Jalapeño-Lime Chicken

HOWDY folks!

I’m back with another simple recipe I found in an My H-E-B Texas Life flier at the local grocery store.  (It’s also available online - click here to find the original recipe.)  It sounded wonderful, so I tried it soon after I came across it.

It’s truly super easy!!!  The first time I made it, I just dumped everything into a gallon-sized zipper bag and stuck it in the fridge on a Sunday night.  When I got home from work on Monday, I just dumped it all into a pan and popped it into the oven while I changed clothes, etc.  It was ready in no time!

It’s very versatile too…I sliced the cooked chicken breasts (although they would also shred very easily) and made soft tacos the first night, adding a little diced tomato and avocado along with a bit of Mexican crumbling cheese.

The next day, I had a yummy salad with the leftovers.  I just added the chicken (along with some of the cooked onions & jalapeños) to some lettuce & grape tomatoes from my garden, along with black beans, diced avocado, seedless cucumber & shredded carrots...oh so good!

The next time I made it was on a busy weekend.  Again, I dumped the zipper bag full of stuff into the fridge one night, and then poured it all into the slow cooker the next morning.  It simmered all day while we stayed busy with multiple projects.  By the time evening came around, we were exhausted, and ready for something to eat.  All we had to do was lift the lid on the slow cooker and eat!

I think it would also be good served over rice.  Just use your imagination.  The possibilities are endless!

Jalapeño Lime Chicken

Ingredients:

2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper

8 cloves garlic, chopped (the original recipe calls for 4 cloves, but I’m a garlic fiend…feel free to use as much or as little as you like)

4 jalapeños, halved & seeds removed

2 limes, zested & juiced

1 sweet red onion, quartered (you can use regular red onions if you can’t find the sweet ones)

1 can (14 oz.) low-sodium chicken broth 

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a gallon-sized zip-top bag or a large bowl.  (If using the bowl, be sure to cover it with a lid or plastic wrap.)  Marinate over-night (or for at least 6 hours) in the refrigerator.

Oven Version:

Preheat the oven to 450°F.  Place chicken in a lightly greased 9x13 inch pan and top with marinade.  Bake for 35 minutes or until juices run clear when poked with a fork.

Slow-Cooker Version:

Place chicken in a lightly greased slow-cooker, and top with marinade.  Cook on high setting for 6 to 8 hours (until chicken is cooked through & juices run clear when pulled apart with a fork).

I hope you’ll try this one.  It’s really good and easy.  I’ve even made the slow-cooker version for guests…so easy to pull together after a busy day of sight-seeing!  I received rave reviews from all!

HEB has lots of great (and healthy) recipes available on their website, so take a minute to check it out.  Just promise you’ll let me know if you find anything interesting that I haven’t come across yet!

Blessings,

--Faithy

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

HOWDY!
Just thought I'd pop in and revisit my Cinco de Mayo Cookie recipe.  They're colorful, festive and fun to make, not to mention yummy.  It's also fun to get reactions from folks when you tell them the ingredients!  LOL!

You can find the recipe on my earlier blog post by clicking on this LINK!

May your day be filled with joy overflowing!!
Blessings,
--Faithy

Luscious Lime Muffins

HOWDY friends!  Just popping in to share a recipe that I finally got around to making this past weekend.  I cut the original recipe out of a magazine many, many (like over 20) years ago and never have tried it.  I came across it in my recipe box while looking for something to do with some extra limes I had on hand, and thought NOW is the time at last!

I wish I knew which magazine to credit for it, but alas, it has been too many years.  I can tell you that the magazine clipping credits a Mrs. Robert Day of San Benito, TX for sharing it with the magazine.

According to the original recipe, Mrs. Day used these muffins as a breakfast treat and as snack-time cupcakes as well.  I’m thinking a light cream cheese icing with a bit of lime juice & lime zest would transform these into scrumptious cupcakes!

Don’t wait as long as I did to try this recipe.  It’s delicious!

Luscious Lime Muffins

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (feel free to use all-purpose if you prefer)

1 cup sugar (or your favorite sugar substitute…I used Whey Low Type D)

3 teaspoons low-sodium baking powder (or regular baking powder)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup low fat (skim) milk

1/2 cup egg substitute (or 2 eggs)

1/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon fresh lime zest (I actually used about 2 teaspoons!)

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (feel free to use a little more - 1/3 cup or so - if you like a more tangy flavor)

Directons:

Preheat oven to 400°F, and spray a 12-cup muffin tin with your favorite cooking spray.

Whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate, smaller bowl (or a 2-cup liquid measuring cup), whisk together milk, eggs, oil, lime zest and lime juice.  Add all at once to the flour mixture and stir lightly (with a fork or wooden spoon), just until moist.  (The batter will be lumpy.)

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full.  (I always use a large cookie scoop, but an ice cream scoop works well too!)

Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.  Let cool in the pan for about 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.  Serve warm.

Optional Glaze:

I made these plain, as the recipe suggested, but felt like they needed a little more “POW”, so I mixed up a simple glaze of lime juice and regular granulated sugar, and spread it over the hot muffins as they were cooling.

I can’t give you the exact measurements because I just threw it together without measuring.  Just take some fresh lime juice (I juiced half of 1 lime) and add sugar until the taste suits you, then brush over the muffin tops with a pastry brush.  You’ll want it to be very liquid and easily absorbed by the hot muffins.

My official taste-tester husband and I both thought these were much better with the glaze.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer.  Don’t forget to get out there and enjoy it before it’s gone!

Blessings,

--Faithy

Cinco de Mayo Cookies

I had some time to experiment in the kitchen this past weekend, so I tried several new recipes.  I found a recipe for Crunchy Tortilla Chip Cookies with Avocado Frosting over at Jazzy Gourmet Cooking Studio (by Sherry K).  It intrigued me so much that I just had to try it.  I’ve tried several sweet treats made with avocados in the past 10 years (avocado ice cream, avocado smoothies, avocado cream pie, etc.), and they were wonderful, so I figured this would probably be good too.  I also figured it would be fun to test it out on my family WITHOUT telling them what the “secret” ingredients were.  I was right.  NOBODY guessed, and everyone thought they were pretty good.

I made the frosting first, because I couldn’t wait to try it.  I started out making it exactly by the original recipe, but I thought the avocado flavor was a bit strong, and it was a little thicker than I wanted it to be…so…I added more powdered sugar, Neufchatel cheese (‘cause I LOVE that stuff!) and more lime juice, and came up with the version listed below.  I really like the avocado/lime combination though…very nice…AND…the acid in the lime juice keeps the avocados from browning in your frosting!

I made my usual adaptations to the cookie recipe, and then (…since I was experimenting…) thought I’d play with it some more.

My first batch was the plain ones - pretty much following the original recipe.  I added miniature chocolate chips to the second batch, just to liven them up.  Then, I was thinking that if I’m going to call these “Cinco de Mayo Cookies” (because I don’t want the name to give away the ingredients!), I wanted to follow along with a Mexican-style theme.

Cinnamon and chocolate are commonly used together in Mexican cooking, so…I thought…”I’ll try adding some cinnamon!”  I also had some extra coconut in the freezer that was calling out to be used…so…I thought…“coconut is a common ingredient in Mexican sweets too…let’s add that!”

Anyway…each batch had an additional ingredient added LOL!  Happily, the final batch (with ALL the additions) was my personal favorite, so that’s the recipe I’m sharing with you.  If you don’t like any of my additions, just leave them out…or go try Sherry K’s original recipe.

Either way…if you’re looking for something different, and FUN to make for your friends…give this recipe a try.  You can even use the cookies as a party game if you have folks try to guess the ingredients!

I posted this picture of the ingredients on my Facebook page before I made them, asking people to guess what I was making.  I got all kinds of interesting answers, but nobody guessed cookies.  Hee, hee!

Cinco de Mayo Cookies

Cookies:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (but NOT melted)

1/4 cup DiabetiSweet sugar substitute (or regular sugar - I know this alone doesn’t make the recipe diabetic friendly, but it does reduce the calories!  Besides, I recently found a bunch of this stuff on a clearance sale for a GREAT price, and wanted to try it out.  It’s really good!)

1/4 cup brown sugar (I found out that DiabetiSweet also makes a brown sugar substitute…if it’s as good as their regular variety, you’ll love it!)

1/4 cup HEB Real Egg (the original recipe calls for 1 egg yolk)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can use all-purpose flour if you prefer)

1 cup crushed tortilla chips (I used yellow corn tortilla chips when testing this recipe.  They have a little stronger flavor than the white ones, so I think I will probably use white corn ones in the future.)

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1 cup miniature chocolate chips (optional)

1 cup flaked coconut (optional)

zest of 2 limes (optional - save some to sprinkle.the tops with)

Frosting:

1 cup mashed ripe avocado

4 ounces Neufchatel cheese, softened (or regular cream cheese)

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons lime juice (you can use the bottled kind, but fresh is SOOOO much better!)

1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a large mixer bowl, cream together butter and sugars.  Add egg (or egg yolk) and vanilla, mixing until combined and fluffy.  Stir in flour and crushed tortilla chips.  Once mixed, stir in any optional ingredients you decide to try.  

Using your favorite sized cookie scoop (or a teaspoon) drop 1 inch apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten slightly.  (I forgot to flatten the first 2 pans full…they tasted fine, but took a little longer to cook…AND were a little more difficult to frost!  Also, if you don’t have parchment paper, just use an ungreased cookie sheet.)

Bake at 350°F. for 12-15 minutes, or until edges start to brown.

While cookies are baking, combine avocado, cream cheese, powdered sugar, lime juice and salt in a small bowl, and mix well.  (I actually just dumped all the ingredients into my food processor and pulsed it all until it reached the consistency I wanted.  This way I didn’t have to mash the avocados first.  Feel free to adjust the amounts of the frosting ingredients to suit your own taste preferences…that’s what I did!)  Set aside.

After baking, allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Once your cookies have cooled completely, you can frost them with the avocado/lime frosting, then sprinkle the tops with lime zest.  (I completely forgot to use the zest, but I’m sure it would make the cookies even prettier, and give them an extra zing of flavor!)

Depending on the size of your cookie scoop, this recipe will make 3 to 4 dozen cookies.

If you try these, please let me know what you think…and what other ingredients you may have played with while making your own variation of them.

Remember, if you like them, be sure to go give Sherry K a shout out, and tell her that Faithy sent you!

Blessings,

--Faithy