Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Tomato and Onion Salad

Okay, I know your mouth is watering.  I know mine is just from seeing the picture.  You really should make this, especially since you can actually find yummy tomatoes right now -- Mine are from my garden, oh, how I love my garden (My husband's more precisely since I don't do much, but prepare food from it, but marriage is about sharing so it is mine - right).  Make this -- TONIGHT.  It is so easy it is almost scary.  The recipe is from Rachel Ray's "Chicken Clubs" in her 30 Minute Meals cookbook and when I found it I didn't have bacon and I was so disappointed the rest of the night that the minute I got bacon it was the first thing I made for dinner.  It is meant to be a sandwich, which is how about 1/2 my family ate it as, but my daughter just wanted it without bread so it is easily eaten wrapped in lettuce.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Tomato Salad (printer friendly recipe)
8 slices bacon
4 pieces boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 1/2 breasts)
4 toothpicks
Tomato & Onion Salad (recipe below)
Romain or Bibb lettuce
Toasted buns, or toasted bread


Pound the breasts so they are uniform thickness.  Criss Cross two pieces of bacon and place the chicken in the middle and wrap the bacon around it (like you do a ribbon on a present) Secure with a tooth pick.  Heat either a griddle to medium high or an outdoor grill  to medium or medium low and cook chicken for about 6-7 minutes on each side until the bacon is crisp and the chicken is cooked through.  While the chicken cooks make the Tomato and Onion Salad.  When the chicken is cooked make a sandwich with the chicken and salad, wrap it in a lettuce leaf, or just sprinkle the salad over the top of the chicken and enjoy.

Tomato & Onion Salad

3 tomatoes, thinly sliced into rings
1/4 medium onion, minced
handful of chopped, fresh parsley or 1 tsp of dried
1/2 tsp dried chervil (opt. but yummy)
Salt & pepper to taste
About 1 T olive oil

1. Mix all ingredients together and let sit until chicken is done.

Grape Chicken Salad

I love Chicken Salad!!! I love it in every form I have ever had. Unfortunately, Chicken Salad is not the most beautiful thing to photograph, thank goodness it does taste yummy. I got this recipe many years ago and it is still a favorite. I did however add onions, because, frankly, I love onions.

Grape-Chicken Salad
2 C chicken (I used canned this time)
1 C diced celery
1/2 C sliced almonds, toasted
2 C purple grapes, sliced in half
1 C Miracle Whip
Dash Pepper
Salt (opt)

Mix all together and chill. After it chills, taste and decide if it needs some salt.

Sloppy Joes

I love Sloppy Joes, especially with Provolone Cheese. But I must admit with little ones, I don't always like the sloppy part that has to be cleaned up. That said, I am braving the mess and making them anyway for dinner. Since our night is going to be CRAZY I decided to mix them up now and crockpot them. I've always liked the recipe in my The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, but, as I am often prone to do, I modified it a bit. I like Green peppers in mine, and I didn't want to have all hamburger so I substituted a can of black beans for 3/4 lb of hamburger. This is a 3x recipe so that I can freeze some, or just have some for leftovers for the weekend. Since we don't have buns we are just going to eat it openfaced on bread, hopefully, reduce the mess. Here's the recipe, I hope you enjoy.

Sloppy Joes (printer friendly)

3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 med onions, minced
1 green pepper, minced or chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp chili powder*
1 1/2-2 lbs hamburger
3 tsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp pepper
1 can diced tomatoes, pureed
1 can diced tomatoes with chipolte chilies, pureed*
1 1/2 C ketchup
1 can black beans, drained
water, if needed
Tabasco*
Bread or hamburger buns

1. Heat oil in a in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and peppers and cook until softened and lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Add garlic & chili powder and cook for 1 minute. Add the beef, brown sugar, and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium and cook, breaking the meat into small pieces, until the meat is no longer pink, about 4 minutes.

2. In a lg crockpot add tomato puree, ketchup and black beans. Turn crockpot on high. Add meat mixture once the meat is cooked. Add tabasco, if desired. Turn down crockpot to low once the mixture is heated. Cook on low for 4 -5 hours. If mixture gets too thick add a little water, as needed. Spoon over bread or a hamburger bun.

*I didn't use tabasco since my kids aren't really into spicy, and I am using spicier tomatoes. If I was using regular tomatoes, I would add it. Also, if you don't have tomatoes with chipolte peppers, just use a second can of tomatoes and add an extra 1/2 tsp chili powder and tabasco.

Cream Puffs

So today on the Yahoo! Gluten Free Recipes Group someone posted that they loved eclairs and missed them. Which made me think of Cream Puffs which I haven't made in years, but love. So I decided to try to find a way to make Gluten Free ones. I started by looking through me 2 GF cookbooks and found one in my Bette Hagman cookbook. Then I pulled out my regular cookbooks and looked for a recipe. I must admit I kind of collect cookbooks and have recipes in all of them I love. That said, I have a lot. It took me 5 tries to find a recipe. I couldn't believe it since Cream Puffs are so incredibly easy. Anyway Bette Hagman's and Better Homes & Garden's recipes were similar but Better Homes & Garden used BUTTER, my one true baking love! The processes they used were slightly different as well. So I decided to combine the two recipes to make mine. I also made regular ones as well for everyone else. Anyway this is the recipe I used.

Cream Puffs (printer friendly recipe)

Makes 6 puffs
1/2 C water
1/4 C butter
scant 1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar (opt.)*
2 1/2 T potato starch
1/3 C Rice Flour
4 eggs
Filling: pudding, ice cream, whipped cream, chicken salad, or anything else that sounds yummy!

1. In a medium saucepan combine water, butter, salt, and sugar (if using). Bring to boiling. Meanwhile mix potato starch & rice flour in a small bowl. Once the water/butter mixture boils add flour in all at once and stir vigoriously. Cook and stir until the mixture forms a ball and it all sticks together. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition.

3. Drop by 6 heaping Tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet and bake at 400-degrees for 30-35 minutes, or till golden. Cool on a wire rack. Fill with your favorite filling.

I put both my GF and regular ones on the same pan with a piece of tin foil separating them. The regular ones are on the left and are twice as big only because the recipe made 12 and I only had room for 9.

This is a closeup of the GF cream puffs.

4. When cooled, cut tops from puffs and remove any remaining soft dough from the inside. Fill with your favorite filling and replace tops. If you want you can sift powdered sugar over the tops of dessert puffs for an extra pretty presentation.

Eclairs: You can make them using the same recipe, but put the dough in a piping bag with a 1" hole and pipe them 4" long on the cookie sheet and bake, poke, and split (if desired) as above. Fill with pudding or cream and frost with chocolate glaze or frosting.

*I don't particularly like sweet cream puffs, especially to use for a sandwich. I like the combination of the salty/buttery dough with sweet fillings. But adding 1 tsp sugar could be a nice touch for a dessert puff if you want.