Kel’s Mediterranean-Inspired Chicken for Kebabs or Gyros

Posted on May 2, 2014 by kelleychisholm

 Chicken on the grill

Boneless, skinless chicken was buy one, get one free the other day, so of course I bought some, not sure of how I was going to fix it. English cucumbers were also on sale and since the weather was supposed to be perfect for grilling, I decided to make some chicken gyros with homemade tzatziki sauce. Yum!

Tzatziki on chicken

What I love about this recipe (in addition to the tzatziki sauce) is the Mediterranean-inspired marinade for the chicken. The yogurt acts as a tenderizer and the lemon juice adds a burst of fresh, tart flavor. The reason I like to prepare the chicken as kebabs is because each piece of the chicken is infused with this tasty marinade.

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Kel’s Cool and Creamy Cucumber Yogurt Sauce (aka Tzatziki)

Posted on April 29, 2014 by kelleychisholm

 Add reserved cucumber to sauce

The other day I was making some yummy chicken gyros (recipe to follow soon) and I went to look up tzatziki sauce on my blog, with no results. I felt certain I had already posted this delicious and easy recipe, but I guess it slipped through the cracks. I did find a file for it on my computer and guess that I didn’t like the photos enough to post it. Oh well, here it is now!

Gyro with tzatziki sauce

This cucumber sauce is so refreshing and tasty, and keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days. While it is a must for gyros, I also like it as a topping for sliced tomatoes or even on a tossed salad. I normally use English cucumbers when making this since they have less seeds, but regular cucumbers will work, too — just scoop out the seeds with a spoon.

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Kel’s Hearty Ham, Bean and Tomato Soup

Posted on April 22, 2014 by kelleychisholm

Kel's ham bean tomato soup

Got leftover ham from Easter? Here’s a hearty ham, bean and tomato soup you and your family will love. It is so easy to make, but a bit time consuming if you use dried beans, since you have to soak the beans according to the package (usually for a couple of hours or overnight), to soften them. If you want to speed up things, go ahead and used canned beans, and just reduce the cooking time.

I recommend using Tuttorosso’s no-salt added crushed tomatoes with basil — a great, fresh choice for this soup since the ham is already salty. I also use the ham bone for extra flavor and let it simmer in the soup right until I’m ready to serve it.

Yummy bowl of soup!

If you have leftovers, you will probably want to add some water to the soup when reheating it since the beans tend to absorb the liquid. Or else just serve it like a chunky chili – your call!

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Kel’s (Almost) Homemade Garlic and Cheese Breadsticks

Posted on April 18, 2014 by kelleychisholm

 

Kel's almost homemade breadsticksI found a version of this recipe for breadsticks on Krusteaz’s* website and since I already had a box of its no-knead, country white artisan bread mix, I decided to give it a try. I’m not sure if I followed the recipe correctly since the wording of it was somewhat ambiguous, but I did have great success preparing these breadsticks how I thought was right. They had a wonderful flavor with just enough cheese and garlic to be heavenly. Your kitchen will smell awesome, too.

Kel's breadsticks closeup

What I like about this recipe is that you don’t have to knead the dough — a big plus in my book. However, it does take a while to make these, mainly because you have to let the dough rise. If you leave about three hours from start to finish, you should be good to go.

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Kel’s Heavenly Ham and Bowtie Pasta With Creamy Garlic Cheese Sauce

Posted on April 15, 2014 by kelleychisholm

Kel's Ham and Bowtie Pasta with Creamy Garlic Cheese Sauce

More than likely, if you bake a ham for Easter, you will have leftovers. Here is a delicious and easy recipe to use up some of that ham in a most comforting way. Better yet, it is based on a pasta dish from Weight Watchers® so even though it tastes decadent, using low-fat cheeses and milk make the sauce guilt-free (well, almost.) And boiling the garlic in the pasta water adds extra flavor to the bowties.

I had one of those spiral hams with a brown sugar glaze, which, along with the green peas, added some sweetness to this dish. Doesn’t this look like spring on a plate? Yummy!

Springtime on a plate!

 

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Kel’s Roasted Red Potatoes with a Kick

Posted on April 11, 2014 by kelleychisholm

 Roasted potatoes ready to eat!

I have been making these potatoes for decades because they are so easy and so delicious. You only need a few ingredients — red potatoes, butter, extra virgin olive oil, garlic salt, cayenne pepper and Parmesan cheese. That’s it. They do take a while to roast (45 minutes or so) but the wait is worth it – you wind up with a crispy and spicy outside and a warm and fluffy inside. And the smells coming out of your kitchen rock!

Crispy outside, fluffy inside

You can make these as hot or mild as you want by the amount of cayenne you add — we tend to like them hotter (especially Brad and Gabe.) They also make a great base for potato salad.

By the way, for this recipe I used canned parmesan cheese for these potatoes because it just has a better texture than freshly grated.

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Kel’s Southern Cornbread Breakfast Muffins, Courtesy of Krusteaz

Posted on April 9, 2014 by kelleychisholm

Kel's cornbread muffins for breakfast

Once again, the good folks at Krusteaz sent me some of their wonderful baking mixes, asking me to try some Easter-inspired recipes (*see disclaimer at the end of this post.) I looked through the recipe section of Krusteaz’s website and finally decided to develop a cornbread muffin recipe based mainly on what I already had in the fridge (some wonderful chipotle, mozzarella and lime pork sausage links; shredded Mexican-blend cheese; sweet red bell peppers; and spring onions.) I must admit that while it was a nice combination of flavors, next time I would add some fresh jalapeno peppers and/or some hot sauce, to make these somewhat sweet and savory cornbread muffins just a little bit spicier.

Krusteaz Natural Southern Cornbread & Muffin Mix

These tasty treats are ideal to serve for breakfast on Easter morning. They only take about 15 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to bake, which can be a great time saver while you are rushing around, getting ready for church, preparing your Easter feast, or, like me, hiding Easter eggs all over the yard and house for the traditional egg hunt. Pair the muffins with a nice fruit salad and you’re ready to face the day (which hopefully includes more delicious food later!)

Speaking of delicious food, if you happen to prepare a traditional Easter ham and have some leftovers, make these muffins later in the week and substitute a cup of the ham for the sausage. Waste not, want not, and you’ll have happy, happy taste buds.

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Avocado Smoothie, How I Love You So!

Posted on April 4, 2014 by kelleychisholm

Kel's Avocado Smoothie

The other day I brought a smoothie with me when I was getting my nails done, and my nail tech, Mandy, asked if I had ever tried an avocado smoothie. I had to admit that I had not, even though I love avocados. She raved about how good it was as well as easy, easy, easy to make, so I decided to give it a try. Mandy was right on both counts and I think I am going to be hooked on these things — delicious! Three simple ingredients plus ice and a blender, and you are ready for a treat full of flavor. I used fat-free, sweetened condensed milk and 2% milk, and did not sacrifice one bit on the taste.

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Gina Homolka’s Thai-Inspired Shrimp

Posted on March 29, 2014 by kelleychisholm

Let's eat Kel's Thai shrimp!

If you haven’t visited Skinnytaste.com, you should. It’s a great website that features delicious, low-fat recipes from blogger Gina Homolka. While I have not met Gina in person, I follow her blog because she has a ton of healthy recipes that don’t sacrifice on taste, like this one for Garlic Shrimp in Coconut Milk, Tomatoes and Cilantro, which I recently made to my family’s delight.

Believe it or not, I followed Gina’s recipe almost exactly and the only things I changed were substituting large shrimp (which were on sale, of course) for the jumbo ones in her recipe, dicing the red bell pepper instead of slicing it, and increasing the red pepper flakes. Let me tell you, this shrimp dish is absolutely delightful. The coconut milk, diced tomatoes and garlic make a great sauce and you control the heat of the dish depending on how much red pepper flakes you want to add. Plus your kitchen smells fantastic while it cooks! Best yet, there is not a lot of prep or cooking time involved. If you are looking for a different way to prepare shrimp, please try Gina’s recipe – you will so glad you did!

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Kel’s Saucy Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Posted on March 25, 2014 by kelleychisholm

Kel's stuffed cabbage roll

I decided to take advantage of cabbage being on sale this time of year (with St. Patty’s day, spring, etc.) and make some yummy stuffed cabbage rolls in a simple tomato sauce. I have to admit that it’s been a while since I’ve made these because of all of the cooked cabbage haters in my house, but luckily my cravings won out in the end. Yaaay for me and yaaay for all of you who decide to try this recipe!

Kel's cabbage rolls out of the oven

A friend of mine recently mentioned that she had some cabbage rolls with sauerkraut in them, which was something new for me. However, since I love kraut and was the only person partaking in these great little rolls, I decided to do a quick Internet search to find a cabbage roll recipe with sauerkraut included. And I lucked out to find one by Tori Avery, blogger at The Shiksa in the Kitchen. I had the pleasure of meeting Tori when she was a speaker at the International Food Blogger’s Conference in Portland, Ore., a couple of years ago — what a delightful person and fantastic blogger!

I took elements of Tori’s recipe and combined them with my old standby to come up with what follows. I used ground pork since it was on sale, but you can certainly substitute ground beef, turkey or chicken. You want to keep the tomato sauce fairly thin, so I like to add some spicy V-8 juice to the canned sauce for the consistency as well as the flavor. Also, I bake these cabbage rolls instead of cooking them on the stove top, but choose the method you prefer.

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