Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese Chicken Salad

What you need: two heads of lettuce, green onions
oil for frying, 1 pkg of Maifun noodles( rice noodles), 1pkg of egg roll skins, rice vinegar, sesame oil, slivered almonds, roasted sesame seeds, sugar, salt, ground pepper, green onions, chicken, dry ranch packet.

Cube the chicken into bite size pieces, cook in pan and sprinkle the ranch mix over top, add to taste. After chicken is cooked put on a plate to cool and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Dressing:

1 1/2 cups rice vinegar
1 cup sugar
3 tsp salt
dash of fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup sesame oil
3 Tbsp Vegetable oil or more if you like a less strong vinegar taste
heat vinegar, sugar, salt to dissolve, turn heat down and add pepper, sesame and veg. oil and mix. pour in a serving container to cool.


To make the Maifun noodles, follow direction on the pkg, but be sure to have enough oil, if its not deep enough it won't work! We usually use more than a large bottle of vegetable oil.

Cut the egg roll skins into strips and fry in the oil, they cook fast!!!

I like to build it in layers. First a layer of lettuce, both kinds of noodles, meat, almonds, green onions, repeat. Sprinkle individual servings with nuts and dressing. 

This is a recipe my brother made for me this weekend! Thanks Dust! 

A few things to make note of.......

I want to give you all a word of warning about a few things about this blog....
1- I am not a photographer(obviously). I use my little point and shoot camera to give you an idea of what your finished product will look like. I know the pictures suck, and after many years of counseling I have come to accept it. Like I said in my first post, I am not creative so the dishes will never be made to look like a flower or turkey or anything else. I will leave those relief society projects for some talented person because it is not my strong suit.
2- I will try to post a picture of every dish I make. I can not and will not guarantee that it will happen but I will give it a good strong effort. I like pictures of food because I like to know what I am getting into before I commit.
3- I will sometimes try to post a picture of the ingredients I use so you have an idea. You will notice that almost every product I use is the stores brand. In my personal opinion the only things that must be name brand are jeans and hair products. I am such a diva I know, everyone please crown my husband a Saint for putting up with my expensive jean addiction.
4- I watch a lot of cooking shows and read a lot of cooking blogs. On said blogs and shows you will often see the ingredients measured out into little glass bowls to be added at the appropriate time. This to me is a waste of time and effort. I barely have enough will power to throw the dishes that HAVE to be used in the dishwasher at the end of the meal, little loan a bunch of useless glass dishes. So like it or lump it ingredients will not be visually pleasing.
5- Raw chicken is really icky, I will do the world a favor and try to never post pictures of it. It is really fowl and no one needs to see that.

I apologize in advance if any of these things drive you crazy. Thanks for reading!

Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad with Peanut Maple Dressing

Let me start by saying there is nothing better than a good salad.

For me a good salad contains four things-

1-NUTS, NUTS and more NUTS

2-Blue Cheese crumbles, dressing or in a block for all I care

"Hello, my name is Kelsee (Hi Kelsee) and I am a blue cheeseaholic!" Phew, glad to have that off of my chest.

3- Some sort of fruit, yes you heard me right picky men FRUIT!!! Something about that sweetness really takes a boring garden salad to the next level.

4- It is all about the dressing. You can ruin any perfectly good salad by putting a nasty dressing on top. I am a huge fan of dressed before serving salads. It really helps to have the dressing coat everything instead of just slopped in a big glob on top.



With that being said I would like to introduce you to one of my go to weeknight meals. After a long day of work I don't want to spend hours making dinner. But, I am what some might call a food snob. You can only have spaghetti so many times in a year so I try to find recipes that will switch up that same old routine. Give this one a shot one night, you won't be disappointed. And even my meat and potatoes man likes this once in a while.



Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad with Peanut Maple dressing


7 Chicken Tenderloins
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg
1 egg
salt & pepper

Combine pecans, bread crumbs, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Dip chicken breasts into egg and then pecan mixture. Put into greased backing dish and bake @ 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.

Salad-
1 head romaine lettuce chopped
2 apples of your choice cut into bite size pieces
Craisins

Dressing-
1/2 cup maple syrup (I use sugar free, but don’t tell the Mr.)
4 Tbs peanut butter
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp lemon juice

Whisk all dressing ingredients in a small bowl. (I throw it into the microwave for a few seconds to help make the peanut butter smooth.)
Combine veggies and fruit and toss with desired amount of dressing. Top with chicken tenders and blue cheese crumbles.
Enjoy!

My story......

In my early years I would have never guessed that I would take on a passion for cooking. I was not what some would consider your "Typical Mormon Housewife". I had never been one to participate in sewing or scrap booking, and creativity has never been my strong suit. I was surprised to learn over the last four years how much I enjoy cooking and entertaining. Now friends, don't expect anything super fancy from me. Just recipes that I have used and abused over the last 4 years trying to please a very picky husband. I always have Friends and family asking for recipes so I decided this would be a faster approach to spreading word. I will not claim most of these recipes as my own. Most have been taken from family or friends or my other cooking bloggers. I will make sure to give them credit where it is due. Hope you Enjoy!