Da*n good Cooks Wanted - Chopped Challenge

WOO HOO!!!!!! I love the interest!!!

So, I think we keep it loose and open - anyone can jump in at anytime and participate. I'll post the Secret Ingredient list every Wednesday... and we'll have a week to come up with and post our recipe ideas.

Then we can chat about everyone's submissions and rate them on a scale of 0-10 on 3 criteria, 10 being the highest:
1) Use of ALL secret ingredients
2) Overall creativity
3) And taste (or suspected taste for those of us who haven't tried to make your recipe)

So total dish points would be 30 for the perfect dish. How does that sound? (I'm TOTALLY open to suggestions here!).

Secret Ingredient post coming next.

Blueberry Spinach Chicken Salad with Spiced Almonds

-Boneless, skinless chicken breast
-Blueberries
-Yellow Onion
-Almonds


Almonds: Toss in egg white wash, roll in spices (garlic powder, paprika, splenda, black pepper), bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until crunchy.

Build a salad bed of washed spinach. Add very thinly sliced (or shaved) yellow onion, thinly sliced radishes, sliced strawberries, and a handful of whole blueberries.

Chicken: spritz with olive oil, season with pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and onion powder. In a shallow baking dish, put chunks of onion, celery, and carrots. Nestle raw chicken in the dish, bake until done at 350 degrees (about 30 minutes for medium-thick chicken breast, let rest at least 10 minutes).

Blueberry vinaigrette: Juice blueberries to gain about 4 TBSP juice. (Or throw in a food processor, then strain to remove the skins). Combine blueberry juice, 1 tsp spicy brown mustard, black pepper, 1 tsp sugar, 2 TBSP olive oil, 3 TBSP red wine vinegar.

Build salad: Start with spinach mix, top with sliced chicken, toss with blueberry dressing, garnish with spiced almonds.

Yellow onion is more like a brown onion. Personally I would prefer a white onion for my recipe. I prefer red onions raw.

I prefer red onion as well raw. I like yellow onion carmelized on steaks and such, not so much raw. But I'm hoping if it's shaved paper thin, it might not be too strong.

I LOVE reading all the recipes. It's so fun - I may have to post TWO secret ingredient baskets a week!!!

Savory Bacon-Asparagus-Oatmeal Cakes

Oatmeal
Turkey Bacon
Egg Substitute (Egg whites, Egg Beaters, etc)
Asparagus

Make the oatmeal (hopefully steel-cut oats) with chicken broth instead of water, using about 1 TBSP less than the recipe calls for. Remove from heat and let cool while doing the next step. In a separate pan, cook the bacon until crispy. Remove the bacon, dice and saute asparagus, 1/4 chopped onion, 1 clove garlic, and grill seasoning. Add bacon and asparagus to onion, saute another couple of minutes. Remove all from pan. Add 2 Tbsp olive oil and bring to medium high heat.

Add all ingredients to oatmeal and stir to combine. Add in 1/4 - 1/3 cup egg whites. Use an ice cream scoop, shape mixture into patties. If they are too wet, add in a handful of whole wheat bread crumbs. Working 2-3 at a time, depending on your pan, pan-fry the oatmeal cakes in the olive oil, turning once. Cook through - about 3 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the cake. Serve immediately. Top with mango salsa, greek yogurt, or light sour cream.