Luau Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 (20 oz) can sliced pineapple
• 1 TBS brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• boneless, skinless chicken breasts - 1 per person (4 oz each)
• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1 TBS Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp dill weed
• deli rolls, split & toasted
• optional lettuce leaves

Directions:

1. Drain juice from pineapple, reserving 1 cup of juice and 1 pineapple slice per person (serving). Remaining juice and pineapple can be saved to use in another recipe.
2. Combine the brown sugar, ground mustard, garlic salt, pepper, and reserved 1 cup pineapple juice in a large resealable bag with the chicken breasts. Seal bag, turning to coat chicken.
3. Refrigerate chicken in resealable bag with marinade for 2 hours in the refrigerator. Turn occasionally to thoroughly coat chicken in marinade.
4. In a separate small dish, combine the mayo, Dijon mustard, and dill. Once completed mixed, refrigerate (covered) until ready to use.
5. Time to cook! Drain and discard marinade from chicken breasts.
6. Preheat the grill to medium heat. Cook the chicken breasts on a covered grill, using medium heat for 5-6 minutes per side - or until juices run clear.
7. Grill the pineapple slices for 1 minute on each side.
8. Prepare the split, toasted deli rolls with mayo if desired and layer each roll with 1 chicken breast, 1 slice of grilled pineapple, and 1 lettuce leaf (if desired).

Hint: We opted to make these open face - using only 1/2 a deli roll per person. One of our side dishes was a salad, so we also skipped on adding lettuce to the open sandwich. The boys really liked the chicken grilled this way, and all 4 guys requested that we put this back on the menu, soon!


This recipe is shared over at Sweet & Simple #6 at Cups by Kim.  Please visit and tell her I said hello!  Be inspired by all the great shares...and share a recipe from your kitchen too!

Polynesian Sausage Kabobs

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 lbs smoked kielbasa or Polish sausage, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 small pineapple, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 small cantaloupe, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 medium green peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
• salt & pepper to season as desired

Directions:

1. Making the marinade: In a large bowl, combine lemon juice, soy sauce, water, honey, and salt. Divide in half. Half will be used to baste and half should be put into a resealable bag or covered dish to marinade the sausage.
2. Refrigerate reserved marinade, and marinading sausage separately in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
3. Remove the marinading sausage from the refrigerator - drain and discard the marinade.
4. On soaked wooden skewers or metal skewers, thread alternately sausage, pineapple, cantaloupe, and green pepper.
5. Preheat grill to medium heat.
6. Grill skewers uncovered over medium heat for 10 minutes while turning and basting with reserved marinade.

Hint: Grilled cantaloupe did not sound appealing to me - but OMGoodness it is delicious! We keep a blend of *house* seasoning, (equal parts salt, pepper, garlic powder, and red pepper) on hand to add a little extra punch. Sparingly. On these kabobs, it was delicious!! Even on the pineapple chunks - it worked very well! Maybe next time we will add some chunks of red onion. Maybe!

This recipe is linked up over at Grateful Belly for this week's What's New Wednesday post...go see what other AWESOME and AMAZING ideas are being shared!!

Sweet & Tangy Chicken

Another crock-pot recipe we tweaked a bit - it was a hit here!

Put in crock-pot first:

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice (we used Pampered Chef Cinnamon Blend)
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 TBS soy sauce
1/4 cup cider vinegar
**Juice drained from 20 oz. skinny fruit pineapple slices - save the pineapple to add later**
2 TBS quick-cooking tapioca
1 TBS sugar

Cook on low 5-6 hours, stirring occasionally.



About one hour before you are ready to eat, add to crock-pot:

reserved pineapple
1 1/2 green peppers (diced, large chunks)
1/2 medium red onion (diced, large chunks)



We decided to go with rice on the side tonight. Noodles would be good too but the resident 16 year old was fussing about "pasta, pasta, pasta"...so we switched it up a bit. Yep, we're sneaky like that!

Loaded Pineapple-Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury Moist Supreme Pineapple cake mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 20 oz can pineapple slices, drained
*Maraschino cherries*
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
**1/2-1 cup crushed pineapple - excess juice removed**
**1/2-1 cup chopped walnuts**(or Sweet Caramel Sprinkle in my case)

Follow mixing instructions on box, adding the crushed pineapple and walnuts (sprinkle) to the batter prior to pouring into baking dish.


We are barely into October and I am sick of Halloween candy already. Sick of it I tell you.

So it was time to bake a cake. Not just any cake. But a really, really good cake.

So with fond thoughts to my brother, I decided it would be a Loaded Pineapple-Upside-Down Cake. Makes my mouth water just to say it!



I started off melting the butter to combine with the cup of brown sugar as directed on the side of the box. While that was melting for mixing, I started pulling the pineapple out of the cabinet. Choices, choices!



I decided on the crushed pineapple in natural juice, no sugar added to go in the batter and the pineapple slices in natural juice, no sugar added for the top. The Skinny Pineapple in splenda...well, we'll save it for another day!

I also decided to add some chopped walnuts. Unfortunately, the last batch of Magic Cookie Bars used all the walnuts, so I grabbed what was left of the Pampered Chef Sweet Caramel Sprinkle. And poured it all into the batter. That and the 1 cup of crushed pineapple were the only extra add-ins today.



Before adding the batter to the baking dish, I assembled The Top. In my opinion, the best part of any Pineapple-Upside-Down Cake. The melted sugar and butter go in first, next the pineapple rings and finally whole maraschino cherries with the stems removed. Yummm!

Then I covered that beautiful Top with the creamy pineapple loaded batter.

Into the 350 degree oven for the next 45 minutes.



Now all that was left was to wait.

Waiting can be a challenge when your house smells like cake. Not just any cake either - this is a really, really good cake!



Wish my brother was here to share, but since he's not I'll eat a piece for him. Because I love him! That's my story anyway...