Pesto Chicken with Tomatoes

Grilled Pesto Chicken and Tomato Kebabs

Hint: I made this EVEN EASIER by using pre-made pesto and broiling the kebabs for 20 minutes!

Skinnytaste.com

Ingredients:

•                1 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

•                1 clove garlic

•                1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

•                kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste

•                3 tbsp olive oil

•                1-1/4 lbs skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes

•                24 cherry tomatoes

•                16 wooden skewers

Directions:

In a food processor pulse basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper until smooth. Slowly add the olive oil while pulsing.

Combine the raw chicken with pesto and marinate a few hours in a bowl. Soak wooden skewers in water at least 30 minutes (or use metal ones to avoid this step). Beginning and ending with chicken, thread chicken and tomatoes onto 8 pairs of parallel skewers to make 8 kebabs total.

Heat the outdoor grill or indoor grill pan over medium heat until hot. Be sure the grates are clean and spray lightly with oil. Place the chicken on the hot grill and cook about 3-4 minutes; turn and continue cooking until chicken is cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Bourbon Chicken

So, I finallyyy cooked something new! I tried two GREAT new recipes this weekend, which was very exciting. 

They are very different, too. I am dividing them into two posts, because I’m overly organized.

Bourbon Chicken 

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1 -2 tablespoon olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/4 teaspoon ginger

3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup apple juice

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup soy sauce

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet.

2. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned.

3. Remove chicken.

4. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium Heat until well mixed and dissolved.

5. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil.

6. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

7. Serve over hot rice and ENJOY.

Golden Birthday

I had a great birthday last week! I turned 21 on the 21^st, so I celebrated my “golden birthday” this year. On Saturday, two of my closest friends from school, Kelly and Laura, came over and went out to dinner at Mon Ami Gabi. 

On Sunday, my mom planned a crab feast for the whole family and Andrew came up for the afternoon too! 

 

It was so much fun to celebrate with my favorite people! I felt so blessed! 

Broiled Tilapia Fillets--great summer recipe!

I have been making this recipe for a few months now, but I don't think I ever posted it. Andrew even made it for me during finals! If I ever get a picture I'll post it, but no promises. It is dinner tonight!

Broiled Tilapia Fillets

Ingredients:

•  1 1/2 pounds frozen tilapia, thawed

•  1 teaspoon garlic powder

•  1/4 cup melted butter

•  1/4 cup lemon juice

•  1/4 cup soy sauce

•  paprika

Preparation:

Place tilapia fillets in a shallow dish; sprinkle with garlic powder. Combine melted butter, lemon juice, and soy sauce; pour over tilapia then turn to coat. Let stand for 10 minutes. Place fish on broiler pan then broil about 4 inches from heat for about 5 minutes on each side, or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Sprinkle with paprika.

Tilapia recipe serves 4.

Out to Lunch!

DC Lunch Day

Today, I tried out the meal trucks with my mom in DC! She always raves about these trucks, which park on the side of the road in DC and are very popular. I was a little skeptical at first because, well, you're eating food out of the side of a truck. To my great surprise, the food was terrific!! There were so many kinds of food, from Mexican to Indian to American to Asian! There were even dessert trucks. My mom said there is a cupcake truck that comes fairly frequently.

"Halal Grill" ~ Where we ate!

A row of the trucks!

I tried this recipe this week too! One of my goals for my time at home was to make a few new recipes, so I tried this one (found, conveniently, on Pinterest). It was great, so I decided to add it to the blog (which has turned into my online recipe book as of recently!). I'm sure I'll blog about something else later this summer!

Baked Crispy Ranch Chicken

• INGREDIENTS

5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup ranch dressing

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs 

1 1/2 cups lightly crushed corn flakes

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a wide bowl, pour ranch dressing. In a separate bowl, combine bread crumbs and lightly crushed corn flakes. 
2. Dip chicken breasts in ranch evenly on both sides.
3. Next, dip into bowl with combined bread crumbs and corn flakes. Evenly cover on all sides.
4. Place in a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until chicken is done and tender. http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/10/baked-crispy-ranch-chicken/ 

The Last House Dinner!

House dinner has been a great weekly tradition at the Matoaka House for the past two years. Tonight was the last one with Emilie and Bailey! I'm sentimental, so I took pictures... I cooked and made honey-lime chicken skewers.

 

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• juice of one lime
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 teaspoon Siracha
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• 2 tablespoon cilantro
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine your ingredients, through the cilantro. Mix thoroughly.
2. Pour marinade over chicken breasts and turn to coat. Cover and allow to marinate for at least 1 hour.
3. Grill on medium high heat for 6 to 8 minutes per side, until juices run clear. ((I broiled it and it tasted great!))

http://kitchenmeetsgirl.com/main-dishes/honey-lime-chicken-skewers/

Recipe for the Week: Buffalo Chicken Salad

Buffalo Chicken Salad is one of my favorite meals! I make it a lot during finals (which start this week). This finals period should be interesting because this week is all papers and next week is all presentations--no tests this time around!

If you're looking for something to cook that may cheer you up in this dreary weather, try this recipe. If you don't like spicy food, I suggest you make something else!

ingredients:

1 heart of Romaine lettuce, diced


1 celery stalk, diced


1/4 cup matchstick carrots


3/4 cup buffalo shredded chicken


Cherry tomatoes

1/3 cup crumbled Kerrygold Cashel Blue (I use ranch dressing!)

directions:

For the chicken:

•                24 oz boneless skinless chicken breast

•                1 celery stalk

•                1/2 onion, diced

•                1 clove garlic

•                16 oz fat free low sodium chicken broth

•                1/2 cup hot cayenne pepper sauce (I used Frank's)

Boil the chicken in the chicken broth. Once it is cooked through, shred the chicken. Save approximately 1/2 a cup of chicken broth and pour the rest out. Then add 1/2 cup of Frank's sauce and put the chicken back on the stove.

In a large bowl combine the Romaine, celery, and carrots. Top with shredded buffalo chicken and crumbled Kerrygold Cashel Blue cheese (or ranch dressing!). 

Tilapia Tacos with Peach Relish

I tried a new recipe tonight! I didn't actually make the peach relish, but it looks pretty good. I mixed fresh tomatoes, canned corn, and black beans to put with the fish in my tacos! Try these out this week! :)

Tilapia Tacos with Peach Relish

 

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 tacos and about 1/2 cup salsa) 

        

            Salsa:

            2 cups finely chopped peeled peach (about 2 medium)

            1/2 cup finely chopped red onion 

            2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

            1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 

            1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

            1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

            1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped

            1 garlic clove, minced 

            Remaining ingredients:

            1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

            1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

            1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

            1 pound tilapia, cut into 2-inch strips

            Cooking spray  

            8 (6-inch) corn tortillas

Preparation

.                 To prepare salsa, combine first 8 ingredients in a medium bowl. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature.

.                 Preheat oven to 375°.

.                 Combine panko, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Add fish to bowl, tossing to coat. Place fish in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until desired degree of doneness, turning once.

Heat tortillas according to package directions. Divide fish and salsa evenly among tortillas.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/tilapia-tacos-with-peach-relish-10000001215932/

Ode to the Camry

I'm no poet, but I decided to express myself this morning. Andrew sold his car this weekend! 

**Just for clarification, I'm kidding around. But the car was fun and we drove around in it a lot when we first started dating!

The Camry is gone.

Yesterday was a sad day.

That car was ancient.

However ancient,

It was important to him.

He worked to keep it running.

It was a loyal car.

It actually never died.

And was fun to drive.

Now that the car’s gone.

We are starting a new phase.

And it is awesome. :)

March...the recap

Not that the whole semester hasn’t been great, but March was really exciting.

I started off the month in Texas with Elizabeth, then went home for a very relaxing, arts and crafts-, television-, reading-, and family-filled spring break! Then I came back to school for a few days and left town again for Michelle’s bachelorette party!

We stayed in Asheville, NC and spent the whole weekend relaxing on the  porch of the mountain house and going to the spa. We went out to a chocolate bar, which was a definite highlight for me. Between massages and eating great food at the house, it was a very relaxing weekend.

All of the bridesmaids and the bride enjoying dinner after the spa!

I am so excited for Michelle and Chris’s wedding in a week! I have always looked up to Michelle and I can’t wait to see her walk down the aisle!

Roomies at the Williamsburg Winery before Sophie left for her study abroad!

Date night!

Andrew and I celebrated our two year last weekend also. We re-did our first date—Buon Amici, smores at Aroma’s, and then walking in Colonial Williamsburg!

SPRING BREAK!

Tour de Baylor

Sometimes, God places people in your life that you know will be there for a looong time. Elizabeth is one of those people. This spring break, I was able to visit her at Baylor! I had never been to Texas before, so she introduced me to lots of restaurants that are only available in Texas/not available in VA and we spent the whole weekend catching up! Turns out, they study at Panera in Texas too. 

Hiking!

I had SUCH a good time meeting her friends, seeing her school and her church, hiking, eating Tex Mex and Whataburger Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits, going to the movies, getting free shirts at the basketball game, and talking. I hope she is able to visit before we graduate! :)

Free Shirts!

Tex Mex at Chuy's!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day (or Valentine's week, rather)! This week was quite a week for cooking and spending time with friends! I tried out a bunch of great recipes and Thursday was buy one get one free at Starbucks. Can't say I enjoyed my Vanilla Spice Latte, but the idea was there and Andrew enjoyed his.

So, my week of cooking adventures began with "chicken enchilada puffs." Great times, really easy. It's an enchilada you can eat with your hand...does it get any better? Also, you can toast them up later and they still taste good. 

For dessert, I made mini-heart-shaped strawberry pies. Very festive. I'm not much of a baker, so this was a feat of endurance and patience in my book.

For Valentine's Day, Andrew took me to the Cove for dinner--highly recommend their "Tinga Tacos" and "Baja Fish Tacos." If you live in the area, go to the Cove. If they go out of business, I'd be pretty disappointed. 

Yesterday, one of my friends and I celebrated a combination of Christmas and Valentine's Day. We bought each other honey for Christmas, so we made "honey mustard chicken" for dinner. Also delicious. I made another set of it today so that I can eat it this week!

Back to (elementary) school!

I just realized that I haven’t blogged in a month…oops. Well anyways, I am back to campus and adjusting to a new semester. I am used to all linguistics classes, but now I am only in one linguistics class and many education classes! In my linguistics class, we are studying Indonesian in a mock-field-study environment.

I am going to start observing 5^th grade this semester and by the end of next school year, I will be student teaching! I am excited. Today, we started with “light.” We made word maps of the ideas that the kids already knew about light and sound. We talked about how sound and light are both kinds of energy and are both waves. I learned today that light CAN travel in a vacuum because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to see the sun (since space contains vacuums). I was also surprised by the number of ways children can spell “vacuum”)!!

So, now you’re more educated about light and I have a better log of what I have done so far in my practicum. It’s a win-win. :)

Addendum...

Tonight I made another great chicken recipe! It's called "Thai Cilantro Chicken." Try this one out and serve it with brown rice or steamed vegetables.

http://www.artsy-foodie.com/2008/09/wonderful-tasting-chicken-breast-recipe.html 

"The World's Best Chicken"

As I have already established, I really enjoy cooking. Winter break has been a great time to experiment with different foods! Even though this dish was eaten too quickly to take a picture, I thought I would share it because it was delicious and very, very easy to make. It's even called "the world's best chicken." How can you pass that up?! The picture is from the blog where I got the recipe. Try this one out soon!

2012...this post is almost a year long!

2012 was a great year. I can’t wait to see what is planned for the next 12 months! Month by month highlights are below.

January: I started off the year at Passion 2012, a huge Christian conference held in Atlanta, Georgia. The worship was great and the talks were inspiring! Check it out. This year’s Passion conference is happening right now—live stream it here. A few weeks later I went to New York City for a day trip with my friends from high school and then we went back to school and Bailey moved in!

February: February was a busy month. School was in full swing and so was small group! We went on the middle school ski trip to Massanutten Mountain. Spending a weekend with the girls was great for group bonding and refocusing the group for the semester. Andrew surprised me by taking me to Virginia Beach for Valentine’s Day and I ran a half marathon in Williamsburg!

March: In March, we went to Nicaragua again and I attended the Speech and Hearing Association of Virginia’s conference in Northern Virginia. Emilie, Ryan, and I also ran the Ukrop’s 10K!

 

April: This month was packed with large events. I went to Lizzie’s baby shower for Charlotte, Emilie and Andrew turned 21, we went to the King and Queen’s ball, and Blowout marked the end of the semester. 

  

May: The first half of the month was pretty much taken up by finals. The weekend between finals, I went to Virginia Beach on a girl’s retreat. It was a great time to focus for the start of the summer. About an hour after finals ended, I went strawberry picking with my friends from Tribe Fellowship and then made strawberry icebox pie! At the end of the month, Michelle and Sue and Mark visited and we toured DC.

June: I took classes online at Longwood all summer---Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing Organs and Introduction to Communication Disorders. I also completed an internship with Building Blocks Speech Therapy, a practice in Falls Church. Mom and I took a cooking class with the National Charity League at Culinaria and Andrew and I took a tour of the monuments in DC.

July: My classes and internship continued through the month of July and the first week of August. Jamie, Maureen, Mom, and I saw the Addam’s Family at the Kennedy Center. Andrew came up for my birthday and we got to participate in the last day of Local Missions Week. It has changed a lot since we started it when I was in high school! Now it is a camp for the kids in Vienna.

August: All of my summer work ended in the first week of August, then we went to North Carolina and Seabrook Island. Christy visited and there was a family reunion in Maryland. The Chapel went to the Leadership Summit Conference in VA Beach. Junior year started and Sophie moved in!

September: The small group that I lead entered high school and kicked off the year with the Wiffle Ball World Series. We went to a Needtobreathe concert in Norfolk and my parents came down for family weekend!

October: This month was William and Mary’s homecoming and fall break! Andrew and I went to North Carolina and saw Michelle, Liz, and Tim as well as my grandparents. It was a really relaxing break! I ran Tribe College Outreach again and worked with a few kids from student ministries. The small group took a day trip to Virginia Beach to talk about relationships and one of Andrew’s friend’s got married!

November: This month was exhausting, but very exciting. I ran the Richmond Half Marathon with Sophie, went to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association Conference in Atlanta, and attended Maureen and Warren’s wedding at Meadowlark Gardens over Thanksgiving break.

December: I went to Michelle’s bridal shower in Winston-Salem and finished classes and finals in early December. When I got home, we took a family trip to Cambridge, Maryland and then spent Christmas at home. I went to Williamsburg for New Year’s Eve and now we are starting off 2013!

This year will include quite a few major events! John is getting his license, Michelle and Chris are getting married, I am turning 21, and I will be starting my senior year of college! Can’t wait to see what God has planned.