Lovin' me some Voodoo salad...

So, the hubby and I are on a mission to be healthier; part of this whole endeavour includes eating at home more. Now, I love eating out. I know a big part of that is that I don't have to cook. However, I've talked myself into learning to cook better and eating at home more by trying some of my restaurant favorites. And I have to share this one, because it's so ridiculously good!

When we got home from our trip to Utah for Christmas, one of the first recipes I wanted to try was a new favorite at the fantabulous Rumbi Grill -- the Voodoo Chicken Salad. Oh, this is one of the best salads! I found the original recipe on the local Utah ABC channel website (from the CEO of Rumbi Grill himself!), and I've adjusted some of the ingredients (it called for chili paste, but the paste I found made it too spicy, and I thought the dressing was more sweet) as well as cut the recipe down to a quarter. This dressing makes 1 1/2 cups and is good for about six to eight salads.

1 TB Dijon mustard
1 TB lime juice
1 TB chili sauce (look for the sweeter kind)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
a little less than 1/2 cup sesame oil
2 TB rice vinegar
2 TB soy sauce
1/2 cup white sugar
1 TB minced garlic
1 TB and 1 tsp pureed ginger (I found this in the produce section)

Place all ingredients except ginger in a bowl and mix with electric mixer for about 1 1/2 minutes. Add the ginger and whisk until fully mixed.

I stored the leftovers in an empty dressing bottle, and it has stayed good for at least two months now. It might last longer, except I finish it up before that. :)

For the salad, start with some mixed lettuce (we like iceburg and Romaine), then top with diced tomatoes and feta cheese. Grill up some chicken (Rumbi Grill has jerk chicken, but I also like chicken marinated in Lawry's Hawaiian sauce) and fry up some corn tortilla strips; drizzle on dressing and welcome to salad heaven. Yummmmmm... Enjoy!

Mixing it up for my cravings...

So when I was pregnant with my little girl (who, by the way, is 17 months now), I was having cravings for Butterfinger mixes. And the craving has continued, because hey! Butterfinger is just so good in soft, vanilla ice cream. I love to get it at Sonic or my favorite Okie ice cream place, Braum's.

We've been really trying to get our finances (and our waistlines) in order, and I knew the first place I needed to cut was going out to eat or for treats. And to encourage myself to do this, we're trying to recreate our fast food favorites at home on the nights we would have gone out (and make them a little healthier, if we can swing it). Well, that craving was back, so I set out to make it at home. Now this is NOT Butterfinger ice cream or a Butterfinger shake. Those totally didn't do it for me. I loved the soft-serve stuff with the chunks of candy bar freshly mixed in. And I found a pretty good substitute:

This was so easy it's ridiculous. Pull out your blender, some vanilla ice cream (I actually got the low-fat, lowest-priced stuff at Wal-Mart and it worked great) and four or five fun-size Butterfingers.

I put 10 good-sized scoops of ice cream in the blender, and then crunched up four of the little candy bars (I did a few with the rolling pin and a few by hand -- the rolling pin pulverized the candy bar but made it perfect for mixing. I like a little bigger chunks, so doing it by hand was better for me...). Add those in and set your blender to mix. I used a spoon, carefully staying away from the blades, to help it mix around a little better and voila! Butterfinger mix.

Are you hungry yet? :)

This made about three servings (my serving in the picture was the biggest one, and these are baby bowls). I took one more Butterfinger, broke it in a few places and sprinkled a little more on top because, like I said before, I like some occasional chunks in mine. Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm! Took like 5 minutes and completely satisfied my craving.

Good? So good, in fact, he was too busy eating to smile for me. I was also thinking you could make this a bit healthier if you used frozen yogurt, and you could certainly substitute any of your favorite candy bars. Maybe for Valentine's Day I'll make the hubby a Kit-Kat mix...

Oh, fudge!

Now that we're quickly slipping into the holidays, I can't help but think about the wonderful homemade goodies that accompany this wonderful time of year. One of my favorites is fudge. MMmmmmmmm, fudge...

I wanted to share a great recipe I found -- a truly simple recipe. And when I say simple, I mean really, really easy. I am not a cook; in fact, I think I could burn water.

1/2 cup butter

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups white sugar

1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk

10 large marshmallows

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Spray an 8x8 inch dish. Place the butter, chocolate chips and vanilla in a mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium sauce pan, combine sugar, milk and marshmallows over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat to low and cook for 6 minutes, stirring constantly.

*Note: When I reduced the heat, it took several minutes for my marshmallows to melt. And even though it's on a lower heat, I still had bubbles the whole time. Just make sure to keep stirring and it will turn out great!

Pour mixture over contents of mixing bowl and beat until it thickens and loses its gloss. Quickly fold in nuts if you want to include them, and pour into prepared pan. Refridgerate for a few hours before serving.

I stirred it with the butter and chocolate chips for probably about three or four minutes; it's a very subtle change when it loses its gloss. It reminds me of when soup sits for a bit and gets that kind of skin on the top -- I know, that sounds kinda gross when we're talking about delicious fudge. But you keep stirring until the fudge seems to set a bit and hold its wrinkles where you've stirred it.

This is what it looked like right after I poured it into the dish. See how it was pretty firm and held the wrinkles and ripples? Then just pop it in the fridge for a few hours and done!