Super Easy Fruit Salad

This weekend we went to a Fourth of July BBQ at a friends house. There were going to be a lot of people there so I volunteered to bring a couple things. Since I'm trying to stay healthy, I went for a fruit salad and an orzo salad. Here is the recipe for a super easy fruit salad that was a real hit.

Super Easy Fruit Salad




Ingredients
1 lb bing cherries
1 box blueberries
1 lb green seedless grapes

Directions

Slice the grapes and cherries in half, and throw out the cherry pits. Add blueberries and mix. Serve either in a large mixing bowl, or portion into dessert dishes and top with whipped cream.





Note: Halving the cherries and grapes makes it look like this dish actually required effort. I will also say that everyone was very happy to have cherries without the work of getting rid of the pits! This also doubled as a delicious breakfast the next day.

Corn Chips

I discovered something when we made fajitas last week. I despise corn tortillas. The texture must be an aquired taste. In any case, the next time we make anything that requires tortillas I will stick with the flour ones.

In my haste, I purchased a pack of 30 corn tortillas, so now what could I do? When life gives you lousy tortillas, make chips! I did some perusing online and after looking at several recipes on how to make corn chips, I decided on a hybrid blend of all of them.



Crispy Corn Chips
A mish-mash of about 12 different recipes

Ingredients
10 corn tortillas
1/8 cup olive oil
about 1/8 teaspoon each of:
black pepper
cayenne pepper
salt
garlic powder
onion powder

Directions
Pour olive oil into a small measuring cup. I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup I had in the kitchen, but any will do. Add spices to the cup and mix.

Cut the corn tortillas into eights using a pizza cutter. Spread as many as can fit onto a non-stick baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, brush each triangle with the olive oil/spice mixture.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350, rotating the baking sheet after 5 minutes. Let cool and serve with salsa or guacamole.

Fajita Bake

I love fajitas, but sometimes get bored with preparing them the same old way. The last time I made them, I decided to try something different. Instead of combining everything after, why not combine it before. So I cooked up some chicken and made a casserole of sorts using fajita ingredients. To make this dish vegetarian, simply omit the chicken.

Fajita Bake

Ingredients
1 large onion, sliced into thick slices
1 large green pepper, sliced
1 jalapeno, sliced
1 jar of salsa - I used Old El Paso medium, thick and chunky
1 pound of chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1 can of black beans, drained
1 can of corn, drained
1 teaspoon each
cumin
cinnamon
cayenne pepper
ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup mexican blend cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine sliced pepper, onion and jalapeno into a large bowl. Add spices and olive oil. Stir to coat vegetables. Spread vegetables on a cookie sheet and place in oven for 10-12 minutes.

While veggies are cooking, heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a medium skillet until smoking. Add chicken and cook for about 6-7 minutes, until browned.

Remove vegetables from oven and empty back into original mixing bowl. Add chicken, beans, corn, and salsa and stir. Empty mixture into 9x11 baking pan. Top with cheese. Place pan in oven until cheese melts, about 10 minutes. Serve with tortillas, if desired.

Servings: About 6

Honey Pecan Chicken Cutlets

I stumbled across this recipe on recipezaar and thought it looked good. It tasted delicious. The suggestions say to pair it with rice because the sauce is kind of sweet due to the honey, so I served it with some brown rice.

Honey Pecan Chicken Cutlets
adapted from Recipezaar

Ingredients
1 lb skinless chicken piece
1/2 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons margarine, divided
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions
Dredge the cutlets in flour, shaking off excess. Heat two tablespoons margarine in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the cutlets and brown on both sides, about 5-6 minutes. Stir together the remaining tablespoon margarine, honey and pecans and red pepper flakes. Add to the skillet, stir gently. Cover and simmer gently for 7-8 minutes. Remove cutlets to a serving platter, pour sauce over and serve.

I prepared mine a little different - Instead of using whole cutlets, I cut them into bite-size pieces. Also, after I added the honey mixture to the chicken, I left it in the pan. As it cooled, the honey sort of stuck to the chicken and any remaining sauce could be spooned onto the plate, instead of smothering it all.

Servings: 4

Tomato Plant - 21 days

This past weekend, I noticed my tomato plant drooping. Then it fell over - oops. When I was home, my dad gave me one of those nifty circular tomato wire circular support things. So on Sunday we tried to install it around the plant. I would say our success rate was about 50%. We got the contraption around the plant, but broke off several branches while doing so. Most of the plant survived, but now it doesn't look as pretty. Oh well.

Mental note for next year's gardening: Put a tomato wire support around the plant while it's still small.

Here is a picture of the plant with its new gear: