The key is to mix it up with lots of crunch and color from various cabbages, greens, colored bell peppers, snow peas and top it off with a very bright citrus ginger dressing. You can add peanuts or sliced almonds for added flavor.

When I first made this asian slaw, I took the time to shred Napa cabbage, but then realized a bag of angel hair slaw would save a lot of time and provide the same result. I also used a bag of broccoli slaw which has added carrots (more color). The only time consuming part of Asian Slaw will be doing thin slices of colored peppers and making a homemade dressing.

I highly recommend you make your own dressing, as it’s easy, fresh and won’t contain harmful seed oils like canola oil.

My Sesame Ginger Salad Dressing is full of flavor and jumps with brightness. I brought this salad to an Asian night potluck and it was a big hit. I kept hearing words like refreshing, flavorful, delicious.

The main components of the ingredients for Asian slaw are listed below. You can skip the nuts altogether or replace broccoli slaw with more napa cabbage or angel hair slaw. You can add in slivered carrots or finely chopped celery. I’ll leave that to you.

Main Components of Asian Slaw

• Large Napa Cabbage or Bag Angel Hair Slaw
• Broccoli Slaw (bag)
• Red and Yellow Bell Peppers
• Snow Peas or Snap Peas (optional)
• Scallions
• Peanuts or Sliced Almonds
• Sesame Seeds
• Cilantro or Thai Basil

Sesame Ginger Dressing Ingredients

• Fresh Knob of Ginger
• Shallots
• Tamari Sauce (or soy sauce)
• Garlic cloves
• Orange juice from fresh orange
• Lime Juice from fresh lime
• Rice Vinegar
• Sesame Oil
• Avocado Oil

How to Make this Slaw Turn into a Full Dinner

This slaw can be the base for grilled for the following poached shrimp, salmon, fish tacos, salmon tacos.

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Asian Slaw with Ginger Dressing

Asian Slaw with Ginger Dressing for a side or serve with a Protein

Course Salad and Salad Dressing

Cuisine Asian

Keyword Asian Slaw, Ginger Dressing

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 1 Napa Cabbage Or Bag Angel Hair Slaw
• 1 bag Broccoli Slaw
• 6 Scallions
• 1 cup snow peas or edamame optional
• 1 Red Bell Pepper
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
• 1/3 cup Peanuts or Sliced Almonds
• 1 tablespoon Sesame Seeds optional

Ginger Dressing

• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons Freshly Grated Ginger (1 large knob)
• 1/2 orange
• 1 lime
• 4 tablespoons Rice Vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Tamari or Soy Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Sesame Oil
• 10 tablespoons Avocado Oil
• 1 large shallot
• 1 tablespoon fresh herb cilantro

Instructions

• Slice Bell Peppers into very thin slices. Slice scallions.
• Cook Snow Peas or Snap Peas and put on Ice to maintain color. You can serve them raw in the salad.
• If you are using Napa Cabbage, clean, rinse, dry and slice thinly.
• Put all cabbage and broccoli slaw in bowl. Add vegetables.
• Toss with dressing. You may not use all of the dressing or you may need more. For best flavor dress a few hours ahead and refrigerate.
• Add Peanuts and a sprinkling of cilantro right before serving.

Ginger Dressing

• Grate a large knob of ginger.
• Mince garlic.
• Finely chop shallot.
• Put vinegar, Tamari sauce (or soy sauce) and honey Into a jar Add garlic, ginger and shallots.
• Add juice from orange and lime.
• Add avocado oil and sesame oil and give a good shake.
• You may choose to add more of any Ingredient according to your taste.

The post Asian Slaw Recipe, Ginger Dressing appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Once Spinach Tiger is coming at you with a big fat healthy chicken pasta dish. Thai Peanut Noodles are naturally gluten free and the Thai peanut sauce recipe uses tamari, which is gluten free.

The Chicken Skewer Recipe is so Versatile

The sauce can be used for this noodle dish, just for chicken skewers, for chicken tenders, for veggies, or anything else that takes your imagination. You could even put it on these meatballs. I took the inspiration from my thai peanut salad dressing and thought this would be so good in a pasta dish.

The recipe itself has a lot of flavor and a lot of texture from the vegetables and the chopped peanuts. It was hard not to go back for seconds.

The key to a chicken skewer recipe is marinating them at least for an hour with an acid, preferably lime with olive oil and salt. They only take a few minutes on a grill on each side.

Thai Peanut Noodles Offer Lots of Options

You could skip the grill and pan fry your tenders, or add in chicken breasts. You could also replace the chicken with shrimp as another option.

If you like these flavors, you’ll probably love this Ginger Roasted Salmon with with Orange Ginger Beets.

This has been part of my healthy chicken pasta series, cooking big fat healthy food.

Watch Spinach Tiger behind the scenes in the kitchen on my instagram stories. Follow me there and see the fun before the post, and sometimes my kitchen fails.

I’ll be doing facebook live at least on a weekly basis, sharing tips, recipes, and answering cooking questions that you write in. Please feel free to write any questions in the comments or email me and be sure to follow me on facebook.

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Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken Skewer Recipe

Thai Peanut Noodles with chicken skewers in a hearty gluten free dish with lots of flavor and spice.

Course Entree

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken Skewers

• 4 -6 chicken tenders see notes
• juice of one lime
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil or another tablespoon olive oil
• salt pepper for seasoning
• 1 package rice noodles
• 1 red bell pepper seeded, cut into thin two inch strips
• 1 serrano pepper seeded, sliced
• 2 cups snow peas
• !Thai peanut sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts
• 2 scallions sliced
• cilantro for garnish
• lime slices for garnish
• red chili flakes if you want to add extra heat
• !Thai Peanut Sauce
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce or Tamari Sauce
• 1 large garlic clove minced
• 2 tablespoons honey
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup peanut butter peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes ground red pepper or 1/2 teaspoon chili oil
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• splash rice vinegar

Instructions

• Mix lime juice and olive together. Marinate the chicken tenders for at least one hour to overnight.
• If using bamboo skewers, soak in water for 30 minutes to prevent burning.
• Place on skewers, grill over medium low heat for about 4 minutes per side.
• In the meantime, prepare sauce, boil water for rice noodles.
• Place 1 tablespoon olive oil, coconut oil in a pan, and stir fry red bell pepper and snow peas until cooked through.
• Cook rice noodles according to package directions.
• Drain rice noodles, toss with half of the sauce.Reserve some sauce for pouring over chicken.
• Garnish with scallions, cilantro, diced serrano and lime.
• Add skewers to each bowl.

Thai Peanut Sauce Instructions

• Mix all ingredients together. Heat on very low heat on top of the stove. You may find you need to add a little water to thin the sauce down if it's too thick.

Notes

Serving size includes on large chicken tender. You can adjust this amount of meat.
You can get either 4 or 6 servings.

The post Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken Skewer Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

When I was asked to develop a recipe using Chex Cereal, I knew within ten seconds what I wanted to make, drawing on inspiration from the legendary Chex Mix.

I created Oven fried, Crunchy Nutty Chicken Strips with a Spicy Honey Lime Peanut Sauce.

That’s quite a mouthful of description and quite a mouthful of flavor. 

I knew the recipe would have to have nuts and a little of that same magic the Chex  Mix has. 

It took me a few tries to get the exact texture I was looking for. I wanted the bites to be very crunchy without deep-frying. I successfully oven baked the chicken and was very happy with the results.

I was happy to see on the box that Corn Chex Cereal is Gluten Free and contains no colors from artificial sources, and no artificial flavors or high fructose corn syrup. The cereal is light and only 120 calories per cup, making it a great ingredient to cook with in addition to having for breakfast.

In choosing my recipes, I am always thinking about other moms and dads who are looking for healthy, easy and satisfying ways to feed their families. That’s very important to me, because if we prepare our own food and involve our children, we enrich our family life and our health.  Engaging everyone in the cooking process helps a family bond, and helps children establish good habits.

The Cooking Process

Mixing Corn Chex and Chopped Peanuts gave me the crunch I was looking for and I didn’t have to deep fry them.

I dredged the chicken strips first in coconut flour, then egg, then into a mixture of  Corn Chex and chopped peanuts, and then oven baked for a 14 minutes, which gave me time to make the sauce.

Adding a finely chopped herb such as parsley, basil or cilantro works well for garnish, adding that little bit of color and extra flavor.

These chicken strips make a great party food. Use lettuce leaves. Drizzle the sauce in advance and top with even more of the crunchy Corn Chex Cereal peanut topping.

I tested this recipe three times to make sure you will find it easy and delicious. You can use a food processor, and get your kids to press the button. Boys especially seem to love button pressing gadgets in the kitchen. Or you could just use a rolling pin.  You will need to process the cereal and the peanuts separately and then mix them together.

The end result was crunchy, nutty, and when dipped into the spicy, peanut lime sauce, it became a perfect bite.

A bit of brainstorming led me to thinking about all the ways we could eat these.

How to Incorporate the Corn Chex Cereal Crusted  Chicken Strips into More Dishes

• Serve chicken strips with a carrot slaw stir fry.
• Serve chicken strips on a salad, using the peanut lime sauce to make a dressing. Add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil to the sauce.
• Serve chicken strips over rice noodles, tossed with peanut sauce.
• Serve chicken strips with a homemade ranch dressing, ketchup or honey mustard for a traditional take.
• Make small bite sized nuggets.

If you have peanut issues, you can substitute another nut such as almonds, pecans or cashews or no nuts and serve with ketchup.

So tell me, do you have any go to meals that you can cook for your family in under thirty minutes? And, how might you serve these peanut Corn Chex Cereal crusted Chicken strips?

You can connect with Chex on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter and for more inspiration.  
I would love to connect with you on facebook and instagram where I share cooking tips and my latest photos and recipes.

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CornChex Crusted Chicken Strips with Honey Lime Peanut Sauce

Oven Baked, Not Fried, Crunchy CornChex Crusted Chicken with Spicy Honey Lime Peanut Sauce, great for kids, and parties.

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes minutes

Total Time 24 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Chicken Strips

• 8 chicken strips
• 1 teaspoon salt or as needed
• 2 cups CornChex measured before crushing
• 1/2 peanuts chopped,
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon chopped herbs such as parsley or basil for garnish

Honey Lime Peanut Dipping Sauce

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons canola oil or olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes
• 1 tablespoon chopped peanuts for garnish

Instructions

• Season chicken strips with salt.
• Using a food processor or rolling pin, crush the cereal.
• Mix together the crushed cereal and peanuts.
• Dredge chicken strips in coconut flour, then egg mixture, then CornChex and Peanut Mixture.
• Bake at 425 for 14 minutes. Turn over at 7 minutes.

Honey Lime Peanut Dipping Sauce

• Combine all ingredients to make sauce. You can add more or less peanut butter and chili flakes to your own taste.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, my own original recipe and photos. All opinions are my own,

 This post is brought to you by CafeMom and Chex

The post Corn™Chex Crusted Chicken Strips with Honey Lime Peanut Sauce appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I’ve been asking for this sugar cookie recipe for years. It comes from my neighbor’s mother who visits here a few times a year with a car load of her legendary old fashioned sour cream sugar cookies, usually decorated with icing or white chocolate. We all wait for the cookies like little kids. As soon as she arrives, everyone rushes to the cookies.

They are just the right flavor, texture and softness, almost a cake like cookie, perfect for frosting. She has changed her version over the years and now uses white chocolate to hold the sprinkles. Either way, they are a childhood memory.

I happened to get the recipe right in time for Valentine’s Day and just to be a little corny and  little nutty, I put a spin on this old sour cream fashioned sugar cookie  and topped it with pink candy corn and peanuts.

It’s the perfect sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy bite. This version is super easy as there is no need for frosting. The candy corn brings the sweetness and is topped on the cookie before baking along with the peanuts and few sprinkles.
The taste is surprising. It’s not the normal sugar cookie which doesn’t usually have anything salty topping it.

I found the candy corn at Tuesday Morning and the sprinkled at the dollar section of Target. Super easy to decorate and the result is beautiful.

I wondered how they would go over . The cookie crowd around here loved them.

I got a little carried away with hearts this week. Stay tuned for heart shaped love biscuits with chocolate gravy, heart shaped dark chocolate sugar cookies with sea salt and heart shaped ice cream sandwiches.

Seven days left until Valentine’s Day. Do you have your Valentine’s ready?

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Heart Sour Cream Sugar Cookies with Pink Candy Corn and Peanuts

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Cookies with a peanut candy corn twist. Sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy. You can decorate these classic cookies many ways for various holidays.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Ingredients

• 4 cups flour plus extra for rolling out
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup full fat sour cream
• 3 eggs
• DECORATIONS:
• 1/2 cup candy corn sprinkles, 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
• Cookie cutters

Instructions

• Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs. Add sour cream. Mix well. Mix in vanilla.
• Add in dry ingredients.
• Divide dough into four pieces and wrap each in plastic.
• Chill thoroughly. Dough will be soft and hard to handle.
• Roll out each section of dough at a time, while keeping the remaining pieces of dough in refrigerator.
• Chop candy corn and peanuts.
• Roll dough out using some flour, so dough doesn’t stick.
• Cut into shapes. Decorate.
• Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Do not brown.

The post Old Fasioned Sour Cream Sugar Cookies with Pink Candy Corn and Peanuts appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Have you ever had a dream where you need to be somewhere important, but you just can’t get there? Perhaps you have to take a final exam, but in the dream you find yourself at the mall shopping and then remembering you missed the exam.

You jump in the car, but you can’t fit the key into the ignition and you panic.

Or you have to be at the airport early in the morning, but you can’t get packed. No matter how many times you go into your closet, you can’t get the clothes into the suitcase, and if you do make it to the airport, you have no ticket.

These dreams are frustrating and anxiety producing because you can’t get to where you need to be.

This is how I have felt in the past ten days. I needed to be here sharing my food with you, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it. I lost posts. My camera didn’t work. My food was a failure on the sunny days and great on the days it was too late and too dark to capture. And, in between any cooking, there were medical crises and unexplained injuries. But I missed you and it feels like I have woken up from a bad dream, and I’m back, happy again and in my kitchen on a sunny day.

From the second we are born, we are fighting to keep our life a life worth living. Today, I celebrate one such life that I cherish above my own.

Happy Birthday to the man that knew marrying me would guarantee him a life time of “me” and some really good food. I think I got the best deal in this marriage, because his personality is like sweet vanilla pudding. Mine is a lot more like these cupcakes. The chocolate is very loud (made with espresso), the caramel frosting is complex, and the salty is salty. We are, indeed, a different kind of sweet, but this just may be the secret to our happy marriage.

The inspiration comes from salty caramel hot chocolate, D.C.’s favorite hot drink. It’s taken me over a year to perfect the caramel frosting and get the taste I was looking for while getting his approval along the way. He is not a cook, but he is a wonderful editor.

I warn you that it’s sweet and gooey and best eaten when hungry. It might be the only meal you will need. D.C. prefers salty peanuts on top, but I like just the caramel frosting with sea salt.

You can use any chocolate cake recipe you prefer. This is made with espresso and dark chocolate and presents as aa good balance for the caramel frosting. Cupcakes can be all grown up and sophisticated when the flavors are deep, rich and you wrap them in fancy paper wraps.

After a perilous week, the party was on, and last night we enjoyed a feast with a houseful of friends.
Tomorrow is Retro Rose’s 75th birthday. This week, I’ll be featuring some party tips and recipes, the cake I made for her and some notes on sipping tequila. You don’t want to miss sipping tequila.

Making Caramel
Dark amber-colored caramel is the secret. You must be wiling to take the chance and allow it to get dark enough. Don’t be intimidated by the process. Once you’ve burned a few or took it off the stove too early, you will start to understand what you’re looking for. There is no such thing as playing it safe, because premature caramel will just be sugary and have no flavor.

• 1 cup water
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup cream (room temperature)

1. Cook on medium heat without stirring, until the sugar turns a deep amber.
2. Take off heat, pour in cream, stir.
   It will bubble up, and this is the fun part. Eventually, as you stir, it will transform into caramel.
3. Cool completely at room temperature.

Be warned though, caramel is hot, so don’t try a taste test, until thoroughly cooled. Ask me how I know?   

__________________________________________________________
Caramel Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• Caramel from above recipe
• 2  tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt and more for sprinkling for top

1. Cream butter and sugar and cream with electric mixer on medium speed.
2.  Add caramel, continue to mix until smooth.

Frost cupcakes. Top with Sea Salt or chopped peanuts.

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Chocolate Cupcakes

Dark rich chocolate cake, good for layer cake or 18 cupcakes.

Servings 12

Ingredients

• DRY INGREDIENTS
• 3 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• CHOCOLATE
• 1 cup Hershey’s special dark cocoa
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup espresso
• WET INGREDIENTS
• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream

Instructions

• Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl. Set Aside.
• Mix espresso and boiling water. Dissolve cocoa in espresso/water.
• Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.
• Add to this sour cream and dry ingredients, alternating and finishing with dry.
• Add chocolate mixture.Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes, 30-35 minutes for cake.
• This will make two 9” cakes or up to 18 cupcakes, depending on size.

The post Chocolate Cupcakes with Salty Caramel Frosting appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Pumpkin carrot curry soup with peanuts in the Spring, not the Fall!
Well, yes, if I waited until October, you might miss out on something delicious, savory, sweet, spicy, and yet, healthy and light. No, I need to share it now. And when the fall comes, I’ll develop a completely different pumpkin soup.

This is perfectly rainy day tasty and just waiting for a nice salad by it’s side to balance the spicy curry flavor. And, it fits into my skinny/sexy food category.

This “autumn in the spring” began with a $1 can of pumpkin found on clearance that was going to be my practice pumpkin for ravioli. But last Saturday standing in my familiar spot in the kitchen, getting ready to make this carrot soup, I couldn’t help myself. The “what if” went through my head and in a flash I opened the can of pumpkin. I immediately realized that I now have to develop a completely different recipe.

I set out to make this carrot soup and ended up with pumpkin carrot curry soup.

What if?
The nagging what if I added this or tried that prevents me from remaking many of my original recipes. It’s like a compulsive tick. I have to try new things all the time, several times a week. Really, I can never be quite sure what we will be eating, even when the ingredients are all laid out on the table. How many times a pot is staring at me on the stove and I grab an ingredient and do the “what if” I added this? And, it doesn’t always work out.

The garbage disposal can tell you all about my secret failures. But, there is such a warm satisfaction when a what if does work out. And, frankly, almost everything we eat is a what if. I tell you this because I really like to see people have fun with food and not eat combinations determined by the food industry or even the latest trends.

I know it’s spring, not fall, but breaking the rules is part of the fun. In fact, I hope you make some Christmas cookies for Easter.

The Process
I cooked the carrots, leeks, pumpkin and then the fun began. Salted peanuts, curry, nutmeg, cardamon, and a little more curry. The salty peanuts were roasted first as they were left over from a salty caramel frosting I have yet to tell you about. The peanuts add a nice extra layer of flavor. I used all I had or I probably would have topped the soup with some crushed peanuts.

The recipe is truly a guideline, as you may prefer to chop your own chiles, or use a different hot sauce. I used to have a roommate who was born in Vietnam and we would make a lot of soup, always using the sriracha and ever since then, it’s my “go to” hot sauce. It’s very hot, so just a dollop and taste. I use this often in my Italian seafood sauces, but sparingly.

The smell of this soup made the whole house smell exotic. Savory, spicy, and sweet and heat, yet light enough for me to be able to eat half the pot and still not worry about how much I worked out this week.

I had to use a magic bullet to puree because I’ve yet to replace my emulsion blender that I burned out. It was still a bit thick and then a genius idea hit me. Use my late Aunt Rita’s tomato mill, used to make tomato puree. Perfect.

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Pumpkin Carrot Curry Soup

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots peeled, cut into chunks
• 2 cups of water
• 1 large leek washed, sliced thinly (white part only)
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 large can pumpkin
• 1/2 cups salted roasted peanuts, ground in food processor (can substitute 2 tablespoons peanut butter)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half or almond milk as used in this carrot soup.
• A few squeezes sriracha chile sauce or chopped chiles or hot sauce of your choice
• pure maple syrup to garnish

Instructions

• Put carrots in large pot with water, leeks, and all spices, until carrots are cooked.
• Add pumpkin, ground peanuts. Cook for 30 minutes on low heat.
• Stir in cream.
• Stir in chile sauce.
• Puree with immersion blender or regular blender).
• For an extra silky texture, I processed through the food mill.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve hot. Top each cup with yogurt, maple syrup or both.

Notes

Make this soup as mild or as hot as you prefer. I made it quite hot, and offset the heat with the maple syrup. You could top with plain yogurt or maple yogurt. You may need to add more water. You can choose your own consistency.

I made this soup on a Saturday and we ate it again 4 days later. It was incredibly much better, so I recommend making this soup the day before you first eat it. Serve with a fruited salad, and some naan bread.

Had I known in advance I was going to make this soup, I would have had some hot Naan bread to go with it.

This recipe was done on the fly, so please use this as a guideline, and taste along the way.

The post Pumpkin Carrot Curry Soup appeared first on Spinach Tiger.