Mango Mandarin Sesame Shrimp Salad

This is a nice Asian style salad with lots of flavor.  If you use precooked shrimp it can come together in less than 30 minutes.  This recipe makes great dinner salads.

• 1½-2 pounds uncooked shrimp shelled and deveined, tail-on is okay)
• 8 cups chopped romaine or green leaf lettuce
• 1 avocado, pitted and thinly sliced
• 1 large mango, diced
• ½ cup mandarin oranges
• 1c. snow peas, chopped
• ⅓ cup shelled edamame
• ¼ cup cilantro, roughly chopped
• sesame seeds, for topping (optional)
• Combine all ingredients except shrimp.  Mix marindae/dressing and combine half of it with the shrimp.  Let sit for 10-15 minutes.  Saute shrimp and add to salad using the remainder of the dressing/marinade with the salads.

dressing/marinade

• ½ cup oil (vegetable, canola, or peanut work well)
• ⅓ cup rice vinegar
• ¼ cup soy sauce (I use low sodium)
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger (more to taste)

Pancit

This is a traditional Filipino dish that is basically a noodle stir fry.  Some recipes call for chicken and or shrimp in the pancit.  Some marinade the chicken in a teriyaki marinade overnight and then stir fry the chicken.  Or it can be vegetarian..your choice..it is a very adaptable dish.  Great with a few lumpia or eggrolls on the side!

•   2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups cabbage, chopped
• 1 cup carrot, sliced
• 1 cup onion, sliced
• ^{2 c. snow peas}
• ^{yaki soba noodles}
• ^{2 c. chopped celery} 
• ^{2 c. chicken or shrimp (optional)}
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• Heat cooking oil in a large skillet or wok.  Stir fry meat until done and remove from pan. Add garlic, onion, celery, cabbage and celery.  Stir fry for abooout 5 minutes.  Add in snow peas.  You may need to put your cooked vegetables in a bowl at this point to make room for the noodles in the pan.  Cook another 2 minutes then stir in noodles.  The amount of noodles should be at least 3 c.  You can add more if you like more noodle.
• Heat noodles with vegetables then mix in soy sauce and meat and serve.
•  

Panera Bread Chicken Cobb Salad with Green Goddess Dressing

I have had this twice now at Panera Bread and have loved it both time.  When I cam across the recipe for the dressing on Panera's website I just knew I had to try to make it at home.  While it might not be exact, it is close to the original and quite delicious.  Be aware that you should make the pickled red onions the day before serving this.

4 c. mixed greens (Panera uses kale, raddiochio, romaine and arugula)
4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1 chicken breast, grilled and sliced
1 tomato, sliced
1 avocado, sliced
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
red onion
2/3 c. red wine vinegar
1/3 c. apple cider vinegar
1 t. sugar
1 t. salt
Slice onion in thin slices.  Combine vinegars, sugar and salt.  Mix in onion and place in glass jar or bowl.  Allow to sit at least one hour or best overnight.

Place greens in 2 bowls.  Top with bacon, chicken, avocado, eggs and pickled red onion.  Top with dressing.

Dressing:
½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 oz. (weighed) fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons shallot, minced
- 2 tablespoons basil pesto
- ¼ cup white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon agave syrup
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- pinch of kosher salt & coarse black pepper
Whisk all dressing ingredients together.

Tropical Shrimp Rice Bowl

Tasty, delicious, easy and quick--a perfect recipe for a busy weeknight dinner.  This recipe is served over rice mixed with a little cilantro for zest.  The sauce has just a touch of chili powder to spice it up.
I added a cup of green peas to this or edamame would be great too.

• 3 cups cooked rice
• ½ Tbsp fresh minced cilantro
• Salt
• Shrimp:
• ½ lb shrimp
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 2 Tbsp pineapple juice
• ¼ tsp chili powder
• Salt
• Sauce:
• 8 oz can of pineapple chunks, save 2 T. of juice for the shrimp
• ½ cup pineapple juice
• 1½ Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp honey
• Zest from 1 lime
• Juice from 1 lime
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp fresh, minced cilantro

Mix shrimp with lime juice, pineapple juice and chili powder and let sit for 20 minutes.  Heat a fryig pan with a Tablespoon of oil.  Add shrimp and saute until pink.  Remove from pan and add all sauce ingredients.  Simmer 5-10 minutes until thickened.  Serve over rice that has been mixed with the cilantro.

Southern Veggie Burgers

I found this recipe in the new Vegetarian Times.  They are very good.  But also extremely messy to make.  I did not find that they were easy to form into patties at all.  Then to move them to a frying pan was impossible...so I decided to pop them in the freezer for a bit.  I tried 15 minutes but I believe that 30 minutes would be better.  You want them to firm up before cooking.

2 cans black eyed peas
2 eggs
6 T. cornmeal
1/2 c. chopped green onions
1 red pepper, diced
i clove of garlic, minced
2 t. fresh thyme
Drain one can of black eyed peas.  Put into a food processor with eggs and cornmeal.  Blend until smooth.  Pour into a bowl.  Mix in onion, red pepper, garlic, thyme and other can of black eyed peas that has also been drained.  Form into 4 patties.  Freeze for 30 minutes.  Put 2 T. olive oil in a frying pan.  Add patties and cook each side about 5 minutes.

Creamy Spicey Spinach Casserole

This is a recipe I found recently in Vegetarian Times.  I changed it just a little bit to work with ingredients I was able to get.  It would be great with some cooked diced chicken mixed in if you don't want to eat vegetarian.  Today it is our meatless Tuesday special.

Sauce:
3 T. butter
1/2 c. diced onion
1 T. minced ginger
1 clove of garlic minced
1 t. cumin
1 t. coriander
3/4 t. turmeric
Melt butter, stir in remaining ingredients and cook on low for 5-7 minutes.  Then stir in
3 T. flour.
mix well and slowly add in
2 c. milk
Stir in 5  oz. diced fontina cheese
1 pkg. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
3 c. diced naan or flatbread
Pour int a baking dish coated with nonstick spray.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Mixed Nut Butter Bars

This weekend I was at Trader Joe's and picked up a jar of mixed nut butter.  Now if you don't have a Trader Joe's you could mix several different nut butters to try this.  The one I bought is exceptional with a nut butter mixture made from hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, walnuts, and pecans .  Yummy!  I came right home and made a batch of these bars.

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. nut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 c. flour
1 c. oatmeal
2 c. chocolate chips
Beat butter,nut butter and sugars until creamy.  Add vanilla and egg and beat in until mixed well.  Beat in salt, baking soda, flour and oatmeal.  Spray a 8" baking dish with cooking spray.  Spread the dough in the pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and return to the oven for one minute.  Remove from oven and spread chips over dough like a frosting.  Using a spoon drizzle some more nut butter in lines over the chocolate. 

Easter Bunny dinner rolls

This is a repost that is worth looking at again.  New posts soon...my computer is finally fixed!
This is a recipe that could be super easy, or a bit harder.  If you want the easy version, defrost some Rhodes frozen bread dough and then follow the directions for forming them into rolls.  A bit harder...make the following rye bread dough and form into rolls.  Either way..delicious and just darling!

Rye bread dough:
1/2 pkg. yeast
1 T. sugar
1 1/8 c. warm water
Combine these ingredients and whisk well.  Add in:
1/8 c. brown sugar
1/8 c. corn oil
1/8 c. molasses
1 T. caraway seeds
1/2 t. salt
Now add
1/2 c. rye flour
1 1/2 C. all purpose flour
Mix well.  Add up to another cup of flour until a soft, kneadable dough is formed.  Knead 6 minutes.
Put into a buttered bowl and let rise for one hour in a warm place.

How to form rolls:

Roll dough out on floured board into a large rectangle. Cut in 1/2 width-wise, and then cut into strips.
Roll each strip into a long log shape.

Shape the log into a U, then twist ends around each other.

This is the bunny with the ears on top.  Roll some small balls and add on the bottom for a bunny tail.

Let rise for one hour.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Now aren't these just too cute?

French Toast Supreme

This is a simple recipe..simply delicious.
It ;uses King's Hawaiian bread...if you are unable to get that you could substitute a Portugese sweet bread.

3 eggs-whip well.  Then whip in 2/3 c. cream and 1 t. vanilla.  Dip both sides of the bread slices in this mixture.  Sprinkle each slice with cinnamon.  Cook on a griddle or frypan that is nonstick or has been sprayed with cooking spray until both sides are browned, flipping after several minutes.
Serve with butter and maple syrup or fresh fruit and whipped cream on top.