Improv: Grilled Salmon Sliders with Dill Avocado Sauce

It's time for this month's Improv Challenge.  The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it. 

This month's assigned ingredients were fish and avocado.  I said that "fish" could be anything that came from the sea.  I had planned to make some kind of tuna and avocado rice bowl that I had pinned on Pinterest a while ago, but then I saw something new a couple of weeks ago that I just could not resist trying.  Salmon sliders with an avocado sauce on Rachel Schultz.  I had never thought to do salmon sliders and that avocado sauce sounded amazing.  I changed a few things; here's my adaptation.

 Grilled Salmon Sliders with Dill Avocado Sauce

Ingredients:

8 small salmon filets

Seasoning of choice (Lemon pepper is good)

1 avocado, cubed

1 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

¼ cup fresh dill

Salt, to taste

8 slider rolls

Tomato slices

Green leaf lettuce

Directions:

Preheat grill to medium heat.  

Season the salmon however you like.  Grill salmon for a couple of minutes on each side.  (I recommend using a grill pan.)  Remove from grill and set aside.

Meanwhile, combine the avocado, vinegar, honey, and dill. Blend using a small food processor or a stick blender.  Taste for seasoning, adding salt if desired.

To assemble sliders: Cut slider rolls and place a salmon filet on each one.  Top with lettuce and tomato.  Slather the top bun with the avocado sauce and place on top.

Makes 4 servings, 2 sliders each.

I decided to grill the salmon because 'tis the season!  My husband has been rocking the grilled salmon lately, so that was a no-brainer for me.  If grilling is not an option for you for whatever reason, you can still certainly make these by either baking or pan-searing the salmon.  But the grilled flavor goes so well with the summery tomato and avocado that grilling would always be my preference here.  

About the seasoning: You can definitely season the salmon any way you like.  Lemon pepper would have been my first choice, but my kids don't like it (too peppery for them), so I used Penzeys Mural of Flavor and some salt.  Mural of Flavor is so great on salmon because it has lemon in it.  So yummy on all kinds of seafood.  So it worked really well here.

It's hard to measure fresh dill, so here's a pic of how much I used.  The original recipe called for lemon juice, and even though I only used half of what was called for, the lemon was way overpowering to me.  I added more honey to balance it out.  So that's why I left the lemon out of my recipe.  I think the white wine vinegar gives it all the acidity it needs.  It also called for red pepper flakes, but I left that out.

These little sandwiches were so good!  The salmon was flaky and the sauce was cool and creamy.  I can never cut even slices of tomato, so mine was a little messy because it was lopsided, but I didn't care!  Sometimes messy things taste the best.  My five-year-old was leery of the sauce because she saw me putting the dill in it and she thought it was cilantro, which she claims she doesn't like.  But my seven-year-old absolutely loved it.

I can see this avocado sauce being good and in infinite number of sandwiches.  Grilled chicken sandwiches, BLTs, hamburgers, etc.  Any sandwich that is good with fresh avocado would be even better with this sauce.  And it's really easy to whip up.  

Be sure to check out all the other great fish and avocado recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with pretzels and mustard!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Ranch BLT Chicken Burgers

It's summer!  Have you been grilling a lot?  We sure have.  I love to get creative with the grill, coming up with unique things to cook.  That's why I was super excited when Red Gold Tomatoes asked me if I would like to sample some of their products for their second annual Summer Grillin' Party.  I was also excited to work with Red Gold because they are fellow Hoosiers.  They were founded and still operate in my home state of Indiana.  All of their tomatoes come from Indiana, Ohio, and some neighboring states.  They are truly a Midwestern company!  Did you know that Red Gold consumes 95% of Indiana's tomato crop and 80% of all Midwestern tomatoes?  Wow!

Red Gold sent me this apron and six cans of their diced tomatoes.  They also sent some recipes for burgers that include their tomatoes.  Did you know you can put tomatoes inside your burgers instead of on top?  I didn't! I would have thought they would be too wet and the burger would fall apart.  Not true!  I decided to create a fun burger recipe of my own that included diced tomatoes.  I grilled them up tonight, and oh man, are they amazing!  One of my all-time favorite tomato dishes is the classic BLT.  Love BLTs!  So I decided to make a burger version.  Ground chicken, diced tomatoes, chopped bacon, and a little ranch seasoning all mixed together and grilled to perfection.  Say goodbye to boring old beef burgers!

Ranch BLT Chicken Burgers

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground chicken

1 egg

¼ cup breadcrumbs

1 tbsp dry ranch dressing mix

4 strips bacon, cooked

1 (14.5 oz.) can Red Gold Petite Diced Tomatoes with Garlic & Olive Oil

4 toasted hamburger buns

Green leaf lettuce

Ranch dressing

Directions:

Preheat grill to medium-high.

Place the chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, and dry ranch dressing mix into a medium bowl.  Chop the bacon and add it to the bowl.  Drain the tomatoes very well and add them to the bowl.  Mix up the contents of the bowl until it is evenly distributed.

Separate chicken mixture into four patty-shaped servings.  If you have time, you can refrigerate the patties at this point to make the mixture a bit more firm.  But this step is unnecessary.

Oil the grill grates and grill patties over medium heat until completely cooked through and the middle of each patty registers at least 160°, flipping once.  

Place a patty on each hamburger bun and top with lettuce and ranch dressing.

Makes 4 servings.

Check out the gorgeous grill marks on these babies.  Beautiful.

 See how it's chock-full of juicy red tomatoes and smoky bacon?  So good!  

These burgers were a huge hit with my family.  They were quite large, so I split one in half for my daughters (ages 4 and 6).  They both wolfed down their half and asked for a second.  I love it!  

You can certainly use ground beef instead of the chicken if you prefer, but I chose the chicken because of its more mild flavor.  I didn't want the flavors of the tomato and the bacon to be overwhelmed by the beef.  And the chicken was the perfect choice.  Moist and tender, it let the tomato and bacon be the stars of the dish.  Disclaimer: Ground chicken is not as easy to work with as ground beef when it comes to burgers.  It is much softer and "squishier".  It can be difficult to form the patties, so I just kind of plopped it on the grill into a patty kind of shape.  Then it firms up as it cooks and it should be holding together just fine by the time you flip it to the other side.  They probably won't be the prettiest burgers you have ever served your family, but after one bite, you won't care one bit what they look like!

Let me know if you try these burgers and also go check out Red Gold's Facebook page.  Their Summer Grillin' Party starts today and they are giving away 1,000 Red Gold aprons (like mine above) every week until July 23.  There will also be one grand prize winner who will win a large Big Green Egg Grill.  So go enter!

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SRC: Meatball Subs

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

This month I was assigned the blog Kitchen Trial and Error, written by Kate, a wife and mom of one with another on the way this month (congrats Kate!) in Rochester, New York.  I was familiar with Kate's blog and have had it on my blog reader for a long time.  So I knew I would have no problem finding something yummy to make this month.  Funny story: when I received my assignment, I started exploring Kate's blog to decide what to make.  Pretty quickly, I found her Slow Cooker Honey Mustard Drumsticks.  First, it sounded really good, then it started sounding really familiar.  Not only had I pinned that recipe when she first posted it, but it was actually on my meal plan for that week!  What a coincidence!  Unfortunately, I couldn't use it for my SRC post because that recipe is so awesome that Ilona's Kitchen picked it last month when she was assigned Kate's blog.  But I had no trouble finding other options.  I considered her Pretzel Chicken with Mustard Cheese Sauce, Soy-Glazed Cod with Zucchini, and White Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Blondies before settling on something very classic.  Something classic and relatively simple, but something I had not ever made before: Meatball Subs.  

Meatball Subs

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef

2 eggs

¼ cup grated Parmesan

½ cup dry breadcrumbs

1 tsp Italian seasoning (Pasta Sprinkle)

½ tsp salt

1 jar pasta sauce

6  sub rolls

1½  cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine ground beef, eggs, parmesan, breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, and salt.  Mix well.  Form into 2 tbsp-sized balls and place on a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until browned and cooked through.  Remove from oven; do not turn oven off.

Heat pasta sauce in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.  When meatballs are done, remove meatballs from baking sheet and place them in the sauce.  

Split the sub rolls and place 4-5 meatballs and some sauce on each one.  Top with mozzarella and place on a baking sheet.  Put them on the top rack of the oven and bake a few more minutes, just until the cheese melts.  Remove from oven and serve warm.

Makes 6 servings.

Why have I never made these before?  I knew my husband liked them because he orders them at restaurants, but I never thought to make them at home.  There's no reason not to, as they are really easy to make.  I love Kate's recipe because it's a great combo of homemade and convenience.  Homemade meatballs and jarred pasta sauce.  I'm not a big fan of making my own tomato sauces, but I much prefer homemade meatballs to the frozen kind.  So Kate's recipe was absolutely perfect for me.

Kate used a mini muffin pan to make her meatballs, but I don't have one (I have regular, square, heart-shaped and jumbo muffin tins but no mini!), so I used my 2 tbsp measuring spoon and that seemed to be just the right size.  I think I got about 30 meatballs that way.  It was more than we needed for dinner that night, but my husband loved having subs for lunches the next two days.

My husband and my kids loved these.  Messy, but good!  I made the mistake of trying to melt the cheese with the broiler the second time around and even though they were in there for only a minute, the bread burned, so definitely do it like Kate says and use the 400° oven instead.

I was a little conservative with the cheese on the sandwich in these picks because I wanted you to be able to see the yummy meatballs.  But feel free to pile it on for the ultimate gooey melty cheesy experience.

Thanks for a great recipe, Kate!




   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

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SRC: Ham, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Sliders

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

This month I was assigned Nicole's blog Daily Dish Recipes.  I was well-acquainted with Nicole's blog and have actually made one of her recipes before, Avocado Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad.  Nicole has an amazing collection of recipes! In fact the recipe that I chose for this month's challenge was her 1,000th post.  Wow!  That is so impressive.  While I could have happily made any one of those 1,000 recipes, I chose to make her Saucy Ham and Cheese Breakfast Sliders.  I love those little ham and cheese sliders made with King's Hawaiian rolls, and I've made a beef and bleu cheese version too, but I never would have thought to do a breakfast sandwich that way.  Pure genius!  My stint as a purely stay-at-home-mom has ended as I have taken a part-time job.  So the mornings when we all have to be ready and get out the door at the same time are a little hectic.  So the thought of making 12 breakfast sandwiches all at once really appealed to me.

Ham, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Sliders

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp maple syrup

12 Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

6 slices ham

8 eggs, scrambled

6 slices cheddar or provolone cheese

1-2 tbsp poppy seeds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Coat an 11x7” baking dish with baking spray.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, Worcestershire sauce, and maple syrup.  Heat over low heat until butter melts, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.

Slice the rolls in half and put the bottom halves in the baking dish.  Brush them with about half of the butter mixture.  Lay the ham slices on, overlapping a little.  Put the scrambled eggs on top the ham, spreading them out evenly.  Top the eggs with slices of cheese, overlapping this as well.

Put the top halves of the buns on.  Brush the remaining butter mixture all over the tops.  Sprinkle with poppy seeds.  Cover dish loosely with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cheese has melted.  Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes.  Using a sharp knife, cut rolls apart and serve warm.

Makes 12 sliders.

These would be great for serving at any type of a brunch function (bridal or baby shower, etc), but they are also perfect for every day breakfast at home.  I assembled and baked these one afternoon, then popped individual sandwiches in the microwave every morning for the rest of the week.  Awesome!  They are not only cheaper than any kind of frozen breakfast sandwich you can buy, but so much tastier too!  They were a big hit with my husband and six-year-old daughter.

I made one small addition to Nicole's awesome recipe.  The thing we love most about those ham and cheese sliders is the sweet glaze that they are baked in.  It's a combo of butter, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and a little Dijon.  Nicole's glaze didn't call for any sweetness, but I knew my husband and daughter would like it better with some, so I added a bit of real maple syrup.  I felt the syrup gave it a more 'breafast-y' taste than brown sugar would.  And the results were awesome.  Just the right amount of sweetness to go along with the salty.

Nicole used cheddar cheese, and I think that is probably the best cheese for these sandwiches, but I was out of sliced cheddar and really, really wanted to make these that day, so I used provolone instead.  They were still good that way.  I really think you could use any cheese you like.

My family loved these sandwiches so much, I know they are going to become a breakfast staple at our house.  I am so happy to have found a recipe that makes my life so much easier on super busy mornings.  Thanks Nicole!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

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Turkey Apple Cheddar Panini

I always get a little apple-obsessed in September.  I don't care for eating apples just as they are, out of hand, but I do like cooking with them.  Last weekend I made two apple-filled baked goods and this week I've been working apples into our dinners too.  What I love about apples is how well they work in savory applications.  They add just the right amount of texture contrast and a little bitty hint of sweetness.  I just can't get enough of the savory/sweet combo.

I love making paninis for lunch, and this is a great one for this time of year.  Smoked turkey, sweet crunchy apples, and tangy sharp cheddar are amazing together.

Turkey Apple Cheddar Panini

Ingredients:

Two slices Italian bread or ciabatta

3-4 slices smoked turkey deli meat

4 slices sharp cheddar cheese

Peeled, cored apple, thinly sliced

Butter

Directions:
Preheat panini press.  Put cheese slices on both pieces of bread.  Top one slice with turkey and the other with apples.  Put the sandwich together and butter the outside.  Place on hot panini press and cook until cheese is melted and bread is beautifully browned on the outside.

Makes 1 sandwich.

This is the best way to construct this sandwich.  Having cheese on both slices of bread makes it stay together really well.

 I like my paninis very crispy and crunchy on the outside.

Mmm, so tasty!

What are you having for lunch on this beautiful fall day?

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Potato Chip-Crusted Fishwiches

Can you believe it's the third Thursday of June already?  June is just flying by.  Probably because the weather has been so awful that it doesn't even feel like summer yet.  The other day it was 89 degrees, which was awesome, but in a matter of hours, the temperature dropped a full 30 degrees. It was 60 by the time we finished dinner and 55 when we got up the next morning.  That's crazy!  I'm having a really hard time with the fact that July 4th is only two weeks from today.

But the calendar doesn't lie, and that means it's time for this month's Improv Challenge.  The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.

This month's assigned ingredients were fish and chips.  I've never actually had the dish "fish and chips", as I'm not a fan of fried fish.  I'm actually not a fan of white fish much at all.  So at first I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  Then I was flipping through last month's issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray and she always has a "Burger of the Month" near the front of the magazine.  Last month's "burger" was actually a fish fillet coated in Panko breadcrumbs and fried.  She called them "Fishwiches".  I was intrigued by this.  I thought about this challenge and wondered if I could use potato chips to create the crunchy coating instead of Panko.    And since I was using potato chips, I thought it would be fun to make a french onion flavored tartar sauce.

I don't consider my recipe adapted from hers, but inspired by hers. I changed pretty much everything about it.  I used different fish, spices, coating, condiment, and I baked mine instead of frying.  Here's what I created.

Potato Chip-Crusted Fishwiches with French Onion Tartar Sauce

Ingredients:
½ cup mayo
6 tbsp French onion chip dip
1 tbsp dill pickle relish
1 tsp lemon juice
½ cup flour
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp water
2 cups potato chip crumbs
4 (4-6 oz.) fillets of cod or other white fish
Salt
4 rolls, split

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the mayo, French onion dip, relish, and lemon juice.  Cover and refrigerate until sandwiches are ready to serve. Can be made a day ahead of time.

Preheat oven to 425°.  Line a baking sheet with foil and top with a baking rack.  Coat rack with nonstick spray.

Set up your breading station.  Combine the flour and paprika in a shallow dish.  Combine the beaten egg and water in another shallow dish.  Place the potato chip crumbs in a third dish.  

Pat fish fillets dry and season lightly with salt.  Coat each one in the flour mixture, shake off excess, and dip in beaten egg.  Then coat with potato chip crumbs.  Place fillets on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until coating begins to brown and fillets flake easily.  Place fillets on rolls and top with French onion tartar sauce.  Add additional toppings (lettuce, tomato, etc) if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

The results were amazing!  Like I said above, I don't really like white fish, so I wasn't really expecting to like these sandwiches that much.  But I loved them!  The coating provides a great seal that keeps the fish incredibly moist and perfectly flaky.  The salty flavor of the chips pairs perfectly with the mild flavor of the fish.  You don't have to worry about whether or not the coating gets crunchy because it's crunchy from the very beginning!  I chose to bake mine instead of pan fry because I didn't think the chip coating would hold up to pan frying, with the turning and the spatula and whatnot.  And since the chips already contained a fair amount of oil, I thought the coating would burn before the fish was cooked through.  Baking worked out perfectly.

I used the Classic Lays potato chips because they are thin and crisp.  I think it would be fun to try this with different flavors, but I wouldn't get to crazy with different textured chips.  For instance, the Wavy Lays are much thicker, so I don't think they'd work as well.  But I think the sour cream and onion flavor of the classic ones would be really good.  Maybe even barbecue.

I am really excited about this recipe because I know fish is good for you, and I have tried in the past to make it, but had yet to find a way that I liked it.  This has opened up a whole new world for me.  If you are trying to limit your carbs, you could easily just eat these as fillets, leaving out the bun altogether.  I'm definitely going to experiment with some other coating options.

Check out all of the other "fish and chips" recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with peaches and herbs.  Yum!

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Daniel Saraga Memorial: Curried Egg Salad

I am sharing a recipe with you for a very sad reason today.  You know that I am a member of an awesome group of bloggers called The Secret Recipe Club, and we got some sad news a couple of weeks ago.  One of our members passed away.  Daniel Saraga, from The Haggis and the Herring, passed away very unexpectedly on September 14.  It's always sad when someone dies, but this story is just heart-breaking.  Daniel was only 37 years old, was the father of two little boys, and his wife is pregnant with his third child, due in January.  I can't even imagine what she must be going through right now, knowing that her baby will never get to meet his or her daddy.  So sad!  She wrote a beautiful eulogy to Daniel and posted it on his blog soon after his death: Eulogy from Daniel's wife. I encourage you to read that.

All of us in the SRC were so saddened to hear of Daniel's death.  We have very few men in our group, and Daniel was very active in our Facebook group, so we all knew him a little bit.  He was always offering helpful advice when another member posted a question about something, whether it be technical blog stuff, or looking for a great frozen yogurt recipe.  So that's why, as a group, we felt we should do something to honor Daniel.  We chose to do it the only way we know how: to cook and blog.  Forty-four of the group members each chose a recipe from Daniel's blog, made it, and are now blogging about it all at the same time.

I chose to make Daniel's Curried Egg Salad.


Curried Egg Salad

Ingredients:
4 eggs, hard boiled and chopped
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
1 shallot, minced
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tsp curry powder

Directions:
Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Info:
Serving Size: ¼ of recipe
Calories: 130
Fat/Sat. Fat: 11g/3g
Chol.: 220mg
Sodium: 185mg
Fiber: 0g
Protein: 6g

I did change Daniel's recipe just slightly.  I chopped the eggs instead of mashing them, because I like the chunkier texture.  I also used a shallot and 2 green onions instead of a regular onion.  This egg salad is so good.  I don't make egg salad very often, but I'm not sure why.  It's tasty and makes for a quick and easy lunch.  And it tastes even better the next day.  This will definitely be my go-to egg salad recipe from now on.

Daniel's brother and wife have decided to carry on with his blog after his death.  They are currently posting the recipes that Daniel wrote himself and had scheduled before he died, but they will continue to post new recipes after that as well.  Please support them by visiting Daniel's blog.

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Slow Cooker Chicken Caesar Sandwiches

Happy Labor Day weekend!  Labor Day is bittersweet for me.  Not only is it the symbolic "end of summer" (sniffle, sniffle), but it's also the time of year when my allergies go crazy on me (sniffle, sniffle).  I can't seem to go 10 minutes without sneezing (quite violently, I may add!), despite taking TWO Claritin everyday.  I think it's the ragweed.  But the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend and we have family coming into town, and we will probably be barbecuing and eating outside, so I will just make sure to bring my Kleenex box out with me!

The recipe I am sharing with you today is the main dish from the baptism lunch I was telling you about on Wednesday.  My husband baptized my niece a few weeks ago and we had some out-of-town family and friends over for an outdoors lunch afterwards.  I already shared with you my Summer Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing, and today I've got the main event: Chicken Caesar Sandwiches made in the slow cooker.  I got the recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything.


Slow Cooker Chicken Caesar Sandwiches

Ingredients:
2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
½ to 1 cup creamy Caesar dressing 
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 head Romaine or green leaf lettuce
8 mini hoagie rolls or steak rolls 

Instructions:
Place chicken in a  slow cooker, cover, and cook on low heat for 4-6 hours or until chicken is cooked through and tender enough to shred.  Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred.  Pour liquid out of slow cooker and return chicken to it.

Pour desired amount of dressing on chicken and toss to evenly coat.  Add Parmesan cheese and stir again.  If you’re doing this right after the chicken has cooked, and the slow cooker is still warm, turn it down to “warm” for serving.  If you cooked the chicken the day before, turn slow cooker to “low” until the chicken is warmed up, then turn to “warm”.

Line rolls with a bit of lettuce, and spoon chicken on top.  Serve warm.

Makes approximately 8 sandwiches.

These sandwiches would make a great contribution to your Labor Day feast.  The most wonderful thing about them (aside from their awesome taste), is that they are a great make-ahead recipe.  I slow cooked the chicken the day before until it was fall-apart tender and juicy (the slow cooker is hands-down THE BEST WAY to cook chicken breast meat), shredded it, then stashed it in the fridge.  The next morning before church, I got it out, put it in the slow cooker, poured on the sauce, and set it to low.  By the time we got home from church, the chicken was thoroughly warm, so I set the slow cooker to warm and it was ready to go.  Easy peasy!

Again, I had to guess on the number of servings this makes.  I actually doubled the recipe.  We had seven adults and three kids, so I wasn't sure 2 lbs. of chicken would be enough.  We did have some leftover, but I'm glad I doubled it, because I don't think it would have been enough.

I think these sandwiches would be especially good if you buttered and toasted the rolls before filling them.  I think it would give it a kind of "crouton" effect that would go with the Caesar salad theme.  I didn't feel like doing that when I made them, but I think it would be really good.  I had some bacon leftover from the other recipe I need to share with you, BLT Dip, and when we ate the leftovers, we threw a slice or two of bacon on the chicken caesar sandwiches and that was really good too.  By the way, we ate the leftovers cold and it was good that way too.

I hope you all have a great holiday weekend.  I'll be back on Monday to share with you my Secret Recipe Club pick for the month.  Here's a little teaser: It's a great thing to eat right after it rains. :)

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Chicken Zucchini Burgers

I'm glad you all enjoyed the zucchini recipe I posted the other day, my One Pot Summer Squash, Beef and Rice Skillet.  It is really great and I hope you try it.  Today I thought I would share with you the runner-up from the poll I posted on my Facebook page, about which zucchini recipe to share.  This one is a burger, but it's not your typical ground meat burger.  It's a burger made with cooked chicken (or turkey) breast meat and shredded zucchini.  It's an adaptation of one I saw over at Finding Joy in My Kitchen.


Zucchini Chicken Burgers

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini, shredded (1½ cups)
2 cups canned chicken (or turkey)
½ cup dry breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 tsp shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, grated
½ tsp dried dill
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
4 slices cheese
4 hamburger buns
Mayo, lettuce, tomato, if desired

Directions:
Place shredded zucchini in a clean kitchen towel and gather up corners.  Squeeze as much water out of the zucchini as you can.  Place zucchini in a large bowl and add chicken or turkey (breaking it up with a spoon if it’s in large chunks), dry breadcrumbs, egg, shallots, garlic, dill, and salt.  Stir all ingredients together until evenly distributed.

Divide the mixture into 4 equal patties.  Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil.  When oil is hot, place patties in the pan and cook about 5 minutes per side or until warmed throughout and lightly browned.  Place a slice of cheese on each patty and cover skillet with lid for a few minutes to melt cheese.

Place patties on buns and top with lettuce, tomato, and mayo, or any condiments/toppings of your choice.

Makes 4 servings.

This is a really neat twist on burgers.  Lighter and fresher than a normal hamburger.  I actually used turkey instead of chicken, because that's what I had on hand at the time, but I know that canned turkey can be hard to find in regular grocery stores (I get mine at Sam's), so I wrote the recipe for canned chicken.  You could actually use any cooked chicken breast meat, doesn't have to be from a can.  It would be a good use for leftover roasted chicken breast or rotisserie chicken breast.

I used provolone cheese on these, but probably any kind would be good. I served them with my Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes.  My husband wasn't crazy about these burgers, but the girls and I loved them.  Great way to use up all the extra zucchini!

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Sausage Pizza Joes

I suddenly realized that the last four recipes I have shared with you have all been sweets.  I think it's time for some savory!  Here is a great meal idea for you, especially if you have kids.  It's not so much a recipe as a method.  Think sloppy joe, but instead of ground beef and a slightly sweet tomato sauce, think Italian sausage and pizza sauce.  If you think you can get away with it, sneak some common pizza veggies in there too: onion, mushroom, peppers, etc.  Then top it off with melty mozzarella cheese and it's a pizza on a bun!


Sausage Pizza Joes


Ingredients:
Olive oil
½ large onion, chopped
4 oz. mushrooms, chopped
Any other pizza veggies you like
1 lb. ground Italian sausage
14 oz. jar pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Hamburger buns


Directions:
In a large skillet, heat olive oil and sauté onions, mushrooms, and any other veggies you like on your pizza.  When soft, add sausage and break up with a spoon.  Cook until sausage is completely cooked through.  Drain off grease.  Pour in pizza sauce and stir to combine.  


Place sausage mixture on buns and top with shredded mozzarella cheese.  Serve warm.


Makes 6 servings.

Couldn't be easier.  It has all the convenience of a sloppy joe meal, but with a super fun twist.  This was a huge hit with my family.  My two-year-old asked for thirds and ended up eating more of it than I did!  She ate one and a half sandwiches.  I served them with Baked Zucchini Fries, which were also a huge hit.  My kids couldn't shove them in fast enough, and I have photographic proof!  That recipe coming soon.

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Crazy Cooking Challenge: Smoky Steakhouse Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

It's a busy day for this blogger!  Two of my monthly blog challenges, The Secret Recipe Club and The Crazy Cooking Challenge, are posting on the same day at the same time.  This post is for the Crazy Cooking Challenge, click here for my Secret Recipe Club post: Honey Mustard Roasted Salmon, Potatoes, and Mushrooms.

It's time once again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge!  In this challenge, all the participants make and blog about the same dish each month.  Each blogger is to scour other blogs for a unique version of whatever that month's dish is.  The goal is to highlight and promote personal food blogs. This month's assigned dish was grilled cheese sandwiches.  So we were to find a unique grilled cheese sandwich recipe, make it, and blog about it.

The timing was awesome for this challenge.  April was National Grilled Cheese Month, so grilled cheese recipes were EVERYWHERE.  This was a good thing, but it made it really hard to decide which to choose!   My head was spinning with all the possibilities.  I saw tons of grilled cheese recipes that looked amazing, and I probably bookmarked 5 that I JUST HAD TO MAKE.  While I saw recipes on several different blogs that caught my eye, one blog in particular had me drooling every day.  Suzanna at Galley Kitchen posted a unique grilled cheese recipe EVERY SINGLE DAY in April.  Yep, she now has 30 awesome grilled cheese recipes on her blog that you must go check out!  While I still have several of them bookmarked to try in the future, one of hers really grabbed me and I knew that it was THE ONE.  Her Roast Beef and Blue Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich sounded amazing to me.  It contains all the flavors of a steakhouse dinner: hearty beef, tangy blue cheese, and even the creamed spinach side dish!  It sounded incredible and I couldn't wait to make it.  I changed her recipe only very slightly; here's my adaptation.


Smoky Steakhouse Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups fresh baby spinach, packed
2 tbsp smoked bleu cheese crumbles
2 tbsp cream cheese, softened
4 slices Texas toast
8 slices very thinly sliced deli roast beef
Butter

Instructions:
Heat the olive oil in a skillet.  Add spinach and sauté until wilted.  Remove spinach to a paper towel to remove excess moisture.  Wipe out skillet with a paper towel.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and blue cheese.  Mix well.  Spread the mixture on all 4 slices of bread.  Top two slices of bread with the roast beef and the other two with the spinach.
Close it up and butter the outsides of the bread.

Griddle on high heat until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden brown.

Makes 2 servings.

I used Texas toast instead of regular bread because I love how hearty it is.  It can really stand up to the bold flavors in this sandwich.  I also sauteed my spinach instead of putting it in the sandwich raw.   The only other thing I changed was that I used a smoked bleu cheese.  I didn't even realize smoked bleu cheese existed, but when I went shopping for bleu cheese, I saw it and couldn't NOT try it.  I love smoked gouda and other smoked cheeses, so I thought it sounded fabulous.  It was AMAZING in this sandwich.  The smoked flavor goes so well with the beef and the spinach; it's just incredible.

This is a very messy sandwich, but after one bite, you are not going to care one bit!  

Thank you, Suzanna, for all of your awesome grilled cheese sandwich recipes, but especially this one!

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Secret Recipe Club: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day!  The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  This is my fifth month participating.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

I was excited when I got my assignment for this month and it was My Fiance Likes It So It Must Be Good.  I discovered Peggy's blog when she was assigned mine the first month I joined the SRC.  I've been a follower ever since.  I was excited for the opportunity to reciprocate!  Peggy is a busy gal; she works full time and is also in her first semester of culinary school (yay, Peggy!).  Despite her super busy schedule, she has taken the time to share what she is learning at culinary school with all of her blog readers.  She posted a tutorial on breaking down a whole chicken, which was really helpful.  Then she posted a great recipe for Buffalo Chicken Breast Sandwiches, which is one of the first recipes they made in school.  I knew I wanted to make that, because it is something I had never made before, and I love to use my SRC assignments to challenge myself in areas I haven't yet explored.  So this recipe was perfect.


Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches


Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets
½ cup of Frank's Wing Sauce
4 hoagie rolls, split
4 slices bacon, cooked
Lettuce
Bleu cheese dressing


Directions:
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add oil.  Combine flour and salt and coat each chicken cutlet in flour mixture, shaking off any excess.  When oil is shimmering, add chicken to pan.  Cook chicken until golden brown all over, about 5-7 minutes per side.


Remove from pan and coat each cutlet in wing sauce.


Assemble your sandwiches by stacking chicken, bacon, lettuce, and bleu cheese on each bun.


Makes 4 servings.

I didn't change Peggy's recipe very much at all.  I dredged the chicken in flour before browning it, just to give it a little more texture.  The only other thing I changed was to top the sandwiches with bleu cheese dressing.  I love the combination of the hot and spicy with the cool and creamy!  And I know that bacon probably isn't a traditional component to a buffalo chicken sandwich, but I happened to have some in the fridge, and it looked so good on Peggy's sandwich that I thought, who am I to mess with success? :)  I really liked the crunch it provided.

I made these sandwiches for myself, my husband, and my mother, who was visiting from out of town.  None of us like really spicy food, so I was kind of afraid that these sandwiches would be too much.  I really doused the chicken breast that I used in the pic above, but I told Jim and Mom that they could just brush a little bit of the sauce on their chicken.  We were all pleasantly surprised to find that the sandwiches weren't really that spicy.  I ate the one that was completely doused in sauce and I loved it!  Jim's only complaint was that I didn't make enough; he wanted another sandwich!  

Thanks so much, Peggy, for taking us along on your culinary school journey.  I can't wait to see what else you have been learning!

On a side note, one of my recipes was chosen by the Today Show as a finalist in their Home Chef Challenge. I would love it if you would take a minute and drop by their Facebook page to vote for my Chicken Cordon Bleu Pizza. If I win, I will be featured on the Today Show's website and could possibly even appear on the Today Show!

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Slow Cooker Sandwiches

This is kind an unusual recipe, but it's fun.  It's a recipe for making sandwiches in the slow cooker.  I don't mean "sandwich filling", I mean the entire sandwich, bread and all!  Kind of like grilled cheese sandwiches with deli meat in them.  It's certainly not the best way to make a sandwich, but it's fun to try.  I saw this recipe on the Crock Pot Recipe Exchange blog.  Here's my adaptation.


Slow Cooker Sandwiches


Ingredients:
1 round loaf of a hearty bread
8 slices of cheese
8 slices of deli meat
Condiments


Directions:
Slice the bread if it didn’t come that way from the store. You should get enough slices to make 4 sandwiches out of it.


Start stuffing the loaf with the cheese and meat. Start in the center and stuff every other slice.  Make sure the cheese is touching the bread, not the meat.  So each sandwich will be bread-cheese-meat-cheese-bread. 


Wrap the loaf tightly in parchment paper (or foil).  Then wrap it again in foil.


Place a small glass or ceramic dish upside down in a 6 qt. slow cooker.  Add ½ cup of water to slow cooker. Place the wrapped sandwich loaf on top of the upside down dish and put the lid on the slow cooker.  Turn to low and cook for 6 hours.


Once it is done, remove the sandwich loaf from the slow cooker.  Unwrap it and lay the individual sandwiches on a cooling rack.  If desired, place sandwiches in a toaster oven to crisp up the bread.  Add any condiments you like.


Makes 4 sandwiches.

Now, obviously, in the picture above, I did crisp up my bread in the toaster oven.  You don't have to do this step.  I wouldn't say that the bread was soggy when I unwrapped it, but it was really super soft and kind of "moist".  Laying the sandwiches out on a cooling rack helped a lot and actually we ate ours that way for dinner that night.  There was one sandwich leftover, and so the next day I heated it up in the toaster oven and that's the one in the pic above.

The benefit to using parchment as the first layer of wrapping is that the cheese won't stick to it as much as it will to foil.  I was out of parchment, so I used foil.  The cheese did stick a little bit, but it wasn't too bad.

Here are a few pictures of the process.

 The loaf stuffed and ready to be wrapped.  I got a loaf of sourdough that was already pre-sliced.  The original recipe said to slice it yourself, and not slice it all the way through, leaving a little bit at the bottom still attached.  I didn't really see the point in that, and I think it would be more of a hassle to finish slicing it after it was cooked and softer.  So go ahead and buy the pre-sliced stuff if you want.

For my sandwiches, I used turkey and thin slices of havarti cheese.

 Wrapped and in the crock.  The loaf sits on a little upside-down dish to keep it out of the water.

The loaf after cooking.

I served these sandwiches with my Bleu Cheese Tomato Soup.  Perfect soup and sammie meal!

Like I said above, it's not the most efficient way to make sandwiches, it's probably a lot easier to just make them on the stovetop, but it's kind of fun to make them in the slow cooker.


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