Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients

1/3 cup honey

¼ cup lime juice (about 2 lg. Limes)

1 T chili powder

2 cloves finely minced garlic

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked and shredded

12 corn tortillas

2 cups Mexican cheese blend

1 19 oz. can green enchilada sauce hot or mild

½ cup heavy cream

Non-stick cooking spray

1 T chopped cilantro

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the cooked and shredded chicken in a medium sized bowl. Set aside. In a small bowl, place the honey, lime juice, chili powder and minced garlic or garlic powder. Whisk together thoroughly to combine. Pour this mixture over the chicken and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to marinate while you prepare the tortillas, 30 minutes or up to 1 hour, in the refrigerator.

Heat a large griddle till a drop of water skitters across (about 350 degrees F). Spray the surface with non-stick cooking spray or oil it with a little bit of canola oil in between each round of tortillas. Heat tortillas about 20 seconds on each side till warm and flexible and some golden brown spots have appeared. Remove the tortillas from the griddle and keep them between a couple of paper towels until ready to use.

Spray the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish lightly with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine the enchilada sauce and the heavy cream. Spread about ½ cup of the mixture in the bottom of the oiled baking dish. Add a large spoonful (about 2 tablespoons) of the chicken mixture to the center of each tortilla in a line. Cover the chicken with a large tablespoon of cheese, then roll the tortilla up from one side to make a rolled enchilada. Place the enchilada seam side down in the baking dish starting at one end with the long edge parallel to the longest side of the pan so that you end up with two columns of six enchiladas each.

Repeat with the remaining chicken, cheese and tortillas. You will use about 1 ½ cups of the cheese for the filling and set the remainder aside for topping the enchiladas in the pan. Add the remaining marinade mixture to the enchilada sauce and cream mixture, if desired. Pour this mixture over the top of all the enchiladas. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake the enchiladas for 30 – 35 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly and starting to brown on top. Serve topped with sour cream and cilantro.

* This recipe looks long & time consuming but the directions are just really wordy, it is actually very easy and very YUMMY! It is a little bit spicy, so if you don't like spice, cut down the chili powder. I made this with a side dish of Lime Cilantro Rice (1 cup of rice, 2 cups of water, ½ of a lime, juiced and 1 T of cilantro leaves) and it was a great combo.

Restaurant Style Chicken Nachos

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, crushed

6 green onions, sliced, white parts and tops separated

3 T canola oil

1 shredded, cooked, whole chicken breast

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup salsa

1/2 (12 oz) package tortilla chips

1 (8 0z) package shredded cheddar/monterey jack cheese blend

1/2 large tomato, diced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a 12 inch skillet over medium heat, cook and stir the garlic and white parts of the green onions in canola oil until tender. Mix in shredded chicken, salt and pepper. Toss until well coated with oil. Stir in the salsa.

Arrange tortilla chips on a large baking sheet. Spoon the chicken mixture over tortilla chips. Top with cheese blend and tomato. Bake in the preheated oven 10 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Remove from heat and sprinkle with green onion tops before serving.

*James was craving nachos for about a week or so a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to get online and find a good nacho recipe for him. This is what I found that sounded the best to me and they were really good. They definitely filled his nacho craving.

Valentine Cookies

For Valentines I decided to make the Fair Drop Cookies, just the sugar cookie part, and top it with the Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting and it was AWESOME!!!! I highly recommend this combination for any occasion. You can add whatever fruit flavor and change up the frosting and the color of it.

Orange Glazed Salmon

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs salmon fillet

1/3 cup orange marmalade

1/2 cup orange juice

1 T Dijon mustard

1 tsp. ginger

2 tsps salt free citrus-herb seasoning

Directions:

Rinse salmon fillet under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Cut into 6 serving portions and place salmon fillets in a large zip-top bag; set aside.

In a small bowl stir together remaining ingredients. Pour into zip-top bag. Squeeze air from bag and seal. Marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking and bring to room temperature.

Light broiler and line baking sheet or boiler pan with aluminum foil.

Remove salmon from marinade and place on baking sheet. Discard marinade. Broil salmon 6 to 8 inches from heat source for 6 to 8 minutes or until cooked through. Do not overcook.

Serve immediately.

*This is a very good salmon that is a little bit different than any salmon I have made before. And it was very simple to make. I could not find the citrus-herb seasoning so I just made my own by adding some lemon zest, orange zest, thyme, oregano, basil, and rosemary to it.

Cheesecake Factory Southwestern Salad

Ingredients:

1-2 chopped tomatoes

6 chicken breasts grilled and sliced

1 1/2 packages frozen sweet corn

2 15-oz cans black beans drained and rinsed

2 large avocados diced

2-3 heads Romaine lettuce torn

2 cups grated Monterey Jack Cheese

1 36 count corn tortillas

Dressing:

1 bunch cilantro

4 T honey

Juice of 4 limes

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 T sesame oil

4 tsp peanut butter

1 T red pepper flakes

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 1/2 T sugar

Salt and pepper

1 cup extra-light olive oil

Directions:

Put all dressing ingredients (except oil) in blender and blend until smooth. Add oil slowly with blender still running. Set aside.

Cut tortillas in thin strips. Fry in hot vegetable oil in batches until slightly brown, draining in bowl lined with paper towels. Salt generously while hot.

Put all salad ingredients into large bowl and toss. Serve with tortilla chips on top and dressing on the side.

*The dressing for this salad is really different but it tastes really good with the combination of the salad. I have never had this at the restaurant but I really enjoyed the one I made at home. Also, this is for a large group. James and I had this for dinner 2 nights and we didn't even go through half of the dressing or even a 1/3 of the dressing.

Mimi's Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

2 tsp butter

2 stalks celery

1/2 cup onions chopped

4 cups water

1 bay leaf

1 potato peeled and cubed

1 15 oz can creamed corn

1 15 oz. can corn with liquid

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp sale 1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup half and half

Directions:

Saute celery and onion in butter. Add water, potato, and bay leaf. Add creamed corn, corn, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes. Combine flour and half and half in a separate bowl. Add to soup and simmer for 10 minutes until thickened.

*I don't know if you have ever had this soup at a Mimi's restaurant, but this is my favorite soup out of any restaurant. However, it didn't quite taste as good homemade but it was still good. I think part of the problem was me, I don't think I mixed the flour and half and half well enough, I kept on getting flour chunks when eating it so make sure you mix it really well and stir it while it is simmering.

Fair Drop Cookies

4 ½ cups flour

1 tsp. Baking soda

1 tsp. Cream of tartar

1 tsp. Salt

1 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup sugar

1 cup cooking oil

2 eggs

2 tsp. Almond extract

In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt and set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium low speed until smooth. Add powdered sugar and sugar. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Add oil, eggs, and almond extract and beat just until combined. Mix in dry ingredients. Cover and chill dough about 30 minutes. To shape cookies, roll rounded teaspoons of dough into balls. The dough will be soft. Arrange balls on ungreased cookie sheets. With the bottom of a glass, dipped in sugar, gently flatten the balls to about ¼ inch thickness (not to thin). Bake in 350 oven for 10-12 minutes or until edges are light brown. Cook on wire rack.

Frost with almond sugar frosting:

FROSTING:

½ cup butter

½ tsp. Almond extract

½ tsp. Vanilla extract

2 ½ to 3 ½ cups powdered sugar

3 Tblsp. Cream or milk

Crushed candy canes or peppermint candies

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the extracts. Alternately add the powdered sugar and cream or milk. Beat until smooth. Spread on cooled cookies and sprinkle the chopped candy over the frosting.

*We actually found that if you take the cookie and dip it upside down into the candy, it is much easier than to sprinkle it on top. Also, these are meant to be smaller cookies, not sugar cookie size.