Creamy Lemon Chicken with Asparagus and Bacon

My youngest daughter and I were browsing through some magazines the other day when she found this delicious looking recipe from Family Circle March 2014 issue and requested that I make it for dinner. Well, lucky for her, asparagus is in season and I bought two bunches the day before...and we always have chicken breast in the freezer so I really didn't have a reason not to give in to her request. 

So yes, this Creamy Lemon Chicken with Asparagus and Bacon was our dinner last Monday, and it was a big hit! We honestly didn't expect it to be so flavorful, but it was.

I'm truly glad we tried this recipe. It's very simple and super easy to make yet really delicious! The lemon gave it a refreshing taste that we all loved! Definitely a must try!

Chicken Asparagus Roll-Ups

Christmas is in two weeks! If you're still looking for easy recipes for your Christmas dinner, this Chicken Asparagus Roll-Ups is perfect! It's very easy to make yet so tasty and elegant looking. The best thing is you can prepare it ahead of time.

This is very much like the Chicken Cordon Bleu that I have featured here before. The main difference is the filling. While Chicken Cordon Bleu has ham and cheese, this Chicken Asparagus Roll-Ups has asparagus and cheese. I got this recipe from allrecipes a few years back and this has been a family favorite since then. Because I don't usually have tarragon in my kitchen, I use Herbes de Provence as substitute and I must say, it works well. As for the filling, I sometimes add carrot sticks to make it colorful. We usually eat this with buttered mixed vegetables and rice, but it's perfect with salad or mashed potatoes too.

We all love this! I'm pretty sure you will love it too!

Chicken Biryani from Playful Cooking

Truth be told, one of the few things that my husband and I have in common is our love for food. We enjoy cooking and eating together since our dating years. We've shared the best and worst meals of our lives...but there's nothing about food that we have ever argued about. Back when we were in the Philippines (when we didn't have the  girls yet and didn't care that much about frugality), Ryan and I used to enjoy eating out a lot! We really loved trying different cuisines...but I don't remember being able to try Indian Cuisine back then. Actually, I don't even know if there was as Indian restaurant in Manila that time. It was only here in Texas that we got our first experience with Indian food...and it was like we fell in love with it at first taste! Ryan and I both love spicy food...and with all the different herbs and spices used in Indian Cuisine, we find it perfect for our taste buds. 

For our PiTCC's Favorite Dishes from Around The World series, I want to share with you one of the Indian dishes that have become my favorite. It's called Chicken Biryani. 

Biryani is a dish that's popular in India and Pakistan and is made of rice, herbs, and spices as well as vegetables or meat like beef, chicken, lamb, goat, fish and shrimp. The chicken version is my favorite. I just love the aroma and texture of this dish! It's an all-in-one meal that's so tasty and comforting! 

Today, I am happy to bring you Kankana of Playful Cooking to share with us her Chicken Biryani recipe. Kankana is from India but is now living in California with her wonderful husband. I met her last year when I was just starting to blog. She has become one of my favorite bloggers not just because of her mouth watering recipes and vivid photos that never fail to amaze me, but much more because of her very warm personality that can clearly be seen on her awesome blog. I'm truly glad that she found the time to be here with us today despite her busy schedule! I really can't thank her enough! Without further ado, I give you Kankana Saxena...

Thank you Tina for making me a part of this series and it was my pleasure to prepare the Chicken Biryani for you. Hope you will enjoy it! 

I am a passionate foodie and wannabe photographer who married the most amazing man in the world and I am currently enjoying life in sunny California. My cooking is mostly healthy with little bit of indulgence here and there. We all need that in our lives, don’t we? I like fast and easy cooking and that’s what you can mostly expect to see in my blog :) 

Today, I am sharing a Chicken Biryani recipe that I learned to cook from my brother when I visited home last winter. As a kid, I remember my brother would spend more time in the kitchen than I would but this time, my little brother totally impressed me with his cooking skills. 

One afternoon, he prepared Chicken Biryani and that was the first time that I actually enjoyed biryani. The strong aroma and warm flavors made me crave for it more than ever! 

Biryani is a very popular dish in India made with rice, meat and lots of spices! There are typically two types of biryani - Kacchi/Kutchi(raw) Biryani and Pakki(cooked) Biryani. For Kacchi biryani, uncooked marinated meat and rice are layered and cooked together. For Pakki biryani, both rice and meat are partially cooked. Then, they are layered to cook for some more time and the flavors blend between the rice and meat. 

I prepared Pakki biryani and it's very much like Hyderabadi biryani. It involves a lot of steps but at the end, it will all be worth the effort!

Chicken 'n Peppers Spaghetti

I hate to admit this, but sometimes I'm just too lazy to cook. It's on such days that I make quick pasta dishes like this Chicken 'n Peppers Spaghetti...

...and by quick, I mean less than 30 minutes including prep and cooking time. I'm really not comfortable with serving frozen ready-to-eat food to my family (though I must admit, I sometimes do and that makes me feel guilty)...so even though I'm feeling lazy, I still prefer making a simple meal that won't make me feel guilty. This is an example of that. It is very easy to prepare and cook but it's healthy! The chicken and cheese makes this dish a good source of protein, while the peppers (both the bell pepper and Jalapeño) give this dish added vitamins and nutrients like Vitamin A, C and E, potassium and folic acid. Red bell peppers also contain lycopene, which is a carotene that helps to protect against cancer and heart disease. This is really packed with goodness but is so easy which makes it perfect for lazy to cook days!

How about you, do you have any “too lazy to cook recipe” ? 

Chicken Strips Adobo Sandwich

I don't know about you...but I sooo love stew. Just like any other typical Filipino, I love eating it with rice...but I also enjoy eating it with rolls and bread, especially the leftover. Whether it's beef, chicken or pork stew, making a sandwich filling out of it always excites my taste buds. I remember that when I was little, whenever we have stew for dinner, whether its adobo, afritada, estofado, kaldereta or menudo, I would always ask my mom to make me some stew filled pandesal or pandelemon for breakfast the next morning. Sometimes, I would even bring them to school for snack. Even now, I still love that kind of sandwich. During our road trips, I would usually cook adobo or menudo the night before then stuff them in buns. My family consider it as a very yummy on-the-go meal!

For this month's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge, I found the perfect chance to share one of my family's favorite stew sandwiches with you. Thanks to our host, Louie Yan of East and West for choosing "Filipino portable bites offered by food trucks" to be this month's theme. Here in the US, I've only seen food trucks when we were in NYC. If I am to find one here in Texas, I would love if they have Filipino food like those in California...and how I wish they have this Adobo Sandwich!

It looks so good, right??? If there are food trucks selling this here in Texas, I'll definitely be a frequent customer! And if someday I'll have my own food truck or Filipino fast food restaurant, this Chicken Strips Adobo Sandwich will be one of our house specials! This is no ordinary sandwich, I tell you! It has the goodness of the Filipino all time favorite adobo plus the yummy combination of egg and cheese and the added spice of Jalapeño pepper and onions! 

Though I enjoy any kind of stew, adobo is my most favorite because it is the quickest to cook and it doesn't require much ingredients. For the sandwiches that I prepare for our trips, I usually use shredded leftover pork or chicken adobo, but for this post, I used freshly cooked chicken breast strips adobo with Jalapeño pepper and lots of onions. Chicken breast cut into strips cook a lot faster so this will be perfect for on-the-go meals like this.

You should try it! I'm sure you'll love how tasty and filling this is!

Baked Paprika Chicken and Mushrooms

Hi everyone! Did you miss me??? Sorry for my absence in the blogosphere! Our internet connection was down since Thurday. Our new neighbor had their internet installed on that day and for some reasons (that our service provider hasn't explained to us yet), our connection was affected. It really sucks! But the worst part is that it took two days for AT&T to attend to the problem. It was only fixed last Saturday and we didn't even get an explanation about what really happened.

But at least my connection is up now, right??? I am really happy to be back...and I am glad to bring you another family favorite non-Filipino recipe. 

As I've told you many times, my daughters love mushrooms so much. This Baked Paprika Chicken and Mushrooms is one of those dishes that I came up with to satisfy their craving for mushrooms. The combination of chicken, mushrooms and cheese, and the wonderful flavors of garlic, paprika and sake in it make this a very exciting and delicious dish.

We all love this from the first time I cooked it...I'm pretty sure you will love it too!

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Trumpet Pasta

As we all know, broccoli is a very nutritious vegetable. It is a very good source of fiber, Vitamins A, C and K, calcium and folic acid...and it belongs to the cabbage family, known as Cruciferous Vegetables, which has anti-cancer properties. With all these health benefits that broccoli has to offer, I am truly glad that it is one of the few green vegetables that my daughters love. At least I wouldn't have to force them to eat it. :)

This pasta dish that I'm sharing with you today is one of Clarise & Cherlin's favorite broccoli dishes. I frequently use either macaroni or penne for this recipe...but I have this gluten-free Pappardelle's Trumpet Pasta, so I decided to use it instead. 

The delicious combination of broccoli, cheese and chicken always makes this dish a big hit on our table...but the fun shape of trumpet pasta made it even more appealing.

But let me tell you that whatever type of pasta you use, this recipe will surely bring delight to everyone. If you want your kids to start eating broccoli, you should try this!

Guest Post at Exquisite Niche Featuring Chicken Estofado

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. It's President's Day here in the US which means no school for the kids. Before I go spend some quality time with my girls, I want to invite you all to check out my guest post at the Exquisite Niche! If you haven't been to this site before, I am very excited to introduce you to it. Gursahiba Anand, a wonderful lady from India started this wonderful blog late last year with the hope of encouraging all those who have the passion for cooking and baking by sharing her own cooking adventures. Just like all women in this world, she wants everything in her house and life to be just exquisite, hence the name of her blog.

I was truly delighted when she invited me to do a guest post for her. Not only did she ask me to share a Filipino recipe, she also let me introduce the Filipino Cuisine to her readers! As you all know, sharing my love of cooking and my county's cuisine has always been my goal, so being able to do this somewhere other than my own blog is really exciting for me!

For my guest post, I prepared a short history of the Philippine Cuisine, and since Gursahiba loves Spanish food, I chose a recipe that resembles a Spanish dish that we Filipinos call Estofadong Manok (Stewed Chicken). 

So what are you waiting for??? Head over to Exquisite Niche and get the chance to learn a little more about the Filipino Cuisine and the Spanish inspired recipe that I am sharing with Gursahiba and her readers. While you're there, be sure to give her some blog love either by saying hi or following her blog via email or Facebook. Have a wonderful Monday, everyone!

Chicken Enchiladas

Tomorrow is May 5, and in line with Cinco De Mayo celebration, I just thought of posting  one of my family's favorite Mexican dish --- Chicken Enchiladas. I found this recipe on Taste of Home magazine years ago. I've been revising it since then, omitting and adding ingredients that will best suit my family's taste buds. Last night, I came up with this one...and I used homemade tortillas! Ryan said it's a lot better than those chicken enchiladas I made before. Clarise and Cherlin both requested me to make this again "very soon"...so I guess they loved it! 

I'm sharing this on What's Cooking Wednesday,  What's on the Menu Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Foodie Wednesday, Recipes I Can't Wait to Try, Let's Do Brunch,  Miz Helen's Country Cottage's Full Plate Thursday and It's a Keeper Thursday.
And by the way, two of my recipes are featured today on two fabulous blogs...Pecan Sandies on This Chick Cooks by Katie and Pasta With Chicken & Sun-Dried Tomatoes in Alfredo Sauce on My Sweet and Savory by Chaya. Drop by these two blogs! You won't regret what they have to offer!
And now, here are the Chicken Enchiladas and Homemade Tortillas recipes. I wish you all a Happy Cinco De Mayo! Have fun!

Prep Time:~15 mins                 Cook Time:~15 mins                  Servings: 6        

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp butter
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 ½ cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp dried coriander
• 3 cups chicken breast, cooked and cubed
• ½ cup Jalapeño pepper, chopped
• ½ cup yellow onions, chopped
• ½ cup sliced black olives
• 1 cup tomatoes, chopped
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 12 pcs. warm flour tortilla