We’re all pressed for time so finding a recipe that almost cooks itself is always fabulous. Plus, you can use the shredded chicken that you make in an assortment of dishes or vary it a little to create something new.

This recipe slow cooks the chicken in either a slow cooker or rice cooker, but I’ve also made it with a pan on the stovetop using a slow simmer. It’s just easier in the slow/rice cooker since you don’t have to mind it as much.

Shredded Chicken

2 to 4 chicken breasts (one per person)
1 16 oz bottle salsa
1 can ROTEL tomatoes & chiles

Slice chicken breasts in half length-wise. Place 16oz bottle of salsa in slow/rice cooker or pot. Add chicken and mix. Simmer/cook for two hours.

Remove chicken from salsa and using two forks, shred the chicken. Reduce the sauce in the slow/rice cooker or pot in half. Drain the can of ROTEL tomatoes and chiles and add to sauce. Return chicken to salsa/Rotel mixture and cook a little more.

You can use the shredded chicken to fill your hard or soft tacos or flour tortillas. Use on top of salad for a taco salad variation.

Change up the recipe by substituting your favorite BBQ sauce (mine is Sweet Baby Ray’s) for the salsa. You can make a pulled chicken sandwich by making that change!

Hope you liked today’s Cook’s Treat!

Now today’s recipe comes with warnings! LOL! First, definitely use something non-stick, but even then, prepare for stickiness.

Second, watch out for the hot honey/sugar/caramel that will develop. There is nothing worse than a sugar burn because of how hot it gets.

So having limited my liability, here’s today’s Cook’s Treat! Cinnamon Honey Bananas.

I know we’ve talked about the benefits of both cinnamon and honey in other blogs. You can’t go wrong with having both in your diet on a regular basis since they are miracle foods. As for bananas, they are another great addition to your diet. They are low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and a good source of various vitamins and dietary fiber.

They come with their own packaging for ease of transport (LOL!) and you can use them in various ways, including substituting them for butter in baking recipes.

Today’s recipe is about them all alone, whether as a side dish to a meal if you like the sweet on your plate or as a dessert.

Directions

Pre-heat a non-stick skillet and add a tablespoon of butter.
Slice two bananas in half and place in the skillet.
Drizzle honey over the bananas.
Sprinkle cinnamon over the honey.
Cook for about 3 or 4 minutes (depends on how hot the pan is) and then flip.
Repeat on the honey and cinnamon.

You should have a nice sugary glaze on the bananas from the honey and the caramelization as they cook. If not, flip again, but don’t add more honey or cinnamon. The sugars will caramelize from the heat of the pan.

Serve alone or over ice cream/yogurt.

Voila! Hope you enjoyed today’s recipe!

I love oatmeal and oats are great for you! They are high in fiber and protein, may help lower bad blood cholesterol, help regulate sugar levels, may reduce the risk of cancer, reduce high blood pressure . . .

I could go on, but enough said about the wonders of oats and oatmeal! But with the hot weather, it’s tough to think about a steaming bowl of HOT oatmeal.

So today, we’re talking about an Oatmeal Smoothie, but I cannot take credit for these recipes. Please take a moment to visit TheYummyLife.com for an assortment of Make-Ahead Oatmeal Smoothie recipes.

I used the Apricot Orange mix, but substituted strawberries and mango/orange juice. I think I needed to up the juice and/or strawberry factor, but even with that, I had a smooth, thick delicious smoothie. I doubled the recipe and had enough for two mornings worth of cool smoothies to take to work.

Take a moment to check out the recipes and play around and create your own for a healthy snack. FYI – If you’re wondering where to get the chia seeds, Costco had a big bag (when aren’t they big) and most health food stores should have them.

You can also just sprinkle the chia seeds in salads for extra fiber and omega 3 fatty acids!

Aioli is a sauce that’s usually made with garlic, lemon juice, oil and egg yolks, much like a homemade mayonnaise. Some people even put dry mustard in it.

The usual way to make aioli is to crush the garlic, add the lemon juice, mix in the egg yolks and then while whisking, add the olive oil until you get a rich paste. Lots of work, so today I’m giving a cheat method for a delicious garlic basil aioli.

We were making simple burgers the other day and I wanted to dress them up and played around with this recipe. The results were delicious. You can also use this aioli on grilled chicken sandwiches for a bit of flavor and richness.

Garlic Basil Aioli

In a small mortar, add about 1/8 teaspoon salt. It’s not really for flavoring, but to assist with crushing the garlic.

Two cloves of garlic, chopped. Add to mortar and crush with the salt until you have almost a paste.

Add 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil. Crush together with garlic to make a paste.

Mince two or three leaves of basil. You can also add a few sprigs of parsley leaves if you want.

Add minced basil leaves to the garlic/salt/oil mixture. Crush some more.

Add 3 tablespoons mayonnaise. You can use light mayo here to cut down on calories.

Mix some more and voila!

You’ve got a tasty spread for your burgers, chicken or any other kind of sandwich you’d like to make. Even use it over some broiled fish or with potatoes.

It’s summer and that means lots of peaches and nectarines ready to eat in all kinds of ways. Take a bite, cut them up into fruit salad, regular salad, sangria, pies, tarts and cakes.

I’ve never made a peach cake, but I was inspired by this week’s America’s Test Kitchen which had some tips on how to avoid a soggy peach cake. Apparently peaches have less pectin than other fruits which makes them release liquid that isn’t bound up with the pectin.

The solution: Roasting the peaches for 20 to 25 minutes and tossing them with crushed panko crumbs before you mix them in with the cake batter.

I wish I could say that I’d make the cake from scratch, but unfortunately, time does not allow that in my life, so I am substituting a pound cake mix for the batter and since I love nectarines more than peaches, I’ll be using those in my cake.

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds of peaches (or nectarines) cut into wedges.
4 teaspoons Lemon Juice
4 tablespoons amaretto (you can substitute peach schnapps or rum here also)
4 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup panko crumbs

For topping: 3 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon of almond extract

For the Cake: Cake Mix of your choice, but choose a slightly denser cake mix, like pound cake or a mix for an upside down cake. 1 teaspoon of almost extract.

Directions

Place cut peaches into the lemon juice, rum and sugar. Let it macerate for at least 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove about 2 dozen of the peach wedges and set aside. Cut the remaining peach wedges into thirds and place on a greased foil-covered baking sheet Bake at 425 for about 20 to 25 minutes. Set aside to cool and reduce oven temperature to that recommended for your cake mix.

Grease a 9 inch springform pan. If you wanted to really boost the almond taste, you could finely grind almonds and use them to “flour” the inside of the springform pan.

Make your cake mix, adding 1 teaspoon of almond extract.

Once peach wedges are cooled, toss with crushed panko and gently fold into cake mix.

Pour cake mix into springform pan and place the reserved peach wedges on top as a nice design. Sprinkle the almond-sugar mixture over the top. Bake until center of the cake is set and a toothpick comes out clean. Probably around 40 to 50 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

As you know, being healthier has been on my mind a lot as has losing weight. Because of that, I’ve been eliminated some things in my diet, like certain carbs. I’m missing my rice, though. In my house as a kid, we ate rice every night, so it’s a tough habit to break.

I’ve tried quinoa and it’s okay, but the one thing I’ve discovered that satisfies the rice craving and cooks up suprisingly similar is barley. Plus, while you may pay $5 or $6 for a bag of quinoa, you can head to the dried beans aisle and pick up a bag of barley for under $2.

So what is barley? Barley is a healthy high fiber, high protein whole grain whose soluble fibers can help reduce the risk of heart disease. It can also help lower your cholesterol levels and its insoluble fibers can assist with Type 2 diabetes. Also, high fiber can also help lower the risk of colon cancer. Barley is also low in fat. One cup of barley has about 200 calories, but it’s packed with 6 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein!

Today’s recipe is inspired by a classic tabouleh salad and it’s what I call a refrigerator cleaner. Besides those veggies I’ve included in this recipe, add any others you may have around, like carrots and celery. I added some cooked asparagus to the basic recipe and it was delicious.

Barley Summer Salad

2 cups cooked barley*
2 Roma tomatoes
1 medium red onion
1 medium cucumber (regular or 1/2 English cucumber)
1/4 cup pecans
1/4 Craisins
1 tablespoon capers
1/2 chopped pimentos
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh basil
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

*To cook the barley, use 1 cup of dry barley, rinsed. Boil with 2 cups of water and/or broth. It’ll take about 35 to 40 minutes to cook. If you pre-soak the barley for an hour, it’ll take about 15 minutes to cook.

Put oil and vinegar in a large bowl. Chop all other ingredients into small pieces. Add to bowl and mix. Add barley to bowl and mix.

Done. It’s that simple and it’s a tasty side dish to burgers or any other summer meal!

I’ve got some tomatoes already set on my plants (yeah!) and can’t wait for them to ripen so I can have some tomatoes right off the vine. In the meantime, I’ll use the store bought ones to make something really tasty and healthy!

This recipe was inspired by one from Fitness Magazine for Parmesan Tomatoes. I know my recipe adds some calories due to the reduced fat ricotta (about 30 calories per serving), but this will make a nice side dish.

Ricotta & Parmesan Tomatoes

4 Roma Tomatoes, cut in half and cored
1/2 cup reduced fat ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/8 cup chopped fresh basil (or if using dried, 1 tablespoon)
Olive Oil (a few teaspoons to oil the pan)

Place a paper towel in a strainer and let ricotta sit there for about half an hour. This will help draw out the moisture and keep the insides from being so runny.

Preheat oven to 450. Oil baking sheet with olive oil.

Cut Roma tomatoes in half (either way although if you go the short way you may need to take a bit off the bottom for them to stand upright). Oil the tomato bottoms and place on baking sheet.

Mix basil and ricotta. Spoon 1/8 cup into each tomato half. Pepper to taste. I don’t use salt since the parmesan has a ton of it, but you may wish to also salt at this point.

Sprinkle ricotta with parmesan cheese.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes or until tomatoes are soft and parmesan is toasty. You may even wish to give it a little broil for that extra caramelization.

For a variation on this theme, try the recipe with some zucchini halves or eggplant. Just one caution on the eggplant, you may have to cook it a little before so that it’s fully cooked.