Grilled Chicken and Tzatziki Lettuce Wrap with Roasted Chickpeas

This weekend was perfect for grilling and last night, we cooked a big batch of chicken for the week because we are on a mission to save money! Here is a quick and easy recipe for dinner and it also makes a perfect lunch to bring to work since you can prepare everything the night before!

• Tzatziki (learn how to make here)
• Chicken breasts
• Romaine lettuce 
• Italian dressing
• Skewers soaked in water
• Salt
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp spice of choice for roasted chickpeas (I used Garam Masala)

Cube chicken breasts and place in Tupperware container, covering with Italian dressing. Marinate for at least an hour. 

Meanwhile, prepare tzatziki. To make, finely dice the cucumber and squeeze out the juice. You can do this with your hands and then let dry on a towel. Combine diced cucumber, yogurt, garlic, dill, lemon juice salt and pepper and mix everything together. Let sit in the refrigerator for about an hour for the flavors to meld. 

Once you're ready to grill, place chicken cubes on skewers, season with a little salt and throw on the grill for about 10 minutes or until cooked. 

Remove chicken from skewers and assemble lettuce wraps. Dollop tzatziki over chicken and add a few slices of extra cucumber if you like. 

For some added crunch, serve with roasted chickpeas - my new favorite snack! Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and drain and rinse chickpeas, laying on paper towel to dry. Once dry, place in a bowl with olive oil and spice of choice. Pour onto baking sheet and bake in oven for 30-40 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Cranberry Newton Bars

I've been wanting to make some type of breakfast bar for a while and originally had a more granola-like bar in my mind, but I recently ate a cranberry newton at my favorite cafe and it inspired this recipe. The one I ate had sesame seeds sprinkled on top, but I forgot to add here - oops!

The one thing I have to say about this recipe is that it takes some time -  maybe that's just on my part because I can be a spaz in the kitchen, but I would highly recommend making the dough the night before. The stress of baking can drive you mad!

I hope you enjoy!

For the Filling

• 12 ounces fresh cranberries
• 1/4 cup orange juice - I used the juice of fresh Mandarin oranges
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup sugar

For the Dough

• 1/2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• dash of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. orange zest
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp. orange juice - I used the juice of fresh Mandarin oranges

Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.

With a hand mixer, cream together the butter and orange zest on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. With the mixer still running, add the yolks one at a time.

With the mixer on the lowest speed, add in the sifted flour mixture all at once plus the freshly pressed orange juice, honey and vanilla extract. Continue mixing until everything is incorporated. The dough will be very soft and wet. 

Transfer the dough to a large sheet of plastic wrap. Fold the wrap over the dough, flatten it into a disc, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. You can also do this step the night before. 

Meanwhile, make the filling. Combine the cranberries, applesauce, juice, orange zest and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor. Transfer to a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for about 8-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. It will thicken more as it cools.

Preheat the oven to 325° and have a parchment lined cookie sheet ready.

Dust the rolling surface heavily with sifted flour to prevent sticking, and dust the surface of the dough generously as well.

With a pin, roll the dough to 1/4” thickness. Frequently lift and move the dough, redusting if needed, to ensure it does not stick and if any places do stick, slide an offset metal spatula between the dough and the counter to loosen and dust the problem area with more flour.

Use a ruler and a knife or pizza cutter to cut the dough into several 3 1/4” wide strips. It is easiest to handle the pieces if you cut these strips into 6” lengths. Gently dust away excess flour with a dry pastry brush.

Down the center of each dough strip, spoon out the cranberry filling. 

Fold one side of the dough up and over the fruit filling, then roll the log over to cover the remaining portion of dough. Repeat this folding process with remaining cookie bars.

Transfer the uncut bars to the prepared cookie sheet and bake for approximately 12 minutes or until the bars have puffed and browned lightly.

Homemade Animal-Cracker Cookies

It's cookie season, which actually means nothing to me. I don't have a big family, I don't attend any cookie swapping parties and the thought of baking all day in my tiny kitchen really doesn't appeal to me. But I'm home and everyone is making treats, so I decided to get on the bandwagon. 

Animal crackers, which clearly aren't crackers, is something I've been wanting to make for a few weeks now. I found these adorable little cookie cutters and for a festive touch, I mixed in a few holiday cookie shapes too. Aren't they cute?! 

Hope you enjoy and happy baking!

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, room temp
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl and set aside.

With a KitchenAid mixer or a hander mixer, beat the butter, sugar and honey together on high speed for about 5 minutes. 

Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat for about a minute. 

Add the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until the flour has been absorbed.

Divide dough and form into two equal disks and wrap separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Let the dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes then remove the plastic wrap. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and sprinkle the top with a bit of flour. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. 

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and gently stamp out as many animal shapes as possible from the rolled dough. Transfer the animals to the prepared baking sheets and don’t worry if they’re close as they won’t expand too much. 

Sprinkle with a little Turbinado sugar and put in the over for 8-10 minutes, turning tray at the halfway point and removing when the edges turn a golden brown.

Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and continue stamping dough if you have some left over. 

Ringing in a New Chapter for Clara Mae James

Can you guess my exciting news?! Clara Mae James got a makeover! WOOT WOOT

This beautiful new site is all thanks to my talented husband, so in honor of this momentous occasion, I'm celebrating with his favorite snack - ice pops! How cute are these ring pop molds! To make this healthy snack, just use a juicer and throw in your favorite fruits. You can also add herbs like mint and basil to make it fancy. 

I'll be sharing my recipes on Instagram this week, so be sure to follow me.