Sauteed Chicken with Zucchini & Summer Squash

Summer's a great time to play with produce, whether you grow it in your own backyard, hit up the local market, or head to the farmer's market to pick up something that somebody else grew in their backyard.

Here's an easy dish with lots of flavor that combines the tastes of fresh zucchini, summer squash, and tomatoes. You can grill the chicken instead of cooking it in a skillet if you like.

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Tenders

Time has flown, and it sort of feels like I completely missed the month of February. There are a lot of big but exciting changes going on around here, so I've been swamped with everything connected to that and haven't done a ton of cooking.

However, a few weeks ago I had a "we have a bunch of stuff that needs to be used up" day, and decided to play a bit with some bacon. 

Everybody loves bacon. Except vegetarians. And maybe even some of them love bacon, too, just secretly.

This looks a lot more complicated than it really is. Start to in the oven was about fifteen minutes total.

Here's how to make it.

Caprese Chicken

Back in November, I was looking for a new and tasty but easy to prepare dish that I could serve when we invited our priest to dinner. In my search, I discovered a creative recipe for Caprese chicken from The Novice Chef, and it turned out delicious.

Last night, in my efforts to finish up a few odds and ends around the kitchen, I realized I had the ingredients to make Caprese chicken again. But this time, I added a few slight twists to make it my own.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can easily multiply the ingredients to increase the servings - or just make it for one! Here's how I made it.

Crispy Buffalo Chicken Bites

Here's an easy, quick recipe you can put together and serve in about a half hour or so, start to finish. It beats commercially made, frozen chicken nuggets hands down. I adapted it from the "Crunchy Whole-Grain Chicken Bites" recipe from The Pampered Chef's 29 Minutes to Dinner recipe book. Mostly because I didn't have any whole-grain chips (meaning Sun-Chips) or ranch dressing mix.

Of course, if you're not a fan of buffalo sauce, you can always leave the chicken bites plain and serve with your family's favorite dipping sauces.

Mexican Grilled Chicken with Spicy Black Beans & Rice

This past week, the thermometer decided to test the "above 90 degrees" thing, which meant by Saturday I was in no mood to heat up the kitchen in order to provide dinner.

Thankfully, we got our grill working.

This recipe was so easy, I'm a little surprised I hadn't figured it out before this.

Spinach & Feta Stuffed Chicken

You know how sometimes you have stuff sort of sitting in your fridge because you bought it on sale, or for a different recipe, and now you're just not sure what to do with it?  I had that happen a few months ago with baby spinach and crumbled feta cheese.

A couple of Google searches later, I came across a recipe from Food.com for an easy spinach and feta stuffed chicken breast, and thought I'd give it a whirl, and my own small twists.

Ready to see how it's done?

Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Bake

There are many variations of cheesy chicken and broccoli casseroles out there, and I admit to researching said recipes in developing my own.  What I came up with is incredibly easy and very filling, especially on a cold, late winter day.  What my husband particularly liked was that the broccoli retained some of its crunchy texture, since I used raw broccoli rather than steamed.

While I specifically cooked some chicken to use when I made this recipe, it's a great way to use up leftover chicken (or even turkey!), since you only need about two cups at most.  Obviously, the more chicken and broccoli you use, the more people you can serve.  This recipe was enough for two people for dinner.

TurboFire Chicken Cacciatore

People seem to love slow cooker meals.  I do too.  Relatively little prep work, easy clean up - especially if your slow cooker has a removable insert that you can put in the dishwasher - and your house smells great all day.

Here's a great, healthy chicken cacciatore recipe from the TurboFire cookbook that went over well with my family.  I did some adjustments to meet my taste preferences from the original recipe. Here's what I did.

Chicken Wing Dip

There are two really good reasons why you should try making this chicken wing dip, if you never have before.

Reason #1 - Football
Reason #2 - Holiday Parties

Somewhere between those two occurrences, you will discover how awesome this chicken wing dip is, will be asked to make it in copious amounts for every gathering, and even those copious amounts will prove inadequate to handle its life span of 2.76 seconds.

I wish I could take credit for creating this recipe, but I can't.  It's the good ol' Frank's RedHot Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip recipe.  Probably the only thing I sometimes do differently is use an alternate hot sauce, based on availability at the store, and I generally have to double or triple the amount because - as I mentioned - I'm often asked to make "vats" of this stuff.

I'm not kidding on the "vats" thing.

There are two ways to make this chicken wing dip. You can bake it, or you can use a slow cooker.  I'll give you directions for both.

Pampered Chef Pecan-Crusted Chicken with Sweet Mustard Dressing

Are you stuck for a mid-week dinner idea? I know it's hard to come home from work and prepare something healthy and delicious for your family.  Here's a tasty dish that you can whip up in about a half hour.

It's the pecan-crusted chicken with sweet mustard dressing, from Pampered Chef's 29 Minutes to Dinner cookbook.  It's crunchy, sweet, salty, and easy.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Chili

Normally, people think of slow cookers as an easy way to create warm, delicious meals in the middle of winter.  There's nothing quite like the smell of hearty beef stew or chicken soup filling your house on a cold winter day, and knowing you'll get to dig in after those luscious flavors have simmered for up to ten hours.

So why am I blogging about a slow cooker recipe in June?

Well, just as slow cookers are life-and-dinner-savers in the wintertime, they are great for summer as well.  Think about it for a minute - sometimes you just don't want to grill (hold off on the horrified gasps for a minute, friends), but you want a hearty meal.  Now where I live, we don't usually get super hot summer days until, oh, end of July (this past week's heat wave notwithstanding).  So even though my dear husband likes to fire up the grill, I usually have no qualms about stirring something up on the stove or baking in the oven.

But slow cookers are great for summer.  Minimal fuss, you're not heating up a single element on your stove top, and they don't add much heat to your kitchen.  Do I recommend them for a 95+ degree day?  Not unless you have central air.  (Which I now have, and I'm looking forward to a summer of baking and canning in cool, air-conditioned comfort.)  On the hottest of hot days, a spinach and tomato salad alongside a couple hot dogs is as fancy as we'll get around here.

But I'm digressing terribly.

Chili is definitely a winter food.  But thanks to your slow cooker, you can enjoy it in the summer with minimal fuss and discomfort.  This particular chili recipe has the added bonus of being low calorie and low fat, thanks to the use of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

And your hands-on time is maybe ten minutes, tops, depending on your dexterity with two forks.

This recipe doesn't have to be made in a slow cooker.  You can make it on the stove as well.  Use a large (three to four quart) pot, and simmer for about a half hour before shredding the chicken.

Chinese Chicken Salad with Honey-Sesame Dressing

Up until about six months ago, I'd never heard of napa cabbage.  Sometimes it's called Chinese cabbage or celery cabbage.

When I read the recipe for this Chinese chicken salad in my Turbo Fire recipe book, I was leery.  I don't care for cabbage in the least.  But I figured it was worth a shot.  If nothing else, I could pick out the chicken and other ingredients, and leave the cabbage for my husband to eat.

But napa cabbage isn't terribly cabbage-y.  It tastes a lot like celery, which is probably why it's sometimes called celery cabbage.

Isn't that a pretty salad?  

I thought so too, and it's so easy to make. Here's how I made mine.

Julia Child's Coq au Vin

If you're looking for a relatively easy but impressive dish to serve, say, on Valentine's Day, and have about an hour free to prepare such a meal, the coq au vin recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking may be perfect.

I will admit I'm just a touch more in love with Julia's boeuf bourguignon.  But this coq au vin is so delicious.  I've made it twice, once for my family and once for some of my coworkers (I love having little dinner parties!) and both times it surprised everyone in an exceptional way.  When cooked, the chicken takes on a reddish-brown appearance, which makes everyone think it's beef until they cut into it.  It's like a happy surprise!

Bleu Cheese Alfredo with Chicken and Spinach

A few years ago, I developed an alfredo sauce recipe from a couple recipes I found in books and online, and last weekend I decided to give it a go, with a little twist.

A bleu cheese twist.

It was incredibly quick to prepare, and I decided to mix in some cooked chicken and baby spinach to give it some extra nutrition, and to use up some chicken I'd cooked the day before.

The result was beautiful, and my husband, who isn't particularly a fan of alfredo, loved it.

Chicken Marbella

I recently tried out a slow cooker recipe I snagged out of Woman's Day for chicken marbella.  It was really easy and an interesting combination of flavors.  I followed the recipe pretty closely, though I did make a couple minor adjustments and discovered a couple things I'd do the next time I make it.

I apologize for some of the lower quality photos.  The light in my kitchen was a little off the day I made this.

Chicken Marsala with Oven Roasted Thyme Potatoes

I absolutely love Chicken Marsala.  I love it in restaurants, I love it at home.  I love that there are about a dozen different variations on the recipe.  It's a fantastic example of Italian cooking that wows just about anyone you serve it to.

Normally Chicken Marsala is served over pasta, either angel hair or linguini.  Last time I made it for dinner, I decided to deviate from the "norm" - probably because I was out of pasta. (A Sicilian out of pasta?  Sacrilege!)  Instead, I served it over oven roasted thyme potatoes.