The Baking Beauties » Salads

Gluten-Free Spicy Chicken Taco Salad

Jeanine Friesen — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:33:00 +0000

My favorite dinners are the kind that are quick to prepare, yet full of flavour. Pasta dishes are always a good option, but as the weather gets warmer and the sun shines longer into the evening, it’s nice to have a repertoire of lighter, healthier salads as well. This Spicy Chicken Taco Salad is filled with all of my favorite tex-mex flavours – lettuce, black beans, tomato, lime, avocado, jalapeno, and cumin. While grocery shopping I saw riceworks Salsa Fresca crisps, and knew they be perfect for this salad, since they have a really great crunch and are full of flavour. They are also gluten-free, like all the riceworks crisps. If you can’t find the riceworks crisps, you are welcome to use your favorite salsa/cheese flavoured chips.

Another shortcut that I took was using a bottled salad dressing. The President’s Choice Avocado Dressing with Lime and Jalapeno is perfect for this salad. Since the dressing can only be purchased at certain stores, another alternative is to serve it with this Creamy Avocado Dressing from Closet Cooking.

Please visit Mommy Moment to view my guest post and get the full recipe.

Southwest Chicken Mango Quinoa

Jeanine Friesen — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:20:02 +0000

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I love quinoa. Ask me 2 years ago, and I’d never heard of it. Weird how 2 years ago, one hadn’t ever heard of an ancient grain before, but so it goes! I love how quick it cooks up (perfect for those “What’s for supper today” days). I love the nutty flavour it has behind it. That you can eat it hot or cold, and it’s great either way. And I love that you can do anything with it. Flavour it anyway you want. You want it to be filled with Greek flavours? Done! How about a nice creamy dessert (which is healthy enough for breakfast)? Done! Add some Mexican flair? Why not? It is a very versatile grain. And totally healthy too.

So, when I saw a recipe for a sandwich on a recipe site, I thought…those flavours would be absolutely perfect in a quinoa dish! Well, it was after the “oh my goodness, I wish I had bread good enough and big enough to hold that load of toppings!”. But, you do what you can, and I took the flavours from that sandwich, and incorporated them into this wonderful Southwest Chicken Mango Quinoa Salad.

Southwest Chicken Mango Quinoa

Author: Jeanine Friesen

Recipe type: Salad

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Serves: 4

This quinoa salad is filled with flavours that compliment each other beautifully. For a vegetarian dish, omit the chicken and use a gluten-free vegetable broth instead.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed & drained if necessary (mine says “Pre-rinsed”)
3 cups gluten-free chicken broth
2 chicken breasts, cut into bit size pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 mango, diced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Instructions

In a medium size sauce pan, bring the chicken broth to a boil. Add the quinoa and stir. Turn the heat down to low and place the lid on the pot. Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until all of the liquid is absorbed.
In a large skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat, saute your chicken in the olive oil until nearly done. Season with salt & pepper.
Turn the heat down to medium and add the minced garlic, red onion, red pepper and jalapeno pepper. Saute, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder and stir.
Place the cooked quinoa in a large bowl. Add in the chicken/onion mixture, lime juice, mango and cilantro and stir until mixed. Serve immediately, or allow to cool and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Colorful Grilled Corn Salad

Jeanine Friesen — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 06:49:27 +0000

Welcome to August! Wow, where on earth is the summer going? We’ve been having a fantastic summer so far, I just can’t believe how quickly it is flying by. We will need to do some back-to-school shopping soon, I guess. I love buying the new markers, pencils and supplies for the kids, but this year, I’m just not ready to think about sending them back yet. July went by so quickly though, that if I blink twice, August may be past too.

We have actually been having a beautiful, hot summer this year. Some years, we have a very cool and rainy summer. This year, it is hot and humid, and the rain just isn’t falling much. My garden (of tomatoes, mostly) is still doing well, I have 20 tomato plants, I think, and they are all setting on, I’m just waiting for them to start turning orange. There is nothing as tasty as garden fresh tomatoes. Mmm… Plus, I have a lot of salsa that I need to make this year, since my last year’s tomato crop was a bust, they all started rotting before they turned orange. Very disappointing. So, we will see what this year brings.

Along with the hot weather, comes grilling season. Mainly because no one wants to turn on the stove or be in the kitchen when it is so hot outside. That is where this recipe comes in. I had some fresh corn on the cob at home, and decided to create a Colourful Grilled Corn Salad using grilled corn as the base. DELICIOUS! You can eat it as is, or you can scoop it up with corn chips, the choice is yours. This salad pairs beautifully with grilled steak, chicken, or even fish.

Colorful Grilled Corn Salad

Author: Jeanine Friesen

Hello, summer! Embrace the hot days with this Colourful Grilled Corn Salad.

Ingredients

6 cobs of corn, shucked and cleaned
1 can black (or kidney) beans, drained and rinsed
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced (optional)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
dash hot sauce

Instructions

Grill cleaned corn over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until slightly blackened in areas, allow to cool and cut off corn into a bowl. Add black beans, red pepper red onion, cilantro and jalapeno pepper.
In a small bowl, whisk to combine the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lime juice, agave nectar, salt, garlic, cumin, black pepper, chili powder and hot sauce.
Pour over corn mixture and stir to coat.
Refrigerate for at least half an hour, or until ready to serve.

When it is summer and hot at your place, do you still use the stove, or is use of it banned until it cools off?

Strawberry Mango Salsa

Jeanine Friesen — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:47:00 +0000

The kids and I went berry picking at a U-pick earlier this week, and we came home with 5 large baskets of strawberries. I’ve cooked some jam, cooked some more jam, and some more jam (my kids love strawberry jam, what can I say?). I’ve also frozen some berries whole in glaze. My Mom does this trick. The packets of glaze that you can buy at the grocery store, the one you just mix with sugar and hot water, that’s the glaze that we use. It’s super easy, and when you defrost your berries in winter, they are like fresh, they don’t get all mushy like strawberries do when you just freeze them with sugar.

I’ve also started coming up with other ways to use strawberries, and this savoury salsa fit the bill perfectly! We enjoyed ours with tortilla chips when we had grilled burgers. It is best fresh, so I would only make it 30 minutes before serving it. This salsa would be perfect served on grilled fish or chicken as well.

How do you use up your bounty of fresh berries at this time of year?

Strawberry Mango Salsa

Author: Jeanine Friesen

A salsa with some sweet, and a little bit of heat. Perfect served over fish, or with some corn chips.

Ingredients

1 mango, peeled and diced
2 cups strawberries, cut small
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon lime juice

Instructions

In a bowl, mix together the mango, strawberries, jalapeno pepper and cilantro.
Pour the balsamic vinegar and lime juice, and stir to coat all the fruit with the juices.
Allow to chill for 30 minutes before serving. Stir again before serving. Enjoy!

Wondering how to peel/dice a mango? Watch this video for guidance on how to chose, cut and dice a mango.

Creamy Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes

Jeanine Friesen — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:44:00 +0000

These tomatoes are stuffed with the super healthy, gluten-free, grain-like seed called quinoa. Most of the flavour comes from using the Garlic and Herb flavoured PHILADELPHIA cream cheese. Super simple to make, yet impressive looking and most importantly, delicious! This dish goes great with steak, chicken, or fish.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Total time: 50 minutes

Servings: 6

Creamy Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup(s) of quinoa (rinsed & drained if not pre-rinsed)
2 cup(s) of gluten-free chicken or vegetable stock
2 tsp. of dried minced onion
6 medium tomatoes, tops removed and hollowed out
2/3 cup(s) of Herb & Garlic tub Cream Cheese
1 tbsp. of fresh parsley, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium size sauce pan, combine quinoa, chicken stock, and dried minced onion.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, turn heat down to low and simmer quinoa for about 20 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed.
While the quinoa is cooking, using a sharp knife, carefully remove the tops from your tomatoes. With a small spoon, scrape out the inside of the tomato, making sure to leave the outside of the tomato intact.
Lightly season the inside of the tomato with salt & pepper, and place tomato, upside down, on a baking sheet lined with a cooling rack, or paper towels. This will allow excess moisture to run out of the tomatoes until they are ready to stuff.
Once the quinoa is fully cooked, remove from heat and stir in fresh chopped parsley, and Herb and Garlic tub Cream Cheese. Stir to combine.
Spoon quinoa/cream cheese mixture into the hollowed out tomatoes, and place in oven-safe baking dish. If you like, you can place the top of the tomato, that you removed before hollowing the tomato, on top of the quinoa/cream cheese mixture.
Bake in preheated 375 degree F oven for 20 minutes.
Garnish with a sprig of fresh parsley. Serve immediately.