Chicken Salad w/ Blue Cheese and Grapes

This is an amazing summer dish!  Seriously, the most time consuming part is cooking the chicken (and I shredded it).

Ingredients
2 small heads Boston or Bibb lettuce, torn into pieces
4 stalks celery, sliced on the diagonal
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2 cups (about 1/2 pound) green grapes, halved
3 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt and pepper
1 3 1/2- to 4-pound rotisserie chicken, meat thickly sliced

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the lettuce, celery, onion, grapes, and blue cheese.
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
Divide the salad and chicken among plates. Serve with the vinaigrette.

I definitely didn't go hardcore, I just put lettuce in bowls and spooned everything on top.  Super simple, a nice light summer dish!

Fruit Cobbler

Easy, delicious, and great with ice cream.  Can't go wrong!

Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 cups of sliced fresh peaches or nectarines, or whole blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or a combination of fruits (or a 12-ounce package of frozen berries)
1 tablespoon sugar


Directions
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position, and heat oven to 350 degrees.
Put butter in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan; set in oven to melt. When butter has melted, remove pan from oven.
Whisk flour, 3/4 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Add milk; whisk to form a smooth batter. Pour batter into pan, then scatter fruit over batter. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tb. of sugar.
Bake until batter browns and fruit bubbles, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Parmesan Breaded Tilapia

I first made this for Susie's family, and then again for the boyfriend.  Both times it seemed to go over well, and it takes very few ingredients.

Parmesan Breaded Tilapia

1 1/3 pounds tilapia fillets
1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoon lemon juice
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Olive oil cooking spray

Thaw and wash tilapia fillets if frozen; pat dry.

Combine crumbs and parmesan on a plate, mixing well.  On a different plate, pour 1 tbsp lemon juice.

Working 1 at a time, place a fillet on the plate in the lemon juice, sprinkle with desired amount of kosher salt (needs very little if any, because of the parmesan and seasonings), black pepper, and garlic powder. Turn the fillet over in the lemon juice and sprinkle seasoning on the other side.

Dredge fillet in the parmesan and crumb mixture patting it all over to coat.

Place in an baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking oil spray; repeat with remaining fillets.

Sprinkle a little lemon juice over fillets and drizzle or spray them lightly with olive oil.

Bake at 425ºF for about 20 minutes or until they easily flake with a fork and edges begin to brown.

This makes waayy too much breading, so next time I'll probably use half of each (just keep them 50/50).

The second time I made this, I definitely missed being in Susie's amazing kitchen.  She has this great oil mister that uses pressure to spray oil (instead of aerosol), which is a lot easier to use than drizzling oil.  It's not impossible to drizzle instead of spray, but I found there were pools of oil in some areas.  When I tried to spread it around, it also spread the breading mixture.

Easiest Baked Ziti EVAR

This recipe come from my mom, but I've made it even easier by using whole packages.  It may not be authentic Italian, but it's a great weeknight dinner!



Baked Ziti
1 lb dry ziti, cooked
1 16 oz container cottage cheese
8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 24 oz jar pasta sauce (I like the Classico Four Cheese)

1. Mix cooked ziti, cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese in 9x13 baking dish.
2. Pour pasta sauce over ziti mixture.
3. Bake for 1/2 hour at 350°

Ranch Cheddar Chicken

The first recipe!  Susie actually made this first for her kids (I did the research though).  The first night it didn't go over very well, but when the kids had it as leftovers, they ate it all up.  I've also made this for my boyfriend, with some changes.

Ranch Cheddar Chicken
Ingredients:
¼ Cup Ranch Dressing
1 T Flour
¼ Cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
¼ Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Combine flour with ranch dressing in shallow bowl.  Coat each chicken breast with dressing mixture.  Place on ungreased baking pan.  Sprinkle cheeses on chicken.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until juices run clear.

When I made this for my boyfriend, he didn't have flour in his apartment.  He did have bread crumbs though, which worked really well.  This has turned into one of those recipes where you don't have to measure anything... Thicken dressing, coat chicken, load chicken with a TON of cheese, and bake until done.  Super easy, and the ingredients are always in the kitchen.