatever you like.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Better yet, make it the night before!

I served it on some wheat rolls I had in the freezer. This was a major freezer clean out meal. Mr. J shot a deer and it was butchered leaving us with a whole slew of venison in the freezer. The chicken, rolls, and fries were all freezer items! (The rolls may or may not be discount bakery items I sliced and froze for an occasion such as this!)

I liked it for a change of pace. It would be good on a salad or as a wrap too. Got pitas? Fill ’em up! It was definitely a quick meal which is great with lots of other things going on. I don’t mean unpacking. That has not begun yet.
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I was messing around with the lighting. What do you think?

What I Ate: Asian Inspired Meatballs

What I Ate is a Friday series that is so easy (but delicious!) that it doesn’t really require a recipe! Check out the category (to your right) to see other super easy ideas.

Did you cook your tuckus off for Thanksgiving and now it is time to adapt to the winter season? These Asian inspired meatballs are super easy and work with any pre-made meatballs.

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Ingredients:

12 turkey meatballs (3 meatballs per person)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp honey

Directions:

Defrost meatballs (or make your own!)
Mix soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and honey over medium-low heat.
Stir well, then add meatballs.
Cook for about 10 minutes then turn to low so it can thicken.

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Serve over rice and top with some green onions.  They have a nice sweet/salty flavor. The brown sugar and honey help thicken it up and poof! You’re done and clean up is pretty minimal.

Chicken Spinach and Artichoke Nachos

You read that right. I took everything good about nachos and spinach and artichoke dip and married it. Happily. Ever. After.
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I had a bunch of apps on my ever running “to make” list of ideas so a few became dinner one night.

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh spinach, chopped fine
1 pkg frozen artichoke hearts (not jared in oil)
8 oz cream cheese (or plain greek yogurt)
½ cup prepared alfredo sauce
1 tbs chopped garlic
1 chicken breast, shredded
8 oz shredded mozzarella
multigrain tortilla chips

Directions:

Cook chicken breast and shred when cooled slightly.
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Add artichoke hearts, cream cheese, alfredo sauce, and garlic to a large large saute pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Once the cream cheese is melted, add the chicken and ½ cup of the shredded cheese.
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Stir the dip well, turn the temperature to low, and begin layering chips, dip and shredded mozzarella. Make one layer with about ⅓ of the dip, cheese, and chips.
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Melt in the oven at 375 degrees until melted.
Layer more chips, dip, and mozzarella.
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Melt in the oven at 375 degrees until melted.
Top with remaining.
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Trust me. The layers melted before more layers are crucial. If you layer, layer, and layer and then melting will mean your bottom layers aren’t going to be melted and the top will be cooked too much.
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I had some leftover chicken and sundried tomato alfredo pasta with lots of leftover chicken. I shredded it up which made for a wayyy better use of the leftovers than I planned!
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