Apple & spiced pecan salad

A beautiful and light summer salad that tingles the flavor buds, and doesn't make you feel like you are having a boring salad again. This recipe provides for a variety of flavors and also a variety for textures. Pair it with a protein of your choice and it will be a great supporting cast to your meal or enjoy it by itself and let it be your star for the night. 

Ingredients:

• 1 red apple, sliced
• 3 cups fresh arugula
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped lightly
• 2 tbsp Ken's Steak House Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette Dressing
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• a pinch of sugar 
• 1/4 cup feta cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Sprinkle the chopped pecans with sugar and cayenne pepper. Slightly roast the pecans in a pan for about 5-6 mins, or until a light honey brown color. Make sure to continuously be tossing them in the pan so they dont burn. Take it off the heat and let them cool.
2. Mix together the apples, arugula, (cooled) spiced pecans in a salad bowl
3. Add dressing and optional feta cheese and toss them all together

Feel free to comment and give me your feedback on the recipe, or to ask any questions. Until then, Live, Love, Laugh & Eat.. Oh yes, EAT!

Oven-fried Cornflake Chicken

My husband and I are big fans of fried chicken. We are literally one of those couples that is always down for gold old Popeyes. Last month I had some leftover cornflakes, that neither of us wanted to eat with milk. So the next best thing that I could think of, was to make oven fried buttermilk chicken with the cornflakes. 

While I do agree that oven-fried is never the same as deep-fried chicken, but using cereal instead of breadcrumbs, does help achieve that crunchy effect. And yeah, is definitely a comparatively healthier alternative (closes-eyes-when-adding-butter). Another hack that I used to make my chicken a lit notch healthier, was to mix milk and vinegar instead of buttermilk. So instead of 2 cups buttermilk, like the recipe asks, I substituted it with 1.5 cup 2 percent milk and white vinegar. The consistency and effect it adds to ur chicken is the same as buttermilk. 

With these few hacks, there was a good compromise between taste and health. Hopefully, you guys enjoy this latest gorge from kitchen! 

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time:  40 mins (Additional time required for marination)

Ingredients:

For the marinade - 

• 4 Chicken Legs, cut in 2  ( so 4 thighs and 4 drumsticks)
• 2 cups Buttermilk
• 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
• 2 tbsp Hot sauce (Frank's hot sauce or similar)
• 1 tbsp Salt
• 2 tsp Pepper
• 1 tsp Paprika

For the coating - 

• 3 cups Cornflakes (crushed)
• 2 tbsp Butter
• 1 tsp Mrs Dash seasoning
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients for the marinade except the chicken in a large bowl and stir until combined.
2. Add Chicken and refrigerate. You can marinade anywhere between 30 mins to 2 hours. In my case, I let it sit for about an hour. Take it out of the refrigerator while you prep for the remaining stuff. 
3. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and 
4. Line your baking tray with aluminum foil and grease it with some cooking spray.
5.  Mix the crushed cornflakes with the remaining dry ingredients. I like to season my crumbs, and thats why I add the spices and seasoning to it. If you prefer your crumbs without the seasoning, that is an option too. Also, to crush my cornflakes, I simply added them to a zip lock bag and crushed them using a rolling pin. I added the dry spices to the zip lock too and that reduced all the crumb messiness for me.
6. Add the cornflake crumbs to a shallow dish. Remove chicken from buttermilk mixture and evenly coat with the cornflake crumb mix. 

7. Place the coated chicken on the baking tray. Drizzle melted butter over chicken pieces. Bake until crispy and golden, approximately 40 minutes.

If you are unsure of whether your chicken is done or not, try sticking in a fork, if it goes through smoothly, you are good to go. If not, bake another 5 minutes and try again. Let your chicken rest for about 3-4 minutes before you devour it!

Feel free to comment and give me your feedback on the recipe, or to ask any questions. Until then, Live, Love, Laugh & Eat.. Oh yes, EAT! 

Greek Chicken Souvlaki

It has definitely been a while since my last post, and I apologize for the long hiatus. I had a busy few months and even though I had been trying new recipes on and off, I did not have a chance to upload it on the blog!
This one is another one of the house favorites, because of how quick and easy it is to create. Chicken Souvlaki is a Greek dish that's made with marinated and grilled chicken and sometimes vegetables, all threaded onto skewers and broiled. It's often server with Pita bread. I paired my Chicken Souvlaki with store bought hummus, tahineh sauce, lettuce and olives, but I will also add in my recipe for my homemade yogurt sauce, which is basically my version of the tzatziki sauce.
Chicken Souvlaki can be quickly grilled or broiled in your oven and is a flavorful and quick meal for those busy weeknights. In fact, we ended up making this twice in one week because it was such a hit, can't argue with that kind of success! So without wasting much time, let me share this gem recipe with you!

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time:  25 mins

Ingredients:


Greek Chicken Souvlaki -

• 1 Chicken Breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp Mrs Dash seasoning (I was out so I actually substituted with Montreal steak seasoning)
• 1 tsp Lemon + Pepper Seasoning
• 1 tsp fresh sea salt
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  
  

Yogurt sauce -

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt, whisked
• 1/2 cup cucumbers, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh coriander or parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup water

• Directions:

1. For the chicken souvlaki, combine all the ingredients except the chicken in a large bowl
2. Add in the chicken and toss it well in the marinade
3. Leave the chicken in the marinade for about 30 mins to no longer than 2 hours
4. You can add it skewers, or line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spread the chicken evenly on the sheet. If using skewers, make sure to soak the skewers in water for about 2 hours prior to grilling
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. I used the broil setting in my oven for the chicken
6. Broil chicken in the oven for about 18-20 mins or until cooked

Yogurt sauce - While the chicken is cooking, you can go ahead and make your yogurt sauce. Mix the ingredients for the yogurt sauce and add in the water gradually. Mix until it has reached desired consistency. 

I hope you enjoy this latest quick fix as much as my family did. Feel free to comment and give me your feedback on the recipe, or to ask any questions. Until then, Live, Love, Laugh & Eat.. Oh yes, EAT! 

Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki Sliders

I was gifted a slow cooker by a friend about 2 years ago, but I got down to using it only in the last 6 months. And ever since I started, I've been addicted to it. I even wonder why I waited so long to use my slow cooker. I've used my slow cooker to cook meats more often than anything else. Be it chicken, lamb, beef.. they all turn out to be juicy and flavorful thanks to my slow cooker. Sharing my latest tryst with the slow cooker to you guys.. Slow cooker chicken teriyaki.. the slow aromatic cooking not only infuses all the flavors into your meat beautifully, but leaves your kitchen so aromatic, it makes the food even more appetizing. Also, it literally needs minimal intervention, so an absolute win-win for me.

I started with mixing all the ingredients for my sauce together in the bottom of the cooker. Once I whisked the ingredients for the sauce, I lay my chicken breasts in the slow cooker and let it work its magic. Cover and cook on high for about 4-5 hours, or until the chicken basically falls apart using a fork. Get ready, because your kitchen is going to smell A-May-Zinggg!

Once the chicken it cooked, I just shredded it and added it to the pan. I added the remaining sauce from the cooker and let the chicken boil in the pan until the sauce had thicken. For a thicker gravy, you could also add corn starch, but I decided not to add any to mine.

I made a Cole slaw to go with my sliders, which was again about 5 ingredients mixed together. And voila, my Chicken Teriyaki Sliders were ready!

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time:  5 hours

Ingredients:

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken -

• 1 boneless chicken breast
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/4 cup white onion chopped
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/8 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 tsp fresh ginger chopped
• 1/8 cup cold water
• 1 tbsp corn starch (optional)
• sliced scallion (optional)
• toasted sesame seeds (optional)
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• Salt as per taste 

Cole Slaw topping - 

• 1/4 cup Shredded lettuce
• 1/8 cup Shredded carrot
• 1/8 cup Chopped celery
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp Mayonnaise 
• 1 tsp White Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper as per taste

• Directions:

1. In the slow cooker, whisk together the garlic, onion, honey, soy sauce, white vinegar, ginger, salt and pepper until mixed well. 
2. Add chicken breast to this mixture and cook on High setting for about 4-5 hours. Or until chicken is completely cooked. 
3. Remove chicken and shred to pieces with a fork. The chicken should shred very easily.
4. Transfer the remaining sauce from the bowl in a pan and add the shredded chicken and bring to a boil. (Add optional corn starch to the sauce here)
5. Once the sauce thickens, add the scallions and toasted sesame seeds
6. In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the Cole slaw. 
7. Toast buns and layer each with chicken, Cole slaw and cheese (optional)

Although, we enjoyed our Chicken Teriyaki with slider buns, you could take the traditional route and serve it with rice, or with quinoa for a healthier option. I hope you enjoy this quick fix as much as I did. Feel free to comment and give me your feedback on the recipe, or to ask any questions. Until then, Live, Love, Laugh & Eat.. Oh yes, EAT! 

Creamy tuscan garlic chicken

If you are looking for a restaurant quality meal ready under 30 minutes, this should go up on your bookmark right away!!! This valentines day, my husband decided to cook a romantic dinner for us.. and he's great with the BBQ grill, but has minimal skills in the kitchen. Basically, I am trying to put forth how quick and easy this meal is! Just following these simple steps, he was able to create such an amazing meal!
We were recently gifted a panini grill press by our family. And since my husband and I were super excited to try it, we decided to grill the chicken in the grill press. The original recipe stated that the chicken be cooked in a skillet, but the grill cooked the chicken to perfection. It was juicy and beautifully cooked. So that is another preference that you can choose from.
Creamy Tuscan Garlic Chicken had the most amazing garlic sauce with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. It was a bite-full of goodness one bit after the other. I paired this salad with a beautiful spring salad, with arugula, apples and pecan. I will link the recipe to the salad below as well. But if you like, you could serve this chicken over pasta and enjoy it too! Hoping that you guys give this amazing recipe an attempt! Make it a romantic meal for two like we did, or enjoy it as a family night meal. Either way, your palate will thank you for it.

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
• PAM Olive oil spray
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning (or my go to Mrs Dash seasoning)
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup spinach chopped
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes

Directions:

1. Sprinkle the chicken breast with salt and pepper on each side and let it sit for about 5 mins. In the mean time, heat up the panini grill press. Turn the press to the panini grill setting and heat the grill. Once heated, spray the gray with a little olive oil spray. Cook each side for about 7 mins or until brown on each side and cooked until no longer pink in center. If you are using a skillet, put 2 tbsp olive oil in the skillet and cook the same way on each side. Remove chicken and set aside on a plate. 
2. In the same skillet, add heavy cream, milk and boil for 2 mis. Then add the garlic salt, seasoning, and parmesan cheese. Whisk over medium high heat until it starts to thicken. Add the spinach and sundried tomatoes and let it simmer until the spinach starts to wilt. Add the chicken back and cook for another 2 mins. 

Put this meal at the top of your must make list! It was one of our best home cooked romantic dinners. Pair it with a beautiful salad (link attached) or serve over pasta. If you are going to serve this over pasta and like your pasta a little saucy, double the sauce. Feel free to comment with questions or to let me know if you enjoyed this recipe. Share this lovely recipe with your loved ones.. until then,  Live,  Love,  Laugh and Eat.. Oh yes, EAT!!   

Apple & Spiced pecan salad - http://diaryofafoodiekid.blogspot.com/2018/07/apple-spiced-pecan-salad.html

Braided Chicken bread

In case you guys haven’t noticed already, I am a big sucker for creating recipes from leftovers. This is probably because I can never portion correctly and cook for just 2 people.. I always end up either buying extra ingredients or cooking extra food. Former more often than the latter. In the case of this recipe, I had the second problem. I made extra kheema (ground meat), for a get together, and my husband refused to eat these leftovers a second time.. yep, I already fed him the leftovers once before.. but for the second time around, I knew I had to recreate this in a way that he would enjoy this meal, and I would too. So I revamped my kheema(ground meat), by mixing it with some sauces. It was originally a dry kheema(ground meat) dish. Then I stuffed this kheema(ground meat) inside a bread. Easy peasy isn't it. He devoured it, and I finally managed to finish my kheema too. Although, I used this recipe to finish off my leftover kheema(ground meat), this is also a great alternative to make with any kind of stuffing. It could even be leftover vegetables, you can use lamb, beef or turkey instead of the ground beef that I used or you could whip up some fresh stuffing and make this bread. Just one piece of advice would be, to use a filing that is slightly moist. Since you will be baking the bread with this stuffing, the stuffing might dry out if it doesn't have enough moisture. Having said that, do not make the stuffing so wet, or gravy-like, that all your stuffing runs out of the bread and makes it soggy. So without wasting much time on my wet-dry saga, here is the recipe! I follow this bread recipe to the tee - and it never disappoints. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Ingredients: 

• For the dough: 
• All purpose flour - 4 cups
• Instant yeast - 1 tbsp
• Fresh milk - 2 tbsp (You could also use powdered milk, same quantity)
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Oil - 4tbsp
• Eggs - 2 (1 for the dough and 1 for glazing later)
• Powdered sugar - 1 tsp

• For the chicken filling:
• ground chicken - 1 lb
• Onion - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
• Tomato - 1/2 cup, diced
• Green chillies - 3, chopped
• All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
• milk - 1/4 cup
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Cumin powder - 2 tsp
• Hot sauce - 1 tbsp
• Garlic powder - 1 tbsp (you can substitute with fresh garlic
• Ranch - 2 tbsp
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cheese (optional)

Directions: 

1. For the dough, mix together the flour, salt, sugar, milk, yeast, oil and egg. Knead it to a medium soft dough with slightly warm water. I used about 3/4 cups of water. But make sure you little water at a time, so you don't end up with a runny dough.
2. Leave it covered to rise for an hour. 
3. In that time, get your filling ready. To make my filling, I made my kheema(ground meat) previously. Recipe for that was to take some oil, roast some jeera in it, then add onions and saute. Next add chillies, tomatoes & salt and cook until soft and the mixture is like a paste. Now add the kheema and cook until you smell the aroma of cooked kheema(ground meat).
4. For the filling for the bread, I added some oil to a pan. Once hot, I added some all purpose flour and roasted the flour. Then I added milk to it and mixed until it turned into a smooth paste. Next I added some garlic powder, cumin powder, hot sauce and ranch to it. Then I added my previously cooked kheema to this along with some salt and pepper. That was it, my filling was ready.
   
5. Once my dough was risen, divide the dough into 4 parts. Preheat the oven to 400 degree F
6. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape about 1/3 inch thick. Slit the edges with a knife.
   
    
7. Put the filling in the centre (add cheese to the top if you like) and fold each side so they overlap each other. Similar to a braid
8. Brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle sesame seeds to the top. Place on top of a greased baking tray. I usually cover my trays with aluminum foil before I place the bread on it
   
9. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly golden brown at the top of the bread
10. Wait for it to cool before taking it off the tray. Your braided bread is ready to devour! 

I have made this bread and consumed it immediately. And have also, stored it and used it the day after. Either case, the bread stays soft and moist. If storing, please store in an airtight container and refrigerate. You can also make the dough and store it before hand. I have personally stored this dough for up to 3 days in the refrigerator and it has still worked out beautifully. Just make sure, you bring the dough to room temperature before rolling it out. I hope you enjoyed this recipe too! This is my basic stuffed bread recipe, and I will keep going back to it time and again.. Until then dear friends, Live, Love, Laugh and Eat.. Oh yes, EAT! 

Rasmalai cheese cake

Hi everyone, the first month of 2018 is finally over. It was a super busy month for me, but I won't complain. I travelled to 2 countries already this year, so on the travel front, this year seems to be taking shape beautifully. As I sit and ponder on how my January went, I feel the absolute urge to share one of my dessert recipes from last month. I had been meaning to try this fusion dessert for a while now. And since I had a lovely family get together at my place, I finally got to try it out. The get together was around the Indian Replubic day, which further probed me into giving my dinner that Indian touch. I made Green chicken biryani, bread rolls with ground beef filling,  rose rolls with ground chicken filling and the Rasmalai cheese cake. This dessert was my star performer of the night and that's why I'd love to share this recipe with all of you today.
Super quick, super simple and a great fusion recipe to marry the Indian rasmalai and the New York cheese cake.
For this recipe, I bought store bought rasmalai, but I shall hopefully share my homemade ras malai recipe with you all soon, in another post.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• Graham crackers, crushed 
• Pistachios, ground 
• Unsalted butter - 1/4 cup
• Green food coloring (Optional) 

For the cheesecake:

• Cream cheese, softened - 16 oz
• Rasmalai - 12 pieces 
• Gelatin - 1 tsp (can substitute with Agar agar)
• Water - 1/4 cup (to disolve gelatin) 
• 1 cup whipped cream
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• a few strands of Saffron 

Directions:

1. First, grind the pistachios to a granular powder consistency. If you want to make the mixture richer, you can mix other nuts with pistachios, but I chose to go ahead only with pistachios.
2. Crush the graham crackers and mix the two with 1/4 cup of melted butter. Then add a few drops of green coloring to enhance the color. Press this mixture against the base of your springform pan to create the crust. Once the crust is well spread and even, refrigerate it until you make your cheesecake filling.
3. Next, separate the rasgullas from the ras malai mixture and kept that aside to use later. 
4. If using gelatin, sprinkle it over the water and keep aside for 5 mins. Once soaked microwave it for 30 sec until completely melted. Add it to the rasmalai milk. If you are substituting gelatin with agar agar powder, boil the agar powder with the rasmalai milk directly, instead of soaking it in water. 
5. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese on a low speed until it is smooth. Then add the sugar in small parts and beat until the sugar is completely incorporated in the cream cheese. You can increase or decrease the sugar as per your taste. Next add the rasmalai milk and gelatin mixture and beat until even. Add a few strands of saffron to this mixture. 
6. Lastly, fold the whipping cream to your mixture and make sure you don't overmix or overfold the whipping cream to your cheesecake mixture. 
7. To assemble, place the pieces of rasgullas on the crust making sure you spread them evenly. Then pour the rest of the cheesecake filling on top of the rasgullas, and keep it refrigerated over night or minimum 5 to 6 hours till set. 
8. Once set, demould and decorate with the remaining whipped cream and pistachio crumbs or whole pistachios. I forgot to save my pistachio crumbs in the beginning so used whole pistachios instead.
9. Serve cold 

Please let me know if you do give recipe a try. If you are a rasmalai and a cheesecake lover like me and my husband, this combination is definitely a must try! Feel free to comment if you have any questions/suggestions and share this recipe with your loved one.. until then, Live, Love, Laugh & Eat.. Oh yes, EAT!