Chicken and Cream Cheese Crescents

This is an old recipe. I think my aunt was the first to make it for me. It's so simple and so delicious. I've had these pictures for a while and I decided to finally post the recipe. If you love cream cheese, you will love this. I have to say though, they are very addicting...

Chicken and Cream Cheese Crescents

Ingredients:

2 "rolls" refrigerated crescent rolls (you can also use biscuits or your own recipe)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 large chicken breast, cooked and diced or 1 can chicken, shredded (I prefer cooking my own)
3 green onions, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven according to roll package directions. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, chicken and onions until combined. Lay out crescent with large end facing you. Put about 2 Tbsp. cream cheese mixture in center of large end. Fold large sides in and around the mixture and then roll it like you would a crescent (I hope that makes sense). Put finished rolls evenly apart on greased baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven according to roll package directions, or until golden.
These are great with a nice green salad.


ENJOY!

Asian Spinach Salad

Mmm...this was delicious. The flavors all together with the chicken and pasta made the perfect summer pasta salad. I was thinking this would be an easy something to bring to a potluck, but it also made the perfect main dish for dinner. Little B ate it pretty well and the Hubby and I gobbled it down. I found the recipe on This Week for Dinner, a new favorite cooking blog. Here's the link. Thanks for sharing Jane! I just made some minor modifications because of what I had, but nothing big. The recipe is below, with the things I did, or you can just follow the original. It's so good so you really should try this!

ASIAN SPINACH SALAD

For salad, toss together:

1 small bag of spinach
8 oz. bowtie pasta (cook, strain, cool)
2-4 Tbsp. Sesame seeds
1/2 C. Sunflower seeds
1 can sliced water chestnuts
3 chicken breasts – season heavily with lemon pepper, grill and cut into bite size pieces (I get really big chicken breasts from my grocery store, so I just cut up one of those, about 3/4 lb) (I also cooked it on the stove with a little cooking spray and lemon pepper, worked great!)
1 C. bean sprouts (I accidentally bought alfalfa sprouts, but I think they worked great)
(As to Jane's suggestion, I added about 3 green onions fresh from my garden and I think that really added to the goodness!)

Dressing:
(There was a bit of dressing left over in the bottom of the bowl once we were done, so next time I might try halving it to see if that will work)

1/2 C. Canola oil
1/2 C. sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Seasoned Rice vinegar (unseasoned works too)
1/2 tsp sesame SEED oil
1 tsp grated fresh garlic
Mix all dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Store in refrigerator. It was good room temperature and chilled as leftovers the next day.
ENJOY!

Lime Fajitas

These were so good and refreshing! I loved the lime. My whole family ate them right up. I found this recipe on my friend's blog Erica's Pantry. Here's the link to the recipe.
I followed her recipe pretty closely, having to use the frying pan with a little cooking spray to cook the chicken and veggies. Try these! You won't be disappointed!

Lemony Chicken and Orzo

I have been wanting to try this recipe for a long time! I actually had it scheduled for a while ago, but then half way through cooking ran into a road-block that I don't care to share. I was really good though. If you really like the taste of lemon, this is perfect. If you don't like it really strong, just add less. I used the full amount, but I think it would be good either way, depending on my mood. I got this one, again, off parents.com and here's the link. I didn't really make any changes, just cut the chicken down to about half of what it said. Try it and let me know what you think.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

We love pizza around here. I hate forking out the money to buy pizza, and so we usually just make it. I have to say that my pizza crust recipe is the best I have ever had. I originally got it from my friend Kim when we were in college and would get together and make pizza and watch chick flicks with our other friends. Ever since then, I haven't used anything else. I have made Chicken Alfredo pizza before, but never completely from scratch, and I have to say, it was one of the best chicken alfredo pizzas I have ever had. I had leftover cooked chicken and bacon from previous meals this week, so the preparation was really easy. Here is my recipe.

CHICKEN ALFREDO PIZZA


Ingredients:

Dough -
1 cup warm water
1/4 + 1/2 Tablespoon sugar, separated
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 Tablespoon salt
about 2 1/2 cups flour

Sauce -
2 Tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
dash ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Toppings -
1 cup chicken, cut in cubes, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and cooked.
1/2 cup bacon, cooked and chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
about 1 cup of your favorite cheese, grated
(plus whatever else you'd like to top it with)

Directions:
1. Prepare the dough - In medium bowl, mix warm water, 1/4 Tbsp. sugar, and yeast. Proof for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 Tbsp. sugar, oil, salt, and flour. Stir and knead until well blended, adding more flour if too sticky. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for at least 30 minutes.

2. Prepare the sauce - Once the dough is about done rising, start to prepare the sauce. Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in salt pepper and flour. Immediately add milk and whisk until mostly smooth. Add Parmesan cheese and stir until sufficiently melted.

3. Assemble the pizza - Roll out pizza dough to the appropriate size for your pizza pan. Place on greased pizza pan. Spread sauce evenly over dough, leaving about 1/4 inch around the edges. Sprinkle about 1/2 of cheese lightly over sauce. Sprinkle all the other toppings, ending with the remainder of the cheese. Note - if you like more cheese, add more. Bake in preheated oven at 450 degrees F for about 12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbling, and/or the crust is a light brown.


My Little B loved it and picked all the toppings off before eating the crust.
ENJOY!

Apple Chicken and Couscous

This recipe seemed odd to me, but I thought it would be interesting so I wanted to try it. I found it on the Parents.com website. This was another success. My Little B absolutely loved it! If you knew him, you'd know how picky of an eater he is, especially at dinner. It is hard to get him to eat lots of things, but he just gobbled down the chicken and asked for more. He loved the sauce. It wasn't just him. These are flavors that I wouldn't have put together before, but they are so good. I loved the dijon mustard in the sauce and, since I used pre-diluted apple juice, it wasn't too sweet. Try this and I hope you love it too! You can get the original recipe here, or use mine (with my modifications) below.

APPLE CHICKEN AND COUSCOUS


Ingredients:

1 cup unprepared couscous
1 cup baby spinach, chopped
1 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed (If you don't have the concentrate, you could use prepared apple juice, then just don't add water to dilute it)
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or however much chicken you'll need for your family, and I used chicken breasts cut thin)
1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Directions:

* Place couscous and spinach in bowl. Heat 1/3 cup of the apple concentrate and 2/3 cup water to boiling over high heat in large nonstick skillet. Pour apple liquid into couscous. Stir and cover tightly with foil; set aside.

* Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Over medium-high heat, cook chicken 7 minutes per side or until cooked through. Fluff couscous with fork. Place chicken on top; cover.

* Whisk together remaining 2/3 cup apple concentrate, honey and mustard. Add apple concentrate mixture to skillet; cook 3 minutes over high heat. Drizzle chicken and couscous with sauce; serve with additional sauce on the side.

ENJOY!