Asian Chicken Salad

I roasted a chicken earlier this week (recipe to follow) and it was magnificent. I decided to take some of the chicken and make an Asian Chicken Salad with it and it turned out pretty tasty. I julienned (very thinly sliced) some carrots and bell peppers, added some green onions, segmented clementines, thinly sliced white onion and toasted slivered almonds with a nice citrus soy vinaigrette. It's a clean light chicken salad that doesn't need to be refrigerated, so great on a picnic or for a BBQ with friends.



Asian Chicken Salad

1/2 a cooked rotisserie chicken, skin off, shredded
1 bell pepper, julienned
2 carrots, peeled and julienned
2 scallions, chopped
1 small onion, chopped in half and very thinly shaved/sliced
4 clementines, segmented or a can of drained Mandarin oranges
1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
handful of cilantro leaves

Vinaigrette:
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp sugar or honey
1 inch of ginger, graded
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
dash garlic powder
7 mint leaves, chopped finely
3/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp peanut oil

Prepare vinaigrette, and mix well to combine. Toss all ingredients with the dressing in a bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes to absorb the flavors. Serve room temperature or cold.

Mini Quiche Cups

I'm getting very sick and tired of eating some of the same things for breakfast. Everything had a ton of sugar and a ton of carbs in it, and doesn't fill me up till lunchy lunch time. I got an idea to make mini quiche cups that I can take to work, warm up and eat fairly quickly, that saves me from eating another cereal bar.



I know right now my mother is telling me "Well darling girl, why don't you just wake up early and make yourself some nice breakfast?" My response, "I like sleeping."



So last night, after the Lakers won the championship I tackled this task of trying to make these mini quiches. My first attempt went pretty well. It was a twist on Quiche Florentine, the flavors were really amazing and I was fairly happy with the first round. However, I definitely need to tweak it a little bit. I wanted to add some protein so I used Chicken Apple Sausages, turns out, too sweet with the caramelized onions. I would suggest substituting a hot or savory sausage, like a Jalapeno Cheddar, or just a plain Hot Italian Sausage, just make sure they're cooked before you combine it in the egg mixture. This recipe can be easily turned into a fritata or a scramble, you can even substitute the Gruyere cheese with feta and add olives for a Mediterranean twist.



Mini Quiche
8 eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper and beaten slightly
1/2 - 1 cup milk (anywhere from skim to whole depending on how many calories you want to save)
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese, I used Gruyere
1/2 bag chopped frozen spinach, defrosted and drained of all water
1 savory sausage, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
2 scallions, chopped
1/2 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
2 pinches nutmeg
1/2 tsp garlic powder
olive oil
cupcake liners
non-stick spray



Preheat oven to 350 F.


In a saute pan, heat up the olive oil and saute the onions with a little salt and pepper till translucent on medium heat, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, spinach and chopped up sausage and stir to combine. Add the red pepper flakes, nutmeg and garlic powder and turn off heat.


While the onion mixture cools, mix the seasoned eggs and milk together in a big bowl. Make sure to beat for a few moments to incorporate air to the eggs. Add the cheese, sun dried tomatoes, a touch more red pepper flakes if you wish. Add the onion mixture to the bowl and stir to combine.


Using a muffin tin, place the liners in and spray each cupcake liner with non stick cooking spray. Then spoon in the combined egg mixture into each liner. Make sure not to fill up completely because the egg mixture will rise a bit.


Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Then at the last minute, turn on the broiler and brown the tops so it has a nice crust. These can be rewarmed in a microwave very easily. Just make sure to use the cupcake liners that don't have metal in them.