Dill-Tzatziki Chicken Salad

I bring my lunch to work almost everyday, and I tend to eat either chicken salad or tuna salad on cucumbers.  Since I was pretty impressed with my last attempt at making chicken salad, I thought that I'd give it another try.  I found this recipe on pinterest, and since I'm such a huge fan of tzatziki sauce, it caught my eye.  Instead of using their tzatziki recipe, I went with my own because it's my favorite.  Unfortunately, I don't think that the garlic cloves that I used were large enough to offset the freakin' huge cucumbers that I picked up at Trader Joe's yesterday (or maybe it's just my taste buds) because it tasted a bit more bland than normal.  Normally, I'm not an add-dill-to-my-tzatziki kinda gal, but I decided to add it and think of it more as a part of the chicken salad and less a part of the tzatziki.  The original recipe calls for red onions, but I substituted a sweet onion because that's what I had on hand.  All in all, it was pretty good, and if you are a fan of tzatziki, I'd definitely give it a try!

Here's what I did....

Dill-Tzatziki Chicken Salad

Ingredients

2/3 cup Katie's Tzatziki (I saved the rest of it for snacking with veggies)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill
1/4 cup finely chopped onion (I used a sweet one, but I think red onion would work better)
2 cups shredded Rotisserie Chicken (skinless) 

Directions

Combine the first three ingredients in a medium bowl.  Stir in chicken and coat with sauce.

Enjoy!

Salmon with Dijon Dill Sauce

I'm sure that I've shared it hear many times before that I'm a huge dill fan.  I had some salmon in the freezer that I wanted to use, and I was thinking about doing something with dill since it has been a while since we have had it.  While searching on myrecipes.com, I found one for salmon with potatoes and dill which would also use up some potatoes that we needed to use.  Rick wasn't excited over the recipe so I decided to use it as an inspiration.  We baked two potatoes (for 1 hour at 400F), and I made a Dijon Dill Sauce.  Rick isn't a huge salmon fan, but he liked this recipe (always a plus!).  I did, however, overcook it (forgot to set the timer...oops).  Here's what we did...

Salmon with a Dijon Dill Sauce

Ingredients

• 4  6-ounce salmon fillets, skin removed
• 1/2 tablespoon horseradish
• 1  small shallot, finely chopped
• 1  tablespoon  Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup low fat sour cream
• 2  tablespoons  roughly chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnishing
• black pepper
• salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F (if serving with baked potatoes, start the salmon when the potatoes have 10 minutes left).

Combine shallot, Dijon mustard, sour cream, dill, and horseradish in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper as desired.  Chill in the refrigerator.

Season salmon with salt and pepper. Place the salmon on a baking sheet and roast in the oven 10 minutes or until opaque (depending on the thickness of the salmon).

Top with sauce and enjoy!

Quick and easy brain food

Friday is getting closer and closer, and I'm trying my best to keep the anxiety down and take care of myself as NCLEX is just a few days away.  One of the things that my mom has always told me is that tuna fish is great brain food to eat before big test.  Being short on time, I have decided to share something that I haven't made in quite a while...tuna melts!!  I threw this tuna salad together a couple of years ago, and I don't remember the last time I made it which made trying to duplicate it a little difficult.  Too bad I never wrote it down!  I do my tuna melts on English muffins, cover the tuna salad with cheddar cheese, and broil until the cheese gets a little browned!  I like to eat mine open-faced.

Here's my tuna salad recipe!

Katie's Tuna Salad

Ingredients

1 can of tuna

5 tablespoons Light Mayo

2 tablespoons Dill weed

2 tablespoonsToasted Sesame Seeds

2 tablespoons minced Onion

1 teaspoon Wasabi powder

1 tablespoon Garlic powder

2 slices of Stackers Zesty Dill pickle slices, minced

Directions

Drain tuna.  Mix wasabi with a little bit of water and then combine it with the mayonnaise.  Next mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Sauteed Scallops in a Mustard-Dill Sauce: A mistake that turned out pretty awesome

Once upon a time, I was planning a meal for Rick and I. It was early on in our relationship, and I wanted to make him another delicious dish. I knew that I wanted to do something with scallops, and I accidentally had two different recipes in mind when I was gathering my ingredients at Publix that day. When I got home, I realized what I had done, but I decided to go out on my own and made this. In the end, it turned out to be one of Rick's favorites.

You can serve it over pasta or alone. Chicken can also be used instead of scallops if you don't like them, but of course, cooking time for it will be different.

Ingredients
1 1/2 tablespons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh dill (chopped) + 2 sprigs for garnish
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 large garlic clove (minced)
1 large shallot (minced)
3/4 cup white wine
1 lbs sea scallops (dried off, remove tough muscle if necessary, salt and pepper to taste)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Instructions
-Heat the oil on med-high (don't smoke the oil) in a large skillet
-Saute scallops until golden brown on both sides. Remove scallops and place on a plate and loosely cover with aluminum foil to keep warm
-Reduce heat to med-low and add garlic and shallot to the skillet. Saute for around 1 minute.
-Add 1/2 cup of wine and reduce by half
-Add lemon juice, rest of wine, mustard, and dill. Stir together and reduce a little bit more. Be sure not to bring it to a rapid boil.
-Combine scallops and sauce either on plates or over pasta of your choice.

Mom's Dill Dip

So since I had to work on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and my mom was here and left all alone at the condo without anything to do in the morning, I decided that it would be a wonderful idea for her to make her famous dill dip.  I love the stuff!  I swear I think that she puts crack in it because I can eat the whole thing in no time!  Thanks to that dip, I became a fan of cauliflower as a child...something that has continued into my adulthood.  The holidays just aren't the holidays without my mom making dip.  Normally, I have to wait to Christmas to get some dip, but with a little begging and pleading from me, my mom agreed to do it!  I've made the dip myself, but I think the extra love that she puts in it makes it much better than mine.  She says that it's the Duke's mayonnaise.


And besides, it's not like either one of us actually cook for Thanksgiving!  Yep, as hard as it is to believe that someone who loves to cook as much as I do doesn't lift a finger for Thanksgiving, it's true.  I'm sure that someday, it'll happen, but right now, Thanksgiving consist of my mom and me only.  Since I've moved to Charleston, we have tried a couple of places to eat, and several years ago, we settled into a routine.  Every year, we go to Poogan's Porch in downtown Charleston for lunch.  I'm looking forward to it...especially their peanut butter pie!  Here's a link to their Thanksgiving menu.  Yum!!!!


Anyway, here is the recipe for my mom's dill dip!  You can serve it with any raw veggies of your choice!  I hope that you enjoy it!!! 


Mom's Delicious Dill Dip
Ingredients
3 tablespoons dill weed
1 pint mayonnaise
1 pint sour cream
1 tablespoon dried parsley
3 tablespoons grated onion
1 1/2 tablespoon season salt

Directions
Blend all ingredients together and chill before serving.  Makes 4 1/2 cups.