Greek Salad & Dressing

This lovely salad and dressing was served with our Greek meal a family reunion this year. The dressing was A-MA-ZING!

Greek Salad:
greens, chopped and washed
olives
red onions
cucumbers, thinly sliced
tomatoes
feta cheese, sprinkled on top


Dressing:
1 c. olive oil
1/2 c. lemon juice
2 cloves garlic (or more :))
2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
2 tsp. oregano fresh (1 tsp. dried)
ground pepper to taste

Finely mince garlic. Combine all ingredients in jar and shake well.

Photo Source: Life Tastes Like Food

Angel Hair Stir Fry Pasta with a Thai Peanut Sauce

When I first got married, I had never tried Thai food. It seems like a lot of Thai food is too hot for me, so I usually steered clear.....until I realized how easy it can be to make a delish immitation Thai sauce. This recipe is good because it 1-super simple. I'm kind of a lazy cook and simple recipes are good :) AND 2-it still tastes pretty Thai-ish.


Thai Peanut Sauce
Source:  The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book

Makes 4 servings:

1 small onion, minced (about 1/3 C)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ½ TBS minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tsp chili paste or chili sauce (can increase, but beware!)
2 tsp packed dark brown sugar
¾ C evaporated milk or lite coconut milk (coconut milk is better)
½ C chunky standard peanut butter (can use chunky too)
juice of 1 lime (about 2 TBS)
*Chicken, cooked and chopped (optional)
8 oz dried angel hair pasta or other thin pasta or brown rice, cooked to package directions
1 package frozen stir fry vegetable mix, cooked to package directions


DIRECTIONS:

1. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set the pan over medium heat.

2. Add onion, garlic and ginger. Sautee until fragrant and soft about 1 minute.

3. Stir in chili paste or chili sauce and brown sugar; cook, stirring constantly until very aromatic, about 15 seconds.

*Note* I only put a few drops of the chili sauce in if my son is going to be eating. It can be too hot for a toddler. If you aren't feeding little ones, then be brave and add the chili sauce. It does make it a little spicy, but it gives it a wonderful flavor.

4. Stir in the evaporated or coconut milk, peanut butter and lime juice. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until the peanut butter dissolves into the sauce. Simmer for 10 seconds. (If wanting to add chicken, now is the time to add the cooked, chopped chicken to the sauce.)

5. Pour the warm sauce over the noodles or rice and stir fry vegetables in a large bowl. Toss well and serve at once.

Photo Source: Closet Cooking

Marci's Spinach Artichoke Dip

For those of you who know who Marci is, we all know this dip is incredible! We have it at a lot of gatherings with friends and its always pretty much gone. So good! Marci always made it in a medium-sized crock pot. It was perfect because she would just plug the crock pot in and it would stay warm.


1 package of cream cheese
1 can artichoke hearts
1/2 cup frozen spinach- thawed and drained of water
1/4 cup mayo
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
a few cloves of minced garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 Tbsp dried basil
mozzarella cheese



Marci's instructions:
Mix everything together except mozzarella. I usually chop artichokes kinda chunky, but when in a hurry I mix it all in my food processor which makes it kind of pureed. The original recipe was to bake in the oven and put mozzarella on top near the end, but I don't know the temperature or time because I always cook it in my mini crockpot. In my crockpot it usually takes an hour, but it is at a low temperature. I add the mozzarella on top at the end(although I have made it without the mozzarella and it is still good). Yum Yum.

Photo Source: The Food Network

Grilled Basil-Marinated Chicken

Its summer time and time for grilling! Lets face it-its just too hot to turn on the oven and heat up the house so grilling is the perfect solution. I found this great new marinade recipe and had some friends over to experiment on :) hehehe. I'm glad it worked out though. Its from the Foodnetwork, so you know it has to be good :) I altered the amounts slightly, but put the original amounts in parenthesis. I served this dish with cheesy potatoes in the crockpot, spinach salad and fresh fruit.

Grilled Basil-Marinated Chicken
Serves 4

Source:
The Food Network

*Original amounts listed in parenthesis*

Ingredients
· 4 tablespoon olive oil (original recipe said 1 TBS)
· 4 tablespoon red wine vinegar (1)
· 4 tablespoon chopped basil leaves, plus 4 sprigs for garnish (1)
· 2-3 tablespoon finely chopped red onion (1)
· 1 teaspoons kosher salt (2)
· 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
· 4 clove garlic, chopped (1)
· 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 3 pounds)


Directions

Whisk together the oil, vinegar, basil, onion, salt, peppercorns, and garlic in a bowl. Transfer the marinade to a gallon-sized sealable plastic bag with the chicken and shake to combine. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 12 hours.

When ready to cook, build a charcoal fire or preheat gas grill.
Remove chicken from the marinade. Grill the chicken, turning once, until browned and just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a platter and garnish with the basil sprigs.

Helpful Hints: In the reviews section of the Foodnetwork website, many people offered suggestions to making this recipe better. Among them were the following:
-Watch how much salt you use. Some said it was too salty so I halved the salt and it was perfect.
-Some said to add more fresh basil to make it more "basil-ly".
-Can substitute onion flakes.
-I wasn't a big fan of biting into the peppercorns. I liked the flavor it gave to the chicken, but next time I would maybe pick them off the chicken before I grilled them. One reviewer said she cracked the peppercorns before marinading by crushing them into smaller pieces with a metal measuring cup, which would probably be a good option too, just possibly a little time intensive.
-We let it marinade about 20 hours before we grilled the chicken and it was fine.

Photo Source: Taste Book, For the Love of Cooking

Very Berry Spinach Salad

I'm in the process of trying to lose the baby weight I gained from my last pregnancy, so its always great to beef up on the greens and fruits. I love good salads and this recipe definetely doesn't disappoint! I also love a good home-made dressing and this one is so easy and good. Thanks to my friend Rachele L. for the recipe.



Very Berry Spinach Salad


Ingredients:
Spinach
Strawberries
Kiwis



Directions:
To make the dressing, mix ¼ cup vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar, and 2 tablespoons raspberry jam. Add to spinach, strawberries, and kiwis. Toss.

Photo Source: Hy Vee

Cream Fruit Dip

Not sure what is going on, but I crave fruit dip all the time these days. Nope, not pregnant-I just had a baby :)


Mix together until smooth:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
2 TBSP maple syrup


*I used 1/2 c brown sugar instead of 1/4 c brown sugar and 1/4 c granulated sugar, just because I felt like it :)

Cream Cheese Lemon Bars

This recipe is sort of a family secret. I hope my mom doesn't get mad at me for posting this, but I had to. Its just too good to not share it. Cream cheese + Lemon = amazingness :)

By My Mama :) I don't know where she got the recipe from.

1 Duncan Hines pudding recipe yellow cake mix

8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1/3 C sugar

1 tsp lemon juice (I up it to 1 TBS real lemon juice)

2 eggs, divided

1/3 C oil

1. Mix dry cake mix, 1 egg and oil until crumbly. Reserve 1 cup. Pat remaining mixture lightly in an ungreased 13"x 9" x 2" pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

2. Beat cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and 1 egg until light and smooth. Spread over baked layer.

3. Sprinkly cream cheese layer with reserved crumb mixture. Bake 15 minutes longer. Cool. Cut into bars. Good served warm or cool.

Photo Source: Fav Family Recipes