Asian Chicken Salad

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This salad has a delightful combination of ginger, lemon, and orange. The crunchy ramen noodles combine with the greens, chicken, and citrus is sure to delight. Have an Asian night at home, or bring a big bowl to your next pot luck.
Ingredients:
  • 1 large chicken breast
  • 1 inch piece fresh ginger
  • 3-4 garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp mustard
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 package Ramen noodles
  • 2 cups lettuce or greens
  • 2 mini oranges
  • 2 tbsp slivered almonds
  • 2 tbsp butter or margarine
  • Fresh pineapple

Dressing:
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
Step 1: Dice the garlic, and cut the ginger into slivers. Peel and section the oranges.
Step 2: Put 2 tbsp butter or margarine in a pan, and toast the almond slivers for 2-3 minutes. Add in the ramen noodles, and more butter if needed, and toast. Keep the seasoning packet for another use. Remove to a plate.
Step 3: Dice the chicken breast into cubes. Add to the pan along with the ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and mustard. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked.
Step 4: Slice the pineapple into chunks for topping. Add in the cores of the pineapple to the pan and simmer.
Step 5: For each salad, add the dressing ingredients to a small bowl and whisk. Pile 1-2 cups greens on a plate, and top with pineapple chunks, orange slices, the toasted noodles and almonds, cooked chicken, and dressing.
The buttery crunchy noodles are so tasty, and the fruit adds a sweet note. The gingery, salty, garlicky chicken is delicious and could be used in so many other dishes as well.
Simply omit the chicken or use tofu instead to make this dish vegetarian. If you have actual glass noodles or other Asian noodles, you could also use those. If you don’t have or like almonds, try peanuts or cashews.

Mock-Caprese Goat Cheese Bruschetta

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Bruschetta is a classic Italian appetizer or snack, consisting of bread rubbed with garlic and topped with chopped tomato, olive oil, salt and pepper. Outside of Italy, bruschetta has become a word used for toast topped with just about anything. The most popular is diced tomato with olive oil and mozzarella or other cheese.

Caprese salad, or “insalata Caprese” is another Italian antipasto, or appetizer. Created to resemble the colors of the Italian flag, red, white and green, it consists of thick slices of tomato, fresh mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil leaves. Normally topped with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.

Since these are two of my favorite Italian appetizers, I decided to combine them into one delicious bite. However,  at the time I had no fresh mozzarella. Nor basil. Hence, the “mock-caprese”. However, you could use realistically any white cheese, and any fresh herb, and I’m sure it would be tasty.

Ingredients:

  • 1 thick slice farmhouse bread (or other whole wheat slice)
  • 1 fat, fresh Roma or beefsteak tomato
  • 2 tbsp garlic & chive goat cheese (or 1 thick slice mozzarella)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Step 1: Spread the goat cheese over the slice of bread, either with or without toasting it first.
Step 2: Slice the tomato into thick rings and put on top of the cheese.
Step 3: Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic. If using fresh herbs, layer them on top now.

You could easily scale this up for a lovely party appetizer, or make as few as will satisfy a snacking crave.

Meals Under $5

 

We all experience some times where we are on a tight budget. Maybe that time is only during college, and you are lucky enough to get a good-paying job with degree in hand. Maybe that time is during the holidays, when food budgets are stretched with all the family get-togethers and parties. Maybe that time is your whole life. Maybe you have plenty of cash to spare, but want to use it for things other than extravagant meals.

Whatever the case, making a frugal meal definitely does not have to be tasteless and boring!

With my “Less Than 5” category, I am aiming to create and share recipes which take less than $5, less than 5 minutes to make, and/or less than 5 ingredients. Bonus points for me if all three apply!

I will update this post periodically as I continue to add more “Less Than 5” recipes. This one will be specific to meals which will cost less than $5 per serving. So if you only have a few dollars in your pocket, you are better off reading these recipes and heading to the grocery store than blowing it all at once on a dollar menu. These recipes will (mostly) be filling and somewhat healthy for pennies a plate.

money

First let’s get the classic budget recipes in a list:

  • Peanut butter & jelly sandwich
  • Macaroni & cheese (though with the price of cheese soaring, I don’t know about homemade mac n cheese anymore)
  • Ramen noodles
  • Beans & Rice
  • Tuna salad sandwich

Now these are a little bit more creative:

Do you have any recipe ideas that are less than $5? Please share in the comments!

Testing Walmart Grocery To Go

 

Hey readers! Exciting news.

Walmart To Go is expanding to Grocery To Go. It is a shop online, home delivery service for food & other goods, and is now being offered in the Denver, CO area.

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I was recently invited by Walmart Grocery To Go to collaborate on an event initiative. They will provide me with food and other items through their delivery service and I’ll photograph my events to show how their service fits my lifestyle.

They’re not paying me to say good things, and I’m free to share my honest opinions. If you want to know more about the service, check out www.walmart.com/grocery and enter your zip code to see if it’s available in your area yet.

Feel free to ask any questions using the hash-tags #PartyToGo and #WalmartGrocery.

My first dinner party using their service will be this weekend, so stay tuned for a post about how that went, and follow along with updates via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BudgetEpicurean) and Twitter (@BudgetEpicurean).

Walmart to go truck