Dinner [was] Served

I cooked dinner two nights in a row!

--Santa Fe Chicken and Steamed Asparagus over Linguine
--Turkey Taco Salad with Pita Chips and Magic Sauce

I guess I'm done for the week. :)

Asian Noodle Salad

I spent a small fortune on these ingredients today for an asian noodle salad.

I just hope it looks like this when it's finished. And tastes as good as everyone claims!

I found this on http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ and have been thinking about making it for two weeks now. It's time!

Asian Noodle Salad adapted from Jamie Oliver

SALAD INGREDIENTS:
1 package linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled
1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach1 red bell pepper, sliced thin1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin1 orange bell pepper, sliced thin, 1 small bag bean sprouts,3 sliced scallions, 3 peeled, sliced cucumbers, LOTS of chopped cilantro—up to one bunch, 1 can whole cashews, lightly toasted in skillet.

DRESSING:
Juice of 1 lime, 8 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons sesame oil, 6 tablespoons soy sauce, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 3 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 2 hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped, More chopped cilantro—LOTS
Mix together salad ingredients. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Mix with tongs or hands and serve on platter. *Dressing keeps up to three days before serving, WITHOUT cilantro.

UPDATE:

I made this salad on Sunday. YUM-O! If you are flavor shy, this salad (or at least the dressing) is probably not for you. But, if you loves veggies and like a sweet and spicy ginger sesame dish once in a while, then this salad is right up your alley. This salad would also be excellent with a rice wine vinegar and oil (milder) dressing, if that's more your style.

I probably spent about $12 on ingredients, but $3 was cashews and $3 was sesame oil because I didn't have any. Next time, I'll still have both of those ingredients on hand, because I didn't even use half of them.

This is a HUGE salad. Like, so huge it didn't fit in my largest bowl. It would probably feed 12-15 people, so you can easily halve it. I also store the noodles, salad and dressing separately, so they'll keep.

7 Layer Dip

If you don't like Cilantro (or black olives for that matter), STEP AWAY from the 7 Layer Dip.

I make it and I only make it one way.

There's a FOREST of cilantro in there.

So, please, if you are not a cilantro lover, don't bother dishing it up and wasting it. Just step away. This little baby is for Meg's Trifecta celebration tomorrow night (baby shower / birthday / girls' night) reason to party.


I've found that people fall into one of two groups: Cilantro Lovers or Cilantro Haters.

Don't be a hater.

7 Layer Dip:
Refried beans
Sour cream
Salsa
Green Onions
Cilantro
Olives
Shredded Cheese

The New BLT...with Avocado!

Here's a new twist on an old favorite....discovered this weekend by my husband.

Was BLT....Now BAST (Bacon. Avocado. Spinach. Tomato.) It will always be a "fat bastard" to us now! [pardon my french]

This was kind of an accident. We had all of the above in the fridge, but no lettuce. We decided fresh spinach would make it even better. And we'd happened to pick up some 'day old' ciabatta rolls the day before. Jimmie cooked the bacon to perfection, salted the avocado and tomato, de-stemmed the spinach leaves and toasted the ciabatta. To. Perfection.

Food pictures never do the real thing justice, but I tried.

I don't think we'll ever go back.

Kasey Likes It! [Tortillaz]

Today I decided to go straight from the office to visit a friend who'd just had a baby this morning. I needed to pick up a few things on the way, but didn't want to fight rush hour traffic on the main drag, so I drove out to Siloam Springs first and stopped at Walmart on my way to the hospital.

I didn't realize how hungry I was until I walked past the McDonalds at the entrance. Wow, I REALLY didn't want to eat McDonalds for dinner, but knew I needed something. I was headed toward the granola bar row for some Fiber Plus bars when this little cutie caught my eye:

I love guacamole. I love chips. A marriage made in heaven. Wow. A better tasting rice cake I have never experienced. They are ZESTY. Dare I say SPICY! (That's for you, Nat!) Garlic, lime, sugar, je ne sais quois, but I LIKE them! 4 grams of fat and 130 calories per serving (about 15 chips). So, I opted to try these and grabbed a banana on my way to the register. And then I got to snuggle the most beautiful, peaceful little baby and visit with my friend. It made me so happy to see she and her husband so happy with their healthy new little one. I hope she didn't notice my guacamole breath!

I'll admit I've eaten almost the entire (smaller size) bag tonight, but still under 12 grams of fat total. Not bad when compared to regular chips....not that I should be eating the whole bag. I'm just sayin' YuM. They also had a cheddar flavor. For those of you who don't like guacamole. Although, I can't imagine anyone that reads this blog doesn'nt like guacamole. Do you?

Raspberry Cobbler

We have a lot of these in our freezer:

So I decided to bake some cobbler:

Jimmie requested a raspberry pie made with our frozen berries. I couldn't decide whether to call this a cobbler or a pie. I decided to make individuals with crust only on top (1/2 the crust of a pie, right?). I think, technically, a cobbler crust is "crumbled" on top, but whatever.

Raspberry Cobbler

5 - 6 cups raspberries

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

Whisk sugar and cornstarch together to mix thoroughly. Toss with berries.

Pour berry mixture into baking dishes and top with your favorite pie crust dough.

Cut a few vents in the crust and sprinkle with sugar before baking.

Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour.

Good thing we also have some ice cream in the freezer to go with this dessert tomorrow!
I should not be up at midnight when we're "springing forward!"

Kasey Likes It [Splenda PEEPS!]

I spotted a new PEEP at the grocery store: "Splenda Peeps" are sugar free!

I decided to give them a whirl.

Let me just say that if you love PEEPS, you will NOT love THESE PEEPS. They taste like nasty vanilla and butter. They also lack the crunchy coating of sugar on the outside. I'm kinda glad there were only 3 peeps included and that I only bought one package. I don't feel so bad throwing them away. And I will be picking up some of my FAVORITE PEEPS on my next shopping trip!

Here are some fun facts about PEEPS:

Each PEEPS chick has 32 calories and 0 grams of fat.

Just Born produces enough PEEPS in one year to circle the Earth twice.

It takes six minutes to create one PEEPS chick. In the 1950's it too 27 hours.

PEEPS has been the #1 non-chocolate Easter candy in the U.S. for more than a decade.

PEEPS chicks for Easter come in 6 colors--yellow, pink, lavender, blue, green, and red.

New for Easter 2008 are PEEPS Yellow Tulips, delivering the first new Spring shape since the1950s.

Yellow is America’s best selling color of PEEPS chicks and bunnies.

All PEEPS have 0 fat grams, are gluten free, and are nut free.

People like to do curious things with PEEPS ….eat them fresh or aged to perfection, microwave them, freeze them, roast them, and even cook with them!

Kasey Leaves It! [the sugar free version, that is.]