Tag Archives: lettuce

Lettuce Wraps- with Chicken, Avocado and Bacon!

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So, I was in a little accident a couple of weeks ago (thankfully NOONE was hurt!), and my car was totaled. Pretty sure it was because I had an older van that wasn’t worth a lot… so when it came to repairing it, the parts just cost way more than the van was worth. Oh well! So… we are blessed to have an awesome insurance company and ended up being able to shop for a “new” to us van! I will tell you one thing though, shopping for a vehicle is hysterical with children. They are VERY opinionated. We went and saw this one van and the moment we got into it, my daughter said, LOUDLY, “Mom, I do NOT like this van at ALL. It stinks and is dirty”. Lol! Well, I don’t think the car salesman was surprised when we didn’t come back to purchase said vehicle. Ha! The one we DID end up purchasing, she kept whispering to me “can we keep it mommy? REALLY, can we keep it?”. I took that as a good sign! 🙂  Kids are just too funny! My son, 3, just kept climbing all over everything and pushing all of the buttons. Hopefully he didn’t cause issues in the vehicles that we did NOT buy!

So… having that done, BACK TO COOKING!

I made these a couple weeks back… and they are DELISH!

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Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Bacon and Avocado!

Ingredients:

  • 3 chicken tenders or one chicken breast; seasoned, cooked and diced
  • 1/2 pint of grape tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 avocado, diced
  • 4 slices bacon, cooked and diced
  • 4 iceberg or romaine lettuce leaves
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • Shredded Cheese
  • Diced sweet mini peppers – about 2

Creamy Avocado Dressing

  • 1/2 Avocado diced
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 3 Tb vinegar (I used flavored vinegar) like rice or white balsamic
  • 2 TB honey
  • dash of hot sauce
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 TB olive oil

If this dressing is too thick, just add more of whichever liquid you prefer. You can also add some lemon juice.

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Directions:

Prepare the creamy dressing in a blender or, like me, in my Nutri-Bullet. Set aside for topping lettuce wraps.

To prepare the lettuce wraps, divide the diced chicken among the four lettuce leaves, then top with avocado, tomatoes, bacon, shredded cheese, diced peppers and creamy avocado dressing.

To eat, simply pick up the wrap, tuck in all sides and ENJOY!

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And now, for the quote of the day from a Carrie Underwood song:

As bad as it was as bad as it hurt I thank God i didn't get what I thought that I deserved sometimes life leads you down a different road when you're holding onto someone that you gotta let go someday you'll see the reason why sometimes yeah sometimes there's good in goodbye

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Southwestern Chicken Salad with an Avocado Parsley Dressing

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When you come home after a long day at work and it’s hot outside… the weather is nice, sun is shining… don’t you just crave a salad? Nice, cool, crisp? Add a bit of chicken and just enough spice to make the dressing’s coolness almost a relief?

This is the salad for you! I seriously craved this dressing after I had it the first time. I made ANOTHER salad for lunch the next day JUST so I could use the rest of the dressing. It was THAT amazing!

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This is for 3-4 salads, depending on size of salad… is it your main course, or a side?

Ingredients

Salad:

Large head of Dark Green Romaine
1 15 oz. can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
3 mini sweet peppers chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 medium vine-on tomato cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 Chopped scallions (Green Onions) – if so desired
1/2 Avocado diced
2 chicken tenderloins cooked (I cooked w/a bit of cumin and chili powder and olive oil) and sliced PER SALAD)
1 cup (more or less) corn. I used thawed frozen corn… you can use fresh or canned as well
1/2 can diced Natural Black Ripe Olives
Drizzle of salsa

For the dressing:

1 cup loosely packed FRESH parsley, stems removed and roughly chopped
1/2 avocado
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1/2 tsp Chopped Garlic in Pure Olive Oil
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. White Balsamc Vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 TB fresh local Honey

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Directions
Make the dressing: puree all ingredients in a food processor/blender (I used my Nutribullet) until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Finely chop romaine, sautee your chicken until cooked through and white all the way through, chop the sweet peppers, tomatoes, and green onions, avocado, black olives…
Place all ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine.
Toss with desired dressing. I did find that the salad was best when I drizzled the salad with the dressing, and then tossed to coat thoroughly!

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You will NOT regret making this salad!

And now, for the quote of the day:

Community Post: 13 Incredibly Awesome Amy Poehler Quotes

Taco Salad with a Creamy Dressing

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What’s for lunch??? Can’t figure it out? Have a bunch of left over hodge podge foods in your fridge and freezer??? I did! So, I made Taco Salad!!!

First, I made the dressing:

Dressing Ingredients:

3 TB FF Greek Yogurt PLAIN
3 TB restaurant style salsa
1 tsp chopped dill
1 TB chopped cilantro
1/8 tsp fresh minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Stir up all of the above ingredients for the dressing in a 2 cup glass liquid measuring cup, and set aside.

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Salad

1/2 cucumber cut up
grape tomatoes
1/2 an avocado
1 TB cheese
Leftover taco meat (that had corn and black beans in it)
Butter Lettuce

 

Cut up all of the salad ingredients. Place into bowl, and top with taco meat. Then, drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with cheese. For a little extra, add some crushed tortilla chips (like me, I used all those chip crumbs from the bottom of a chip bag that was still for some reason in our pantry still…).

 

Enjoy!!!

And, the quote of the day:

quotes-about-life (1)

Copy-Cat Chipotle Burrito Bowls! (With quick chips)

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These were AMAZING!!! I will most likely be repeating this recipe in my kitchen again!! Oh man, they were GOOD!

Ingredients: 

1 large chicken breast, “butterflied” (cut in half, and layed out flat)
2 TB of adobo sauce from a can of Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 TB olive oil

this is for 1 chicken breast, if you cook more, to make food for more than 3-4 people, double or triple the recipe. My recipe fed 4 people.

Combine the seasonings and sauce together with a spoon, and spread over both sides of the chicken breast. Put into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour “marinating”. You can marinate it for as little as 15 minutes, or overnight if you wish. After 

While the chicken is marinating, get the rice going.

After the chicken is done marinating, place on grill, or like me… use your trusty cast iron grill pan! Grill for 7-8 minutes per side, and cut a slice in the thickest part to make sure it’s cooked through and not translucent. Then, cut into 2 inch chunks for on the burrito bowl. ENJOY!

Build a Bowl ingredients: 

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Cilantro Lime Copy-cat rice: http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Chipotle-Cilantro-Lime-Rice-Copycat/step2/Chop-squeeze-mix-and-enjoy/

This recipe for rice that I found on this blog… PERFECT!!

1 cup rice
juice from 1/2 lime plus zest
1/2 TB olive oil (just a drizzle)
salt and pepper seasoning to taste
1/4 cup chopped FRESH cilantro

I cook my rice in a rice cooker. Take the 1 cup of Jasmine Rice, and place into a mesh colander. Wash the rice until it runs clean. Then, put into the rice cooker, and cover with water, just over the top, until if you put your finger to rest on top of the rice, the water will come just to the first “knuckle” on your pointer finger. Then, press cook and forget it! After the rice is done, you take out, fluff, and add the cilantro, lime juice and zest, add a bit of oil and salt and pepper. AMAZING!

Guacamole recipe is listed here: https://dancinandcookininthekitchen.com/2014/06/02/sunday-lunch/

Peppers & Onions: I just sliced up 1/4 of a yellow onion, and half of a red bell pepper, and sauteed in a tiny bit of olive oil until soft.

Scallion: I just sliced up 1 green onion.

Corn: The corn is just a bag of steamed frozen corn. You could also slice leftover grilled corn off of the cob… I imagine that would be AWESOME!

Lettuce: The lettuce is just romaine lettuce cut up.

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CHIPS:

I just took 4 flour tortillas, cut into 6 pieces each, sprayed the cookie sheet w/coconut oil cooking spray, and then the other side of the tortilla w/the cooking spray. Then, I sprinkled fine sea salt onto the one side of the chip. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Voila!

 

 

Taco Dip!

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This is a recipe that My mom started making when I was a kid, and I’ve slowly developed and added to it to make it my own version!

Here it is!:

Ingredients:

1 lb. 90/10 ground beef
1 packet taco seasoning OR homemade taco seasoning (really all you need is chili powder and cumin!)
1 can fat free re-fried beans
1/3 can black beans
3/4 can large black olives (I used the “natural” ones brined in sea salt and water)
1 scallion (green onion)
1 small red bell pepper
1/4 cup salsa
3/4 cup light shredded mexican cheese
1/4 cup frozen corn
2 tsp fresh cilantro

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground beef in skillet until fully cooked. I like to use the pampered chef tool specifically for cooking ground beef because it gets it much more finely chopped! Once the beef is chopped and cooked through, drain the fat. (I drain it into a styrofoam cup and freeze it, and then toss it)I then add the taco seasoning and 1 cup of water and stir until well mixed. After seasoning is mixed well, add the can of re-fried beans. Stir until the re-fried beans are well incorporated.

While the hamburger is cooking, slice the black olives, and the scallions and red bell pepper and cilantro.

Spread the hamburger/re-fried bean mixture onto a cookie sheet that has been lined with tin-foil. Then, sprinkle with black olives, bell pepper, cheese, corn, black beans, and salsa. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, or until cheese is well melted.

Take out and top with the cilantro and scallions… then, if you wish, you can either put into a romaine lettuce leaf and eat a carb free taco… OR, top the whole dip with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream, and eat as “Dip” with tortilla chips! YUM!