Creative Kids' Food- Snake Hoagie/ French Bread recipe

The kids liked making this.  We made home made French bread (this one was a double recipe), shaping the long loaf into a wavy line.  We used scissors to make cuts into the top for scales.  After baking, cut the loaf in half (a little tricky) and use to make a big hoagie.  Cut into slices to serve. 

French Bread (one small loaf)

1 1/4 Cup very warm water (not hot)
1 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. yeast
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups Bread flour or all purpose flour

Glaze:  2 Tbs. water + 1/2 tsp. salt- mix until salt dissolves

*The dough can be made in a bread maker, using the dough program.  If you do that, run the first 5 ingredients on the dough program.  When done, place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled.  Then follow same instructions after the first rise below.

Place warm water, sugar, and yeast in a bowl until the yeast bubbles and begins to rise- about 10 minutes.  Once it is ready, place into a mixer bowl and add salt and 3 cups of flour.  Using a dough hook, mix until all ingredients are incorporated.  Add flour until it is the right bread dough consistency, usually 1/2 cup.  Knead with the dough hook for 5 minutes.  When done, place in a greased bowl (spray with Pam) and turn over.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled. 

Punch dough down.  Roll into a rectangle with a rolling pin.  Starting with the longest side, roll up tightly, pressing the end seam to seal, tapering at both ends.  Place the loaf on a greased sheet (in a wavy line if making a snake).  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled again, about 40 minutes.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  With a sharp knife, cut shallow slashes on the top, on the diagonal (cut into scales with sharp scissors if making a snake) and gently brush the top with the salt water glaze.  Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes, until a deep golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting. 

Creative kids' food- Cheeseburger

One day when we were have bacon cheeseburgers for dinner, we had the kids make monster faces. You do what you have to do to get them to eat sometimes! This was Ryan's monster. I like the bacon eyebrows. Cute. They all ate, and had fun making the monsters first!

Spicy Honey Chicken Salad

It is no secret that I love Our Best Bites' recipes.  Almost a year ago, I tried their Spicy Honey Chicken Salad with mango and avocado.  Delicious!  We have had it many times since. 

You can get the recipe from Our Best Bites by clicking this link.  

Over time, I have added a few more ingredients--- and I use a different dressing.  The recipe with my changes is:

Chicken- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (only because it's what I always have on hand)
Rub: 2 tsp. garlic powder
         2 tsp. chili powder
         1/2 tsp. onion powder
         1/2 tsp. coriander
         1 tsp. Lawry's seasoning salt
         1/2 tsp. cumin
         1/4- 1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder (depending on your taste and how hot the powder is)

Mix all the rub together in a large ziploc bag.  Shake with the chicken until it is evenly coated.  Grill the chicken until done, or pan fry (using 1-2 tsp. canola oil) until done. 

Stir together 1/2 Cup honey and 1 Tbs. cider vinegar.  You may need to heat the honey in the microwave to be able to stir it together.  Once mixed, divide in half.  A couple of minutes before the chicken is done, brush one half of the honey mixture over the chicken, on both sides.  Once done, cut into strips and drizzle with the rest of the honey. 

For the salad, you'll need:  (divided evenly into 4-6 portions)

Spicy Honey Chicken
Lettuce
2 mangoes, diced
2 avocados, diced
1/2 cup crispy rice noodles (not chow mein noodles)
1/2 cup almonds, glazed
several thin slices of a red onion
can of mandarin oranges, drained

Dressing:

1 mango, diced and pureed in blender

3/4 cup mayo (probably could use plain greek yogurt- I'll have to try it sometime)

1/3 cup sugar (can use honey)

3 Tbs. vinegar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

***I have two different brands of chipotle chili powder.  One is much spicier than the other, even though there isn't a specified difference on the labels.  You won't really know how spicy you like the chicken until you make it- and then you can adjust the amount of chipotle pepper the next time.  The first couple of times I made it, I used a powder that wasn't very spicy, so following the recipe was fine.  I wondered why they called it spicy honey chicken.   Then I made it with a different brand (not knowing that it was more spicy) and I may have spilled a little (very little) extra in, but I didn't worry about it because I knew that it wasn't very spicy in the first place!  As I served it to my friends, I told them not to worry, that it wasn't very spicy.  Only to have them just about choke with the first bite and grabbing for glasses of milk/water because it was so hot.  I was very surprised, tried it and had the same reaction.  While it is still good, if it is too spicy, it overwhelms the flavor of the mango and avocado.  It is good to find a balance where it is still spicy, but your taste buds aren't burning so you can't taste anything else! 

Missing Training Table- Chicken Fiesta Sandwich

Ah....Training Table.  One of Utah's best burger restaurants.  You can get a great burger (or sandwich) and also die a heavenly death eating cheese fries with their special hickory fry sauce.  We also like Smashburger.  But back to Training Table.  We have tried making their Chicken Fiesta sandwich at home many times.  It just hasn't tasted quite right without their hickory sauce.  So, we would usually go to the restaurant (to eat) and then buy a quart- it freezes (in family serving sizes) well. 

Right now, that isn't an option, and I don't think they'd ship.  Or, rather, it wouldn't be worth the refrigerated shipping fees if they did ship.  After doing a little research online, I found something that said that Cattlemen's barbecue sauce is a close match to their hickory sauce. After trying to locate some, I found that I would have to drive about an hour to buy it, so I settled for buying several different varieties at the store and trying them out. Of the ones that I bought, I found one that isn't like Training Table's sauce, but its taste complements the pineapple and chicken, so it still works well. Good enough for someone in Training Table withdrawal, anyway. The winner:

It was quite good, although still a second to Training Table's.  The nicest part of the Chicken Fiesta?  It's super easy.  Just grill up a boneless, skinless, trimmed chicken breast (or enough for your family).  We tried using various spices on the chicken- but found we liked it better with just Lawry's seasoning salt and pepper.  I do think that teriyaki chicken would be good on it, too.  When the chicken is done, grill two pineapple rings per sandwich.  Layer them on hamburger buns with lots of barbecue sauce (and mayo if you want to be more like TT- but I prefer to not water down the flavor of the bbq sauce), and enjoy while pretending you are in a cheerful restaurant listening to the phones for ordering buzzing all over the place.  You'll be out of luck making cheese fries that are anywhere near as good, but at least the sandwich will be close!

***I have since found Cattlemen's at Sam's Club and I immediately bought it.  After I got home, I realized that I still have several open jars of various brands of bbq sauce from trying to figure out which one's closest.  So I haven't opened the gallon sized container of Cattlemen's to see if that's even better.  When I open it, I'll come back and let you know.  In the meantime, does anyone have any great recipes using lots of barbecue sauce???   :) 

***If you live in Utah and are lucky enough to be able to go to Training Table....go!  For me!  And then go to Wingers.....the closest one here is in Tennessee (not close at all).....then go splash around in the fountains at Gateway....and then go to Iggy's--- another Utah original,  for their bread dipped in sweet and spicy chile water.....then go into the mountains for a picnic.....and to the Mandarin for almond chicken and mongolian beef.....and then to Great Harvest for a thick slice of wheat bread......then go to one of the amazing, large, and FULL libraries where you can get any book you want....and then to Smashburger for a spicy chicken sandwich..... and then to Gardner Village, just to wander around with the kids.....and then to Rumbi for a VooDoo Salad,  and then to Megaplex where you can use your refillable mug for only a buck AND have reserved seats.... then go swimming at one of the amazing, clean (and cheap) family rec centers....then to Kneaders for their Chicken a la Mondo Salad or Turkey bacon avocado sandwich.....and then to St. George to MARV'S--- the absolute BEST Burger ever (and I usually don't like burgers, even though you'd never know it from this post).....and to Pizza Factory for a bread stick twist....then back to Salt Lake to Material Girls and Thimbles and Threads, two of the cutest quilt shops around with incredibly nice, friendly owners.....and then top it all off with Sweet Tooth Fairy's Pina Colada cupcakes, only available in July (they won't ship cupcakes- super lame!)if you've missed the July availability- get a vanilla one-- and I usually don't like vanilla, but this one's yummy.....OR an Iceberg/ Arctic Circle shake.....all while enjoying that the summer evenings cool off and become quite pleasant.....and that there is little to no humidity and very few bugs!  It may take you a month or two (or more), but you can do it! For me!  :)