Basic Hummus

I'll admit it: I'm a hummus newbie. I had only tried it one time in America before coming to India. But after we moved here, in our original flat there was a little hole in the wall Lebanese place nearby that had really great hummus, and I was converted. It also helps that hummus is one of the few ways I can get myself to eat fresh vegetables in India. 

I didn't try my hand at making homemade hummus until a couple of weeks ago, and now I don't know why I waited so long. It's actually really simple, and, like I said, is the vehicle to vegetable eating (and also a great snack options...snacks are the hardest in India!)

I take no credit for this recipe - it is courtesy of my friend Stephanie, although I adjusted it slightly to my tastes. I think hummus is very much one of those personal taste foods, so take this recipe as a guideline and adjust the amounts to what you like. I personally LOVE garlic, so I add lots of garlic (reflected below), and I also like really really smooth hummus, so I add a decent amount of olive oil to it. I actually don't measure anything other than the chick peas; I just add approximate amounts and adjust as I taste it. 

The bonus of this recipe is that no tahini is needed, and it still tastes awesome! Like I said though, I'm a hummus newbie, so I may just not be well versed in hummus enough to know the difference without the tahini. 

P.S. I think hummus is kind of a weird word, and it felt weird to say it in my head so many times as I was typing this out...

Basic Hummus

2 cups of cooked chicken peas/garbanzo beans

1/4 cup of dahi (Greek Yogurt)

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2+ TBS olive oil

1 TBS water

2 TBS lemon juice (I use the bottled kind, not fresh, bc I'm lazy)

1/2-1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

Black pepper to taste

Add all the ingredients to a blender/food processor. Pulse a couple of times to get things mixed together, then blend on low/medium speed for one minute. Check the hummus flavor and texture and then adjust to your tastes. Add more olive oil if you want it smoother, add extra seasoning, more garlic or more lemon juice if it tastes bland, etc. 

** To cook the chick peas, I soak them overnight and then cook them in the pressure cooker until soft. Obviously you can use canned chick peas in place of fresh if you have them. 

Crunchy Fiesta Chicken Casserole

Holy yum.

Y'all. I loved this dish. Really loved. REALLY.

And it was soooooooo easy. Please tell me you'll make it.

When I was getting dinner ready, Landon asked what we were having. I told him chicken with cheese and chips on it. He said, "Whoa-hoh, good choice, Mom!" And he was right. Excellent choice. 

Mix and Match Mama wins again! I love her recipes!

Her original recipe was for just the chicken casserole, but I took the suggestion of one of the comments and served it over brown rice. Definitely the way to go. I think it gave it a lot more substance that way. You could also add in some black beans to give it a little something extra if you want. 

For real, you need to make this.

Crunchy Fiesta Chicken Casserole

Original Recipe

1 pound chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1/2 cup of salsa

1/2 cup of Dahi (or sour cream)

1 recipe of cream of chicken soup substitute

8-10 jarred jalapeños, finely chopped

1-2 TBS southwest seasoning (or taco, or any Mexican type seasoning)

2 cups of shredded cheese

2 cups of tortilla chips, slightly crushed

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (350 F)

Combine chicken, southwest seasoning, salsa, dahi, cream of chicken soup, jalapeños and 1 cup cheese. 

Spray a small casserole dish (mine is 9x11) with cooking spray. Spread the chicken mixture in the casserole dish. Top with remaining 1 cup of cheese and then crushed tortilla chips. Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes. Serve over brown rice (optional).

Santa Fe Chicken Casserole

I'm really excited to share this recipe with you.

This casserole was super. Super duper.

I used to cook a lot of recipes from Kraft Foods - remember the good ol' days when their monthly magazine was free? Those magazines fed us for a lot of the beginning of our marriage! 

The magazine may not be free anymore, but they do send out weekly emails of recipes. A lot of the recipes aren't super India friendly, so a lot of times I kind of ignore them right now, but this one was India capable, and I loved it!

It's kind of like a Mexican lasagna, with tortillas instead of lasagna noodles. But after baking, the tortillas sort of morphed into this half tortilla/half noodle texture that was just great. Great I tell you.

Look at those layers...despite the terrible pic

Once again I used this as my cream cheese:

I made a handful of modifications to the recipe, but it follows the basic guidelines. I swapped out the tomatoes for a bell pepper because Kyle and I aren't huge chunks of tomato fans. But if you are, by all means throw some tomatoes in there!

I think I used about a cup of shredded cheese total in this dish. But if we're honest, it was maybe more. I don't ever measure cheese in a dish like this (or any dish?) - just sprinkle with the more is more mentality. 

Does anyone actually measure their cheese?! 

Regardless...enjoy!

Santa Fe Chicken Casserole

Original Recipe

1 pound chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

6 tortillas

1 tub of cream cheese

2 TBS of taco seasoning

2 TBS of milk

1 chopped bell pepper

1 small chopped onion

1 cup of frozen corn, thawed in the microwave

1 1/2 - 2 cups of black beans

1 cup of shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 170 Degrees Celsius (350 F)

Mix the cream cheese, taco seasoning, and milk in a bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, combine the chicken, bell pepper, onion, corn, and black beans. Stir in half of the cream cheese mixture.

Spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray (I think mine is 9x11 inches or weird size like that. You could also do this in a large pie plate with only 3 tortillas).

Spread 1/3 of the chicken mixture in the bottom of the dish. Top with 2 tortillas spread to cover the whole dish, not on top of one another. Spread half of the remaining chicken mixture over the tortillas, followed by 1/3 of the cheese. Layer two more tortillas. Then spread the remaining chicken mixture and half of the remaining of the cheese. Add the final two tortillas. 

Spread the remaining cream cheese mixture over the top tortillas, and then finally sprinkle with the last of the cheese. 

Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes.

Chicken and Potato Creamy Casserole

I hadn't tried any new recipes in a few weeks, so earlier this week I decided to hunt through my Pinterest boards to find recipes lurking there untried. I came across this recipe for a chicken and potato casserole and decided to give it a shot - after all, chicken and potatoes are certainly very available in India!

I'm not gonna lie; this wasn't our most favorite recipe ever. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't awesome, so I probably won't make it again. But, I figure that people have different tastes, so I'd still post it anyway, since it's an easy India recipe (and not Mexican...which 70% of the recipes I make here are, ha ha).

**One note...I felt like in order to cook it long enough for the potatoes to be soft, the chicken wound up being very dry. So I would either cut the potatoes into very small cubes, or even shred them, or I would leave the chicken breasts whole and just set them down in the potatoes immersed in the sauce. But I left the directions below with how I did it from the original recipe.

Chicken and Potato Creamy Casserole

Original Recipe

2 chicken breasts, uncooked and cut into cubes

3 medium sized potatoes, skinned and cut into small cubes

1/4 cup onion, chopped

2 TBS bacon bits (or 2 pieces of bacon, cooked and chopped) 

2 TBS butter, cut in pieces

1 cup of shredded cheese

1/4 cup of Fresh Cream (the little box of cream) - I mixed in a splash of milk to re-liquify it

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt + more to taste

pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (350 F)

Spray a 9x9 casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread the potatoes and chicken together in a layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Next, sprinkle the pieces of butter, chopped onion and bacon bits over the potatoes and chicken, and then add half of the cheese.

In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, 1 tsp of salt and a few dashes of pepper into the cream. Pour over the potatoes and chicken.

Here it was before baking

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Then remove the foil and bake an additional 30 minutes. Sprinkle the other half of cheese over the casserole and bake another 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. 

Like I said, this isn't an award winning recipe in my books, but it would be easy to throw together if you have some potatoes to use up - very pantry staple ingredients!

Creamy Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

I tried out this new recipe from Pinterest (obviously), and I was really impressed at how versatile it is! Not to mention easy - I love the Crock Pot. Whoever invented it deserves a medal.

This is pretty much your standard Mexican chicken type recipe, with one surprising twist - cream cheese!

You just dump everything in the crock pot and shred up your chicken before eating. Simple simple.

We ate this with with some basmati rice wrapped in tortillas, but it would be great just over rice, or plain in a tortilla. The next day I ate some leftovers with some lettuce and crushed up tortilla chips, and it was delicious! You could even eat it with just tortilla chips like loaded nachos - seriously, eat it however you want!

I only used half of the tub of cream cheese, but if you want it to be extra creamy, add the whole tub (if you're in America, an 8 oz block of cream cheese). I've found that the Mother Dairy tub of cheese spread works as a pretty decent substitute for cream cheese (I've used it in cheesecake also).

Creamy Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

Original Recipe

1 lb chicken breasts

1 cup of salsa

1/2-1 whole tub of cream cheese

2 cups of black beans

1 cup of frozen corn

1 medium onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 TBS chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

(instead of the chili powder and cumin, you could also add a package of taco seasoning)

Shredded cheese for serving (optional)

Add everything to the crock pot. Stir to combine. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Shred the chicken with two forks before serving, and stir together.

Serve with rice, tortillas, lettuce, tortilla chips, or any combination!

Chicken Burgers (or meatballs) with Spinach and Cheese

For some reason, I've been a little leery about making burgers in India. Maybe because I've never had a chicken/turkey burger before, so I just wondered if they were a little bit weird.

So these were my first attempt at India burgers...and I must say, we all loved them! Even Landon, my pick eater, loved the "handaburg" as he calls them. Layla calls them "hangabers." I have the cutest kids.

Anyway, here they are!

I sprinkled a little bit extra of the grated "processed cheddar cheese" that I had also mixed into the patties, but you could also top it with a slice of cheese. In fact, you could pay the big bucks to get real, actual cheddar cheese, and these would probably be even more delicious. I think they would taste PERFECT with a smear of mayonnaise, but alas, I didn't have any when we ate these. Maybe next time - because there WILL be a next time.

Take note that you need to mix this together 2 hours before you actually want to make dinner - it allows all the yummy flavors to infuse into the meat more.

Tip: I toasted the buns with a  little bit of butter in the pan after cooking the burgers, and that was definitely the perfecting touch on these burgers. Totally worth the extra effort.

Chicken Burgers with Spinach and Cheese

Original Recipe

1 lb/450 grams of ground chicken (chicken keema)

1 onion cut into big chunks

1 cup of wilted spinach (just sauté it in a pan for a couple minutes)

3+ cloves of garlic

2 TBS of balsamic vinegar

2 tsp of soy sauce

1 tsp of lemon juice

1/2 tsp chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup shredded cheese

1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs (or regular bread crumbs, or crushed Monaco crackers)

Put your chicken keema in a large bowl. In a blender or food processor, add the spinach, onion, and garlic and pulse until well chopped, but not pureed. Add to bowl with chicken. Add the remaining ingredients into the bowl with the chicken and mix everything together well. 

Cover and refrigerate for 2+ hours.

When you're ready to eat, heat a pan over medium heat. Make 6 patties out of the chicken, and add to the pan (I used 2 pans with 3 patties in each). Cook for 6-7 minutes per side...I'll confess that I perhaps overcooked these a little, but I don't have a meat thermometer and was super paranoid about undercooking them since it's chicken and not beef. 

Top with additional cheese after cooking. Serve on toasted buns with mayo, lettuce, and tomato if you have it! Even additional sliced onion would be great.

As an option, you can also roll these into meatballs instead of burgers! Mix the meat the exact same way, but then roll into balls and either pan fry or bake in the oven. Eat them plain or with some salad.

Cajun Chicken Pasta - Pioneer Woman

Fun fact: my first job I started at age 16 was working at a Cajun restaurant. I honestly didn't even know what Cajun food was before I started working there, but I quickly learned, and quickly fell in love with the spicy goodness. Although I'll also confess, I could never bring myself to try one of the boiled crawfish...so maybe I'm not truly Cajun after all.

This pasta.

Oh my wow.

Really, all I need to tell you is that it's a Pioneer Woman recipe, and that should sell you on it immediately. (I love you, Ree!!)

Cajun Chicken Pasta?! What's not to love?!

And the best part is, this recipe is totally totally India safe. I have some Cajun seasoning I brought from America, but you could throw your own spice mix together if you don't. (Just google - homemade Cajun seasoning).

Her recipe is so perfect, I'm not even going to give you my own instructions; I'll just point you directly to her site.

Two notes: Firstly, I did not add tomatoes, bc Kyle and I don't really like chunks of tomatoes in pasta, so instead I just used three colors of bell peppers - red, yellow, and green.

Secondly, this is what I used for the cream:

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I don't really understand what this stuff is. It's not heavy whipping cream, because it doesn't have enough fat to whip into cream, but it's so, SO thick, that you can literally scoop it with a spoon. So my suggestion is to squeeze out the package into a separate measuring cup and give it a stir to recombine the liquid and the spoonable clumps, before pouring it into your sauce.

Um, and by two notes I actually meant three: Thirdly, I don't have any white cooking wine, so I just replaced it with extra chicken broth, but it took a long time to thicken up, so I maybe would just omit the cooking wine if you don't have it. Not sure if that's due to the chicken broth or the difference in the cream...I just make the food, I don't know the science behind how it cooks :)

This pasta was sooooooo delicious - and the nice part is you can make it as spicy or not spicy as you want. I'm already trying to decide how short of a time is appropriate to wait before making it again...

Pioneer Woman's Cajun Chicken Pasta