Tag Archives: lime

Lots of Veggies Stir Fry

Somehow, I ended up with a lot of stir fry vegetables this week. Between what I got in our CSA box, what came out of our garden, and what I overbought at the grocery store last week, I had a nice variety of colorful goodness to put into the wok. I also had a lime that wasn’t going to make it much longer, so decided to make a lime based sauce.

Lime and Chli Garlic Sauce Stir Fry

This was pretty spicy. If you want less heat, cut back on the chili garlic sauce. Feel free to use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Broccoli would have been great in this. I ended up with a total of about 8 cups of vegetables.

Lime and Chili Garlic Stir Fry
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Oriental
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced
  • 2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
  • 1 large yellow squash, thinly sliced
  • 3 bell peppers, thinly sliced
  • ½ large red onion, thinly sliced
  • large handful snow peas, strings removed
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • ¼ cup chicken broth
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce (found in the Oriental foods aisle)
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 2 cups hot cooked rice
Instructions
  1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in wok. Stir fry chicken until cooked through. Remove from pan and keep hot.
  2. Add remaining oil to wok. Add all the vegetables, and stir fry until tender crisp. Add chicken back into the pan.
  3. Combine broth, lime juice, soy sauce, and chili garlic sauce. Whisk in cornstarch and pour over the stir fry. Continue to stir fry for another minute, until sauce thickens. Serve over hot rice.

 

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day! Hope you are having a relaxing day off from your usual labors.

I made Macaroni salad with a New Mexico twist  yesterday. I wanted to use as much produce from my garden as possible. I found a recipe for Jalapeno Ranch Dressing from Closet Cooking, which was the perfect dressing for this salad.

Macaroni Salad a la New Mexico

I only used one jalapeno pepper in the dressing, which was great for us. Obviously, an extra pepper (or leaving in some seeds) would give you more heat. The jalapeno peppers and tomatoes came from our garden, the carrots, lime and onion from our harvest box.

Macaroni Salad a la New Mexico
Recipe type: Salad
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • ¾ pound macaroni, cooked
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 3 carrots, shredded
  • ½ small onion, minced
  • ¼ cup buttermilk
  • ¼ cup mayonnaise
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, stem and seeds removed
  • juice of ½ of a lime
  • handful of cilantro
Instructions
  1. Combine cooked macaroni, tomatoes, carrots, and onion in a large bowl.
  2. In the blender, combine buttermilk, mayonnaise, pepper, lime juice, and cilantro. Process until smooth. Pour over salad, toss to combine.
  3. Chill salad for at least 1 hour.

 

The Ultimate “Do Ahead” Dinner

I love sweet potatoes, but they do take a fairly long time to cook. Too long to make them on a work night. I was searching for something to do with the sweet potatoes in our box, when I came across several different recipes for a southwest salad. I decided to do some prep ahead work over the weekend, so that I could get dinner ready quickly during the week. Since the salad required cooked and chilled foods, this became the ultimate opportunity to cook ingredients ahead and have a great dinner during the week.

Southwest Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad

The recipe I used for the dressing is adapted from this recipe from Hispanic Kitchen. It was less spicy than I anticipated, which was actually a good thing!

Southwest Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad
Recipe type: Main, Salad
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pound sweet potatoes
  • 1 cup olive oil, divided
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 ears corn, husks removed
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoon ground cumin, divided
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 6 cups lettuce
  • 1 tomato, chopped
  • ½ cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained.
  • 2 limes
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, coarsely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • handful of fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
  1. Peel sweet potatoes and cut lengthwise into ½ inch thick slices. Brush the sweet potatoes with ¼ cup of olive oil, season with salt and pepper.
  2. Heat grill to medium heat. Grill sweet potatoes until cooked through, turning once. At the same time, grill the corn, turning frequently. This will take about 15 minutes.
  3. Combine chili powder and 1 teaspoon of cumin. Rub over chicken breasts. Grill chicken breasts until cooked through, turning once. (About 10 minutes.)
  4. Let sweet potatoes, corn, and chicken cool. Cut corn kernels from cobs. Thinly slice chicken.
  5. While everything is cooling, make the dressing. Zest one of the limes, and juice both limes. In a blender, combine lime zest and juice, jalapeno pepper, garlic, cilantro, and remaining teaspoon of cumin. Blend until smooth. With blender running, drizzle in the remaining ¾ cup of olive oil.
  6. The above steps can all be done ahead, with everything refrigerated until serving time.
  7. Divide lettuce among plates. Top with tomato, cooked sweet potatoes, cooked corn, black beans, and sliced chicken. Drizzle dressing over.

 

Fajita Foil Dinners

I had planned to make these on our last camping trip. Unfortunately, I forgot the foil, so I ended up putting everything in the Dutch oven instead. (Worked pretty well, actually!) Since we were getting bell peppers in our box this week, I decided to get limes, too, and try it at home. Potatoes aren’t a traditional fajita ingredient, but I can’t fathom a foil dinner without them.

Foil Fajita Dinners

You could slice the chicken and serve in a tortilla. However, I was too lazy to do that, so we just put the salsa on top. (Also, trying to watch carbs here; didn’t think we needed potatoes and tortillas.) It was raining, so I ended up cooking them on the gas grill instead of our fire pit, so the cooking time might be a little off.

Fajita Foil Dinners
Recipe type: Main, Camping
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 2 limes
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 bell peppers, sliced
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 pound thin skinned potatoes, diced
  • Your favorite fajita toppings
Instructions
  1. Zest one lime, juice both limes. Combine lime juice and zest, oil, garlic, and cumin in a zip top bag. Add chicken. Marinate overnight.
  2. Heat coals or preheat grill. Tear 4 sheets of heavy duty, wide aluminum foil about 5 feet long, fold in half crosswise. Spray one side with non-stick cooking spray. Divide chicken breasts, peppers, onion, and potatoes among the 4 dinners. Drugstore wrap each packet.
  3. Cook for 25-30 minutes, turning half way through. Serve with your favorite fajita toppings.

 

Grilled Potatoes with a Twist

Summer grilling season is in full swing. Mostly, I think it is too hot to cook (even with the air conditioning on), but I can usually motivate myself to grill any time. We got a lot of potatoes in our box this week, and also a lot of limes, so I decided to combine the two and try a different twist on my basic grilled potato recipe.

Grilled Potatoes with a Twist

These are really easy to make, and clean up is a breeze! These turned out really nice.

Grilled Potatoes with a Twist
Recipe type: Side
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pound thin skinned potatoes, cubed
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • seasoned salt to taste
  • Juice of 1 lime
Instructions
  1. Preheat grill to medium.
  2. Cut a piece of foil about 5 feet long. Fold in half. Spray with non-stick cooking spray.
  3. Place cubed potatoes on prepared foil. Drizzle with oil, season with seasoned salt. Toss to combine. (I did this right on the foil.) Drugstore wrap the foil.
  4. Grill over medium heat for 30 minutes, turning halfway through.
  5. Remove potatoes from the foil. Drizzle lime juice over the potatoes. Toss to combine.