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Pineapple Glazed Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

In the summer time I love to BBQ, well I love my husband to BBQ :) . Even though it’s not summer quite yet, we had a beautiful weekend and so we knew BBQ was the way to go. We invited a couple over for dinner and knew that they’d love this.

We discovered this recipe a few years ago and it’s one that stuck; yes it’s that good that it will become a keeper. You can serve with a basic salad or jazz it up with your favorite summer side. I hope that this recipe becomes one that your family loves to make also.

The glaze would be excellent on any other type of meat. And the salsa is delicious with chips or paired with eggs.

 

Pineapple Glazed Chicken

Ingredients

4 boneless chicken breasts, approx 1-3/4 lb
1 cup pineapple juice
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons yellow mustard

Pineapple salsa recipe follows

Directions

  1. Bring pineapple juice, brown sugar and mustard to a boil in small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Whisk constantly until a boil is reached, and boil for a few minutes until glaze is slightly thickened. Set aside and cool, will thicken upon sitting.
  2. BBQ chicken breast and apply glaze the last few minutes. OR
    Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheet with foil. Place chicken breasts on foil lined sheets and bake for 15 minutes. Brush with glaze and broil on low for 5 minutes until chicken is fully cooked and golden, watch closely to avoid burning. Let rest for 5 minutes.
  3. Spoon salsa over chicken and serve, salsa recipe follows.

Pineapple Salsa Recipe

Pineapple Salsa

Ingredients

1 cup pineapple, chopped small (fresh or canned)
4 tablespoons red bell pepper, finely chopped
4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons jalapeno, finely diced

Directions

Mix pineapple, red bell pepper, cilantro, red onion and jalapeno into medium bowl. Spoon onto pineapple glazed chicken and enjoy.

This is great on chicken but also delicious on other meats.

Simple Snickerdoodles

Holiday time is one of my favorite times of the year and snickerdoodle cookies remind me of that time of year. The cinnamon and sugar smells so good and brings me back to those childhood memories I have of baking cookies with my mom during the holidays.

I enjoy a great snickerdoodle just as much as the next person, but sometimes I am not in the mood to chill the dough and then finally hours after starting getting to enjoy that first bite. So I found this recipe that use sugar cookie mix to speed the process. I hope you enjoy these quick and simple cookies. They taste just as good as the recipe that takes hours, so enjoy.

Simple Snickerdoodles

Yields 3-4 dozen (depending on size)
Total Time 1 hr 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 pouch (1lb 1.5oz) sugar cookie mix
2 T flour
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
1/4 sugar
1 T cinnamon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
  2. In bowl of stand mixer combine cookie mix, flour, butter and egg until a dough forms.
  3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. In a small bowl combine sugar and cinnamon. Roll balls in sugar mixture.
  4. Place 2 inches apart on un-greased cookie sheet.
  5. Bake 11-12 minutes. Cool 1 minute and move to cooling rack. (you can roll again in sugar mixture at this point if you’d like)

Enjoy!

Sugar and cinnamon, you can’t go wrong.

Triple Berry Smoothie

I am home from Maui and with all the fresh fruit smoothies we enjoyed there, I knew I needed to make one. It was beautiful and sunny today, so I got some frozen fruit out and blended up a creamy smoothie for my daughter and I to enjoy. I love raspberries and love yogurt, so I took a bag of frozen triple berries and blended it with my favorite Greek yogurt and this was delicious. You can substitute any of your favorite berries into this or enjoy just as I did.

Triple Berry Smoothie

Ingredients
1/2 cup frozen Raspberries, Strawberries and Blackberries
1/2 cup Greek honey yogurt (or plain Greek)
1/2 cup ice
1 cup water

Directions
Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth, Enjoy

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

Every spring the rhubarb in my dads garden is ready for picking and I always make sure to get some. I usually make a bunch of batches of strawberry rhubarb pie filling, put in Ziploc bags and toss in the freezer so I’m ready to bake a pie at any time. But this year I’ve decided to experiment and try some new recipes. I was babysitting my friends son yesterday and so I figured two little ones would enjoy some muffins, so I whipped up a batch of these and my daughter and friends son loved these. What’s better then having your little one enjoy something healthy with no preservatives that you made.
These would be excellent for breakfast or brunch, and with mothers day coming up, I’m sure your mom would love a batch of these. Wrap them in a basket and you will make her day.

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

makes 18 standard size muffins

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cup rhubarb, finely diced
1 cup strawberries, chopped
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon or ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

Oat topping

5 tablespoons rolled oats
3 tablespoons sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin tins or line with cupcake liners, set aside.
  2. In medium bowl, combine milk, vinegar, sugars, oil and vanilla, stir.
  3. In another bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cardamon and salt. Mix the rhubarb and strawberries into this dry mixture, tossing to coat with a light coat of the four mixture. This prevents the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the muffin and helps it stay in the center of the muffin (works great!).
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir just until combined.
  5. Spoon batter evenly into your muffin tin and sprinkle with sugar and oats.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes (depending on what size muffins you are making) stick a  toothpick in to make sure it comes out clean.
  7. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

These are delicious plain but you can always add a little spread of butter in the middle, Enjoy!

 

 

Try these in mini muffin tins or as loaves of bread!

You see that all the strawberries and rhubarb stayed in the center of the muffin.

 

Pineapple Jalapeno Salsa

I have always loved pineapple as long as I can remember. And I love anything that has a little bit of a spice to it. So this pineapple jalapeno salsa is a perfect match for me. I have enjoyed it with chips, on BBQ’d chicken, tacos, omelets and breakfast scrambles. The possibilities are endless with this salsa, Enjoy!

Pineapple Jalapeno Salsa

Ingredients

1 cup pineapple, chopped small (fresh or canned)
4 tablespoons red bell pepper, finely chopped
4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons jalapeno, finely diced (omit to make not spicy)

Directions

Mix pineapple, red bell pepper, cilantro, red onion and jalapeno into medium bowl.

This is great on chicken, meat and delicious on tacos.

Roasted Browned Butter Balsamic Asparagus

Asparagus is a great vegetable to have, it’s not only fun to eat but very tasty. This recipe is excellent to make for a large group because you apply the sauce over the asparagus and people can serve themselves. If you like balsamic vinegar then you will love this recipe. It’s not an overpowering flavor but a slight hint and that makes it very tasty.

This recipe can easily be doubled for a large crowd, so serve this at your next family dinner.

Roasted Browned Butter Balsamic Asparagus

20 Asparagus spears, trimmed (about 1lb)
dash of sea salt and pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
cracked black pepper, for topping

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Arrange asparagus in single layer on a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.
  3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
  4. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes (slightly tender), do not overcook
  5. Remove from oven a lay on platter, pour sauce over the top, garnish with cracked pepper and serve.

Browned Butter Balsamic Sauce

  1. Melt butter in small skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes (lightly browned), make sure to shaking pan occasionally.
  2. Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.
  3. Drizzle over vegetable. Garnish with cracked pepper if desired.

The browned butter balsamic sauce would be excellent on any vegetable. I have tried it on broccoli, brussel sprouts and of course asparagus.

Crunchy and delicious, my 1 year old daughter loved it.

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookies

I love my oatmeal cookies to be soft and chewy, and I’ve tried a few recipes but I think this is the all time winner. Every cookie came out perfect, my husband and daughter loved them. I gave some to my dad and we had two friends over for dinner and they were happy to have a few after dinner, so trust me and make a full batch because you will have a lot of happy people.

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookies

Time 14-16 minutes per batch
Yields 48 cookies, approximately

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, melted (1-1/2 sticks)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 medium eggs or 1 egg & 1 egg yolk
1-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 heaping cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, you can leave out if you want

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, cookies will turn out much better with parchment paper.
  2. Melt butter and let cool slightly.
  3. Mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
  4. In medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in cinnamon and eggs for about 2-3 minutes until light and creamy.
  5. Mix in flour mixture just until blended. Add oats, nuts and raisins and mix just until blended, do not over mix.
  6. Place 1/4 cup balls of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 14-16 minutes, do not over bake.
  7. Cool for a few minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

Enjoy, delicious warm or cooled!

El Brócoli Queso Quesadillas

Today is chilly and a bit gloomy and I’m craving broccoli cheddar soup but I’m going to save that and make for dinner tonight. But it’s only lunch time and I’m hungry so what I can I do to satisfy my craving, and make a quick lunch…how about broccoli cheddar quesadilla. Sound good? Well it is delicious. So if you are craving something cheesy give this a try, and know that your making it healthier by adding the broccoli…like my thinking?!

El Brócoli Queso Quesadillas

Time 10 minutes
Servings 1

Ingredients

1 flour tortilla
a few slices of cheddar cheese
1 small red pepper, chopped
handful of broccoli, cut bite size
2 T Tapatio, or your favorite hot sauce
1 T Olive Oil

Optional toppings: hot sauce, guacamole and/or sour cream

Directions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a big pan and add broccoli and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes. Remove from pan.
  2. Put tortilla down, lay cheese on half of it. Add cooked broccoli mixture on top of cheese.
  3. Continue to cook on med-high for a few minutes. Put a few splashes of hot sauce on cheese and broccoli mixture. Keep a close eye to make sure it doesn’t burn.
  4. Fold quesadilla in half, cut in half or quarters and serve immediately.

If serving more then one, place finished quesadilla in oven to keep warm, until ready to serve.

Ooey Gooey Goodness!