Wonton Salad

I LOVE salad!!  I had this salad at a friend's house and it is delicious and SO pretty.

Wonton Salad

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or chopped

1 head lettuce (I used half green leaf and 1/2 spinach)

2-3 green onions chopped

toasted almonds

1 can mandarin oranges (I can't remember the can size...11ish oz.)

1/2 pkg. wonton wrappers cut into quarters and fried (cut from corner to corner so that you have triangular pieces)

Dressing: 

2 TBL vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup oil (I used canola)

Directions:  Mix salad ingredients together(except wonton wrappers).  Mix dressing ingredients with fork until sugar is dissolved.  Toss salad with dressing.  Top with fried wontons.



Almond Joy Brownie Bites

I came across this recipe while searching for Paula Deen's Volcano cake recipe.  I found it here at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  These are seriously SO good!  I can't believe that I didn't get a better picture than this.  I made these for a family dinner that we had a my in-laws on Christmas day.  When I started making them, I thought we had 2 hours until the dinner, but later realized we only had one.  So...I had to rush these babies and they didn't turn out very pretty! 

I told my husband we might be bringing them all home because they looked so bad.  He said he would be happy to bring them all home :)  If you want to see a pretty picture of these, check out the link for the ones on Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  I'm telling you though...even though these aren't pretty, they were SO good and unfortunately we didn't end up bringing them all home.  I had a hard time getting my brownies out of my brownie mini-muffin pan...I think next time, I will line a pan with parchment paper make the brownies and then cut them into small squares or circles and use those instead of the muffin pan.  Maybe I just need a different muffin pan.  Anyways, I will be trying these again soon.

Almond Joy Brownie Bites

Ingredients:

Brownie batter (homemade, from a boxed mix, whatever is your favorite.)
4 cups sweetened shredded coconut
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
About 4 dozen almonds
Chocolate candy melts or almond bark

Directions:  Preheat your oven according to brownie recipe directions and generously spray two mini muffin pans with nonstick spray. Fill cups about 1/2 full with brownie batter and bake according to directions. When brownies are done, place pans on a cooling rack and remove brownies once cooled completely.

In a medium bowl, combine coconut and sweetened condensed milk. With clean hands, roll coconut mixture into balls and press onto tops of brownie bites(I actually used my small cookie scoop to make the balls). Press an almond into the top of each. Place brownies in the freezer to harden for about 15 minutes.

Melt almond bark or candy melts according to directions. Remove brownies from freezer and dip the tops in the chocolate. Place dipped brownies on a wax paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate until chocolate is set.

Depending on what brownie recipe you use, you should get about 36-48 brownie bites.

Granola

I really LOVE granola!! This recipe comes from my mother-in-law and is delicious!!

Granola

Mix together in a large bowl:

-14 c. rolled oats

-2 c. wheat germ

-2 c. coconut

-1/2 or more c. sesame seeds, sliced almonds, sunflower seeds, wheat bran, etc.

Mix together in the blender:

-1 c. oil

-1/3 c. water

-1 1/2 c. honey

-3 t. vanilla

-2 t. salt

Pour the ingredients from the blender over dry ingredients & mix together thoroughly. Bake in cookie sheets or pan (approx. 4) for 30 minutes at 250-300 degrees.

Sweet and Sour Asian Wraps

My Sister found this recipe in her April Family Circle Magazine. When she told me about it, I told her to send me the recipe. I LOVE lettuce wraps and these are SO good!! I've made them twice, once with shredded chicken(that I had bottled) and ground turkey(didn't have ground chicken at my store). I really like them both ways! My husband really liked them with the ground turkey. The ones with the ground turkey were definitely juicier.

I also couldn't find the fish sauce at my grocery store so I left that out of the dipping sauce. The first time I made them with the shredded chicken, I also added some chopped almonds on top(SO GOOD). I also added about a teaspoon of crushed red peppers to my husbands dipping sauce. I made two bowls of dipping sauce and then we just added a spoonful or two to our wraps before we ate them.

Sweet and Sour Asian Wraps

Ingredients:

(Sauce)
2 T soy sauce
2 T rice vinegar
2 T Sugar
1 t fish sauce
1/4 t. sriracha
1 T water (I didn't add the water)

(wraps)
1 T canola oil
1 lb. ground chicken
1 sm red sweet pepper (chopped)
1 t sugar
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 sriracha
2 scallions chopped
1 T soy sauce
16 lg. bibb lettuce leaves
sliced cucumbers, scallions, mint and limes for serving

Directions:
Dipping sauce: Stir together all ingredients in a small dish and set aside.

Wraps: Heat oil in large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble in chicken and cook 2 minutes breaking up large pieces with a wooden spoon. Stir in red pepper, sugar, garlic powder, ginger and sriracha. Cook 3 minutes, until no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Take off heat and stir in scallions and soy sauce.

To serve, spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture into each lettuce leaf and top with cucumber, scallions, mint, and a squeeze of lime. Serve with dipping sauce and brown rice.

Sweet Cereal Mix - yummy stuff!!

My sister sent me these pictures and this recipe. I can't wait to try this stuff!! She couldn't remember where she got the recipe or what it is called. This is what she said in her email...."I really don't know what this stuff is called but it is delicious. I just call it Yummy." Sounds good to me:) If any of you have made this before and know the 'official' name, please leave me a comment and let me know.

Sweet Cereal Mix

Ingredients:

• 1box Golden Graham cereal
• 1 box Rice Chex cereal
• 2 c. slivered almonds and/or pecans (chopped and toasted)
• 2 c. coconut
• 2 c. corn syrup
• 2 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 cubes butter

Directions: Place cereals, toasted nuts and coconut in a large bowl and toss to mix. In a saucepan, bring corn syrup, sugar and butter to a boil. Boil 2 minutes. Pour over cereal mix and stir until everything is well coated. Pour mixture out onto a buttered cookie sheet to cool and set.

Honey Crystal Almonds

These are SO good!! You HAVE to try them! I only had enough almonds to make 1/2 of a batch. It is probably a good thing, I could have eaten an entire batch myself. My boys LOVE almonds so I thought I'd whip this up for a nice after school snack. I had to get theirs bagged up right away so I wouldn't eat them all.

I found this recipe on an ad for California almonds.

Honey Crystal Almonds

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole natural almonds
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 T butter
• 1 cup turbinado sugar

Directions: Spread almonds in a shallow pan. Place in a cold oven; turn oven to 350 F and roast 12-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until well roasted. Over medium heat in medium saucepan, heat honey and butter to boiling. Reduce heat to medium low, simmer 2 minutes stirring occasionally. Add almonds; simmer and stir for another 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the almonds to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper(I used wax paper) or sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Spread the almonds in a single layer and cool slightly. To coat, toss almonds with sugar in a medium plastic food storage bag.