Chili Lime Chicken Burgers, A Trader Joe's Copycat

Happy long weekend, yo.  I know it is coming to an end but don't you want to go out with a bang?  These will do it.  A huge bang, a flavorful punch in in the mouth if you will.  With just a few ingredients you can whip up a batch of these bad boys an impress even the biggest chicken burger skeptics.  

Watch out Trader Joe's we might be putting you out of business.  Well, hopefully not, we still love you.  Xoxo.  

Musical Selection: Moth's Wings by: Passion Pit.  Note that I moved the Cooking Tunes to the right sidebar.  If you don't want to jam (or if you are reading at work--I won't tell) just click pause. 

 You will need one pound of ground chicken.

 A few green onions

 Some pretty cilantro

 Chop it up and pop it in the bowl

 Some season all salt

 Black pepper

 A few shakes of red pepper flakes--more or less depending on how spicy you want these bad boys

 Half the juice of a lime

 That's it--smash it all together

Form into patties

 Spray each side with cooking spray

 On to the grill they go a few minutes on each side

 Top with pepper jack cheese for a little more spice

 Melted.

Umm yeah, flavor town.  I was really surprised how juicy these stayed they really were fantastic.  A little mayo on the bun is all they needed although crisp lettuce would be a fantastic addition as well.  We added them to our grilling rotation.  

Chili Lime Chicken Burgers

Makes 4 burgers

1 lb ground chicken

2 green onions, diced

1/2 of a red pepper, diced small

1 tablespoon cilantro, minced

1/2 teaspoon season all salt

A few grinds of black pepper

Juice of 1/2 a lime 

Pepper Jack cheese

Buns for serving

Mayo (we used light Miracle Whip) for serving 

In a medium bowl, combine the chicken, onion, red pepper, cilantro, season all salt, pepper and lime juice.   Form into 4 patties and spray each side with cooking spray so they don't stick. 

Preheat the grill to about 500 degrees.  Place the burgers on the hottest part of the grill.  Grill for 3 minutes.  Turn the grill down to medium high heat and flip the burgers to a cooler part of the grill.  Grill for an additional 5 minutes.  In the last minute of grilling, add the cheese to melt.  Before taking off the grill be sure to check the internal temperature or that they are no longer pink in the middle.  

Serve on buns with Mayo/Miracle Whip.  Enjoy!  

Recipe by: Mrs. Schwartz 

Rainbow Cookies and Ice Cream Sandwiches

Let me say it, I'm basically a computer genius.  Okay, maybe I wouldn't go thaaat far but, I did fix iPhoto all by myself.  A little googling and crossing my fingers poof iPhoto was back up and running.  That means I could upload all of the pictures from my camera and start a-bloggin'.  I'm baaaaack.  Okay, I'm done being annoying.

Are you ready to make the weirdest cookies in the world?  Well, you should be, it's time.  Would you believe me if I told you there is NO butter, NO margarine, NO shortening in these cookies?  If you are a baker you are wondering "what kind of fat will we use then?"  Let me tell you: canola oil.  I know, SO weird huh?  

This is Mr. Schwartz, yes you read that correctly MR. Schwartz's recipe.  He makes these every year for deer hunting and they go fast.  Luckily this recipe makes about a million cookies.  Less if you are like me and like huge cookies.  

Since they have a different texture, less fluffy more chewy yet being crisp on the outside, I figured they would be the perfect cookie for ice cream sandwiches.  They are perfection.  Let's get to it. 

Musical Selection: Songs About Rain by: Gary Allan. Probably One of my all time favorite songs.  For real.  It won't stop raining in Minnesota and it always reminds me how much I love this song.  That and driving from Minnesota all the way to Daytona Beach, Florida with 4 college buddies.  We drove through Kentucky in the rain and only my friend Erin was up with me since it was about 5 am.  Something I will never forget.  

Start by combining the oil (I know it's weird, we will get through this together)

Sugar

Brown sugar

Burry vanilla

And eggs.  Give it a good stir.  I love that you can make this in a large bowl, no stand mixer needed.

Add the baking soda

And flour.

Stir just to combine.

Add the chocolate chips

And mini m&ms.  It took me for-ever to find these little guys.  Guess where they showed up?  Walmart.  Who would have guessed!

Scoop them out using a cookie scoop.  Technically I used my Pampered Chef muffin scoop.  Make sure there is a lot of space between these guys, they spread a lot. Bake for 10 minutes.  

See that flat weird cookie, it tastes like heaven.

Studded with m&ms and melty chocolate chips.

Now we are talking.

Absolute perfection.  But wait...

Here we go.  Freeze the cookies until they are completely frozen.  Add a scoop of your favorite ice cream to one side.

And smash on another cookie.  Enjoy immediately but if you can wait, freezing these guys makes them easier to eat.  I love that you can take a bite and they don't crumble.  These will be our summer go-to treat.  

Rainbow Cookies

1 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 cup white sugar

2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs

2 teaspoons baking soda

4 cups flour 

1 package (about 1 1/2 cups) mini m&ms

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips 

Combine the oil, sugars, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl.  Stir to combine. 

Add the baking soda and flour and stir just until it comes together.  Don't over mix.  Fold in the m&ms and chocolate chips. 

Scoop onto a greased (or silpat lined) baking sheet with a muffin scoop.  If you don't have a muffin scoop you can use a 1/4 cup measuring cup.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.  When done baking let sit on the baking sheet to set for about 3 minutes.  Transfer to wire racks. 

To make the ice cream sandwiches: 

Freeze two cookies in the freezer until fully frozen.  Once frozen, scoop one scoop of your favorite ice cream onto the bottom of one cookie.  Place another cookie on top and gently squeeze together.  You can enjoy now but they are easier to eat if you freeze them for a bit.  

Enjoy! 

Restaurant Style Salsa

Oh, this one is good.  I mean real good.  Are you someone who goes to a Mexican restaurant and fills up on chips and salsa then when your "actual" food shows up you are like, where is that going to go?  Then you see it has melty queso all over it and you know exactly where it is going--your thighs?  Umm yeah, me either.  

I saw this salsa a while back on Brown Eyed Baker's site and I knew I had to make it.  I did and we were in love.  It is perfect for topping eggs, tacos and having for dinner with beers and lime when your husband is playing softball.  Again, not me just throwing out possibilities.  Enjoy friends.

Musical Selection: Summer Nights by Rascal Flatts.  It's about that time.

The recipe couldn't be any easier, you just need a food processor or a blender.  Pop the canned tomatoes in...

Along with the Rotel

Onion

Jalapeno, de seed and de vein if you don't like much heat--I kept the veins in if you can see...

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Garlic

Cilantro

Salt

Sugar and give it a whirl until it reaches your desired consistency.

I like it nice and thin--I hate big chunks of tomato so this is perfect.

Heavenly.

I'm out of corn chips....and beer.

Restaurant Style Salsa


28 oz can whole tomatoes, peeled
2 10 oz cans rotel (diced tomatoes with green chilies)
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 jalapeno, cut in half, deseed and devein if you want less spice
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon salt depending on your taste
1/4 teaspoon sugar


Place all ingredients in food processor or blender and pulse until you reach your desired consistency.  Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour for the flavors to come together.  It gets even better over night!

Note this makes a large amount of salsa--you can work in batches with your food processor/blender.   I used a blender and it worked great.

Enjoy!

Recipe slightly adapted from: here

Sugar Cookie Bars

Have you been wondering where the heck I went?  Me too.  Well....my computer basically crashed and I had a heart attack.  Not good stuff.  For my birthday (this past December) Mr. Schwartz bought me a new MacBook Pro.  Super shiny, tons of memory and lightning fast.  Until this weekend when it took a huge crapper and wouldn't even start.  Ummm not okay.  

I spent an hour on the phone with Apple and had to reinstall basically everything.  Gross.  I hate that stuff--I have no idea what any of it means.  All I can say is that it is working--kinda now.  iPhoto is still pretty sketchy as in it doesn't let me upload ANY new photos.  Food blogger not able to upload photos = nothing.  Boo.  Back to Apple to whine.  

In the meantime, luckily I have a recipe to share...from a looong time ago.  These sugar cookie bars are pretty wonderful.  I would be a happier girl if one of you made them and brought them to me while I whined to Apple.  I'm just saying.  

Musical Selection: Anything But Mine by: Kenny Chesney.  The epitome of a summer song..since summer is right around the corner. 

Start by adding sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer

Toss in you know, a cup of butter.  Cream the sugar and butter together.

Add 4 eggs one at a time and mix after each addition. Cream together until fluffy.

Because I don't follow directions and I didn't want to dirty another bowl I added the flour...

Salt

Vanilla

And baking soda separately.  Obviously you are supposed to add the vanilla right after the eggs and combine the dry ingredients but these turned out just fine.  I'm a baking B.A.

Mix until combined but do not over mix.  Look at all of that cookie dough.  As my neice Ava would say "ohh baby"  or if she is really excited "ooooh puppy!"  She's cool like that.

Plop it out on a large baking sheet--technically a jelly roll pan--that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Press it into the pan as evenly as you can and pop it into a preheated 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes or just until the edges start to turn golden brown.  The key to these is that you want them to be kinda doughy in the middle.

Baked.  Let this cool for at least 45 minutes.

Meanwhile you can make the frosting.  Add a stick of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening to the mixer.  Whip it together.

Gradually add the powdered sugar.

Thin it slightly with a little milk

And there you have it.  I didn't add the vanilla like the recipe said since I wanted to keep the frosting pretty white.

Frost up those bars.

Add some sprinkles.  To be honest, these were for St. Patty's Day hence the green.

Cut the bars and devour.  Mr. Schwartz ate these every single day for a week.  He was a happy guy.

Sugar Cookie Bars


For the Cookie
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs mixing after each addition.  Add the vanilla, mix again.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda.  Add this gradually to the butter and sugar mixture just until it comes together.  Don't over mix.

Press the dough into a large greased 13x18 inch jelly roll pan.  Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or just until the edges begin to turn golden brown.

Take out of the oven and let cool for at least 45 minutes.  Then make the frosting (below)

For The Frosting: 
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoons or so of milk

Cream the butter and shortening together in a stand mixer (or using a hand mixer).  Gradually add the powdered sugar until it is combined.  Slowly add the milk until you reach your desired consistency.

Let the bars cool for at least 45 minutes (or the frosting will be a melty mess) and frost.

Cut and enjoy

Recipe from: here