Chicken and Cheese Topped Biscuits

It sounds crazy, right? When I first thought of doing it, I thought I'd lost my marbles.

As you may already know, I am an avid Pinterest browser. I have been seeing all these recipes pop up for all kinds of things made in muffin tins. There's been individual meatloaves, taco shells, lasagna cups...just about everything you could think of.  Then, I thought of something else.

I hadn't been able to figure out what to do with some leftover cilantro lime chicken that I had taken out of my freezer. Originally, I planned on doing chicken burritos, but my husband said he really wasn't in the mood for a burrito. Well that just burst my bubble.

I began perusing the refrigerator to see what else I could make when I see that my sneaky hubby bought refrigerated biscuits. (If you know anything about me, you know that I hate buying packaged foods.)

Out of spite and a little inspiration, I decided to try something a little funky.

Chicken and Cheese Topped Biscuits

1 can Pillsbury biscuits

leftover chicken, shredded

shredded cheddar

taco seasoning ( I used my own blend)

Preheat oven to 450F degrees. Remove a biscuit from the can and flatten in your palm.  You may stretch it slightly as well to best create a bit of a cup in the pan.  Lay biscuit disc in bottom of muffin tin and allow it to form to the sides. In center of biscuit cup, layer chicken, cheddar, and seasoning. Do this for the remainder of the biscuits to fill your muffin pan.

Place in oven and allow to cook for 10-12 minutes. These will be extremely hot due to the melted cheese, so please be careful when removing them from the pan. 

We garnished with a little sour cream and salsa to spice it up.

Yields 10 biscuits. (Your can's capacity)

Lunch With Mom

Sunday was a good day.  My mother had been traveling by car all weekend, and I wanted to give her a good meal.  I set out to make something cool, but pleasing to the palette that wouldn't leave her feeling weighed down.  I also wanted her to be able to choose how she ate her meal.  Seemed a complicated task, but I was up to the challenge.

I know most people can make a chicken salad sandwich pretty easily.  This was a successful lunch and my husband thought that I should add it to the blog because he felt it was worthy.  I was just so happy that my mother, sister, and husband all seemed to enjoy it greatly!

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Fruit Lover's Chicken Salad

3 cups shredded chicken
1/2 cup mayo
1 tablespoon mustard
1/2 cup sweet relish
1 cup diced onion
1 Granny Smith's apple, diced
1 cup sliced grapes (because I like color, I used both white and red grapes)
1 tablespoon Tone's Rosemary Garlic spice
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together shredded chicken, mayo, mustard, relish and onion.  Add apple and grapes and mix well.  Mix in your spice.  I used Tone's Rosemary Garlic spice, but you can use a mixture of 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon rosemary and 1 teaspoon of paprika.

(If I'd had them in my pantry, I would have added 1/2 cup cranberries.  Also for a little more texture a 1/4 cup of sugar coated, toasted walnuts, chopped fine. Replacing the mayo with 1/2 cup plain yogurt would be a good substitution as well.)

(If this meal had not included my mother and husband, I would have used more spice.  1 additional teaspoon garlic salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper.)

I gave the option of serving on Hawaiian bread buns or on a bed of spinach leaves.  Crazily enough it was eaten both ways by all.  You could also serve as part of a lettuce wrap meal.

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The above recipe could be used for shredded turkey as well.  My husband said it might be good as a tuna recipe; I hesitate on that point because, I am NOT a big seafood fan.  I keep trying, but my taste buds keep rejecting it.

Happy eating!

Hashing It Out

I decided to get creative again! Twice in one day...hello right brain!  Where have you been?

I'll admit, I was feeling like having Mexican food.  Actually, I've been feeling like eating Mexican food for over a week.  Unfortunately, my husband--though of Mexican descent--can't handle spicy foods all that well.  I have to keep things somewhat light, but that doesn't mean that the meal has to lack flavor.

I pulled out our tortillas and all the small bags of chips, cooked up a little hash, and then let my sister and husband figure out how they would like to enhance their meal experience.

My sister said she liked it, even went back for more.  My husband came back to me after eating his three mini-burros and told me it was one of my greater dishes.  Those words made me so happy!  This kiss afterward didn't hurt either!

It was super simple, had a nice texture and was full of flavor without being too spicy for him to eat. Check it out.

Mexi-American Chicken Hash

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, diced

3 cups of shredded chicken*

1 cup cooked black beans, drained

1 4-oz can of green chile

2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp mesquite flavor**

1 cup chopped cilantro

Saute onion in olive oil on medium-high until translucent, stirring occasionally.  Add chicken and black beans and allow to heat through while covered over medium heat for approximately twenty minutes.  Add green chile, garlic salt and mesquite, mix well.  Add cilantro, mix well and allow the cilantro to gain its bright color through the heat on low for five minutes.

Serve as nacho topping, in a tortilla for your burrito or in a taco shell.

Makes 4 servings

*May also use two 13-oz cans of chicken
**The mesquite flavor used in my recipe was from Garlic Festival Foods.  It's called Mesquite Grill.  You can purchase it here.

Kitchen Sink Recipes and Me!

Hubby and I couldn't figure out what we wanted for dinner tonight, but we both knew that neither of us wanted to cook.  So, what does one do when no one wants to cook nor can they agree on what to eat?

Grab the take-out menus!!

Nope, not us.

To the leftovers!

Funny thing about our leftovers from the weekend...we didn't really have a lot.  There was some crispy bacon, hardboiled eggs, a teensy amount of grape tomatoes and cookie dough.

I had to tell myself to save the cookie dough!

It was enough to make a meager egg salad, but that wasn't really what I wanted, so I began perusing the pantry.   I saw a can of chicken, noodles, pasta, macaroni, green chiles, etcetera.  I absolutely did not want to cook. It had been too hot throughout the day and I just wanted something cool.  I then went back to the fridge to see if there was anything that would strike me.

After some thought, I decided it was time for another of my "Kitchen Sink Recipes".  Have you ever heard of those?  It's when you just throw a bunch of items together and make something--everything but the kitchen sink.

My mother used to do that sort of thing when we were little.  Sometimes we really dreaded those nights and prayed that the dog was close. **shiver** She'd call every single one of those mystery mixtures, "Goulash."  I've had Goulash, Ma.  That stuff is good!

Sometimes her concoctions were alright, but boy oh boy there's only so much a kid's constitution can take.  A few times there was not enough milk on the planet to help choke that stuff down with.

Sorry, Mom.  I love you, but you know it's true.  I think that's why you didn't always eat when we ate.  How rude!

I have quite a few Kitchen Sink Recipes already.  Some I have starred because they have been so interesting, that I actually decided they were good enough to feed them to other people to gauge reactions.  Some were extremely favorable--one in particular, that I may or may not share later.

Mind you...this was made from some leftover ingredients and remember that I LOVE to experiment.  I also believe in tasting as you go.  If you taste as you work, you won't serve something horrid to those you love.

Tonight's Kitchen Sink Recipe:


Chicken Club Salad


Ingredients:

10 grape tomatoes, sliced
4 hard-boiled eggs, diced*
1 13oz can of shredded chicken, drained*
6 slices crispy bacon, finely chopped*
1/2 cup diced yellow onion
2 ripe avocado, cut open and diced or ready for mashing
2 Tbsp pickle juice*
1 Tbsp spicy mustard
1 Tbsp Mayo*
1 tsp garlic salt
Salt & pepper to taste

Shred the chicken with a fork until it is the size you would prefer it to be.  Salt and pepper as desired.  Add egg, tomatoes, bacon and onion.  Add avocado and mash-mix the ingredients.  The avocado will be your bonder for the most part.  Add pickle, mustard and mayo and mix well.  Add garlic salt and mix again.

Serve on bread, crackers or cucumber slices.

Viola!

Conclusion and Notes:
*I only used about half of one yolk and used all the whites. Do what you think is right for you.
*I would have preferred to use shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken for added flavor, but I didn't have that on hand.  With the rotisserie chicken, I don't believe the salt or pepper would have been needed.
*As for the bacon, hubby didn't care for this texture. I think it's a preference thing.  I rather liked it and the saltiness it added.
*Pickle relish definitely would have been better for that extra tang.
*If I'd had plain yogurt, I would have used it instead.