Enrichment Recipes

Mediterranean Salad, Grilled Chicken, and Coconut Rice

Mediterranean Salad (serves about 10)
7 large tomatoes (cut in bite size chunks)
2 cucumbers (peeled and chunked)1/4 small diced red onion
3 oz cubed mozzarella cheese3 oz crumbled feta cheese
3 T. Olive oil2T. Red wine vinegar (can use pear, apple or other fruit vinegar)
3 T green olive tapenade (You can find this at Albertson's on the top shelf next to the fancy olives or if you want to make it, e-mail me for a good recipe)

Fresh basil leaves to taste (I use about 7-8 basil leaves that I cut in a chiffonade--roll them and then cut in strips like a cute herby confetti)
baby spinach (add two or more handfuls for color)
Salt and Pepper to taste

1 T Italian seasoning

2 t garlic salt

Cut up and mix items together. May cut ingredients up ahead of time, but do not add oil and vinegar until right before serving.

Marinated Chicken
Marinate chicken breast (1 per person) in Wishbone Italian dressing or Zesty Italian Dressing (I like the Albertson's brand), 2 T minced garlic, 2 T lemon juice, and 2 T italian seasoning overnight. (I just put the chicken in a freezer bag and dump in the marinade ingredients and quish it around and put it flat in the fridge.  I turn it over after about 12 hours to make sure it's marinated evenly) Season with pepper and Season All then grill and cut into thin slices. Chicken is served cold–may do ahead of time as well.

Coconut Rice
2-3 cups Uncle Ben’s converted rice. Cook rice as directed but add about ½ can coconut cream (NOT coconut milk) at the same time you add the water. The cream can be found in the grocery store by the pina colada mix for drinks. After the rice is finished cooking, stir in 1 cup large toasted coconut flakes. (Toast the coconut flakes in a little butter in a saute pan over low heat for 2-3 minutes until toasted but not burnt!)

Fancy Pink Drink

1 bottle lemon-lime soda

1 capful raspberry lemonade powder (I like the Country Time kind)

1 bag frozen strawberries

You can adjust how much you make based on the number of people you're serving--you just have a one to one ratio of lemon mix to soda.

I've experimented with all  kinds of flavors and they all work.  So, you can use 1 can frozen limade to one bottle of soda and then add fresh lime slices or you can use lemonade and lemon slices or orange juice and orange slices with cranberries for fall.  You can also mix and match flavors (like one can pineapple juice and one can orange juice mixed with two bottles of soda).  If you've got a sophisticated palette, you can also substitute the lemon-lime soda with club soda. . . but some people think it's a little sour if they're not used to club soda.  The possibilities are not only ENDLESS, but ENDLESSLY FANCY!!!

Cupcake Pops

There is a link to very clear instructions with photos at the top of the blog above the birthday list.  Let me know if you need to borrow my cookie cutter--I'm happy to help you avoid having to buy one :)

Here's the web address if for some shocking reason the link doesn't work : http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/04/make-your-cupcakes-pop.html