Vietnamese Cold Rolls

This was my first time making Vietnamese Cold Rolls and I was extremely impressed with how easy they were and how delicious they turned out!!  I've had rice paper in my pantry for over 3 years and threw it out the last time I moved without it ever being touched.  I bought some again about a month ago, determined that this time I would actually use it.  (I checked the best before date on it just in case they did end up sitting around for a while and they're good until 2013 -- phew!)  I got thinking today when discussing these with a colleague, that it would be really easy to "North Americanize" these rolls as well.  You could fill it with whatever suited your fancy at the time -- Honey Garlic Chicken? Sure why not!  Lemon Pepper Shrimp?  Yes, please!   Montreal Spiced Steak? ooh Mike would like that one.  Anyways, enough with my rambles, here is my recipe (which I didn't actually use a recipe, but I did follow the directions on the back of my rice paper on how to 'cook' it!

Vietnamese Cold Rolls
*1/2 pack vermicelli rice noodles
8 rice paper circles
1 raw carrot, peeled and grated
1/2 cucumber, grated
1/2lb ground pork
S&P to taste
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 tsp garlic powder - or the real deal if you have some handy

(You can easily adjust these spices to suit your tastes! Like it spicy?  Add some cayenne or some hot sauce)

Scramble fry the ground pork with onion and spices until cooked through and no pink remains.  Set aside.  Boil a pot of water, remove from heat and add the vermicelli.  Let sit for 5 minutes until soft, then drain.  Fill a pan (large enough for your rice paper to dip in) with warm water.  Immerse one sheet of rice paper in warm water for 5 seconds.  Remove and lay flat.  Starting at the bottom of the circle of rice paper, fill with two TBSP each of pork, carrots, and cucumber.  Add generous amount of vermicelli noodles.  Fold the left and right sides over the filling and then starting at the bottom, roll it up until it is completed sealed.  Repeat filling and rolling until all the mixture is done!  Serve with peanut sauce for dipping or any other kind of sauce that you would like!

*The vermicelli rice noodles that I bought (Double Happiness Brand) actually were separated into bricks inside, which made it super convenient to only cook half.  I've purchased other brands that the whole package was one brick and impossible to divide it up.

Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken Taco's

Ok, I only have two seconds but I wanted to share my new concoction with the world!  And it's possible that this already exists, but I've never heard of it before so I'm claiming this as an original recipe.  I was thinking of Auntie Mar's chicken and loving it but thinking about all of the fat and calories that comes with using French dressing.  So at the grocery store this week, I was looking for something similar but a whole lot less calories, and I came up with a brilliant idea!  I have a taco salad recipe that calls for Catalina dressing to be poured over top, which gave me the idea of combining these ingredients....

Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken Taco's
1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
1/2 bottle Kraft Calorie Wise Catalina Salad dressing
1/2 package taco seasoning (I used Epicure's taco seasoning pkg)
1/2 cup water
1 cup prepared rice

Mix dressing with taco seasoning and water in slow cooker.  Add the chicken, turning to coat.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  Once cooked, using two forks, pull apart the chicken thighs.  (This should be very easy and the chicken will just fall apart.)  Add the rice to the chicken mixture, stir, and serve in a soft tortilla shell with grated cheese, lettuce, and diced tomato.

**black beans would also go good with this!

I hope you enjoy this recipe -- we sure did.  (Even Gray loved it!!)