Crock Pot Chicken Caesar Sandwich

 I found this recipe (in Pinterest, of course) at Cozycakes Cottage,

and when you visit there you will see why I wanted to make this

ASAP.

I didn't have any pretty leaf lettuce.....

 But I had bacon on hand.

Chicken and bacon go great together, and add a little Caesar Dressing....

Masterpiece!

But wait!

Since Thanksgiving is over,

and I know you have lots of left-over turkey in the freezer,

this would be a great way to use up that turkey.

Great idea, right?

I thought so too.

I will for sure be making this again.

Thank you Cozycakes Cottage for this great recipe.

Crock Pot Chicken Caesar Sandwich

2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts

About 1 c. water

1/2 - 1 c. of your favorite bottled Caesar dressing, adjust amount to your taste

1/3 c. shredded Parmesan Romano Asiago mix.

Ground pepper

Cooked and crumbled bacon

Place chicken in crock pot with water. Cover and cook on low heat for 4-6 hours. Make sure you check on the chicken here and there, because you don't want it to dry out. When chicken is done, remove from the crock pot and drain the water. Shred the chicken. Place chicken back in crock pot and add dressing and cheese. Mix well and cook for another 30 minutes to heat. Serve with bacon sprinkled on top in hamburger buns.

This recipe is linked to:
Foodie Friends Friday

Stop Being LAZY! Bar-B-Q Beef Sandwich

 You guys really need to send me an email every once in a while and tell

me to STOP BEING LAZY! 

It has been a long time since I have gone to the kitchen to create my own food.....

No recipe included!

Just start grabbing ingredients and throw together. 

Use my imagination and create something wonderful for you to eat.

So, with that being said, this will be a walk through recipe.

 This is what I did:

I took a chuckeye boneless beef roast,

put it in a large pan with lid,

covered it almost completely with water,

added about 5 TBS of beef soup base,

1 whole sliced sweet onion,

sprinkled with garlic powder, sea salt, and crushed black pepper.

Put the lid on it and baked it in a 300 degree F. oven for about 5 hours.

 Once it was done,

I scooped out the roast and onions and placed them in a shallow pan.

I used two forks to shred the beef (removing any visible fat).

 Once the beef was shredded, I put together my own bar-b-q sauce.

At least that's what I'm calling it anyway.....

In a saucepan:

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with green pepper, celery and onion

1 (4 oz) can fire roasted green chiles (mild)

Place these two ingredients in a blender or food chopper, and blend till saucy.

Place blended tomato mixer in a saucepan and add:

1/3 c. honey

1/4 c. prepared mustard

1/4 c. molasses

1 tsp. beef soup base

Bring to a simmer and simmer for about 3-5 minutes

Pour the sauce over the shredded beef

 I stumbled upon this chopped Asian salad the last time I was at Sam's Club.

I mixed the salad and dressing together and placed the mixture on top of 

my bar-b-q beef sandwich.

Talk about AMAZING!

I just know you will love this creation of mine. 

Everyone in my house did.

ENJOY!

This recipe is linked to:

Gooseberry Patch ~Recipe Round Up
Recipes for my Boys ~ Thursday's Treasures
The Better Baker ~ Weekend Potluck

Summertime Says Chicken: Avocado/Strawberry Chicken Salad

 Here lately it seems like the thing to do is put fruit in chicken salad.

So I set out to create a fruit filled chicken salad.

And just to clear things up right at the beginning, my son loved it.

He is my best food critic.

 I not only added chopped strawberry, I added avocado to the dressing.

I love avocado, but it's one of those foods that I just can't eat plain.

Now guacamole....that is one of my favorites. 

 For the chicken salad I used:

3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, simmered in water till done.

Shredded the cooled chicken breasts

1 c. finely chopped strawberries

Roughly 3 TBS finely chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 c. finely chopped celery

1/2 c. finely chopped walnuts

 For the dressing:

1/2 c. mayonnaise

1/2 c. sour cream

2 TBS balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing

2 TBS honey

1 avocado

1 tsp. salad supreme blend (McCormick, found in spice isle)

Placed all these ingredients in a blender and blended till smooth.

 I poured the dressing over the chicken salad ingredients and stirred well.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

For sure a refreshing summertime chicken salad.

This recipe is linked to:
Foodie Friends Friday
Full Plate Thursday
Weekend Potluck

The Pizza War Is On!!!

The Ultimate Pizza War!!

 A few nights ago Sean and I decided to make pizzas.

We have found a new way of eating pizza at home.

And nothing is better than pizza at home, right?

We buy Focaccia bread (actually it was my son that created this idea).

The Focaccia bread that we used was Asiago.

We can buy this in our local grocery store's bakery department.

So, how did a lazy night of pizza building turn into a war?

In the photo above I took pictures of each ingredient that I placed

on MY pizza. 

From start to finish.

Sean is in HIS space of the kitchen doing this, 

"Are you going to take pictures of MINE?"

"Why aren't you taking pictures of MINE?"

Okay crybaby....I will take pictures of your pizza.

The taunting created the WAR!!

But before I tell you the ending result, let me share with you how

this pizza is constructed.

We placed a thin layer of pesto on the bread,

pizza sauce,

pizza toppings, 

and cheese (the toppings and cheese are in no specific order)

Placed them in a preheated 400 degree F. oven for

10 to 15 minutes.  

Since this project turned into a war, I created a block picture,

"Sean's Pizza"

"My Pizza"

 Placed it on my fan page and asked the fans to vote.

Who do you think won????

Well, it certainly wasn't the experienced cook in the house....

Yup, you guessed it.....SEAN!!

Can you believe it?

I am truly wounded! 

My ego extremely crushed!

I have been defeated by a "same thing every-time" type of person.

But it was fun.

This recipe is linked to:
Foodie Friends Friday

This Is Some Good Stuff Maynard!: Green Apple Chicken Salad

What do you get when you take one lonely chicken breast 

(actually, it was left-over Kentucky Fried Chicken, skin taken off), 

1/4 c. chopped purple onion, 

1/2 of a chopped granny smith apple, 

about a TBS (maybe a little more) of fresh chopped fine cilantro, 

a splash of lemon juice, 

a splash of honey, 

crushed black pepper, 

and 1/4 c. mayonnaise?

LUNCH!!

I made this chicken salad, lined a spinach wrap with fresh baby spinach leaves, 

placed the chicken salad on top of the spinach, 

and rolled it up for a quick sandwich wrap. 

Very good stuff Maynard!! 

I will for sure be making this again. But the next time I will make it for a crowd.....

It is so refreshing with the green apple, cilantro, and onion mixture.

This is linked to:

Sometimes It's Gotta Be Quick: Onion Bagel Pizza

Sometimes our busy schedules force us to eat, prepare, and think 'quick' when it comes to food.
Yes, even a die-hard food blogger has to think 'quick' sometimes.....
What do you get when you have a package of onion bagels, pizza sauce, mini pepperonis, and cheese?

A mini pizza of course!

That wasn't suppose to be a joke.....it's for real! Mini pizza in a quickness.

Onion bagel

Pizza sauce

Mini pepperonis

Cheese

A 400 degree F. oven for 8-10 minutes, and BANG! Instant pizza in a quickness....

Just like this blog post.

BANG!

Over with a quickness.....

A Little Ahead Of The Game: Cajun Bacon BLT

I might just be a little ahead of the game here.....BLT when it's not even summertime yet? Not even tomato season yet? I hope there isn't a law written somewhere about seasonal BLT's.....If so, I'm in BIG trouble.

I had a breakfast meeting last week with a very good friend of mine (I can call her friend even though she's family, right?).

On my way to the breakfast meeting I heard an advertisement on the radio about a local meat market having a sale on Amish smoked baby Swiss cheese. OMG!! I knew right then and there that I had to get some of that cheese. Cheese is my weakness.....

Funny story: After the breakfast meeting I high-tailed it to the meat market. And of course, you cannot enter a meat market and only buy one thing. RIGHT?

While I was there I found this Cajun spiced bacon. Perfect for BLT's! But anyway, when I was checking out with my smoked baby Swiss cheese, 1 pound of Cajun bacon, 1 pound of peppered bacon, and 1 pound of fresh bulk sausage, I asked the sales clerk if I get a discount if I mention the advertisement I heard on the radio. He just stood there and looked at me. He didn't know what to say. And then I finally gave in and said, "I'm just kidding."

He gave a sigh of relief and continued ringing up my purchase. I love messing with people to see their reaction. This one took the cake......

I also found these Rosemary and Olive Oil flat breads. I am building this Cajun BLT as I shop.....

I love flat bread and I think it's a lot better for you than regular bread. It's also very versatile. You can grill it, make a panini, grilled cheese, use it as a wrap, etc.....

100 calories per serving (1)

10 calories from fat

0 cholesterol

0 saturated fat

0 trans fat

20g carbohydrates

1g sugar

This particular flat bread was connected in the middle and suggested folding it over once you get your sandwich goodies in there. I tore them apart and grilled them on my George Forman grill.

See how they turned nice and brown with grill marks in them.....I love grill marks! The marks make foods look like you put a lot of effort into preparing them. SSHHHH.....my little secret.

Since I have a picture demonstrating the construction of my Cajun style BLT, I don't really need to leave a recipe. Was this sandwich good? It was AMAZING!!

Break the law, make yourself a BLT before tomato season.....just make sure you buy the organic tomatoes if you want the closest thing to fresh.

The Luck of the Irish: Irish Sandwich

I love St. Patrick's Day!! Definitely one of my favorite holidays. BECAUSE.....I love the color green!

But St. Patrick's Day is so much more than green....it's the holiday where you get to eat that good pumpernickel bread (another thing I love).

I don't buy it too often, because I am the only one that eats it, likes it, loves it, and I don't really want to be eating a whole loaf myself every week.

This sandwich was pretty amazing, and you know where I found the recipe? On the pumpernickel bread bag. Those are always the best recipes, right? The ones found on boxed and bagged products.....

The one thing I did different to this recipe is, I changed the cheese from Swiss to provolone. Swiss cheese is another item that only I like.....GEESH!! I can never eat anything I like.....

This is how the sandwich is built: Spread butter on two slices of bread (the sides that will be next to the grill). On the other side of one slice spread thousand island dressing.

Top the dressing with two slices of provolone cheese.

On top of the cheese place some turkey slices (however many you like).

On top of the turkey slices place a good amount of prepared coleslaw. Once again, however much you like.

Place two more pieces of cheese on top of the coleslaw, spread more thousand island on the second piece of bread.

Place it in a George Forman grill and grill it to your liking......

Then eat and enjoy!

One great sandwich!

I served it with sweet potato chips and green olives.

Not Photogenic: Crab Salad

Have you ever tried taking pictures of something that is just not photogenic?

Everything I tried with this sandwich didn't work. I tried different angles, different lighting, standing on my head, doing summer salts..... okay, scratch the last two. I didn't try those, but maybe I should have.

My son loves sea food, and while I was at the grocery store browsing I ran across a sale on canned crab. 2 cans for $5.00, so I bought 4. Three cans of crab and one can of baby shrimps. I brought it home and threw together a crab salad for sandwiches.

Crab Salad

3 (6 oz.) Reese all white crab meat, drained

1 (7 oz.) Reese tiny shrimp, drained

2 celery hearts stalks, finely chopped

2 TBS sweet minced onion

3/4 c. mayonnaise

1/4 c. ranch dressing

2/3 c. crushed seasoned croutons

black pepper to taste

Mix all together and fill a pita half. We topped ours with fresh arugula.

You could also add a splash of lemon juice if you'd like.