This post is sponsored by Florida Department of Citrus.

I love working with the Florida Department of Citrus because I love love Florida Orange Juice. We always have some in our refrigerator and I try to drink a glass each day! I love the taste, there's nothing like it! Not only am I getting my much needed Vitamin C, I'm also getting potassium and folate, without any added sugar.

I'm so excited to share this recipe with you for this spinach salad made with an orange-ginger dressing, of course I used Florida Orange Juice in the dressing! I topped the salad off with a panko-crusted chicken breast. It's so so good and better yet, you can even make it ahead of time while you're meal prepping for lunches or dinners during the week!

First, we're going to make the orange-ginger salad dressing! Put some Florida Orange Juice into a jar.

PS and by the way, did you know that drinking a glass of 100% orange juice gives you one of your daily recommended servings of fruit? (That's an 8-ounce glass!)

Add the soy sauce, olive oil, salt and pepper to the jar with Florida Orange Juice.

Next grate the ginger and add it. Close the jar and shake it really well. I love making salad dressings this way!

Then, add the honey to taste. Depending on your preference!

Close the jar and shake it again to make sure it's mixed all the way! And then put it in the refrigerator.

Cut the chicken length-wise into cutlets. You'll now have four pieces.

I put Florida Orange Juice into the egg mixture!

Dip the chicken into the egg-OJ mixture and then into the panko breadcrumbs.

It's really really easy!

Cook in a nonstick skillet with olive oil and they look golden brown delicious like this! (Be sure to let that chicken rest before slicing it.)

You can use a grater to grate the carrot or after you have peeled it, you can peel long strips and then cut them up for your salad. I love serving carrot this way in salads!

Put the salad together. You can totally toss the dressing into the spinach salad. You can add sliced almonds if you want to!

And then top with the chicken but be sure to add that amazing orange-ginger dressing to the chicken too!

It's an easy meal to make and I know your family and friends will LOVE it! Perfect for summer and a wonderful way to use the Florida Orange Juice you have in your refrigerator!

For more information about Florida Orange Juice along with recipes and videos, be sure to visit the Florida Department of Citrus' website! And follow them on Instagram and check out the hashtag #AmazingInside!

Be sure to check out my other recipes where I use Florida Orange Juice!

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Spinach Salad with Panko Chicken and Orange-Ginger Dressing Recipe

Ingredients

Orange-Ginger Dressing

• 1/3 cup Florida Orange Juice
• 1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• pinch of black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon honey

Chicken

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast about 2
• 1 large egg beaten
• 1 Tablespoon Florida Orange Juice
• 1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• olive oil

Salad

• 5 ounces baby spinach
• 1 carrot peeled and grated or shredded with a peeler
• sliced almonds

Instructions

Orange-Ginger Dressing

• Place all of the dressing ingredients (except the honey) into a jar that has an airtight lid. Put the lid on tightly and shake. Add the honey to taste. Close the jar again and shake until the honey is mixed in. Place the jar in the refrigerator while you're prepping the rest of the salad.

Chicken

• Add 1 large egg and Florida Orange Juice to a shallow dish. Beat egg and orange juice together.
• In another shallow dish, add the panko breadcrumbs along with salt and pepper.
• Prep chicken. I like to cut the chicken lengthwise so it makes two cutlets. Now you'll have four pieces.
• Add chicken to the dish with the egg mixture. Flip chicken over so it's covered in the egg mixture.
• Dip the chicken in the panko breadcrumb mixture. Shake off any excess and keep covering the chicken with breadcrumbs until it's cover. Fip over and repeat. Repeat with all of the pieces of chicken.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a nonstick skillet on medium high for 3 minutes. Add two pieces of chicken and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the chicken and add more olive oil if needed and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Remove chicken and place on a paper towel lined plate.
• Lower heat if necessary. Wipe pan with a paper towel. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet. Cook the remaining pieces of chicken as directed above. Let the chicken cool and rest at least 4 to 5 minutes before cutting.

Salad

• Prep salad. Clean the spinach, peel the outer peel off the carrots. Using a grater or peeler, grate or peel the carrot. Mix in with spinach. Add sliced almonds and toss.
• Using a sharp knife, cut the chicken into slices and serve on top of the salad.
• Add the desired amount of dressing to your salad.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Florida Department of Citrus. I only work with brands that I love and only share with you my own opinions. Thank you for supporting the brands that make The Little Kitchen possible.

The post Spinach Salad with Panko-Crusted Chicken and Orange-Ginger Salad Dressing appeared first on The Little Kitchen.

It's that time of year again and I'm SO EXCITED to share with you this recipe! It's a cookie that I have been wanting to try my hand out creating a recipe for after I had a similar cookie on an airplane as a snack…as part of my meal. I was so disappointed because it didn't have a lot of chocolate chips, almonds or toffee!

So when it came time to decide on a cookie to make for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, I knew what I wanted to do! It took a couple of tries and feeling like I needed one more thing…so I browned the butter and it was magical!

We raised over $7000 for Cookies for Kids' Cancer this year with the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! Thanks to all of the food bloggers who participated, all 475 of you! And to Land O'Lakes, Dixie Crystals and OXO for matching what we raised!

The way the cookie swap works is, food bloggers sign up and pay a donation to Cookies for Kids' Cancer to participate. We match them up with other food bloggers and they send cookies to them. They receive cookies from other food blogger participants in return. It's a win win or should I say cookie win for everyone involved? I'm so thankful I received cookies from Lindsay, Jessica, Melanie and Kristin!

So excited to say that together with my best friend, Lindsay,…we have been organizing the swap for 5 years now! And over those 5 years, we have raised over $35,000 for CK4C! Can you believe it? Stay tuned to this weekend, when we share hundreds of cookie recipes in a round up on both of our blogs!

Gather round your ingredients! I used Dixie Crystals light brown sugar and their granulated sugar as well as Land O Lakes European Style unsalted butter!

First things first, I brown the butter in a small saucepan. Melt the butter and allow to cook for 4 to 5 minutes until you start to see it browning. Cook for another maybe 1-2 minutes. Be careful not to burn it!

Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool for use in the cookie dough!

Next, I measure out the dry ingredients. I even measure out the almonds, toffee and the chocolate chips into a separate bowl to get that out of the way.

That includes chopping the almonds which was probably the most time consuming of putting these cookies together. You can buy them already chopped if you'd like.

Cream the brown butter and the sugars together.

Measure out your vanilla extract. I love these little beakers OXO sent us for the cookie swap!

Mix up the eggs and the vanilla. And you get this smooth batter.

I mix in the flour mixture in two batches. Be careful to not overmix.

And then the milk chocolate, toffee and almonds.

I scoop out the dough using this large cookie scoop. I can't live without my cookie scoops because they ensure each cookie is a uniform size.

Freeze the dough for at least 3 hours.

You can even double the recipe like I did…

This is how full my stand mixer bowl gets when I double the recipe!

I just know you will love these cookies…super soft on the inside and packed full of milk chocolate chips, toffee and almonds…it's an amazing cookie! You won't be able to eat just one!

Make sure you check out my tutorial on how to freeze cookies so you can have these at the ready for your next holiday party or when the midnight snack craving arrives!

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Brown Butter Milk Chocolate Toffee Almond Cookies Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 30 to 32 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 sticks Land O Lakes European-style unsalted butter 1 cup
• 2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup Dixie Crystals granulated sugar
• 1 cup Dixie Crystals packed light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups milk chocolate chips
• 1 1/4 cups toffee bits
• 2/3 cup whole roasted salted almonds that are roughly chopped

Instructions

• Add butter to a skillet and cook until brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Pour into a small bowl and set aside to cool.
• In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, add sugars and the brown butter. Cream them together on low speed for about one minute. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until completely combined.
• Add flour mixture in two batches and combine with a rubber spatula, being careful not to overmix. Add chocolate chips, toffee bits and almonds and mix together with a rubber spatula. Don’t over mix.
• Using an OXO large cookie scoop, scoop onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, cookie dough portions (about 3 Tablespoons).
• Freeze the dough for about 3 hours.
• Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place cookie dough portions on a parchment paper or silicon mat-lined baking sheet at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart. Bake for 13 to 14 minutes. Remove paper or mat carefully and place on a cooling rack.

Disclosure: Lindsay and I don't make any money off of the cookie swap, we organize it as volunteers. All of the money raised goes directly to Cookies for Kids' Cancer. I mentioned the sponsors of the event as a way to thank them for their matching donations to Cookies for Kids' Cancer! I did receive coupons and review items from the sponsors of the cookie swap. There are affiliate links in this post.

The post Brown Butter Milk Chocolate Toffee Almond Cookies appeared first on The Little Kitchen.

So I have been doing a lot of traveling lately, it's been fun and I have been eating a ton of good food including this Spaghetti with Pesto Trapanese dish. It's seriously wonderfully, easy (less than 15-20 minutes to put together) and I call it Italian comfort food. Thanks to Lidia Bastianich for this recipe!

But before I share the recipe, I want to share a little bit about the KOHLER Food & Wine Experience, where I had this wonderful dish. I was completely floored when I was invited to this event…

You know KOHLER? The plumbing folks – the company that makes those really neat faucets, sinks and even toilets? Yeah those people…well they have a Five Star resort in KOHLER, Wisconsin. Who knew? And yes, there's a town called KOHLER too!

The hotel rooms are very nice and remind me of an old world feel. The service amazing – everyone is willing to help you at the drop of a hat at The American Club and the attention to detail is amazing.

And since I'm telling you about KOHLER's resort, The American Club. I had to show the shower. I just love that body spray – I wish I had that in my shower at home. Can you see the rainfall shower head on the ceiling too?

Every October in KOHLER, Wisconsin, they hold the KOHLER Food & Wine Experience. Tons of amazing chefs gather to make amazing food for attendees and there is a LOT of amazing wine to be had.

I met up with Sommer, who was also invited, and we treked over to the main stage to see Lidia Bastianich's demo. This is where I had her amazing spaghetti with pesto trapanese. The pesto's main ingredient is tomatoes – not basil! If you ever get a chance to see Lidia speak, do it. She's incredibly warm and inviting. She's as real as real gets.

Then, we made the trek to go eat at the River Wildlife's Lodge – when I called to ask them for a reservation, they told me the directions to the lodge were park in the parking lot and then walk through the woods. Have you ever walked through the woods to go to a restaurant before?

It's a cute little place that has amazing food. My pictures kind of sucked so I won't share them with you but the stuffed beef tenderloin I had was to die for. I hope I get to return to this gem of a place soon!

I had breakfast at The Wisconsin Room. The most amazing crab oscar benedict that had this light tomato caper hollandaise sauce. It was awesome! I totally want to recreate this at home!

Next up, I went to the Craverie – a chocolatier cafe owned by KOHLER where they make handmade chocolates!

I had the world's largest sea salt caramel latte and I look like a goober right? Thanks to Sommer for taking this shot on my iPhone!

KOHLER has these new chocolates, eggnog, gingerbread and pecan pie. Just in time for the holidays. The pecan pie ones were my favorite! 

And I took home some wonderful terrapin chocolates with me. I can't even tell you which one was my favorite and…I didn't share.

I was pleased to get to attend the Celebrity Luncheon with Lidia. She was amazing, she said these words (that I actually tweeted), “Food is not a job, it's the way I live.” I believe it. She just tells you like it is and her food is amazing.

What a wonderful experience and an amazing meal. My favorite? The butternut squash risotto that had blue cheese in it and a balsamic glaze on it!

I really can't tell you about a favorite part of my weekend at KOHLER Food & Wine. It was a complete dream. I highly recommend this event…and I got to meet these guys!!

I was so excited…I'm not sure I really said anything of substance but they were so nice! Here's me with Christopher Kimball, Bridget Lancaster and Jack Bishop of America's Test Kitchen. If you don't already watch their show on PBS, watch it!

And the grand finale for me – to cap off the weekend was the Champions Dinner at Whistling Straits. The dinner, each of the five courses and the wine pairings were out of this world. I would say one of the top five meals I have had in my life. Chef Dan Dries of Whisting Straits and the guys at Lancaster Estate did an amazing job. The wines were amazing, I'm adding them to my list and I hope I can find them at my local wine store here in Florida.

My favorites of the night were the seared sea scallop – perfectly cooked and my favorite wine? The Roth Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (2009), I'm not usually a red wine person but this wine might have just made me one! And did I mention one of the courses included a housemade duck prosciutto? To die for.

And the event was assigned seating, I had no idea who I would be seated with it was great company with great conversation.

All I can say is I miss KOHLER, Wisconsin and the American Club. I hope I get to make it back next year for the KOHLER Food & Wine Experience! (Yep that's a Mutant Ninja turtle eyeballing my terrapin chocolates!)

I knew when I came home, I had to recreate Lidia's pesto. It's made with tomatoes and almonds and just a little bit of basil – not the regular basil you're used to but it's full of flavor and completely amazing. Add this to your list to make this year!

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Spaghetti with Pesto Trapanese Recipe

The beauty and delight of this dish is that it is so fresh and clean-and it is a cinch to make. It's important to make the pesto with the best ingredients then just toss in the hot cooked spaghetti to coat it and enjoy. Recipe by Lidia Bastianich

Servings 4 to 6

Ingredients

• ¾ pound cherry tomatoes very ripe and sweet
• 12 leaves fresh basil
• ⅓ cup whole almonds lightly toasted
• 1 garlic clove crushed and peeled
• ¼ teaspoon peperoncino
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt plus more for cooking the pasta
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound spaghetti
• ½ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano freshly grated

Instructions

• Rinse the cherry tomatoes and pat them dry. Rinse the basil leaves and pat dry.
• Drop the tomatoes into the blender jar or food processor bowl followed by the garlic clove, the almonds, basil leaves, peperoncino and 1/2 tsp salt. Blend for a minute or more to a fine purée; scrape down the bowl and blend again if any large bits or pieces have survived.
• With the machine still running, pour in the olive oil in a steady stream, emulsifying the purée into a thick pesto. Taste and adjust seasoning. (If you're going to dress the pasta within a couple of hours, leave the pesto at room temperature. Refrigerate for longer storage, up to 2 days, but let it return to room temperature before cooking the pasta.)
• To cook the spaghetti, heat 6 quarts of water, with 1 tablespoon salt to the boil in the large pot. Scrape all the pesto into a big warm bowl.
• Cook the spaghetti al dente, lift it from the cooking pot, drain briefly, and drop onto the pesto. Toss quickly to coat the spaghetti, sprinkle the cheese all over, and toss again. Serve immediately in warm bowls.

Notes

Recipe published in Lidia's Italyby Lidia Bastianich

A note: to toast the almonds, place them in an ungreased pan on medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Disclosure: Thanks to KOHLER Food & Wine for inviting me and sponsoring my trip to the event. I had a blast and of course share with you my honest opinions! And there's an affiliate link in this post.

The post Spaghetti with Pesto Trapanese & the KOHLER Food and Wine Experience appeared first on The Little Kitchen.