Monday, August 27, 2012

Awesome Egg Salad (with avocado!!)


Do you ever just really crave eggs?  More specifically, hard boiled eggs??  Even more specifically, egg salad???  Well, I do…and tonight I did.  I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on a big ol’ egg salad sandwich.  I thought about this sandwich for hours.  I decided to see what I could find on allrecipes to make my egg salad a bit snazzier.  I found several recipes that had some good add-ins to your standard egg salad, and picked the ingredients that sounded best to me.  This sandwich was fantastic, I highly recommend it on toasted wheat bread with some fresh baby spinach.  This recipe should make 3 or 4 sandwiches (maybe more, depending on how thick you put that egg salad on and how big your bread is).

I think a lot of foods are not very photogenic
(and also, I'm not a very good food photographer)
I have to be honest with you about this recipe, besides the 4 eggs and 1 avocado, I did not measure a single other ingredient.  So I really have no clue how much of what went into this.  I tried to do some guesstimating here based on other recipes and what I think I did.  Also, I didn’t mash in my avocado, I just stirred in the cubes (but mashing seems like a good idea).
Oh, and just in case you have a hard time getting your hard-boiled eggs just right, try our friend Erin’s instructions at Chopstitch.  This is how I make my eggs and they always turn out just right!

Ingredients
4 hard-boiled eggs
1 large avocado – peeled, pitted & cubed
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp finely diced onion
½ tsp paprika
1 ½ tsp horseradish (or more…or less…as hot as you like it)
salt & pepper to taste
baby spinach (optional)

Instructions
Everything is better with baby dills.
1)  Mash eggs in a mixing bowl with a fork.  Stir in all the rest of the ingredients with fork, and gently mash until blended.  Slap your egg salad on two slices of bread with spinach.


Enjoy!
 ~ j

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Sweet & Sour Chicken and Broccoli


This recipe is adapted from a Pinterest find.  I’m totally addicted to Pinterest, but hadn’t actually done much of anything with any of my pins…until the last few weeks.  I have projects going all over the house now, which means it’s a disaster ‘round these parts.  I really need to start making more of the recipes I’ve pinned, though.  So here’s the first one I’m sharing.  Like I said, I adapted it some…broccoli wasn’t part of the original recipe, but seemed like a good addition to me!  I also adjust some of the measurements from the original and added Sriracha (just because I love it).  As you can tell from the photo, I didn’t have much broccoli in the house, or I would have put in a lot more (which is also why I didn’t put any measurement/amount on the broccoli, you decide).

Anyways, like I said, I haven’t actually made many of the recipes I’ve pinned.  I have a feeling a lot of them are not really winners, they just sound good in theory.  But this one is definitely a winner, and a great alternative to Chinese take-out!



Sweet & Sour Chicken and Broccoli
Ingredients
2/3 cup white sugar
4 tbsp ketchup
½ cup white vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
dash (or more) Sriracha hot pepper sauce (optional)
~1.5 lbs boneless chicken breasts
salt & pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup canola oil
broccoli, cut up into bite-size pieces

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2) Mix together sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic powder and Sriracha.  Set aside.
2) Cut up chicken into bite-size pieces, season with salt and pepper to taste.  Dip chicken into eggs to coat, then dip in cornstarch until well coated.
3) Heat oil in a large skillet and drop chicken in, cook just until slightly brown, but not cooked through.
4) Place the chicken and broccoli in a lightly greased 9”x13” baking dish, and pour the sauce over all it.  Cook for 45-60 minutes, turning chicken about every 15 minutes.

Enjoy!
 ~ j