Lime Chicken Quesadillas

Last night, I was craving something of the Southwestern flavor. I have seasoning packets from Amazing Taste along with recipe cards from them and I came up with an adaptation of their recipe card (the recipe on the card I have is also on their website) for Lime Chicken and turned it into Lime Chicken Quesadillas. They were fantastic with just the right amount of lime and southwest seasonings to make the perfect chicken for these quesadillas. If you celebrate Cinco De Mayo than this is a great dish for that. I served it with some southwestern salsa I got at the store and it was a hit for the family. I also made a cold corn and black bean salad that got rave reviews from the family also (which is another blog post coming up soon).

I strongly urge people to pick up these Amazing Taste Seasonings because they are economical and so easy to use. They make food taste AMAZING! You do not have to be a gourmet chef to make something fantastic with these packets. With my quesadillas, I used the simple poultry seasoning.



Lime Chicken Quesadillas

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 packet of Amazing Taste Poultry Seasoning
1/3 cup lime juice
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh lime zest
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
10 flour tortillas
southwestern salsa (optional)
sour cream (optional)

Mix up all ingredients except chicken, cheese, tortillas, and salsa. In a large ziplock bag, combine the chicken with the marinade and let sit for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray square baking dish with cooking spray and put marinated chicken in the dish. Bake 30 minutes, then turn. Bake 30 minutes more until done. Slice into thin strips for the quesadillas.
Spray griddle or frying pan with cooking spray. On one flour tortilla place some of the chicken and cheese, top with another flour tortilla. Cook until brown on both sides and cheese is melted. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Serve with southwestern salsa and sour cream if desired.

Dill and Lemon Tilapia

Another winner by Amazing Taste in this Seafood Seasoning I received from them with my tilapia. The seasoning made into a marinade (I just used the instructions on the back of the package) was one of the best I have had for fish. It had just the right amount of dill and lemon to make this a winning combination for a fast easy dinner. I had 4 tilapia fillets in the freezer from our last Costco trip and decided I wanted to try their marinade. It was hands down wonderful, the whole family loved it.

At 99 cents a package, this makes a wonderful addition to any meal. You can use this as a sprinkle on seasoning, or follow the directions on the back of any of the packages for marinades or meatloaf (on the back of the burger seasoning packet). In this economy, Amazing Taste has made it affordable to make great meals for the family for a very low cost. Add this to your favorite meat today and watch your meals come alive! For the seafood seasoning, you can season any fish, shellfish, and scallops.

Here is what I did:
Dill and Lemon Tilapia
(using the instructions for marinade on the back of the package)

4 Tilapia fillets
1 packet of Amazing Taste Seafood seasoning (just follow the instructions on the back of the package for marinade)



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine ingredients for marinade as directed on the back of the package. Let tilapia marinate for at least 5 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes. Garnish with favorite herbs, lemon slices, or extra dill.

This fish was wonderfully flaky with amazing flavor in the marinade.

Tips:
- If you do not want it very lemony, take the lemon juice down to 2 Tbsp and add some more fresh dill.
- This would be an excellent recipe to have a little dollop of sour cream on top. I didn't think of it until after we ate all the fish. But, next time I am trying that.

So you can get this at your favorite supermarket in your area by clicking on Amazing Taste and then going to store locater and you can find a store near you to purchase this product. Or else, go to the website and order it from there, they have many flavors of seasoning packets or shaker cans for other types of seasonings at very reasonable prices. So far I am 2 out of 2 in enjoying their great products. I look forward to trying the rest of the seasoning packets.

Inside-Out Cheeseburgers

Well, Spring has officially sprung here in the Pacific Northwest; finally, we decided to break out the BBQ today since we had 70 degree weather here (wonderful after having snow just last week) and whip up some burgers. I have always wanted to try something new with my burgers but, Richard never wanted to (he likes burgers just the way they are supposed to be as in cheese on top of the burger, not inside). So I snuck in the cheese and bacon in the middle of the patties and he was none the wiser; until he bit into it! But he really liked it, but it had to be something else other than cheese and bacon in the middle (oh and the cheese he had to put on top of the burgers like he always does anyway, even though the cheese is supposed to be in the middle and not on top with these burgers, but whatever makes the hubby happy!). In the meat itself is a great ingredient that made these burgers so flavorful, they were just amazing. I used a packet of Amazing Tastes Burger Seasoning mixed into the meat and it gave it so much flavor that it was one of the best burgers I have tasted. I highly recommend going and getting some of this seasoning at your local supermarket or if they do not have it, just order it online from their site. At just 99 cents a packet, that has to make a wallet happy since seasoning packets are getting so expensive in this economy. It makes a lot of sense to get what is inexpensive, especially when it tastes so good... It is so good, it is AMAZING! Now, on with the recipe.

Inside-Out Cheeseburgers

2 lbs ground beef
1 packet Amazing Taste Burger Seasoning
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg

Cheddar cheese
Bacon

Mix together ground beef, seasoning packet, bread crumbs, and egg. Set aside.

Slice cheddar cheese into squares about 1/2 inch thick, set aside.
Cook bacon until done, pat the grease out of bacon with paper towels. Cut into 2-3 inch pieces.

Forming patties:
Take about 1/4-1/2 cup meat mixture and form a flat patty. Then put 1-2 slices of cheese on top of that, and then 2 slices of bacon. Take 1/4 cup meat mixture and place on top and pat the ends together so you have a patty making sure that you cannot see the cheese, this way it seals the cheese in the middle and it won't run out while BBQing or broiling.

Cook about 10-13 minutes on BBQ (6-7 minutes on each side) or about 6 minutes each side under broiler. Make sure you only flip once, a lot of flipping could make them fall apart. Place cheese on top if desired for double cheeseburger effect. Enjoy!

(once again, sorry about the picture being sort of foggy, like I said many times before... I need a new camera.)

Tips:
- You can use any type of cheese, we just used cheddar since that was in the fridge. But I think a good combo would be pepperjack and jalapenos inside with a guacamole topping for a Mexican burger, just for one example.

Jerky.com

I have recently come across a site that has many kinds of meat jerky and fruit jerky. This looks very promising for nutritious snacks. Jerky has products that are hormone free, from free range animals, with all natural ingredients. Prices are reasonable and the selection is pretty good. They have meats such as ostrich, buffalo, alligator, beef, turkey, and other types. Just check them out today and see what you think.

They have great gift giving ideas for anyone who loves jerky. Works well for people especially hard to buy for because they have everything.

Beef Jerky Gifts

Give them a try today! Hopefully soon I will have product reviews about their products so watch for those coming at a later date!

Peeling Apples is a Breeze

Recently, I finally went and purchased a new apple peeler (since the one I have had for quite a few years finally went belly up and went to the big peeler heaven for all good peelers). Let me tell you, every kitchen should have one of these babies! I absolutely love it! It peels apples like a champ, and cores them at the same time. My kiddos love it when I use this to peel their apples, core them, and slice them at the same time.

What is really nice is that the base just uses suction to stay on the counter; with the little lever on the base, just slide it to the side and the peeler stays right in place. Believe me, it works really well. Then to take it off the counter to wash it, just move the lever back to the other side and it comes right up. *Always wash your peeler with just good old soap and water to keep it like new for many years.*

How you do this is so easy.

First, place the apple (or potato, or pear, or whatever needs peeling)into the apple peeler and then get it lined up with the corer (if you want the core out or put the core cutter down if you do not want to core something, such as potatoes that just need peeling).

Then, you just crank the handle (it almost cranks by itself, it goes so easy and quick with almost no effort at all) and it peels the apple while pushing it through the corer. What could be easier?!

Then, just pull off the peeled and cored apple. My kids love to eat their apples this way because it comes off in a spiral shape (especially my 3 yr old loves her apples this way because it is fun to eat).


Last, you just pull off the core and throw it away or compost it (if that is what you do with kitchen scraps).


This apple peeler will come in very handy when I make my applesauce, apple butter, and peel and can apple slices for pies and other desserts. I am also looking forward to taking about 10 lbs of apples to make dehydrated apple slices for the kids, since they love things like that in their lunches or snacks. (dehydrated fruits is another post entirely and coming soon, just keep checking back) I am getting 3 boxes of apples this weekend (that is 75 lbs of apples, a lot of apples to have to peel). And, I can have the kids turn the crank for me since they think that is a lot of fun!

Try it also on potatoes, pears, and whatever else you think you can peel with it. My motto goes something like this: If in doubt, try it anyway; because you never know what you can do until you try!

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer Saves Money

Saving money is a big thing for me. Therefore, I use a vacuum sealer for food I buy in bulk for the freezer, especially meat. I have a Food Saver Vacuum Sealer and it is worth it's weight in gold. You can vacuum seal your food in bags or canisters to elongate it's shelf life. When you freeze meat and other foods in food saver bags; it doesn't get freezer burnt and keeps a lot longer than if you just put the food in Ziplock bags.

You can save about 10-50 cents a pound when you buy bulk meats or vegetables and then freeze them in Food Saver bags. This will eliminate some trips to the store since you already have a good supply of these things in the freezer (or deep freeze chest freezer).

With the dry canisters, you can seal in flour, sugar, other dry ingredients to keep the shelf life on those things longer. Sealed dry ingredients will ensure that mice, boll weevils, and other critters are not going to get into your food in the pantry. Additionally, it is just as easy to reseal it as it is to seal it. Not a long chore that it used to be to preserve food.

There are also other vacuum sealers on the market that might be less in cost to the Food Saver and some (such as Rival brand) are just as good, just lower cost. But, I like the Food Saver because I can always find replacement bag rolls for them. I do not see too many other vacuum sealer brands out there in the stores that sell their replacement bag rolls or that have canisters to go along with the vacuum sealer of other brands.

Make Your Own Zest

You know those recipes that call for lemon or orange zest? And, so you know how expensive that can be at the store. Well don't buy your zest at the store anymore, make it yourself. You can buy a Lemon Zester at my store, or at any kitchen store that sells tons of gadgets. I especially like the Oxo brand. It holds up great to any type of kitchen abuse it may receive. With an ergonomic handle, that makes it easier to hold onto effectively as it does not slip out of the hand. It is a brand that is not outrageously expensive, but it is great quality. This is the zester I personally have at home and I highly recommend it.

lemon zester

When you need some lemon or orange zest in your recipes, all you have to do is go buy a lemon or orange from the produce section at the store (or any local farmer's market) and take the tool and start scraping away at the peel. It zests your fruit easily and this homemade zest tastes better than store bought stuff any day of the week, because it is fresh rather than from a jar. You can have zest for pennies per serving doing it this way.

With this tool, you can also make fancy garnish decorations using orange, lemon, or lime peel making curly-Qs that go well in drinks, or garnish for an elegant meal. In peeling mode, it can even peel chocolate curly-Qs from a regular chocolate bar, I have garnished many a dessert with this tool.

The benefits are it cost way less, the food will taste better since fresh zest has better flavor, and there are no preservatives added such as what some commercial spice companies use to make it last a long time. That's what I like!

Putting Food By Cookbook Review

Putting Food By is a cookbook by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice Vaughan and it is a great book for a person just learning to can and preserve food or by seasoned veterans who still go by the book.

This cookbook outlines the processes of canning, freezing foods, preserving utilizing a variety of methods, drying, root cellaring, and a whole lot more information. It even has a handy recipe section within each section. This is where I get my canning recipes from (well one of 2 books, the other book is another post)

I highly recommend this book to anyone who preserves food. It is very easy to use, outlines the information in a non-confusing manner, and the information is not outdated and still can be used easily today as it did when the book was published. I have it in my store and this is where you can get it: Putting Food By, a great cookbook