Chicken and Grape Salad

Before I bookmarked (and eventually started pinning) ideas from around the web to save for later, I cut out magazine and newspaper articles and photos. I glued them into notebooks and stuck them on my cork board.

Thanks to pinterest, much of that is done digitally now, but I still love looking through food and home decor magazines. I have far too many recipes saved (both on paper and online), so I thought I would start trying them out in order to thin out the clutter.

First up, chicken grape salad.

Chicken and Grape Salad
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Food Magazine
Serves 2

2-4 slices turkey bacon (although I have to admit, real bacon is better)
about 1 cup shredded chicken (rotisserie chickens work wonderfully for this!)
1/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1/4 cup tomato basil feta cheese
1 Tablespoon finely chopped chives
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
coarse salt and ground pepper
4-6 ounces lettuce
3/4 cup seedless red grapes, halved

Cook bacon and break into bits. Shred about 1 cup of chicken, removing skin and bones. To make dressing, mix yogurt and cheese with a fork, then stir in chives and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Finally, toss chicken, bacon, grapes and lettuce together before topping with yogurt dressing.


I love fruit in salad and this one is no different. The yogurt dressing is tasty and easy to make! Not to mention fairly healthy, especially if you leave out the bacon.


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.

Garlic Chicken Puffs

I am in love with the ease and yumminess of making dinner using crescent rolls. Remember these scrumptious Baked Chicken Cheese Filled Rolls or the Chicken Broccoli Cheddar Braid? Well, I had this recipe pinned for a while and had the 4 ingredients on hand. Yes, only four. Easy enough. Promise!

I nearly halved the recipe shared by Cheryl over at Tidy Mom, which means you will get 16 puffs if you follow the directions below. We ate them for dinner. Doubling (or even tripling!) the batch would work perfectly for a potluck, appetizer at a party or a family larger than 4 people.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cooked, cut in 1/2 - 1 inch cubes

2-3 ounces cream cheese

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 can crescent roll

First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Next, cook/bake/grill your chicken breasts as you like. I added a little Mrs. Dash seasoning to mine before grilling it.

While the chicken is cooking, mix cream cheese and garlic powder together until well blended.

Unroll crescent rolls and cut each perforated triangle into 2 triangles. You should have a total of 16 triangles after doing this, since there are 8 crescent rolls per tube, each triangle being cut in half.

Place 1 tsp of cream cheese mixture on the center of each triangle. Place 2-4 cubes of chicken on top of cream cheeseand then fold the corners in over the mixture.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and sprayed with no stick spray. Place all the puffs on the cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes, or until puffs are golden brown. Allow to cool.

It was a good thing I had people to share them with, because I could have easily eaten all of them. They taste super good warm out of the oven. Pair with some mashed taters and veggies and you're set.


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page. Go check them out for more inspiration!  

Chicken Broccoli Cheddar Braid

Tried another recipe from, you guessed it, Pinterest. Yet again, we were not let down. This time, it was a Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Braid by Cat from Food Family Finds.

Just like the Baked Chicken Cheese Filled Rolls we tried a few nights ago, this recipe also uses crescent rolls. This one is even easier than that one. It does call for fresh rosemary to be sprinkled on top of the braid. It seems as if I almost always don't have one ingredient and tend to just try recipes anyway, as long as I know it isn't a completely necessary ingredient. Also, the original linked recipe above is double the recipe below.

1 can crescent rolls 

1 cup chicken chunks, cooked

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 cups broccoli, steamed and chopped

1/4 cup light mayonnaise

1/2 egg yolk (approximately)

fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 375 degree. On a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, spread can of crescents length wise to form a long rectangle. Press each of the seams to form a single layer of dough.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, cheese, broccoli and mayonnaise. Spread mixture over the center of the croissant dough evenly to create a log. 

Using a sharp knife, cut horizontal strips 1 inch apart down each side of the crescent dough. Fold the dough strips over the top of the chicken mixture, alternating left and right to create a braid.

Brush the top of the braid with a beaten egg yolk and sprinkle fresh rosemary on top.

 

Bake for 26 – 28 minutes until golden brown. (If you use this recipe doubled to what the original post calls for, the bake time is 28-30 minutes.)

Halved recipe shared here serves 4.

Have you already thought what my sister and I voiced almost in sync while enjoying this for dinner? Yes, we thought bacon should most definitely be added to this recipe next go around.

Baked Chicken Cheese Filled Rolls

Oh boy, do I have a recipe to add to your weekly dinner plans! If you plan that far ahead, that is. But seriously, check out the ingredients, put them on your grocery list and give this easy chicken dish a shot. No one will be disappointed. I'm sure.

My mom and pickiest eater in the fam, my 14 year old sister came over to try out this meal for dinner She even liked it, which made my mom quite excited to be able to add a new recipe to mix up dinners with.

Not surprisingly, I found this recipe on Pinterest. (Maybe my blog should be re-titled to "Made from Pinterest.") Anyways, it was originally posted by Steph from Plain Chicken. I just realized that this is the same blog that posted the recipe I based my super addicting Bacon Ranch Cheese Pull Apart on. Hmmm. She sure knows how to please. I will be scoping out the rest of her site, instead of waiting til one of her other surely delectable recipes pops up on my pinterest feed.

Here's the recipe Steph adapted from recipezaar.com:

2 (8 ounce) cans Reduced Fat Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup, undiluted
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese or swiss cheese (or any cheese of choice)
1/2 cup milk

Filling
4 ounces cream cheese, very soft (fat free or less fat work fine)
2 tablespoons butter, very soft but not melted
1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tsp minced onion flakes
2 large cooked chicken breasts, finely chopped (or use about 2 cups, can use cooked turkey)
1/2-3/4 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)
2 Tbsp. milk
1-2 cup grated cheddar cheese (for topping)

Set oven to 350°F. Spray a 9x13 dish with cooking spray. Mix together milk, 3/4 cup cheese and undiluted chicken soup (can season with black pepper if desired). Set aside.

To prepare the filling,  make certain that the cream cheese and butter are very soft.  In a bowl, mix the soft cream cheese with butter until very smooth, then add in garlic powder. Add in the chopped chicken, onion and cheddar cheese; mix well until combined. Add in 2 tablespoons milk; mix to combine (add in a little more if the mixture seems too dry). Season with seasoning salt or white and black pepper to taste.

Unroll the crescent rolls. Place 1 heaping tablespoon chicken mixture (or a little more) on top of each crescent triangle, then roll up starting at the thicker end. Drizzle a small amount of soup mixture on the bottom of the dish. Then place the crescent rolls seam-side down on top of the creamed mixture in the casserole.

Drizzle the remaining soup sauce on top (you don't have to use the full amount, just use as much as desired) and sprinkle with 1 cup (or more) grated cheese, or amount desired. Bake for about 30-35 minutes.

I edited the directions, as I found them a little scattered. You could totally prepare the filling the night before, so come dinner time, assembly is all that is required.

I took leftovers to work the next day and it tasted just as yummy, if not better (maybe I was just super hungry) than the first night. Who can deny cheese and bread? Not me.