Caviar Chronicles

Since, I have graduated from The University of Tampa I have been out of the Jack Shack (Yes, my roomies and I lived off Jack). 

I now have the liberty of experimenting recipes in a clean kitchen with no more curious cockroaches. 

Yesterday,  I decided to make a light buffalo chicken salad.

It is the summertime, and my body needed a break from eating carbohydrate happy, endless bowls of meatballs and pasta.  Also, I did not quite want to turn into Lidia Bastianich –well at least not yet in my life.  (I do love her by the way)

This recipe easily serves 6 people.  I made a giant bowl and currently have so many leftovers I am going to eat after this post. This ensemble did take me about an hour to make but, the corner of my eyes were also hypnotized by The Sex & The City movie on E! 

Even better after it sits in the fridge!

These are the guiltless ingredients you will need:

• Like a package of boneless chicken, I used 3 boneless breasts that were about 8 or 9 oz. each ( I think it’s obvious that I did not get my degree in Math) 
• Some dashes of olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika!  (I honestly just love saying the word paprika)    
• 1 1/2 cups of Frank’s Buffalo Sauce, in my opinion you can NEVER have enough of this stuff…I have polished off an embarrassing number of these bottles
• 1 cup of diced celery, I cut up another 1/2 c. to top off my salad
• 1 cup of diced carrots…also cut up an extra 1/2 c.  for garnishing…..the extra garnishes make it look so Martha Stewart
• 6 oz. fat-free cream cheese…I need to kiss whoever invented this light version
• 1/2 c. light mayo….. thank you Hellman’s, now instead of measuring out 2 tbsp. of regular mayo, I can glob the light version on anything & it can still be low-fat!
• Some blue cheese to put in your salad, or whatever cheese pleases you
• 1 bag of shredded romaine lettuce-you will not want to do extra work at this point….unless, you are in fact Martha Stewart, (Get 2 or 3 more bags for more servings)
• Optional: jalapenos & extra hot sauce…I think I was mexican in another life
• Light Ranch or you can go all out and make our own blue cheese dressing…… if you’re some really, motivated, stay at home mom aspiring to be all Martha
• My not so much homemade tortilla chips (scroll down for recipe)

I made this before 5pm so I was not drinking wine, but hey if you want to drink while making this it’s 5 somewhere!  I suggest my strawberry, mint lemonade….read furthur for the recipe! 

1. Boil mad water, however much will cover the chicken and dash in some olive oil droppings
2. Take the chicken out and season with salt, pepper and my favorite thing to say…paprika!   
3. After the water is boiling, and in my case overflowing…crank it on medium and throw the chicken in and poach from 10-15 minutes….I honestly don’t follow time very well….seriously, ask my family I am late to everything
4. While the chicken was “poaching,” (my midwestern roomie who did not have sushi before arriving to FL, always thought I was weird when I poached chicken) I kind of almost made my own chips.  You can scroll down to see the easiest thing you ever did with something practically stale.
5.  After, the chicken is fully cooked (I kind of took it out and just hoped it was not too pink inside), wait a couple of minutes for it to cool
6. Take a fork or clean hands and start shredding until, your chicken now almost resembles silly string
7. Throw it into a giant bowl and season with more paprika because, I am that obsessed
8. Now, add in Franks, optional hot sauce, cream cheese, mayo and the chopped up veggies (feel free to add even more greens)
9. BOOM, that wasn’t too hard right?  Just take out some lettuce, top with blue cheese, the buff. chicken, optional  jalapenos and the extra celery and carrot garnishes
10. I don’t know what dressing you prefer, but I am a ranch girl and I do love some Heat (literally, I am in Miami) so I put a few dashes in my ranch and threw in those almost homemade chips! 
    

    Final Product

Almost homemade chips, perfect remedy for anyone who HATES wasting food: 

• -Grab a lime-salt-olive oil-on the verge of going stale tortillas

It’s SO easy I even put the ingredients on one line. 

1. -I cut the tortillas (however many are left) into triangles…ok not all of them looked like triangles…
2. -Tossed them with lime, salt and pepper
3. -Put them on a baking sheet and sprinkled with olive oil
4. -Threw the thing in the oven on LO broil (do not put it in high unless, you do want to start a fire…and then may want to seek some medical help) 
5. -After about 4 minutes, I turned them over for another couple of minutes.
6. -Then they were done and then all eaten by my boyfriend…. this is very likely to occur so just take it as a compliment

My new summer obsession=Strawberry Mint Lemonade

The ingredients may come as a shock…. you need:

• Strawberry….Mint…..PINK lemonade (the others are not the same) and wait for it….. Vodka!
• Oh and extra vodka….you never know  
• If you are a calorie counter, use some damn light lemonade and do not deprive yourself from this drink

I know, who would have thought?! 

Recently, I randomly was craving lemonade and I don’t even really care for lemonade (so un-American of me).  I decided I wanted to make a minty, lemonade and vodka drink so my boyfriend got the ingredients for me to make but, it tasted like garbage.  After, he noticed I was not drinking it, he knew there was something quite wrong.  I suggested, that perhaps pink lemonade (who the hell knows why) would be better.  Before, he walked out the door I asked him to grab some strawberries too.  I remembered my roomy at the Jack Shack put strawberries in most of her cocktails which, always worked extremely well (I thought it would add a sweet, ”summery” spin).  My final masterpiece had minced up mint, plenty of vodka, pink lemonade and chopped up strawberries.  The result=winning.  

Then I put a bunch of chopped strawberries, mint, and pink lemonade into a bowl.  I knew it would get a way better flavor this way, and who wants to waste more time chopping, when all you need to do is add vodka?  It became so addicting that it somehow disappeared. 

Unfortunately, there are no pictures I can provide of the lemonade and chips because, they were not around for long. 

Instead, of going out for dinner and eating an overly fatty meal go nice, light and almost homemade NO I am so not trying to be Sandra Lee right now. 

ATTN: You can get your drink on for cheaper at your house with more delicious, lower calorie cocktails which is usually, most of us normal  girls idea of fun!