Grilled Italian Chicken Skewers

While we were camping I was loving grilling things on sticks.  I used a tried and true recipe.  Its so simple and tastes great.

I've done these many times for tailgate.  I just marinate everything ahead of time and throw it on the grill when we get there.  Super easy!

Ingredients:

• Bottle of Italian dressing
• 4-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into strips)
• Wooden Skewers

Directions:

2-3 hours before grilling time.  Take the chicken strips and marinate them in the Italian dressing.

Preheat the grill

Thread chicken on to wooden skewers.  It will help if you soak the skewers in water for a bit before grilling so they don't burn.

Cook on grill until done.

**NOTE:  The picture shows the Peanut Dipping Sauce for another recipe.  The Italian skewers are the ones at the top of the picture on the right. **

Finally Got to Use the Camping Oven!

What can I say but this thing is absolutely awesome!  It's an oven and a stove for tailgating or camping.  And it works!

I just got back from camping and used this all weekend on a single canister of propane.  I made peach cobbler...overnight french toast casserole...chicken nuggets.

This was well worth every penny!!

I **heart** you camping oven :-)

Some words of advice...

• Preheat the oven and play with the temps...even on the low setting it got hot in there quick.
• When choosing your bakeware...make sure it doesn't hit from end to end inside.  This will block how the oven distributes heat and the dish will burn on the bottom since the heat has nowhere to go.

So after a couple trial runs I have it down.  If you follow those rules then you will be happy with the end result!

Paula Deen's Shore is Good Seafood Dip

Saw this recipe pinned on Pinterest.  Its from Paula Deen's website.

At first I was looking at it and thought ... I just don't know how this can be as good as Maryland Crab Dip with the Old Bay.  But let me tell you...it's great!  I would give it 5 out of 5 stars.  I have to ration myself with it and eat with carrots instead of crackers.  I modified the original recipe slightly.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of lump crabmeat, picked free of any broken shells, drained
• 1/2 lb freshly grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• can cream of shrimp soup
• 2 stalks celery, diced  (used the food processor to get it really fine) 
• 1 medium onion diced  (used the food processor to chop really fine)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 ounce shrimp, fresh or canned, drained.  (Used a frozen bag of shrimp that I thawed and precooked on grill)
• 1/2 teaspoons white pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and celery, and saute for 2 minutes.

In a bowl, combine the soup, mayonnaise, Parmesan, cheddar cheese, crabmeat, shrimp, and pepper. Stir the sauteed vegetables into the seafood mixture and spoon this mixture into a lightly greased 8 x 11-inch casserole dish (I used the 8x8 Pampered Chef stoneware baker).

Bake for 30 minutes. Serve with toast points or crackers or carrots for a low carb option.

Roasted Beets

Went to a wedding in NYC in July and they served roasted beets stuffed with goat cheese.  I was skeptical since I don't usually like beets.  But they were awesome!

So I set out to figure out the beets.  I skipped the goat cheese this time until I had the beets down.  I went to the local farmers market and picked up some fresh beets.

These turned out well and I'll try again with the cheese.  The pictures of them are with the skins.  When you are ready to serve peel off the skins.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 beets
• Olive Oil
• Salt Pepper

 

 

 

Directions:

 

Wash the beets in warm water.  Cut the ends off the beets.  Cut in half.

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Grease a 9x13 bake pan.  Rub some olive oil on the beets and spinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

 

I warn you ... be careful what you are wearing during the beet prep.   Beet juice will stain clothing and fingers.  I learned the hard way.

 

Cover with foil.  Bake in oven for approximately 45 mins.  Let cool slightly then peel the skins off.

 

I ate these over a salad with vinegarette dressing.

 

Berry and Banana Oatmeal Bake

Was looking for something for breakfast that was filling but not sugary.  This one fit the bill.  I found the original recipe on Skinny Taste blog and modified it slightly.  So far I've made two versions of this and they've both tasted great.

The original recipe is here.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium ripe bananas,sliced into 1/2" pieces
• 1 1/2 cup blueberries (I used about half a pint)
• 1/4 cup honey (or agave)
• 1 cup uncooked quick oats
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (as an alternate for the first run I used chocolate chips since I didn't have walnuts)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of raspberries (this wasn't in the original but I wanted them in there)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 8x8 pan (I used a 9x13 baker for the 2nd attempt and it turned out great but just remember if you use a bigger pan to check and probably bake for less time since it will burn if in the whole 40 minutes)

Cover the bottom of the pan with sliced banana and raspberries.

In a mixing bowl combine oats, chocolate chips or walnuts, honey, baking powder, salt, vanilla, milk, egg and cinnamon.  Stir well.

Spread the mixture evenly over the bananas and raspberries in the pan.  Top with the blueberries.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until browning on the edges.  For the 8x8 pan it took the full 40 mins.  In the 9x13 baker it was closer to 30.  Do yourself a favor and check on it around the 25 minute mark just to make sure depending on how your oven cooks.

Let cool for 20 mins.  Cut into bars and serve.  I took a chunk each day for breakfast.  Store in the fridge for leftovers and you can even heat in microwave when you are ready to eat.

Sonomo Chicken Salad

Was looking for a good recipe to bring for lunch on a bed of lettuce.  Found the recipe on the Cooking Classy blog and modified slightly.  The orginal recipe is here.

This turned out so good.  I loved it and will be making it again and again!

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken that I got from ShopRite for $3.99)
• 1 cup diced celery (about 3 stalks) -- I used the food processor to cut it extra fine
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans -- Used the food processor again for this
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, such as Craisins, roughly chopped
• 2 Tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese

Dressing:

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp prepared yellow mustard
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

 

  

Directions:

Shred chicken from the bone and place in a bowl.

I mixed the pecans and celery from the food processor in first.  Then added the Craisins.

Finally I took all the ingredients for the dressing and mixed everything together in the bowl.  I served over a bed of lettuce for a delish lunch!

Grilled Pesto Shrimp

So I was in super grill mode on Sunday and decided to make a week's worth of leftovers for lunch in one day.  One of the things I'd been wanting to try is Pesto Shrimp.  I found a recipe from the Skinny Taste blog and decided to give it a whirl.  The link to the orginal recipe is here.

Trying to find basil in the store was a challenge.  No basil at all in the little packages.  But I found a basil plant for $1.99 that I bought.  Worked out great.  I picked what I needed and its still in the window and growing more!

These turned out great.  The orignial recipe called for skewers but I just did it in a grill basket and that worked out fine.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1 clove garlic (I used the minced garlic in the jar)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 lbs jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
•  salt and fresh pepper to taste

Directions:

In a food processor pulse basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper until smooth. Slowly add the olive oil while pulsing.  I used the mini food processor from Cuisinart.  This little thing is nothing short of amazing.  Its tiny, easy to clean and gets the job done for small projects.  It was also only $20 on Ebay.

Combine raw shrimp with pesto and marinate a few hours in a bowl.

Heat grill to 350 degrees.  Place shrimp in grill basket and grill until they are pink and cooked.  Do not burn.