Basil Chicken Sandwich

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This basil chicken sandwich might just be my favorite sandwich. Its very simple, but delicious. It comes together amazingly fast, uses ingredients almost everyone has in their cupboards already, and is nearly fool-proof. For this recipe I used some bread dough I had left from the night before, I fried up some fresh sandwich bread in my skillet. You can do this, but a toasted bun works just as well.

Grab some chicken and trim off the excess fat that may still be on it. I use either breasts or tenderloin. Either one is fine. Cut it into strips and season the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, seasoning salt, and lots of basil.

 

Heat a pan with some oil, olive or vegetable, either one is fine, over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken until all of the pink is gone.

Now this next part is completely optional, but absolutely delicious. You can use any old bread or bun you have around and you will still love this sandwich, but if you want that extra YUM, try this sometime!

Take a small ball of fresh bread dough and flatten it out until it’s a bit bigger than your hand. Using the same skillet you cooked the chicken in over medium-low heat with a couple of tablespoons of oil in it, and place the bread dough in it.

Let the dough cook until it starts puffing up and browns on the bottom, and then flip it over.

Cook the other side until the bread is cooked through and the bottom side is browned. Tap the dough. It should sound hollow. If it doesn’t, place it in your oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 10 minutes and that should finish off the cooking. Cut it in half and brown the insides in the pan if you’d like some extra crunch.

Spread some mayo on the bread, put a piece of creamy havarti on it, and then put the warm basil chicken on the cheese.

Cut in half and enjoy!

Basil Chicken Sandwich

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken breast, trimmed and cut into strips
  • to taste salt & pepper
  • sprinkle garlic salt
  • sprinkle onion powder
  • sprinkle seasoning salt
  • 1-2 tsp basil
  • 2 small balls fresh bread dough
  • 1-2 TBSP mayo
  • 2 slices havarti

Directions

  1. Trim, clean, and cut a chicken breast or chicken tenderloins into strips.
  2. Season with salt, pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, seasoning salt, and basil.
  3. Cook over medium-high heat until the chicken is cooked through.
  4. Take a small ball of fresh bread dough and flatten. Cook over medium-low heat on both sides until bread is completely done.
  5. Cut in half and spread with mayo and a piece of cheese. Place cooked chicken on bread and slice in half.

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Meal Plan Monday!

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Hello friends and readers! Welcome to the very first edition of my new series, “Meal Plan Monday”. I’m going to go through this in depth so you can “see” the process I go through in order to meal plan. Maybe that will help you in your efforts to meal plan!

So, in the fridge and freezer currently I have enough meat for 5-6 meals.

  • chicken breast
  • chicken thighs
  • ox tails
  • beef short ribs
  • venison steak
  • Bacon
I also have a few things I need to use up in the fridge.

 

  • Buttermilk
  • Fresh Mushrooms
  • Carrots
  • Celery
  • Lettuce

My grocery budget for this pay-period is pretty much gone, so we’re going to work with what we have already this week. I also have a fairly well-stocked pantry that includes a variety of potatoes, pasta, and grains. When I meal plan on a week like this where I’m not going to go and shop specifically for what I *want* to cook, I go around my kitchen and take stock of what we have available, and what I might need, choosing dishes where I’ll need to buy the least amount of items.

For me, I don’t like to specify the days on which the meals will be cooked. I just come up with a list of meals to make. I also don’t include lunches in these plans because we typically eat either leftovers from dinner the previous night, or one of our “go-to” lunches which include mac and cheese, grilled cheese & tomato soup, noodles and sauce (just noodles and plain tomato sauce, a long-time favorite of mine! I know…weird!), hot dogs, or various other kid-friendly foods I usually have laying around. That way, I can make whatever I feel like making, whatever day I feel like making it. Having a list to choose from helps me SO much during that afternoon “What’s for dinner” time that I have been dreading since I stopped meal planning a while back.

So for this week, here is what I *know* I’ll make from what I have.

You’ll notice the ox tails are not on that list. That is my husband’s thing. I consider myself pretty adventurous in the kitchen these days, but something about ox tails just doesn’t sound great to me. I think I’m going to request he make those next Saturday while I’m working! I’m sure they will be wonderful, but some of my old pickiness still lingers I guess.

The Sweet chili chicken is as simple of a meal as it gets. I will post a “recipe” this week, but in case you don’t want to wait, it is basically a simple stir fry with sweet chili sauce tossed over the cooked chicken. We serve it with rice and usually broccoli. When my husband makes it, he lightly breads the chicken and fries it. The kids like it better that way, my scale likes it better my way.

We’ve had venison steak in the freezer for quite a while. A coworker of my husband’s stocked our freezer a while back with a ton of awesome venison meat. Lots of venison burger, and sausage, and those steaks. We’ve been saving the steak for something special, and it looks like stroganoff will be it. There is quite a bit of it though, so we may even have enough left over to grill up some venison steaks for another meal!

My husband, the awesome cook that he is, usually handles the beef short ribs, but I think that this week I’ll go searching out a recipe online and try my hand at them myself. That way, I can share the recipe with you! He doesn’t like writing down his ingredients as he goes, and doesn’t really remember what he does after, so getting a recipe out of him is pretty difficult.

When I go searching for recipes I usually start on foodgawker and tastespotting. I search what I’m looking for first. Look at the options! Beautiful!

After searching around a bit I think I’m going to go with a version from Zen Can Cook. Mostly the method, as I don’t have all of the ingredients on hand, and I cannot possibly ever just follow a recipe. I always have to change something up!

I’ll probably look something up for the venison stroganoff also. I think that the venison deserves a little better treatment than my simple ground beef stroganoff usually gets.

That’s the basic method I go through when picking recipes and meal planning. Some weeks I want to do a lot of new things. Some weeks I stick to easy and fast dishes with a lot of pre-made ingredients. I have four kids. I don’t always have the time, energy, or motivation to cook everything from scratch! I usually don’t post about our english muffin pizza nights, or Pasta Roni with chicken nuggets nights though!

What is your meal plan for the week? Link up here and pin the meal plan Monday graphic at the beginning of this post, and help spread the word about my new Meal Plan Monday series!

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Meal Plan?

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I’m thinking about starting a new meal plan series, linking up the recipes already published  here, and then giving me some ideas and motivation to get the other recipes up and photographed and posted here!

Would you guys like that? What other things would you like to see over here on OWYD.com? Do you like the new blog format over here on WordPress? Anyone having a hard time navigating or finding anything?

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Buttermilk Pancakes

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There isn’t anything better for a special weekend breakfast than freshly cooked, fluffy, buttermilk pancakes with some bacon and eggs. So put away the premixed, can’t pronounce the ingredient list, over-priced, over-processed dust in a bag that people call “pancake mix”. These pancakes are simple, easy, fast, and economical to mix up, and they make pancakes that will rival any restaurant version you’ve ever had!

I love pancakes, especially buttermilk pancakes. I am VERY particular about what constitutes a good one. These freeze very well, so make a large batch and freeze between wax-paper sheets and then reheat in the microwave for a quick weekday breakfast! You can add blueberries, chocolate chips, or any number of add-ins to these.

Begin by mixing together all the dry ingredients until they are well combined.

Now mix the wet ingredients in a bowl and whisk until the eggs are very well combined.

Add the wet to the dry and stir well.

 

Pour in ¼ – ⅓ cup portions on a hot griddle. Cook until bubbles form and begin to burst.

 

 

Flip the pancakes and cook until the bottom is browned.

 

 

Continue cooking until all of the batter is done and serve with some hot maple syrup or your favorite berry syrup.

 

 

Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients

  • 5 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 5 cups buttermilk
  • 1 TBSP vanilla
  • 5 cups flour
  • 5 tsp baking powder
  • 5 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 cup sugar

Directions

  1. Put the eggs, milk, buttermilk, and vanilla into a bowl and mix well.
  2. Combine buttermilk in a separate bowl and stir well.
  3. Add the wet mix to the dry and mix just until combined. If the batter is too thick, add more milk. If it is too thin, add more flour. Add the melted butter and stir to combine.
  4. Heat a griddle over medium heat. If your griddle or pan isn\\\\\\\'t well-seasoned or non-stick, spray with cooking spray.
  5. Pour 1/3 cup of batter into skillet and cook until bubbles form on the top and begin to pop. Flip pancake over and cook until bottom is browned. Continue until all of the pancakes are cooked and serve with your favorite syrup.

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Cherry Berry on a Cloud

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I’m not the creator of this recipe. It is a fairly common Betty Crocker one. The first time I had cherry berry on a cloud, I declared it the VERY BEST THING I had ever eaten. (Thank you LISA!) Even though the ingredients are common, and I’d certainly had them in all sorts of different concoctions, it was never quite like this. If fancy had a flavor, this would be it.

Funny thing with a lot of my favorites; I don’t make them very often. This was only the 2nd time I’d made this particular dessert, and it was just as easy putting together as I’d remembered it to be. This one I don’t make often because it features meringue, and one of my boys is allergic to eggs. He tolerates baked in eggs well, but we’ve never tried meringue, and because of HOW eggy it is, I am hesitant to even attempt it. I try not to make things that he cannot have with us, so this one doesn’t make an appearance often. This time though, I had a girl’s night I was invited to, so it was the perfect opportunity to whip this up.

It takes a long time to make cherry berry on a cloud. Don’t be discouraged by this. It is not very labor intensive, and most of the time is passive. Read through the recipe and plan according to when in the day you want this to be ready. With a little planning it can be timed out to perfection.

Start by whipping up 6 egg whites and the cream of tartar and salt in your stand mixer on medium to high speed with the beaters attached. When the egg whites are foamy, begin incorporating the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until it is all added and the egg whites form stiff, glossy peaks. Don’t underbeat the whites. Spread the egg whites into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 275 in a preheated oven for 1 hour. After the hour, turn off the oven, but leave the pan in for 12 hours (I do this right before bed!) without opening the door.

Pull the pan out of the oven after 12 hours and marvel at your creation.

Now take your room temperature cream cheese, sugar, & vanilla and mix together until smooth. Remove to a separate bowl, clean your mixer bowl and beaters (unless you’re lucky enough to have TWO mixing bowls, you lucky duck you!), and whip your cream until it is stiff. Don’t make butter, like I did, by turning away from your cream that is whipping for a second. It goes from PERFECT to ruined in a few seconds if you are beating on high speed.

Combine the cream cheese mixture, butter whipped cream, and marshmallows by folding gently together until combined.

Spread over the meringue.

Let this chill for 12 hours in the fridge. The original recipe states not to let it chill more than 24 hours. I did, and thought it tasted just as good after 48 hours as it did after 10 hours. I brought this whole pan to a get together with 3 people. A little overkill! We had leftovers for DAYS, even in my 6 person household. The point being, you have some wiggle room in these chill times. If you have an evening affair that you are bringing this too, and get the meringue out of the oven at 8am, get it all put together and chilling by 9am, you will probably be good to serve it for a dinner even though it hasn’t chilled the entire 12 hours.

Lastly, mix together a can of cherry pie filling with a pint of fresh sliced strawberries. Add in a teaspoon of lemon juice for a little tartness, and a dash of vanilla if you love vanilla like I do.

Spoon this mixture over individual portions of the dessert, and serve immediately. Top with a dollop of whipped cream if you want to be extra decadent.

Cherry Berry on a Cloud

Ingredients

  • 6 egg whites
  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 packages cream cheese (8oz)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 2 cups mini marshmallows
  • 1 can cherry pie filling (21 oz)
  • 1 pint fresh strawberries
  • dash vanilla (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Whip egg whites, cream or tartar, and salt until foamy. Start adding sugar, 1 TBSP at a time, to the mixture until all 1 3/4 cups are incorporated and the whites for stiff, glossy peaks.
  2. Spread into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for one hour. Shut off oven, DO NOT PEEK, and leave in oven for 12 hours.
  3. Remove from oven after 12 hours and prepare filling by mixing cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Fold in whipped cream and marshmallows. Spread over meringue.
  4. Chill for 12 hours and make topping by combining cherry pie filling with lemon juice and 1 pint of sliced fresh strawberries. Add a dash of vanilla if desired. Spoon filling over individual portions of dessert and ENJOY!

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