Cheesy Tomato Eggs

Have you ever given thought to the egg? How versatile this creation is! Poached, over easy, over medium, fried, hard-boiled...and my favorite, scrambled. The scrambled egg is even more versatile than the eggs itself. You can put anything in it! So this morning:

6 small tomatoes (cherry, grape, or small roma)
1/2 Cup of cheddar
4 eggs
Milk for scrambling

Scramble away, add the tomato and pop into a lightly greased pan. Move constantly until almost fully cooked and add a little salt and pepper. Top with cheese and cook until melted. Put on a plate and enjoy!

Low Carb BBQ Sauce

I keep to a pretty strict low carbohydrate diet. I don't have diabetes but I have always been overweight and my number one downfall has been pasta and breads. I could have and have lived off of those two items. So I decided to remove them from my diet (and it's worked great). The biggest problem I have had is BBQs. I can't ever find a BBQ sauce that I can use. They are loaded with sugar!

Finally, I stumbled upon one. Oh it's delicious!

Servings: 10
Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 20-30 Min
Total Time: 30-40 Min

Ingredients

Liquid Smoke
1 Small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 12oz can diet cola
1/4 C low carb sugar (or 1 Tbs vinegar and sweetener to taste)
3 Tbs mustard
1 Tbs Worcestershire
1/2 C water

Cook the onion and the garlic in some butter in a medium fry pan (you can also prepare the sauce in a sauce pan if you'd prefer) until it is soft. Add everything EXCEPT the liquid smoke to the onion and garlic. Mix well. Bring to a simmer (most likely the absolute lowest setting on your stove for this). Cover and allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes. Towards the end, add about 2-3 tsp of liquid smoke (as according to taste). Once done, put it in a tupperware and place it in the fridge for later!

Thai Chicken Wraps

One of my favorite sauces of all time (one that doesn't come from a restaurant anyway...because some of those restaurant sauces are good...like a beurre blanc...I can't do that for the life of me but boy is it good on ahi tuna...I digress) comes from this recipe (you had to read back to the beginning to put the whole sentence together didn't you?). It is a sweet and spicy sauce but the whole wrap itself is light and hearty. It's yummy. I think I want one now...although I just ate breakfast an hour ago.

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Total Time: 30 min

Ingredients

3 6oz chicken breasts/thighs
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs vegetabl oil
1 Tbs grill seasoning

Salad:
1/2 cucumber, peeled, sliced finely
2 cups bean sprouts
1 Cup shredded carrot
12 leaves basil, chopped
1 Tbs sesame seeds
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbs white vinegar
Salt to taste

Spicy peanut sauce:
1/8 C chunky peanut butter
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs white vinegar
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1/2 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbs sugar

4 12-in tortillas

This is really simple. Basically, marinade the chicken for 30 minutes to an hour. You don't want to marinade it too long or it may become too salty.

After you've marinaded it, cook it in the oil until cooked through. You can do this in strips or as whole pieces of chicken (in the end it will have to be chunks anyway).

While your chicken is cooking, prepare everything for your salad and mix together. Then prepare your sauce. These are accurate measurements however, you can taste it and determine if you want it sweeter (more sugar), more sour (more vinegar), or spicier (more cayenne). Remember that Cayenne is very hot, so do not add too much to start or it may become inedible!

Chop the cooked chicken and mix with the salad base.

Now here's a part for your choosing...I usually serve the salad and the chicken together and leave the sauce on the side allowing people to choose their level of sauciness. Or you can mix it all for them. Then, give everyone a tortilla and let them make their wraps. You don't even have to have a tortilla for this one, it's good all by itself too!

My Lunch

Usually lunch is a chicken breast and sometimes I get creative. It can be boring eating the same thing over and over. Hubby always tells me I am going to grow feathers from eating so much chicken. You know what I say to that? In his own words...blah blah blah. Now this recipe is not for the person who does not like sour. I happen to have a sour palate so this is one of my favorite lunches.

Servings: 1
Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 10 Min

Ingredients

1 Chicken breast
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
3-4 Chives
4 Basil leaves
1/2 Mexican gray squash (or your favorite type of squash)
10 Grape tomatoes
10-15 Calamata olives

Put 2 Tbs of oil in a small saute pan. Dice chives and basil. Place chicken breast in pan and cover both sides with the diced herbs. Slice the squash thinly and add to the pan. Turn on the heat to medium-high while you prepare the rest.

Slice the tomatoes in half and add to the pan. Slice the olives in quarters and add to the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to medium and add the last tablespoon of oil on top of the mixture.

Allow to cook for 5-7 minutes on one side. Resist stirring unless you feel you are running low on oil. Turn chicken and vegetables over. Allow to finish. Vegetables should be soft, chicken should be cooked through. Serve and enjoy!

Aunt J's Chinese Chicken Salad

Aunt J (not to be confused with MIL J) created a wonderful Chinese chicken salad. This is a great light meal that, for whatever reason, keeps you pretty well full. It's perfect for during summer because it's chilled and you can cook the chicken at any point during the day (aka early morning) so you don't have to heat up the house late in the day.

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 10 Min
Total Time: 20 Min

Ingredients:

1/2 Head Cabbage
3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1/2 Cup oil
1/4 Cup rice wine vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
1/4 Cup sugar
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 packages ORIENTAL Top Ramen
1/2 Cup Sunflower seeds
1/4 Cup sesame seeds
Sliced almonds
2 Tbs Butter

Dressing

Mix oil, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and ONE packet of oriental seasoning from Top Ramen in a bowl

Topping

Crumble both packages of Top Ramen (best achieved by banging on it with fists on a counter top while still sealed)
Put in a saute pan with sunflower seeds, almonds, and sesame seeds
Add 2 Tbs of butter to pan and brown topping for about 10 min

Put It Together

Shred cabbage and add shredded chicken
Top with the browned topping
Drizzle with dressing and serve!