I love entertaining and some of my favorite dinner menus includes anything Mexican. I entertained the other evening and I prepared these delicious Tomatillo Shrimp Enchiladas for our friends (tacos for the kids!). They were really good and I was even lucky enough to have my friend Jill bring dessert. Jill is always the friend that has the most creative recipes. Honestly, I have probably said this before, but if you go to eat at her house, you come out of there wanting the recipe for everything she made! She knew that I was making Mexican food so she decided to keep with the theme.
Do I have the greatest friends or what? They just know me so well! 🙂
She made this delicious banana cream cake and brought some fresh fruit. With the fruit, she made this wonderfully creamy, tangy dip called Margarita Dip. (See the theme here…:)
It really tasted like a margarita-how could you go wrong with that?-but it was family friendly, containing no alcohol at all. It was delicious and perfect for spring and summer entertaining. With the delicious array of fruit she brought, dipped in this dip, you just couldn’t get enough.
If you are looking for something fresh and different to entertain or just for a healthy snack or dessert on a hot summer day-this is the recipe for you! Thanks Jill-this one is a keeper!

Margarita Fruit Dip

1 pkg. 8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup frozen limeade concentrate, partially thawed
2 tblsp orange juice
1/2 cup thawed cool whip

Beat cream cheese, limeade and orange juice in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended and smooth. Gently stir in cool whip. Cover and chill for at least an hour. Serve with fresh fruit. Fun tip: serve it in a margarita glass! 🙂

Okay, we all have time to lunch with friends all the time right?

Riiiight….
But, if you happen to be in the position where you can invite some girlfriends over for lunch, I have the perfect recipe for you.
Back when the kids were much younger and we weren’t running from place to place with activities, I would love going over to my friend Tina’s house for a playdate and lunch. She always had some delicious goodies for us to eat while the kids played, but one of my favorites was her chicken salad. I loved it!! I think what made it even better was the fact that she would serve it alongside croissants. I mean, what could be better than a creamy, chunky chicken salad on top of a bread that is made primarily out of butter? Not much I tell you, not much.
This chicken salad is the perfect mix of tender chicken, creamy mayo, a few sweet surprises and a little bit of crunch. I changed it a little through the years, adding this and adding that, but in essence, it is still the same chicken salad that I shared with one of my best friends. Enjoying lunch, enjoying conversation, and enjoying being with a great friend. Does it get any better?

2 cups cooked, white meat chicken, cut into chunks (I use a rotisserie chicken)
1/2 cup red grapes, sliced
1/2 cup pecan halves, crumbled
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4-1/2 cup mayo (I use light mayo and only use 1/4 cup-try that first, adding a little more if needed)
2 tblsp sour cream
2 tsp dried minced onion
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper

Place chicken, grapes, pecans, and cranberries in medium bowl. In small bowl, mix mayo, sour cream, minced onion, salt and pepper. Pour mayo mixture over chicken mixture and stir. Add more mayo if necessary. Refrigerate 1 hour . Serve over salad greens, or with fresh bread.

I just wanted to take the time to say thank you to all of you who have supported me on my blogging adventure these past few months. I am having so much fun and I cannot wait to continue sharing my recipes and stories with all of you. I really appreciate you checking out my site, taking time to comment and liking my facebook page. Please feel free to comment on my blog directly or on my facebook page at any time! I love hearing from you! Thank you again and I hope you continue to check Girl and her Kitchen for great recipes, fun ideas and some stories that hopefully make you smile!
See you Monday with a new recipe!

Last year on Mother’s Day, my mom gave me the sweetest gift…literally.
I love love love getting new serving dishes and decorative platters for all the food I make.
I know, I am hopeless.
Anyways, my mom is really great at finding really cute stuff and last year she handed me this pretty white dish, with a strawberry rhubarb crisp baked inside. The dish she gave me was so nice, but the strawberry rhubarb crisp…even better!
I love rhubarb. My mom used to bake a rhubarb apple pie when we were kids that I LOVED. Maybe there were strawberries in there too? I don’t remember, but I do remember that was when my love affair with rhubarb begun. It is my favorite dessert ingredient.
Ok, I lie.
Chocolate is my favorite, but rhubarb is a very close second.
 As soon as it starts appearing on the store shelves, I am buying it.
This crisp was so good. Sweet, tart and crunchy. I topped it with vanilla frozen yogurt, but whipped cream or ice cream would be good too. It was almost gone after my family had dessert the night I made it, but I did store the leftover in the fridge and heated it up for my daughter two days later and it was still good….well she said it was (don’t tell her I took a bite!).

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Topping:
2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted

Filling:
4 cups rhubarb, diced
4 cups strawberries, hulled, and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
2 tblsp orange juice
1 tbsp corn starch

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Drizzle melted butter over oat mixture and stir until well coated. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix rhubarb, strawberries and sugar. In a smaller bowl, combine juice and cornstarch until blended. Pour over strawberry mixture and toss well. Pour mixture into an 8×8 baking dish. Top evenly with oatmeal mixture.. Bake for 45 minutes until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Ok, so the funniest thing about this recipe is that my kids, for a long period of time in the afternoon, thought we were having Green CHICKEN chile burgers. They swore that I said it. I denied it.
Truth?
I probably did.
It sounds exactly like what a sleep deprived (totally my own fault–cannot gain sympathy for it by saying “my kids were up all night” , etc, etc. Nope. I really stayed up until almost 1 am watching my DVR’d episodes of The Voice. Seriously pathetic right?), hungry, mother who was trying to get dinner on the table would say while jumbling over her words answering for the thousandth time the ever so fun question, “What are we having for dinner?”
Green CHICKEN Chile burgers, alright kids? How does that sound??
Well, needless to say, they were seriously acting really odd until I put the burger in front of them and my oldest actually breathed an immense sigh of relief.
“It’s normal!” she exclaimed with more delight that I would have expected for a burger that didn’t have her usual ketchup and mayo combo. “It’s not green!”
And that is when the misunderstanding came full circle and we had a laugh about it,  and I was left wondering what they were actually thinking I was going to serve them for dinner? Wow. They really don’t expect a lot from me if they quietly accepted that I was going to serve them green chicken for dinner.
Despite the misunderstanding with my children, these burgers deserve some mentioning.
Wow, is all I can say.
I was skeptical at first as well wondering what was in store for us.
They were soooo good!
Like really good.
As in, I want to eat two burgers but I really cannot do that, good.
Speaking of, why is it that guys get that metabolism that they can actually brag to their friends about how many burgers they can eat and everyone thinks it is awesome?
So not fair.
Anyways, this burger was so delicous and flavorful and the green chile sauce on the top really just put me over the moon. The kids LOVED the burgers. They wouldn’t try the green chile sauce (well my little guy did, and liked it, but the girls just turned up their noses)  but I think it was more because of the way it looked (green) more than because of the way it tasted. I piled it on high on my burger (don’t judge, it’s vegetables, right?) and it was sweet and tangy and a perfect complement to the juicy burger. I used whole wheat buns and toasted them, but any bun would do fine and toasting is optional of course. Guacomole is optional for these burgers and I am sure the burgers topped with this would have been really good too, but honestly, I didn’t even need it. They were so good with just the chile sauce, I didn’t want to take away from that.
 We served this burger with crunchy red, orange and yellow pepper strips and homemade tortilla chips and fresh salsa. It was a great dinner and my kids will vouch for that. I think that they would have eaten anything at that point though as long as it wasn’t green chicken.
Give these a try. You may start to forgo your usual cheeseburger in favor of this one! 🙂

Note: The recipe I adapted this from said it makes four burgers but I made six good sized ones out of this. I think if you are looking for a big burger, four would be accurate. Size them the way you want that fits your family and enjoy!

Green Chile Chicken Burgers

Burgers:
1 lb ground chicken breast
1 tblsp olive oil (if you are using regular ground chicken, you can omit this)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp onion powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 – 4 oz cans of diced green chiles ( I used mild, but choose whatever is right for your family and tastes)
3 oz of monterey jack cheese cut into very small cubes
Cooking spray for pan
1 tblsp honey
1/2 tblsp lime juice
Monterey Jack for topping burgers
6 buns, sliced, toasted
Avocado slices or guacomole (optional)

Combine chicken, olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, onion powder, garlic and 1/2 can of green chiles. Add cheese cubes and mix. Form into six equal patties. Coat skillet or grill pan with cooking spray. Cook burgers on one side until lightly browned and cooked through, about 3-4 minutes. Flip over and top cooked side with extra monterey jack cheese so cheese can melt while cooking other side. Cook burgers on other side 3-4 minutes or until completely cooked through. While burgers are cooking, mix the rest of the chiles, honey and lime juice. Serve burgers on toasted buns and top with chile sauce and guacomole if desired.

Recipe adapted from How Sweet It is

A very special day is approaching.
Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there!
I am not only thinking of this day because I am a mom…. I am thinking of this day because I have a mom.

Alright….disclaimer!!!
What you are about to see is NOT considered health food. It is a decadent, delicious treat, I can promise you that, but health food it is not.
I am laughing because I just heared about the lady that sued Nutella because she was giving the hazelnut chocolate spread to her kids and she thought -because of their advertising she claims-that it was a health food. Crazy town we live in these days I tell you! The weirdest part? She won millions from Nutella.
Crazy town.
So with that little current events news story I just provided you (see what you get from reading my blog? Recipes AND current events. Well, current evenT 🙂 I will get on with the recipe.
My recipe for one of the most delicious things I have made in recent weeks. This is seriously one of those recipes where I almost consider NOT giving it away.
Almost.
But I will, because I have to share this. It is really something that should be shared.
I am sure that I have said before that I am not really a frosting girl. I have a feeling you are going to stop believing me about that little fact each time I post a new frosting recipe. I think it was last time with my Perfectly Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting recipe that I gave this same song and dance about not liking frosting.
It really is true though. I usually take the frosting off my cake, but with this frosting, just like the cream cheese one, instead of scraping it away, you will be left wanting more..
Buttery and lightly sweet, this frosting is the best I have ever tasted. It is the way frosting used to be made before they started adding all that extra junk to it. NOT that I am saying that this one is a health food by any means (just reiterating my disclaimer from above!) but it does not have all the chemicals and additives you will get from the store bought kind. Just pure goodness. I do believe that is a direct quote from my husband’s mouth.A mouth that was surely filled with this delicious frosting.
I will let you be the judge.

Old Fashioned Frosting

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 sticks butter, cut into 24 pieces, softened to room temperature

NOTE: This frosting takes a bit of planning so read the entire recipe before starting so you leave yourself enough time to follow the directions as carefully as possible for best results.

In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. Slowly whisk in the milk until the mixture is smooth. Pour into a saucepan and cook over medium heat whisking the entire time until mixture becomes so thick that it is almost stiff and not able to be whisked. Turn off heat. This might take anywhere from 5-8 minutes so whisk constantly and watch it carefully.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let it cool completely. This is extremely important. The mixture must be completely cooled. Do not refrigerate it to cool because the butter will not beat into it properly. If you are in a hurry and must cool it in the fridge, take it out and let it get to room temperature again before adding butter.
Add the vanilla to the completely cooled mixture and beat on medium speed until completely combined. Add the butter, one piece at a time and beat well. Once all the butter is added, beat on low for five minutes until it is light and fluffy.
Spread on your favorite prepared cake or cupcake recipe. If you need to pipe it, refrigerate for 30 minutes so frosting becomes more stiff and easier to pipe.

This is so one of those recipes that just screams summer.
You know what I am talking about.
Fresh vegetables, lots of flavor and goes almost perfectly with anything you pull off the grill. I made this tonight with lemon herb grilled chicken, but it would have gone nicely with a marinated flank steak or some honey mustard salmon pulled right off the grill as well.
Can you tell that I am ready for grilling season? I must reference it at least once in almost every post! Just wait until summer grilling starts….but then I guess you will start hearing about my desire for hearty stews and soups that fall brings. Ahh…the grass is always greener, right? 
Some nights I am just looking for something quick to make, but healthy as well. It always seems like all of the convenience foods, that are fast and easy to throw together for dinner, are so completely unhealthy. I learned to avoid all of those things so long ago. It is almost just as easy to throw together something healthy for the family with just a little planning. 
I love salads like this. Quick to make and something my whole family loved. I think my little guy honestly ate almost all of the avocado out of the bowl!
Remember though, this salad does need to be consumed at the meal you are making it for because the avocado will brown up and the salad will lose its freshness. My family is two adults and three little ones and it was more than enough for us. If you are feeding less, you may even want to cut the recipe in half. 
The creaminess of the avocado, the sweetness of the tomato, the crispness of the cucumber all complemented by fresh mozzarella really is the perfect salad for a summer, or in this case, spring day!

Avocado Salad

2 ripe avocados, cubed
1 pint fresh cherry tomatoes, halved and quartered
1 cucumber, peeled, sliced and quartered
1 8 oz container fresh mozzarella balls or 8 oz fresh mozzarella, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp dried italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Toss together avocado, tomatoes, cucumber and fresh mozzarella. In a small bowl, whisk olive oil, italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Pour over avocado mixture and toss gently. Taste and add more salt or seasonings if needed. Serve and consume immediately.