Summer Chicken Wraps

What do you want more than anything during a hot Summer day (besides popsicles and an ice cold beverage). . . . . Something light and refreshing that doesn't require you to turn on your oven.  This is that perfect recipe.  It's healthy, yet fills you up and doesn't leave you filling weighed down.  If you have leftover chicken around, you won't even need to turn on any appliances. 

 I found this idea over at Sweet Little Smoothie a few months ago and have made these at least four times already!!  Since Summer is going to be over soon, I figured I better get this recipe posted.  You can make these with whatever your favorite veggies are or whatever you have in your fridge.  There are so many possibilities with these chicken wraps.  This is my favorite version so far. 

Chicken Wraps

adapted from: Sweet Little Smoothie

(Printable Recipe)

4 chicken tenders or leftover chicken

1/2 c. Italian dressing, for marinating

1/2 c. Cheddar cheese, shredded

1 c. shredded lettuce

1/2 cucumber, cut into thin strips

1 medium tomato, finely diced

Italian dressing, for serving

flour tortillas (or wheat, spinach and tomato flavored)

Place chicken tenders in Italian dressing and let marinate for at least 30 minutes.  Cook on the George Foreman or outside on your grill.  Cut into strips.  Layer your tortilla, lettuce, chicken strips, cucumber slices, tomato and top with cheese.  Drizzle with more Italian dressing.  Roll up, cut in half and serve.  Yield: 2 chicken wraps.

*These ingredients are more of a suggestion, so adjust them to your desired taste.  Switch up the dressing, the tortillas, the meat, the veggies (roasted red pepper, onion, mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, asparagus) and the cheese.  Use however much of each ingredient you desire!! 

101 Gourmet Cake Bites Review and Key Lime Pie Cake Bites

Cake Bites are very popular now a days!!  They are a baked cake that is crumbled and mixed with some type of frosting and flavoring, then rolled into a ball and dipped in chocolate! I have seen them all over blog land, but I had never made them or tried them, until now!!  

I was very generously offered a free copy of Wendy Paul's new book, 101 Gourmet Cake Bites, from Cedar Fort Books to check it out and give my opinion about it.  The book includes all of the cake recipes, which all start with a cake mix along with the yummy frosting recipes.  It was so hard to narrow down all of the amazing gourmet recipes to only one.  I ended up trying the first recipe in the book - Key Lime Pie!!  You guys know that I love key lime pie, so that had to be the first recipe I try.

Now, remember this was my first ever experience with cake bites and I didn't know what to expect.  They were a little more difficult to make perfectly round and smooth than I thought it would be, but I am sure it will be a lot easier the next time around.  The 2nd time is always better.  This is the 3rd day since I made them and I am liking them more and more each day.  They have a great key lime citrus flavor.  I love the snap you get when you bite into the chocolate.

  

There are so many amazing flavors that I can't wait to try, including Coconut Cream Pie, Raspberry Cheesecake, Blackberries and Cream, Orange Creamsicle, Banana Foster, Even More S'more, Candy Cane and the one I am most excited to try - Egg Nog!!!    

  

Key Lime Pie Cake Bites

adapted from: 101 Gourmet Cake Bites

1 box yellow cake mix

1/2 Tbl. grated lime zest

1/3 c. key lime juice

3/4 c. half and half

2 eggs

Mix together cake mix, lime zest, key lime juice, half and half and eggs.  Batter will be thick.  Pour into a greased 9x13 inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 28-32 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.  Remove from oven and cool completely.  Crumble cake into small, even pieces, placing crumbs in a large bowl.

Add:

1/4 c. lime buttercream (recipe follows)

1/2 c. sweetened condensed milk

2 Tbl. grated lime zest

With the back of a spoon, mix together cake crumbles with other ingredients until a thick dough consistency forms.  Shape into evenly sized cake bites and cool 1-2 hours in the refrigerator or 20 minutes in the freezer.  Dip into white melting chocolate.  Top with crushed graham crackers, if desired.

Lime Buttercream Frosting (makes about 3 cups)

8 Tbl. (1 stick) butter, softened

3 3/4 c. powdered sugar, sifted

3-4 Tbl. milk or cream

2 tsp. lime extract or lime juice

2 Tbl. lime zest

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.  Beat until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds.  Stop the mixer and add the powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons milk, lime extract or juice and lime zest.  Beat frosting, starting at slow and increasing your speed until frosting is nice and creamy.  If frosting is too thick, add a little more milk or cream.

1/4 Recipe Frosting (makes about 3/4 cup)

2 Tbl. butter, softened 

3/4 c. + 3 Tbl. powdered sugar

3/4 Tbl. milk or cream

1/2 tsp. lime extract or lime juice

1/2 Tbl. lime zest

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.  Beat until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds.  Stop the mixer and add the powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons milk, lime extract or juice and lime zest.  Beat frosting, starting at slow and increasing your speed until frosting is nice and creamy.  If frosting is too thick, add a little more milk or cream.

Chicken and Corn Enchiladas with Homemade Enchilada Sauce

This was my first ever attempt at making homemade red enchilada sauce and it won't be my last!!  I really really liked this sauce.  Sometimes store-bought enchilada sauce can be a little spicy.  Now, I personally like a little spice, but not everyone does, especially kids.  Making your own sauce is a great way to make everyone happy and to control the level of spiciness.  I thought this sauce was pretty mild.  Dried ancho chiles are found in the Mexican section of your grocery store and sometimes in the produce section.  They are very inexpensive.    

Chicken and Corn Enchiladas

(Printable Recipe)

adapted from: This Cookbook

Red Enchilada Sauce:

2 dried ancho chili peppers

1 (14 1/2 oz.) can diced tomatoes

1 medium onion, cut into chunks

1 clove garlic, quartered

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 c. whipping cream

2 1/2 - 3 c. shredded cooked chicken

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

2 tsp. dried oregano

1 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese

6 medium corn tortillas or flour

For sauce: Soak ancho chili peppers in boiling water until softened, about 15 minutes.  Drain and discard liquid.  Remove the stem and seeds.  In a food processor or blender, combined drained chili peppers, undrained tomatoes, onion, garlic and cumin.  Cover and process or blend until mixture is smooth.  Transfer mixture to a medium saucepan.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat.  Simmer sauce, uncovered, about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened (you should have 1 2/3 cups sauce).  Remove from heat.  Stir in whipping cream;  season to taste with salt and pepper.  Set aside.  

For filling:  In a medium mixing bowl combine the shredded chicken, drained corn, 2 tsp. oregano and 2/3 cup of the sauce.  Heat corn tortillas in microwave, about 10 seconds or until pliable.  Divide filling equally among the tortillas.  Place, seam side down, in a greased 2-quart rectangular baking dish.  Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas.  Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven, about 25 minutes or until heated through.  Uncover and sprinkle the enchiladas with cheese.  Bake, uncovered, for 4-5 minutes more or until cheese is melted.  

Jenn's Notes: I only had one dried ancho chili leftover from this recipe.  So, I only added one, but I added some chipotle chili powder to give it that extra spice and I only added 1/2 an onion.  I also used leftover Bob's Basil Rub Chicken.    

Chicken Hot Pockets

These chicken hot pockets were very yummy.  What makes them different than every other chicken pie recipe you ask?  Well, the bacon, of course!! The bacon seriously takes these up another notch.  Whatever you do - do not leave out the bacon!!!  I got the recipe from one of my Mom's neighborhood cookbooks.  I had leftover celery, 1/4 stick of cream cheese and some sour cream that needed used up - so this recipe was just what I needed!

Chicken Hot Pockets

adapted from: Whitney M.
(Printable Recipe)

1 tube canned biscuits

1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded

1/4 stick (2 oz.) cream cheese, softened

2 tsp. dried parsley

2-3 Tbl. celery, chopped finely

1 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp. garlic, minced (I used garlic powder)

1/2 tsp. lemon pepper

1/4 c. shredded cheese, any kind (I used Cheddar)

4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

salt and pepper

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 c. sour cream

a few Tbl. milk

Combine cream cheese, parsley, celery, lemon juice, garlic, lemon pepper, salt and pepper.  Add the shredded chicken, shredded cheese and bacon.  Stir well to combine.  Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.  Flatten each biscuit into a disc and place about 1/4 cup or so of filling into the center of each biscuit (depends on the size of the biscuits you purchased).  Fold edges over and pinch together using a fork.  Continue with remaining biscuits.  Bake at 400 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Meanwhile, combine cream of chicken soup, sour cream and enough milk to reach a gravy consistency; heat through.  Serve gravy over each pocket. 


Jenn's Notes: I used jumbo butter-flaked biscuits that came with six in a tube and I used thick cut smoked bacon!  Next time I might add a little extra bacon, just because I liked it so much.     

Pumpkin Cookies with Caramel Icing

Remember my post about Fall?  Well, it didn't help much when I found these cookies on Pinterest the other day.  Man, that website is dangerous.  Every time I get on there, I find several things that look delicious.  So, I couldn't wait any longer, I had to make something with pumpkin!  That something was these cookies.  I hadn't ever had pumpkin cookies with this type of icing before, so I was interested to know what it tasted like.  Let's just say that I was very happy to have extra icing.  It really does taste kinda like caramel and it is soooooooo good!  Think of how good it would be on a chocolate cookie or cupcake?  Yummy.

Pumpkin Cookies with Caramel Icing

adapted from: Let's Dish and All Recipes

(Printable Recipes)

1 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. white sugar

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1 c. canned pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

2 c. all-purpose flour

Icing:

3 Tbl. butter

1/4 c. milk or heavy cream

1 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. packed light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add egg and vanilla.  Add pumpkin puree and blend well.  Add baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and flour.  Mix well.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12-14 minutes.  

To make the icing: in a medium saucepan, combine butter, milk and brown sugar over medium heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture just begins to boil.  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.  Cool and then stir in the powdered sugar.  Spread over cooled cookies.

Jenn's Notes:  I made a half a batch of these cookies.  I used a small ice cream scoop and got 19 cookies with a half a batch.  The cookies are so soft and pretty delicate.  Let's Dish uses the icing as a frosting, but mine turned out way to runny and was more like a glaze than a frosting.  It might have been because I didn't let it cool enough or because I used milk instead of cream?  I even ended up adding more powdered sugar and it was still pretty runny.  That's okay, because it was still delicious!  Next time, I am going to add less milk and see if it turns out like a frosting.  I can't wait to try it on other desserts!!    

Cookbook Winner Announced

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway!!  This has been so much fun and I have loved reading everyones comments!!  I used a random number generator to pick the winner and the winner is . . .

. . . Comment #10 

Brittany said...

My mouth is watering over the Mango-Coconut Sherbet!!!!! 

Congrats Brittany!! You will love this cookbook.  Please email me your mailing address within the next 48 hours!!  eatcakefordinner.blogspot.com

Ultimate Quesadilla

I love quesadillas!!  I have tried so many different variations and you can pretty much throw whatever you want into them, but this was the first time I had tried a layered version!  It turned out delicious and was a lot more filling than your average dinky little quesadilla.

Ultimate Quesadilla

From: Jenn@eatcakefordinner

(Printable Recipe)

1 large chicken breast

taco seasoning

salt and pepper

6 medium-sized corn or flour tortillas

1 can corn, drained and warmed

1 can black beans, drained, rinsed and warmed

salsa

cilantro, chopped

1 can diced green chiles

Monterey, Cheddar or Pepperjack Cheese, shredded

sour cream, opt.

Place chicken breast in a small casserole dish.  Season with salt, pepper and taco seasoning.  Bake for about 45 minutes - 1 hour or until no longer pink.  Or you can use leftover chicken.  When done, shred and add more taco seasoning if desired.  Lay tortillas in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  Spray lightly with cooking spray and bake at 425 degrees for a few minutes or until slightly crisp (you don't want them crunchy).  Continue with remaining tortillas.  Take two tortillas and top each with some shredded cheese, shredded chicken, corn, beans, salsa, chopped cilantro, diced green chiles and end with a little more cheese (so the next tortilla will stick).  Top each with another tortilla and repeat layering with ingredients.  Last, top each with a third tortilla.  Place layered quesadilla pies back in the oven for a few minutes until cheese melts or place in the microwave for about 45 seconds.    Cut into triangles and serve with sour cream.  Yield: 2-3 servings.     

Jenn's Notes:  I made one with corn tortillas (my fave) and one with flour tortillas.  I served with a side of my favorite rice and I was only able to eat 2 slices of this quesadilla, because it is so filling.  Make sure to add enough cheese between layers or your corn and beans will fall out as you try to eat it (the cheese helps everything stick together).  This was delicious!