Chicken Salad

Ok its time for the hot weather to let up now. I am dreading my electric bill. We bought a roasted chicken from the grocery store. That is the best thing they have done. In this heat it is so easy to pick up a chicken and bring home and not have to heat up the kitchen. It is just the long drive home with the smell killing you.
We will eat half and shred the rest to put up to use in another dish.
I know everyone also has a chicken salad recipe but this is the one we are using.
2 cups diced or shredded chicken (roasted chicken)

3/4 cup celery
3/4 cup seedless grapes (we added a few more more)
1 Tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of fresh chopped parsley
salt to taste we also added a dash of Greek seasonings
3/4 cup mayonnaise we felt it was not enough so we added more about a Tablespoon
you could also add a little yogurt
1/2 lemon juice
If we had any pecans we would have added them so any nut almonds walnuts also could be added.
combine all together and enjoy as a sandwich

Mona's Strawberry Salad

This will be a blast from the past for some folks as this is one of my mother in laws recipes that was going around in the 70's and 80's. Almost every family had one of these jello salads in their family gatherings. If you look on one of earlier post a few back you will see this on a picture of a holiday dinner back in the 1980's taken at my mother in laws home. (close up picture to be added later)
2 small pkg of strawberry jello 3oz.
2 pkg of frozen strawberries 10 oz. drained
1 large can crushed pineapple 1 lb 4oz. undrained
3 mashed bananas
1cup chopped nuts
1 pt sour cream
1 cup boiling water

In bowl mash bananas add pineapple,pecans, thawed strawberries.
mix boiling water with jello till dissolved.
Add to together and stir till blended. Pour half in a 8x12 pan and chill.
Keep remaining mixture at room temp. After layer is chilled add pt of sour cream and then pour remaining jello mixture over top and jell. Serve with cool whip or shipped cream or plain. Looks good on a lettuce leaf for eye color.

Imitation Crab Salad

I know I have been bad and not posting much lately but I have been out of town a lot and we have not had that many great dishes or we have been remaking some of the ones we liked. My wife and I both like the seafood and crab at Subway so we found one near it on Zaar and tweaked it some.
For 2
8 oz imitation crab
1 tablespoon chopped red onion
1 tablespoon chopped celery
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon soy sauce
dash Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste
dash of old bay to taste or Greek seasonings
Mix crab with lemon juice add onion,celery,vinegar,soy sauce, Worcestershire stir till mixed
add mayonnaise and salt and pepper and old bay or Greek seasonings to taste. Serve or refrigerate.
This was good still not quite like Subways but since the closest one is about 20 miles away this will have to do.

Strawberry Salad

My wifes mother always had a strawberry salad every thanksgiving and she kinda got a craving for one but she could not remember how it was made. We have since got the recipe but that will be fixed at another time. We did use the frozen strawberries but added in some fresh ones also. Since we had a few fresh strawberries left that needed to be used and not enough to do anything with we thought this would be a good one to make. This one come from a falling and I do mean falling apart old Bell south cook book called Calling All Cook . It has just about everything.
1 10 oz pkg frozen strawberries
1 60z pkg strawberry Jello
1 small can crushed pineapple do not drain
1 cup boiling water
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese (room temp)
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 80z pkg cool whip
1 cup pecan pieces
2 bananas, mashed.
Mix strawberry Jello with boiling water reserving ¼ cup Jello. Pour into 13 x 9 Pyrex dish.
Add frozen strawberries, and fresh strawberries (we had about 3), pineapple, and bananas. Stir until strawberries melt. (We had ours out and thawed.) Put in refrigerator to jell.
Meanwhile soften cream cheese at room temp. Cream with confection sugar 1 cup at a time. Add ¼ reserve Jello and stir. Add cool whip and stir well. Fold in nuts, pour over Jello mixture and garnish with pecans and or fresh strawberries.

Balsamic Black Eyed Peas

This is from a friend of mine from work. Mike C loves balsamic vinegar and has turned us on to some good recipes. This is a good one for the summer months and goes great with some fresh home grown tomatoes.

1 Ham steak (we had some frozen pieces of a honey ham left over and used this)
1 can black eyed peas drained

1/2 onion chopped

1/2 bell pepper chopped

1/2 cup celery chopped

1 teaspoon honey or syrup- we used honey as we are on the honey for health kick right now.

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon olive oil.

Cook ham steak until golden then chop in pieces

Place back in skillet and add honey,black eyed peas and olive oil. Heat for a few minutes

Add balsamic vinegar gently stir

remove from heat and add other ingredients and stir.

Serve cold.