Asian Wonton Salad with Sweet Sesame Dressing

I love a loaded salad almost as much as I love loaded ice cream. This salad is good enough to be the entire meal. I love it!

Recipe adapted from Our Best Bites

Asian Wonton Salad

1 1/2 heads of romaine lettuce

3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed or shredded (I marinated mine in teriyaki first)

cherry tomatoes

1/4 red onion, sliced thinly

1 cucumber sliced

1 can olives, rinsed and drained

3/4 cup cashews

1/2 package wontons

vegetable oil for frying

Heat about 1 inch of oil in a pot on the stove top. Cut wontons into thirds (3 strips). Fry wontons and set on paper towels to dry.

Tear lettuce into chunks and place in a large salad bowl. Top with remaining ingredients. Add Sweet Sesame Dressing. Toss salad together. Add wonton strips and gently toss to combine.

Sweet Sesame Dressing

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Place all ingredients into a quart jar and shake vigorously. Don't skip the sesame oil. It gives it the taste you need to make it taste like an Asian salad. Only pour dressing on salad if you plan on eating it immediately in one meal. I just added the dressing to individual bowls of salad and I only used about half of this dressing recipe.

Fruit Salad with Citrus Sauce

This salad is my favorite way to eat fruit. I mix a variety of fruit with Mom's fresh fruit sauce. It looks so pretty in small clear serving cups.

Fresh Fruit Citrus Sauce

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup water

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

Any variety of chopped fresh fruit

Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Pour the liquids in a saucepan. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Bring to a boil. Let cool and pour over fresh fruit. Keep extra sauce in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Stir well after refrigerating.

Bubble Bread

I wanted to make bubble bread the other day but didn't want to take Carson out to get the stuff for it. So, I just started throwing stuff in and came up with this recipe, and it is SO good.

Ingredients:
20 freezer rolls
1/2 C. butter
3/4 C. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C. coconut
1/2 C. chopped pecans
2 tbs. milk

Melt butter in the microwave and stir in the remaining ingredients. Dip each frozen roll in the mixture and place in a greased bunt pan. Dump the rest of the mixture on top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Mmmm...

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Cupcakes

Alayna and I made these cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day. It is from the Family Fun website. Lots of fun and very easy.

Ingredients

• White cake mix (we used an 18-1/4-ounce box)
• Food coloring (red, blue, green, and yellow)

• Baking cups
• Whipped cream (optional)

Instructions

1. Prepare your favorite white cake mix, then divide the batter evenly among six small bowls. Following the chart below, dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color.
   
   
   

   RAINBOW COLOR	DROPS OF FOOD COLORING
   Purple	9 red and 6 blue drops
   Blue	12 drops
   Green	12 drops
   Yellow	12 drops
   Orange	12 yellow and 4 red drops
   Red	18 drops

   
   
   
2. Line 16 muffin pan wells with baking cups. Evenly distribute the purple batter among the cups, then the blue, and so on, following the order shown. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of a spoon to cover the color underneath.
3. Bake the cupcakes according to your recipe directions. Before serving, remove the paper wrapping, and if you like, top each cupcake with a whipped-cream cloud.

Crispy Oat Drops

I made these cookies for Krynn because he loves cookies with oats in them. The original recipe called for mini M&M's, but I just used chocolate chips and I opted to leave out the pecans. The M&M's would be really cute.

Crispy Oat Drops

1 c. butter or margarine, softened

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats, uncooked

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 3/4 c. chocolate chips or Mini M&M's

1 c. toasted rice cereal

1/2 c. shredded coconut

1/2 c. coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in egg. In a medium bowl combine flour, oats, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; blend flour mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips, cereal, coconut, and pecans. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on wire racks. Store in tightly covered container. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Cheesy Garlic Bread Swirls

I love to look at recipe blogs and I recently found one that I love at www.ourbestbites.com. I've been cooking from their recipes all week. This recipe is definitely worth making twice. These garlic cheese rolls are to die for! They are the perfect side to soup or salad.

Ingredients:

French Bread Dough:

1 tablespoon yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp salt

4 1/2 cups flour (approximate)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 egg yolk

Garlic butter

1/2 cup real butter

1 1/2 tablespoons (I eye-balled it to equal 1 1/2 tablespoons total) of the following seasonings mixed together

-Garlic powder

-parmesan cheese

-basil

-oregano

-parsley

-marjoram

-salt

Shredded mozzarella cheese (I used about 8 ounces)

Mix the dough ingredients in your bread maker or mixer. Knead and let rise until double in size. Roll out into a 20 X 6 inch rectangle. Spread with garlic butter and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Roll up like a cinnamon roll. Cut into 12 slices using dental floss. Put each slice in a greased muffin cup. (I covered mine and put them in the fridge for a few hours until I was ready to cook them.) Cover with a clean cloth and turn oven on to 350 degrees. Bake for 18 - 22 minutes. After about ten minutes the cheese might start to burn so loosely place a sheet of tinfoil over top of the rolls as they are baking to prevent over-browning. I also had to place a cookie sheet on the lowest rack because the butter was dripping onto the bottom of my oven. Take out when golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm.

Dilly Chicken Sandwiches

I love cookbooks. I seriously can just sit and read them like I would a novel. This is dangerous to my waistline. But, when Taste of Home had cookbooks on sale for $5 each a few weeks ago, I had to buy some. Three, to be exact. They came in the mail today and I'm in heaven.



Tonight's dinner was from the Salads & Sandwiches cookbook. We love sandwiches at our house, and I'm so excited to have some new ideas. These were really, really good. I used whole wheat rolls from the grocery store bakery instead of french bread.

Dilly Chicken Sandwiches

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 oz. each)
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 tsp. dill weed, divided
6 Tbs. butter, divided
8 slices French bread (1/2 inch thick) or sandwich rolls
1/4 c. cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. lemon juice
4 lettuce leaves
8 slices tomato

Flatten chicken to 1/4-inch thickness; set aside. In a large skillet, saute garlic and 1/2 tsp. dill in 3 Tbs. butter (I used about half this amount.) Add chicken; cook over medium heat until chicken juices run clear. Remove and keep warm.

Spread both sides of bread with remaining butter (again, I used much less.) In a skillet or griddle, grill bread on both sides until golden brown. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, lemon juice and remaining dill. Spread on one side of grilled bread. Place lettuce, chicken and tomato on four slices of bread; top with remaining bread. Yield: 4 servings.

Candied Walnut Feta Salad

I've been looking all over the place for some new spring salads. It is that time of year again, right? I found this recipe and altered it a bit. I love it, but my family didn't really like the dressing. If you're not a fan of raspberry vinaigrette, you can always leave the dressing off and serve it with a side dressing of your choice. The walnuts are so so yummy -- totally worth the extra sugar in the salad.

Ingredients:

1 cup walnut halves

1/2 cup sugar

6 cups mixed greens

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup crumbled Feta cheese

2 tablespoons raspberry vinaigrette

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Place walnuts and sugar in a skillet and stir constantly over medium heat until the sugar turns to a light brown liquid and coats the nuts. Remove skillet from heat. Place nuts on a sheet of aluminum foil to cool. Mix the greens, cranberries and cheese in a large bowl. Whisk together the vinaigrette, vinegar, and olive oil. Pour over greens and toss to coat. Add candied walnuts and toss again. Serve immediately.

Rosemary Bread

This is one of my favorite breads. It is great with salad or soup. The outside crust is delicious and it's very soft and flavorful on the inside.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

3/4 tablespoon dried rosemary

2 3/4 cup to 3 cups bread flour

1/3 cup dry milk powder

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

egg yolk

coarse sea salt

Directions:

Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select white bread cycle; press Start. Stop machine and take dough out before the baking cycle begins. Or use your mixer or mix it by hand. Cover dough in bowl and let rise until double. Punch down dough and shape into a round loaf; set on a greased cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Cut three slits across the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Cover with a tea towel and let raise for 30 minutes. Carefully brush with egg yolk and 1 teaspoon water whisked together. Sprinkle lightly with coarse sea salt and more rosemary. Bake in 360 degree oven for 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Mix olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping.