Pasta Salad

This may be the world’s easiest pasta salad.  This is a quick dish to make when your husband comes home and tells you he forgot that he signed you up to make something for his work potluck.  Which is tomorrow.  Not that I would know.  That hasn’t happened in our house.  Twice.

Anyway, I love that this pasta salad has so many veggies in it.  It makes me feel like I’m eating healthy.  Which means I can eat at least 3 cookies for dessert.  Balance, right?  I also love the feta in this salad.  For some reason, if I eat any cheese other than cheddar, it makes me feel “fancy,” as my niece would say.  Can you tell I’m a classy girl? 


You can take out or add in whatever veggies you want.  Sometimes I like to add olives, and occasionally I leave out the broccoli because let's be honest, sometimes you just don't wanna eat broccoli.  Am I right?

Pasta Salad

-1 box Rotini pasta ( I like to use the different colored noodles)

-1 cup broccoli

-1 cup carrots

-1 cup cherry tomatoes

-1 cucumber

-1 bottle zesty Italian dressing

-about 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Cook pasta according to directions.  Drain and let cool.  Slice cherry tomatoes in half and cut up carrots, broccoli and cucumber.  Add veggies and cheese to pasta.  Add dressing and stir. 

See, I told you it was easy!

Grab the Chips, It's Time to Dip!

You know what one of my favorite snacks is? Dip.  Is that weird?   I love to dip chips, veggies, fruit, anything I can use to cram as much dip as possible into my mouth.  My 89-year-old grandma doesn't see the need for chips with this salsa.  She makes it and eats it with a spoon.  Have I mentioned my grandma?  She basically lives off Hostess cupcakes, Hershey's dark chocolate, and this salsa.  You can go to her house at any time and she will have it in her fridge.  When you take her to the grocery store, her cart will contain at least 3 boxes of Hostess cupcakes, a couple packages of chocolate, and the ingredients for this salsa.  I am not kidding.  I have no idea why she doesn't weigh 500 lbs.

These are two of my favorite “dips,” if you can classify them as that.  And they’re pretty healthy, so that makes it ok for me to eat them all by myself, right?  Especially if I eat them with baked chips?  I’ll just keep telling myself that while I shovel in the chips.  I'm sure my grandma will approve.  

Fresh Salsa

- 4-5 Roma tomatoes, diced

- 1/2 an onion, diced 

- 1 avocado, diced

- about 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

- juice of 1 lemon

- salt to taste

Mix tomatoes, onion, avocado, and cilantro.  Add lemon juice and salt to taste.

Guacamole

- 2 avocados

- 1/4 of an onion, diced

- 1 Roma tomato, diced

- juice of 1 lemon

- salt to taste

Mash avocados ( I just mash mine up with a fork).  Stir in diced onion and tomato.  Add lemon juice and salt to taste.

These go really well with enchiladas.  The healthy freshness of the dips balances out the fatty creamy deliciousness of all that cheese.  I’ll just keep telling myself that, too.

Honey Chicken

Growing up, when my mom bought bone-in chicken breasts, it meant she would either make this honey chicken, or another recipe for lemon chicken.  I loved the lemon chicken and the honey chicken was my brother’s favorite.  We would sometimes argue about politely discuss which one mom should make. We had the honey chicken A LOT more than the other, which I always thought was because my brother was (and still is) my mom’s favorite (don’t deny it mom, everyone knows it’s true:).

Now that I’m older, I realize it was probably more because this honey chicken is soooo easy to make.  Seriously, it takes about 5 minutes to put together.  And I’ll let you in on a secret: I actually liked the honey chicken just as much as the other, but I didn’t want my brother to get his way.  Shh, don't tell ;).

Honey Chicken


Source: My Mama

- 4 chicken breasts (you can use bone-in or boneless, skinless)

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 1/4 cup honey

- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients and pour over chicken.  Cook at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

This chicken makes the house smell delicious AND it will make your husband think you spent a lot of time on dinner.  And if you’re like me, you’ll let him think that you slaved away and hint that he should do the dishes.  It’s only fair.   

Recipes to Share!

Growing up in the South has given me a love of all things food.  My mom cooked dinner for us every night (usually with plenty of leftovers, I don't think anyone in the South knows how to cook for a small family:), and I try to do the same for my family.  I love cooking, especially baking, and I love to share recipes.  I'm always excited when someone gives me a recipe that is delicious and easy to make.  I'm a pretty basic person, so I like recipes that are simple and use ingredients that I normally have in my house.  I thought a blog would be a good way to share some of my favorite recipes with others.  If you have a recipe you'd like me to try, you can email it to me at simplesoutherncook@gmail.com.  I'd love to hear what you think!

Key Lime Cake with Key Lime Cream Cheese Icing

I love dessert.  It's my favorite part of a meal, which I guess is kind of like when kids say that recess is their favorite part of school.  I like for my desserts to involve lots of chocolate, butter, and sugar.  NOT fruit.  If something has fruit in it, I consider it part of my meal.  Lemon bars?  What a fabulous side dish!  Apple pie?  Goes nicely with my entree, thanks.  That way, I get a serving of fruit with my meal, and I can still have dessert afterward.  It all balances out, right?

That being said, this cake is rich enough for me to count it as a dessert even though it involves fruit. My mom had a bunch of key limes left over from making key lime pie (another fabulous side dish), so I combined a few different things from several different cake recipes and came up with this.  The frosting is so good, I could eat it straight out of the bowl.  Actually, I did.  But only a few spoonfuls.

I’ve made this as both a layer cake and a bundt cake.  If you make it as a layer cake, you’ll just need to add a little more powdered sugar to the icing so it will have a better spreading consistency.  Also, I like lots and lots of icing, but you don't have to put as much as I did. It would probably be prettier and lighter looking with less.

Key Lime Cake with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting


Source: adapted from several recipe on allrecipes.com

Cake

-2 1/3 cups flour
-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

-1/4 tsp. salt

-2 cups sugar

-4 eggs

-1 cup butter

-juice and zest from 4 key limes

-1 cup buttermilk

Grease 2 round cake pans or 1 bundt pan.  Combine the dry ingredients and set aside.  Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each one.  Mix in the key lime juice.  Add the flour  alternately with the buttermilk and mix on low after each addition.  Stir in the key lime zest and pour into prepared pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes (bundt cake may take a little longer).  Cake is ready when you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Icing

-1/2 cup butter

-1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese

-3 Tbsp. key lime juice

-4 cups confectioners' sugar (if you're frosting a layer cake, add more until it reaches spreading consistency)
-key lime zest for garnish

Beat the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.  Add the key lime juice and confectioners' sugar and mix well.  Pour over bundt cake to glaze, or frost a 2-layer cake.  Sprinkle some extra zest on top for garnish.

This cake is a delicious end to your meal.  Or, feel free to use it as a fruity side dish. :)