Molly Woo's Inspired Chicken Lettuce Cups

Last weekend we met our son and his girlfriend for lunch at Molly Woo's Restaurant at Polaris.  For an appetizer we ordered lettuce cups that were absolutely fantastic!  With the very first bite we all became huge fans of this healthy and delicious chicken lettuce wrap.  Here is our inspired recipe of this popular dish :

2 chicken breasts, or about one pound cut into small pieces, no bigger than 1/2 inch
6 to 8 lettuce leaves rinsed, we used Romaine, but Molly Woo's uses regular head lettuce
1 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 ounces of water chestnuts, cut into thin strips
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
4 tablespoons of reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon finely chopped scallion or green onion
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice, extra lime and/or juice for garnish
rice noodles
brown rice

To save time, we use microwavable rice, minced garlic and ramein noodles.  For a healthier meal, we use low sodium soy sauce.

Precook your brown rice and rice noodles.  

Saute garlic in olive oil and sesame oil then add chicken and cook about 8 minutes on medium high heat until almost cooked through.  Add red pepper, brown sugar, hoisin sauce and soy sauce, finish cooking until chicken is no longer pink and all ingredients are well mixed.  Add lime juice and garnish with scallion.

At this point taste your chicken and add any of  the above ingredients to adjust the recipe to your liking.

And now the fun part:  Start with a lettuce leaf then layer with rice noodles, brown rice and top with chicken mixture.  Sprinkle your creation with juice from a fresh lime if desired or garnish with lime wedges.  Roll like a burrito and enjoy!

For dessert, try fresh pineapple, yum!

Mike's Greek Pasta Salad

 

Wow!  Dear hubby, (Mike), created this healthy, yummy recipe in an effort to eat healthier.  A delicious healthy meal, quick enough for a weeknight dinner.  I'm packing the leftovers for lunch, and we are making a fresh batch for dinner again tomorrow.  That's one smart guy I married.  We love it, and hope you will too! 

Ingredients:

1 medium onion chopped 

2 small chicken breasts, or one large, cut into 3/4 inch pieces  

10 red, orange and yellow mini sweet peppers, cut into 3/4 inch pieces

1 lb of angel hair pasta

olive oil

Toppings:

feta cheese, reduced fat

tomato, diced with seeds removed.

black olives

Greek dressing vinaigrette

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions and toss with 1 teaspoon of olive oil.  While the pasta is cooking, saute onion in olive oil until lightly browned, then add chicken and cook 8 minutes or until done.  Drizzle 3 Tablespoons of Greek dressing over the chicken then add peppers and saute for about 3 minutes, or until heated thoroughly, but not mushy.

Now for the fun part, start filling up your plate!  Layer your salad starting with the pasta, next layer the chicken, onion and pepper mixture.  Finish off with your favorite toppings listed above, then sprinkle on extra Greek dressing, if desired.

Note:  you can substitute regular sized red, orange and yellow peppers for the miniatures.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Experience

Dear hubby bought these adorable little cast iron skillets from WalMart in the Christmas gift section.  They were individually wrapped and came with a cookie mix that tasted terrible!  The skillets are 5 inch diameter by 1/2 inch deep.  They are worth the purchase price of $4.88 each because the best online price I could find for a 5 inch miniature cast iron skillet was $8.95 at  http://www.castironcookware.com/cast-iron-cookware.html

The chocolate chip cookie recipe can be baked in one large skillet and cut like a pie to serve.  Adjust the baking time, depending on size of skillet.  Or just make them as cookies!


Cookie Ingredients

2 sticks of butter
1 egg
1 Tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 bag of chocolate chips


Topping ingredients

Vanilla ice cream
Cool Whip

Optional Topping ingredients

chocolate ice cream syrup
one cherry

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream the butter, egg, molasses, vanilla, and sugars.  Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour and mix.  With a spoon or spatula, fold in the chocolate chips.

Spoon the dough into the skillet and pat down flat.  Leave room for the cookie to raise and grow a bit, then bake for about 12 minutes, or until lightly brown.  Do not over bake, because these cookies will continue to bake in the skillet when removed from the oven.

Remove from oven, and place on plate, remember, the handle of the skillet will be hot!  Scoop on vanilla ice cream, then top with your cool whip decorating bag.  Add a cherry, just for fun!

For a step by step detailed instructions, check out my instructable at Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Experience

http://www.instructables.com/id/Ultimate-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-Experience/

Rolly Pollies

My cookie recipe got featured on Instructables, and they gave me a one year pro-membership for free! yay!

Rolly Pollies are the best cookies you will ever taste this side of heaven.  These are addictive cookies that melt in your mouth.  They are soft and chewy with a molasses taste that has a perfectly synergistic caramel and chocolate Rolo candy melted in the middle.  This recipe will yield 25 cookies.

Step 1 Ingredients

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Ingredients

3/4 cup shortening (solid shortening in a can works best, not the stick kind)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Rolo candy, about 25 pieces

Topping
Mix the following in a small bowl:

3 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

After baking, sprinkle with:
Sanding sugar

Step 2 Mix the Dough

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Cream the shortening and sugar.  Beat in the egg and molasses.  Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Mix until combined.  Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.

Step 3 Insert Rolo Candy

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Press thumb into dough ball to make an impression, then insert one Rolo candy into the indentation you just created.  Push the dough up and over the candy to cover it completely.  Smooth out the dough ball, then press the top of the dough ball into topping mixture. 

Step 4 Bake

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Place the dough ball, with sugar side up, on a greased baking sheet.  Bake in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  If you are using a warm cookie tray, the cookie baking time will be shortened to about 10 minutes.  The cookies should be lightly baked with slight cracking.  Sprinkle with sanding sugar.

Step 5 Enjoy

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Take out of the oven and share with those you love. 

 

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, Black Forest Cake

 

For our last German class of this year, our instructor mentioned he wanted to buy a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.  He told us how much the cake was going to cost, and that he would have to drive about an hour to pick it up.  We also decided as a class, that we needed a non-alcoholic version of the cake, because our class meets at a local high school. I'm not much of a cake baker, but I volunteered to make one anyway.  My husband found a recipe online, and I made a test cake just to make sure I could make one.  I accidentally made extra batter for the test cake, but it turned out perfectly.  A week later, I made the cake for class and followed the recipe exactly.  One of my layers was so thin that it fell apart, and I had to remake it.  This recipe is my accident version, with extra batter and frosting, so your layers will not be too thin.  An awesome cake, that tastes great too!

Cake:
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups water
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Cake Directions:  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in water until blended.  In a microwave melt chocolate, stir until smooth, then stir in vanilla until blended. Combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda and add to creamed mixture alternately with chocolate mixture beating well after each addition. Pour into four greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Filling:
5 ounces German sweet chocolate
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Chocolate Filling Directions:  Melt chocolate in a microwave and stir until smooth.  Stir in softened butter until smooth, then add almonds.

Cream Filling:
4 cups heavy whipping cream
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream Filling Directions: Beat cream until it begins to thicken.  Add Sugar and vanilla, beat until soft peaks form.

Topping:
1 can cherry pie filling
3 cups sliced almonds

To assemble cake: place one cake on a serving platter, spread with a fourth of the chocolate filling and a fourth of the cream filling.  Repeat layers.  Top with remaining cake and chocolate filling.  Place 2 cups of the remaining cream filling in a pastry bag with a large star tip.  Pipe around top edge of cake.  Fill center with cherry pie filling.  Spread remaining cream filling over sides of cake; press almonds into sides.

Note: Allow to chill for several hours or overnight to allow the cream to set.  Otherwise, the layers will slip a bit as you are trying to cut it.

Coated Pecans

My husband brought this recipe home from a co-worker at Nationwide Insurance about 18 years ago.  The Coated Pecans were so yummy, I used to make several batches every Christmas to give to family and friends.  I haven't made them for awhile, but this morning while I was talking on the phone to my sister, she reminded me how much she liked them and will miss having them again this year.  Hmmm...I think a surprise food gift will be on it's way to her house soon!

Coated Pecans

2-3 cups pecans (depending on how heavy you like the coating)
1 cup sugar
5 Tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1 /2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Roast pecans for 12 minutes in a 300 degree oven.

In a large saucepan, combine the remaining ingredients.  Cook on high heat for 2-3 minutes or until 'soft ball' candy stage, approximately 250 degrees F.

Remove from heat, add pecans and stir to coat.

Pour onto waxed paper and separate with a fork.

Aunt Esther's Cherry Delight

This is a throwback recipe that was popular in the 1960-70's which my husband enjoyed as a little kid at his Aunt Esther's.  I tweaked the original recipe by doubling the amount of cream cheese, Dream Whip and cherries...yummy!

Cherry Delight
2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick margarine or butter
2 packages of 8oz cream cheese
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
2 envelopes of Dream Whip (2 envelopes come in one small package)
2 cans of cherry pie filling

Mix cracker crumbs and margarine or butter in a greased 9 x 13 baking pan and flatten to form a bottom crust.  Bake for 5 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Whip cream cheese and powdered sugar together and spread on crumbs, then bake for an additional 10 minutes.  (Use a spoon dipped in hot water to help spread the cheese mixture over the crumbs).  Spoon cherry pie filling over the cream cheese layer, then top with Dream Whip prepared according to package directions.  Allow to chill at least 4 hours before serving.

This is a favorite recipe for family gatherings and holidays.