Have Lunch with Me: BBQ Chicken

Have Lunch with Me: BBQ Chicken

Today's leftover to recreate was a portion of chicken that Hubby and I had grilled over the weekend.  It'd be great just reheated, but even better shredded and doused in BBQ sauce and served on a piece of whole wheat toast.

• Strip all of the meat from the bone.
• Heat a pan to med-low and add a smidge of olive oil.
• Add chicken to the heated pan
• Add BBQ sauce and spices to taste
• Heat until warmed through and serve open faced on warm toast
• Top with Trader Joe's Fried Onion Pieces for a bit of crunch

 

I used a mixture of KC Masterpiece and a local BBQ shack's sauce called Shawn's Smokehouse Barbeque (in Culpeper, VA).  I also added a few grinds of garlic salt and cracked black pepper.

Have Lunch with Me: Biscuits 'n Chowda

Even though I'm a housewife with lots of time during the day to piddle around and do what I like, I'd rather spend my time on one of my many projects than cooking and cleaning.  I love cooking and I actually don't mind cleaning, but it loses its appeal when it's just for me.  I cheat by making fast, simple, easy-to-clean up lunches for one like this one:

Biscuits 'n Chowda
My easy lunchtime take on Biscuits and Gravy

 →2 leftover Pepperidge Farm Garlic Cheese Biscuits

I popped these in the oven for about 7 minutes.  I don't have a microwave; 'nuking them would be fast, but leave them a bit soggy.

→Half of a can of Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder

I reheated this in a small pot on the stove, but again, this would be faster in the microwave.

→White pepper to taste.

It has that flaky-creamy-peppery thing going on that is reminiscent of traditional southern biscuits 'n gravy, but with more protein, less fat and calories, and is much easier to prepare.  At 560 calories (most of that is the biscuits!), it's not low-calorie, but I had a skimpy fruit-only breakfast, so it was a good complement to that.

Lunches like these Biscuits and Chowder are great for single-servings and would even be a hearty and warm microwavable workplace lunch.

My take on Biscuits and Gravy is simple, fast, and is great for incorporating leftovers.
That's just what I did here.  I had two leftover biscuits from dinner the night before and half a can of the chowder.  Heat and Eat!

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Sarah Kate Hunt

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Have Lunch with Me: Strawberries & Cream

Strawberries & Whipped Cream

I'm slimming down my meals and adding extra time to my daily workouts so I can look and feel my best for my upcoming trip to Myrtle Beach.  Today's lunch is a simple and healthy one: Strawberries with whipped cream.

Wash and dry 8ounces of strawberries (this was about 10 berries) right before putting this snack together since berries will spoil quickly if washed in advance.  Getting them dry is key so that the whipped cream won't slide off.

Slice 'em and pile them in a cute bowl. I just love serving berries in my vintage glass Strawberry Shortcake bowl.

The whipped cream is about 1T heavy whipping cream, 1t Splenda, and 1/4t good quality vanilla extract whipped until creamy.

The total calorie count for this yummy, fruity lunch is about 170 calories.

Have Lunch with Me: Shrimp Salad!

Have Lunch with Me: Refreshing Shrimp Salad!

This is another light and easy lunch that this housewife adores!  It's my go-to in the summertime when I want light and cool fare.  

No hot oven or stove! Filling! No guilt! Ready in minutes!
Perfection!

I always have frozen shrimp on-hand for little lunches like this one.  I buy them on sale, usually buy-one-get-one-free.  I also always have an assortment of veggies since I feed a nice variety to my birds and guinea pigs.  They love when I make a salad because there's always little leftover bits that they get as a mid-day snack.

_______
Shrimp - 1 dozen, large, pre-cooked, frozen, tail on, peeled, de-veined

Dressing - 1T Lighthouse Homestyle Ranch

Romaine lettuce - 2 leaves torn into bite-sized pieces

Broccoli florets

Carrots - shredded

Snow peas - cut in half width-wise

Sea Salt & Freshly cracked black pepper

I wash all my veggies the day I get home with them from the market so that's one step of prep that's already done!

I put the frozen, pre-cooked shrimp into a colander in the sink and rinse them with cold water for a few seconds, give them a swirl and rinse again and let sit while I continue prep.

I get the rest of the veggies ready.  The lettuce gets torn into pieces and placed in the bottom of the bowl.  Layered ontop are the snow peas, broccoli florets, and shredded carrot.

Then I rinse the shrimp some more.  By this time they shouldn't have ice on them.

I put the vegetable trimmings into the compost bin, put anything extra away and get a small plastic storage container out.

The shrimp should be thawed by now (I give them a pinch to make sure they aren't icy inside), this should be about 5 minutes after prep started.  I lay the shimp out on the counter beside the sink ontop of a few layers of paper towels and I give them a firm press with another dry paper towel.  When they seem almost dry I take a dry towel in my hand and gently squeeze each shrimp one by one and place them into the plastic storage container .  I need the shrimp to be nice and dry so the dressing will adhere to them and not be a watery mess.

The dressing is added on top of the shrimp in the container and I add a few shakes of sea salt (or kosher, but never table salt) and a couple of grinds of fresh black pepper.  Then I put the lid on and shake gently to coat the shrimp in the dressing and seasonings.   

Then I place each shrimp on top of the salad bed.  I definitely prefer to dress just one component of my salad instead of the whole thing so there is never a puddle of dressing in the bottom or the risk of the salad being over-dressed.  It's also handy for portion/calorie control if that's a concern.

Have Lunch with Me: Bubba Burger!

To continue the "Have Lunch with Me" series, I'll share this deliciously juicy Bubba Burger I had for lunch!

Trader Joe's Garlic Salt: The star of my burgers!

I used one of the frozen Original Bubba Burger patties and cooked it in a small nonstick skillet over a Medium flame until it was juicy on top and then I seasoned it with garlic salt and flipped it.  I toasted an onion bun while the second side of the burger cooked and then slathered it with Duke's mayonnaise ( I recently switched from Hellman's which I liked pretty well, too...I just wanted to try something different).

I added a piece of romaine lettuce and that's it! So, it's not incredibly healthy, but I had skipped breakfast and was so hungry!  This was fast, meaty, and delicious!

Thanks for having lunch with me! What did you have today?

Late Lunch at Chili's

Hubs and I sometimes dine out during our weekly shopping trip.  I tasked him with deciding what we'd have this time because I was mentally exhausted, so when he chose a restaurant I wasn't thrilled about, I went along with his suggestion anyway.

Here's my review of our current visit to Chili's.

Have Lunch with Me: Corndogs!

This was a particularly lazy lunch and definitely not awe-inspiring....in fact it's probably not even worthy of a blog post except that it was my first try at making these and they came out great!

Crunchy, deep fried, guilty-pleasure Corn Dogs!

It started with this:

Foster Farms Honey Crunchy Corn Dogs

I have never bought frozen corn dogs before, in fact I don't buy much of anything frozen except fruits, veggies, seafood, and ice cream.  I make an unattractive sour face at the thought of buying and using pre-packaged frozen meals.

BUT

I have been craving corn-dogs and I've even bought the stuff to make them from scratch, and after my husband ate all the hot dogs (again) before I got the chance to make them, I gave in when I saw these for $4.  For the mathematically impaired, that's a quarter a 'dog.  Worthy of a try.

The package had directions for microwaving, oven cooking, and deep frying.  I haven't had a microwave in almost two years so that was out (and I imagine they'd come out a bit soggy...and I wanted a crunchy-ass corndog!!).  I don't make a habit of deep frying (or any kind of frying) but if I was going to have a guilty pleasure, it might as well be a deep-fried one!

The package recommended frying 9 minutes  at 350°-375° so I added a few inches of oil, popped on my frying thermometer and turned the gas flame up to medium.  A few minutes later I dropped these puppies in and set my timer.  Using tongs, I pulled them out and set them on a towel while dolloping out a bit of Trader Joe's Organic Ketchup and Maille Dijon Mustard.

Deep frying corn dogs

The payoff:  They were delish! Crunchy, lightly sweet, fully cooked, easy and quick to make, and the only cleanup was my plate and the tongs, LOL! Love it.

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Have Lunch with Me: Open-faced Pintos 'n Cheese

 As a housewife, I like to use up leftovers when I make lunch for myself, and I like making it as yummy, quick, and easy-to-clean up as possible!

Here's my first meal share; I hope you enjoy the inspiration!

Have Lunch with Me: Open-faced Pintos 'n Cheese

Technically, I didn't use leftovers for this; I used stuff I'd need to open for tonight's requested dinner of Chorizo Burritos. So call it an early prep :P

Fresh tortillas

Tortilla toasted over open gas flame

Old El Paso Vegetarian Refried Beans

Refried Beans smeared on toasted tortilla

Old El Paso Mild Enchilada Sauce

Enchilada Sauce covering refried beans

Trader Joe's Garlic Salt Grinder

Old El Paso Original Taco Seasoning

Seasonings sprinkled on

Tostitos Artisan Baked Three Cheese Queso Corn Chips

Tortilla chips crushed (about 3)

Crushed tortilla chips layered ontop

Queso Fresco (fresh cheese)*

Used a fork to "grate" queso fresco

DONE!

Open-faced Pintos and Cheese:
Cheese sprinkled ontop.  Concoction baked on 350° about 12 minutes.  Lifts out well with a spatula.

This was a nice and quick lunch.  I loved that it was vegetarian, warm and light, but filling.  Using the queso fresco instead of a meltier cheese kept it from being greasy and gloppy.   I topped it with a bit of cilantro that I shared with my guinea pigs.

I was inspired by one of my all-time favorite Taco Bell menu items, the Pintos N Cheese.  I live out in the boonies now so it's a bit of a trek to the nearest one...not that I ever went that often for health reasons anyway, so I make my own.  I usually use leftovers from Taco Night and bake it in a bowl, but I decided to try a different way.  Leave a comment below and let me know if you've done something similar!

*Queso fresco, if you haven't seen it before, literally means fresh cheese.  You can make it at home with just milk, salt, and rennet, but it's inexpensive to buy and can be found in most markets.  If you can't find it, try your local latin market.  It has a mild milky taste and I use it in place of Parmesan when I don't mind missing out on the tang or salty flavor that Parm has.