Creative Chicken Leftovers

On May 25, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes8 Comments

Since it is just the two of us, when we cook a whole chicken, we always have a lot of leftovers. Making open-face buffalo chicken sandwiches on English muffins or biscuits is a tasty option for using some of the chicken we have sitting in the refrigerator. It can make for an easy dinner, quick lunch, or even an afternoon snack.

Ingredients

12 oz Cooked Chicken (breast or thigh meat works equally well)
8 oz Hot Sauce (Buffalo or Louisiana Hot Sauce)
1/2 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese (or blended cheese of your choice)
4 oz Ranch Dressing
2 tsp Ground Cayenne Pepper – optional
2 English Muffins or Large Biscuits

Instructions

Cut the chicken into small, bite-size, chunks. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken, hot sauce, and cayenne pepper, thoroughly coating the chicken. Let sit at room temperature for 30 to 40 minutes to allow the chicken to absorb the flavor. Heat an oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees. Cut the muffins or biscuits in half and place one-quarter of the chicken mixture on each half. Place the open-face sandwiches directly on the rack and heat for 15 minutes. Place the cheese on top of the chicken mixture and continue to heat for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted. Remove the sandwiches from the oven, pour the ranch dressing over the top and enjoy. Serves two.

Baked Manicotti – Simple and Delicious

On April 27, 2016April 27, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes9 Comments

Manicotti is one of those meals that is perfect for any occasion and, best of all, it is even better the next day. When we’re looking for a meal that can satisfy our tastes as well as offer multiple dinner options, manicotti is an excellent choice. The spaghetti or marinara sauce can pull double duty and be frozen or put over pasta later in the week and the leftovers make a wonderful lunch as well. Baked manicotti can be made for a large party or for just the two of us, which works out perfect with our busy lives.

Ingredients

1 box Manicotti Shells (10 shells) – If you can’t find manicotti shells, you can substitute cannelloni shells.
2 cups Spaghetti or Marinara Sauce – we used our own semi-homemade sauce, but you can use your favorite sauce.
16 oz Ricotta Cheese
8 oz Mozzarella Cheese – shredded
1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 egg
Parmesan Cheese – shredded as desired
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook the shells according to the box instructions leaving them slightly al dente since they will be baked afterward. Mix the ricotta cheese, three-quarters of the mozzarella cheese, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, egg, salt, and pepper in a medium-sized bowl. In a casserole dish, spread about a half a cup of the sauce into the bottom of the dish. When the shells are cool, stuff them with the cheese mixture and place into the casserole dish. Cover the shells with remaining sauce. Top with the remaining mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese, if using. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for thirty minutes or until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.

Daily Post Photo Challenge – Dinnertime

On April 16, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge6 Comments

Believe it or not, we really struggled with this particular theme, dinnertime. Do we show some cute and cuddly animal eating something? Do we show a scene from a restaurant? Do we show a meal that we’ve prepared? Obviously any of those could be relevant choices, but we wanted to think a little outside the box. After a little deliberation, we decided on a photograph taken of the fish monger in the markets of Tangier, Morocco.

We strongly considered this picture of volunteers handing out food to people who had lost their homes due to the forest fire that happened in Colorado Springs in 2012.

And just because you can’t have enough pictures of cute animals, here is one that we shared in a post about seeing wildlife recently.

This was an incredibly delicious, yet simple, squid that we had in Estepona, Spain.