Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings

Bring on Football Season!

Wings are great, and baking them in the oven rather than frying them made me love them even more for being a little bit of a healthier version of a football season favorite (let's go Ravens!) The outside was a little crispy and the inside was perfectly cooked in much less time than I expected!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 lb chicken wings

1/4 cup melted butter

1/3 cup Frank's Red Hot hot sauce

Directions:

In a ziplock bag, put in the flour, cayenne, chili powder, garlic, and salt. Shake to mix. Add the chicken wings to the bag and shake around until all wings are coated with the mixture. Let the wings sit in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick spray.

Mix together melted butter and hot sauce. Dip each wing in the mixture and place on the baking sheet.

Now, about the actual cook time: all of the recipes I looked at said the wings would take 40 minutes to an hour to bake. Chris's oven typically cooks faster than I'm used to but this one really surprised me - the wings were totally done in about 20 minutes! So, I guess it's just something you have to watch and make your best judgement on in your own oven. I flipped the wings over after after 15 minutes and then let them cook for an additional 5 on the other side. But after that we could tell they were done so went ahead and took them out!

Sorbet Pie

Chris and I are really NOT dessert people. Chris is a fan of ice cream cake, while I love cheesecake, and other than that, we don't really ever crave sweets. But I saw this recipe in June's Cooking Light awhile ago and since it was sooo easy I thought, why not?

All you need is:

sorbet (we chose rainbow)

a cookie-crumb or graham cracker pie crust (we chose graham cracker)

whipped topping

fresh fruit (obviously, we chose strawberries)

Directions:

Spread slightly softened sorbet into pie crust. Freeze until firm. Top with thin layer of whipped topping and fresh fruit... and you are ready to serve!

Even I can become this kind of baker! :)

Lemon & Sage Chicken with Green Beans

Lots of citrus in this meal - a perfect pairing for this super hot weather we've been having!

Lemon and Sage Chicken

1 cup orange juice

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 lemon, sliced (save rest for green beans)

1/2 lime, sliced (save rest for green beans)

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup ground sage leaves (Well... the recipe I was looking at called for this much.. I don't think I used quite this much, though.)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Approx. 1 lb. chicken breasts

Combine all ingredients and mix well in a tupperware or ziplock bag. Add chicken breasts and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour+.

After marinating, add chicken, lemon and lime slices, and some of the juice to a pan to cook, turning halfway through.

Citrus-Almond Green Beans

1/2 lb green beans

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 lemon, sliced

1/2 lime, sliced

black pepper

1 cup almond slices

olive oil (for toasting almonds)

Steam green beans for about 5 minutes or until tender.

Toast almonds over medium heat about 2-3 minutes until lightly browned, stirring constantly so that they do not burn.

Whisk together orange juice and olive oil. Squeeze juices from the sliced lemons and limes into the mix and drop the rinds into the mix as well. Add a pinch of black pepper to taste. Add additional OJ or lime juice to taste if necessary. I found that I liked the taste of mine when it reminded me of fresh lemonade :)

Toss the green beans, almonds, and citrus vinaigrette together to serve.

Spicy Asian Marinated Flank Steak

Slightly modified from Cooking Light magazine's "The Enlightened Cook: Reader Recipes" section

2 tbsps soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp ground ginger
1.5 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp dark sesame oil
8 oz. can pineapple juice
4 garlic gloves, minced
1 pound flank steak, sliced into strips




1. Combine soy sauce, lime juice, curry powder, red pepper, ginger, vinegar, olive oil, pineapple juice, and garlic in a ziplock bag. Add steak, marinate 1 hour+, turning occasionally.


2. While the meat is marinating, prepare the sides:


-Rice, following directions on box - we went easy this time with Minute white rice. Hey, we had it in the pantry.. it needed to be used!! :)
-Broccoli
-Sugar snap peas
-Chopped red bell pepper
-Sliced red onion



3. After sautéing the vegetables, add in the meat and serve over top of the rice.

Fresh fruit, salads, and lots of chicken!

First I have to say, I had NO idea until last night that I was so behind on posting recipes until I uploaded pictures from my phone last night and organized them and realized I had ELEVEN un-posted meals.... oops, can I mention here that summer school started the first week in August? I promise I will be better! Anyways, we got to choose one day during summer school to leave 3 hours early and today is my day so I guess I know what I'll be doing this afternoon :)


To sum up the month of August so far, I would say it has been the month of lots of fresh fruits and veggies (thanks in large part to my parents, their garden, and Farmer's Markets) and using up the large amount of frozen chicken we had in our freezers from Costco! Below is a sneak peak at some of the things we've been working on this month!

Yumm.. Fresh veggies!

Chicken, cheddar biscuits & gravy

Cutting up fresh cantaloupe

Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad

Pork Carnitas

After making all of those BBQ Pork Ribs we had a lot of extra meat! What to do with it? To put a twist on simply eating leftovers, we shredded the pork ribs and made pork carnitas! Yum! It ended up being a great way to use up lots of odds and ends we had in the fridge. I didn't buy a single thing for this meal - always a plus!

After putting the shredded pork on tortillas, we topped it with Chipotle Ranch dressing (which we have also used when re-making one of our favorite salads, the Santa Fe Beef salad), salsa, cheese, chopped tomatoes, corn.... and as easy as that, we had some great carnitas for dinner.

Maryland Crab Soup

Testing the soup out before taking it to Chris :)

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, MD crab soup doesn't seem to be a "standard" recipe - I found many variations, some of which had basically no vegetables, while other had so many veggies I wondered how in the world you would taste the crab! One called for cabbage, and another wanted me to chase live crabs around my kitchen. So, after combining many recipes and ideas, this is the recipe I finally landed on - and it was AWESOME! It makes a ton of soup.... but we did not mind eating it for multiple days!!

Ingredients

2 quarts of water (+1-2 more cups at the end, depending on how "soupy" you like your soup)

1 can chicken broth

2+ tbps Old Bay

1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

1 tbps sugar

2 cups diced tomatoes
1 tsp hot pepper sauce (we use Frank's)
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 cup diced onion
2 cups cubed red potato
1 okra, chopped
1 lb lump crab meat
salt and pepper
chopped parsley (for garnish)

Directions

1. Bring water to boil, add chicken broth, Old Bay, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, sugar. Stir until mixed well.

2. Add tomatoes and hot sauce.

3. Add carrots, celery, corn, onion, potatoes, okra. Bring to low boil. Turn heat down to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Add a little salt and pepper. Taste broth and add more water, hot sauce, or seasonings depending on how spicy/ soupy/ etc you like it!

5. Add crabmeat and mix well. Bring back to boil.

6. Cover and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!