Chicken Salad with Grapes and Sliced Almonds

Chicken Salad Sandwiches with grapes and almonds

 I got this recipe it from a friend, who got it from a caterer, who was serving it at a wedding reception. It is really good for wedding reception sandwiches.  It's also great on croissants for a fancy luncheon with your girlfriends. I just made it for the hubs and me for dinner. It's light and fresh and yummy.

        CHICKEN SALAD WITH GRAPES AND ALMONDS
Recipe from my neighbor Maryann's caterer.....
2 1/2 cups cubed, cooked, white chicken breast meat
3/4 cup  slivered almonds
1 cup sliced celery
1 1/4 cups seedless red grapes, sliced in half
3/4 to 1 cup Hellmans or Best Foods mayonnaise 
(depending upon your preference)
Oneida seasoning salt to taste
A few shakes of Pepper to taste

Chicken salad on a Jimmy John's white roll cut in half....yummy! 

It is a simple chicken salad recipe.It is a great  sandwich recipe and it is fresh and low calorie. I've used it at 2 of my kids' wedding receptions. I think I doubled the recipe for about 65 mini sandwiches.  

Here we used Costco White Dinner Rolls (package of 36) cut in half. It was so easy and the chicken salad went a long way.  It is also great on mini croissant rolls. 

I start with white chicken meat and dice it up into chunks.  You can use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store too. Or just white meat breasts boiled or broiled, cooled and chunked.  Add mayo and then add finely chopped celery, red grapes sliced in half and SLICED almonds. (or slivered if you love crunch)

Some people love the crunch of slivered almonds but I like the sliced better and they look pretty in the sandwiches. Add fresh fruit or a fruit smoothie to your  chicken salad sandwich for a yummy, healthy treat! 

I love a good berry smoothie

Now the secret ingredient in these sandwiches is ONERA SEASONING.  It is usually found in the market near the fresh fish or near the butcher area.  It is kind of a seasoning salt.

One more thing. Be sure to use fresh and a high quality mayo like Hellman's or Best Foods.  The creamier your mayo the better the sandwiches are.  I've used Costco rolls cut in half (the 36 package) or small croissants for buffets because they will make your salad go a long way.

 Jimmy John's long rolls are delicious breads to serve with this chicken salad also. I buy them for 50 cents day old at the shop, and go home, cut them in half, and put them in freezer bags. They are great to have on hand to use for steak sandwiches or albacore tuna or deli turkey. This is a picture of one long roll cut in half.

 It's a really delicious sandwich.  Add a slice of lemon pie for  DESSERT! Now THAT's what I'm talking about!     

St. Patricks Day Decorating and Peanut Butter Cake

St. Patrick's Day is coming up SOON! 

This is one my favorite months of the year. My family were all IRISH! And my mom was an Irish Catholic. We REALLY celebrated St. Patrick's Day every year. I remember dinners where she would actually give us kids a bit of wine with 7 up to toast to some of her favorite SAINTS. 

Those are happy memories of sitting in the formal dining room with my 5 siblings cracking jokes and eating yummy food like corned beef and cabbage,  baked potato and green popcorn . I love St. Patrick's DAY!  I'm a Pattie, and my mom called me Patrick for a silly nickname when I was little. So there you have it. Our family loved celebrating this fun "pinch me if I forget the green" day.

I don't have very many decorations for it but I always do at least my entry table and my dining room table in honor of my mother and her love of St. Patrick's Day.  I also decorate my classroom in Shamrocks, leprechauns and GREEN, glittery stuff and of course GOLD wrapped chocolates! 

So in honor of the lucky leprechauns out there, I turned my kitchen and entry hall into a bit o'green today!

And here is my classroom....we've gone green there too. 

My kitchen table is very lucky too. But alas, I have eaten all of those peanut butter cups you see there. I'm not very good at avoiding the gold when I know there is chocolate stuff inside! But I DID make a fun chocolate cake with unwrapped peanut butter cups on top! 

 I know it's not green but it WAS super delicious. I just used a regular boxed cake mix and added:
a small package of chocolate pudding mix (dry, just dump it in)
and 1 cup sour cream to the recipe.

For this delectable Peanut Butter Icing:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream or milk. It's so yummy!

Chocolate cake with Peanut Butter Icing. And the Reeses Peanut Butter Cup on top makes it so festive!

 Happy St. Patrick's Day! And may the LUCK of the IRISH always be with you!

Chocolate Party

 Have you ever been to a chocolate party? Where everything on the tables is made from chocolate? We had one on Friday afternoon at school put on by the 5th grade teachers. It was a hoot.

 Wouldn't you like a taste of this DECADENT Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake? Oh heavenly yum, was it GOOD! I think it was a favorite. I took a picture after I'd gobbled half of it up.

Here it is before I bit into it....it's a lot prettier here.....Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes....The icing is made from butter,
powdered sugar and peanut butter. And of course a peanut butter cup. Yum. Each one felt like it weighed a pound in your hand!

I must admit that I was a piggy and ate 2 of these bad boys....The cupcake itself has a peanut butter cup in the center too! 

I found THIS RECIPE online at All Recipes.com. It's my favorite recipe website. I'm trying these for sure! 

She melted some chocolate and swirled it on top of the cupcakes but I'd probably be too lazy for that. A candy peanut butter cup on top is plenty of lovin for anybody. 

Peanut Butter Frosting (recipe from All Recipes.com)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup peanut butter

4 cups confectioner's sugar

1/3rd cup cream 

Mix the butter and peanut butter, add in half the sugar and half the milk and mix. Then add the rest and mix again. Frost cooled chocolate cupcakes and top with a peanut butter cup cut in half. Enjoy!

 Then of course you just HAVE to have a Texas sheet cake made with fudgy chocolate icing!

 Chocolate chip peanut butter cookie bars were also one of my favorites....I love these things!

 Brownies cut into a heart shape....so cute! There was row after row of chocolate madness!

Chocolate eclairs and plain bon bon bites.

 Then the real fun began. We were to take 1 piece of each kind of chocolate on the tables.

And there were at least 10 different kinds of chocolate candies to judge on a scale of 1 to 5 on a rubric. 

I think Bliss Chocolate was one of the winners and also the Lindt chocolate was good too. 

Here was our voting tables....with our ballots. We had fun categories do judge like "when broken does it have bubbles"  and "smooth and creamy on your tongue". It was fun discussing the merits of chocolate. I was just happy eating it all! 

And here is our judging ballot for the chocolate party. It was fun. And I think we were happy campers all afternoon in a chocolate coma!

Paradise Bakery Copycat Chicken Walnut Salad

Walnut Chicken Salad with Fresh Parmesan Cheese...just like Paradise Bakery...only with a little bit added....

Have you ever had the Chicken Walnut Salad at Paradise Bakery and Cafe?  I love that place. They give you a cookie with each order. I like a little sweet with my salad or soup, ya know?

The Snickerdoodles are my favorite cookie at Paradise Bakery....

Yummy place for salads and a quick lunch...

I've actually gone there twice in one week once, just to eat their soups and salads.  My favorite is the Chicken Walnut. And I can't pick a favorite soup. They are all really good there.

The Asian Salad is pretty good at Paradise Bakery too....but....the Chicken Walnut is the best.

 The only thing is....they DON'T put enough walnuts in the salad. No way. I always go up and ask, "Did you forget my walnuts?" And they ALWAYS tell me "NO".  I just like a lot of crunch in a salad.

Their sandwiches are pretty good too...

Chicken Walnut  - One of my favorite salads there!  Here is what they say is in the salad......
Our famous Chicken Walnut salad  on top of romaine lettuce tossed with Caesar dressing, garlic croutons & parmesan cheese. 

My favorite seasoning salts; Johnny's Garlic Salt and Johnny's Seasoning Salt. 

Use up lots of your fresh veggies....I added some purple onion to my hubs...he's an onion lover!
I just got some fresh shredded Parmesan cheese from the deli... 

I like sweet, red peppers in mine.  We both love cucumbers too...and the Walnuts of course...

And you gotta love some Texas Toast garlic croutons. Or make your own out of  buttered and toasted bread. Just  drizzle butter and garlic salt on top. My favorite brand is the Johnny's Garlic Season Salt.  These are my 2 favorite seasoning salts. I use them in almost every dish. 

So here are the INGREDIENTS  for 2 salads
Romaine lettuce cut into bits 
1 tomato cut into wedges and then halved
1/2 cucumber cut into spears and then chunked
2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese (or more to your taste)
Seasoned croutons
1 grilled chicken breast cooled and cut into chunks
ground pepper
1 Tablespoon for each salad of Caesar dressing. 
1/4 cup walnuts (or more if you like)

Add some black pepper to it right after tossing....

Directions for Chicken Walnut Salad
Cut up all the veggies and lettuce and place into 2 salad bowls. Add the fresh Parmesan, the chicken and the walnuts. Add Caesar dressing and  croutons and shake on some black pepper.  Enjoy!  

Yum...this is sooooo tasty and yummy!

Buffalo Chicken Tenders with Wingers Copycat Sauce

Buffalo Chicken Tenders...with Copycat Wingers Glaze and Buttermilk Ranch Dipping Sauce....

 I LOVE Buffalo Chicken. But I like the sauce to be a bit hot and a bit sweet. After some trial and error, I think I have the perfect, delicious Super Bowl Party food!  These Buffalo Chicken Tenders are soooo yummy! They will really be a crowd pleaser...and they are not hard at all. You probably have all of the ingredients at home right now, except maybe for Franks Hot Sauce and Buttermilk.

Yummy Buffalo Chicken Tenders....Perfect for  A SUPER BOWL PARTY FOOD! wOO hOO!

Well My class voted on who would win the SUPER BOWL this Sunday, and it looks like 49ers have it. Losers have to
do 12 push ups. I hope I don't lose again, like last year. Those push ups get harder to do every year! Anyway....Hope you have fun on Super Bowl Sunday watching the game. 

INGREDIENTS BUFFALO CHICKEN TENDERS in Wingers Copycat Glaze 
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk 
2 chicken breast fillets cut into 1/2 inch strips OR 8 to 10 chicken tenders

Chicken Mexican Lasagne

Here is a recipe that includes tortillas, mexican cheese and chicken; what's not to love?  It is called Chicken Mexican Lasagne and it is GOOD!

I made this version with regular salsa but you could also do it green and use salsa verde for another delicious taste. You can also make it go further for a bigger crowd and add black beans, if you'd like to extend the amount it makes. 

CHICKEN MEXICAN LASAGNE

1 pound chicken, (or 4 chicken breasts)  cooked and diced
1 onion diced fine
1 (16-ounce) container sour cream
1 small jar of your favorite salsa
1 cup frozen corn, thawed and drained
½ teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 cup milk
a few shakes Lawry's Seasoning to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (plus additional for garnishing)
12 soft taco size corn tortillas (or try it with flour for a different texture)
1 (8-ounce) package shredded Mexican blend cheese
1 can black beans (optional)I don't add these but you could to increase the serving sizes for a crowd.


DIRECTIONS:


Mix chicken, sour cream, salsa, milk, corn, cilantro and spices in a large bowl.
Taste and adjust spices.  

Cut tortillas into fourths and layer on the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 casserole pan. Layer chicken cheese and tortillas again. You should be able to do it at least twice. Top with cheese. Sometimes I add sliced olives on top so it looks like enchiladas. Bake 30 minutes in 350 degree oven. Let set about 45 minutes before serving and you should be able to slice it into squares. It will set up by then. 

Top with sour cream and a slice of avocado if you like. Enjoy! In the meantime, I'm getting out my Valentines Decorations out and having fun with that! 

 My kitchen table decor....I got red plates last year too....I'll have to get them out and decorate the Valentines Table.

 Lollypops to give out to visitors.....
 Gotta have some fun candies in the jars and little ceramic Valentines bowls around the house....

 Front entry table...I love the lighted heart decoration so much....and so do my grandkids. They turn the lights out and stare at it!

 This is an end table in the living room....cute Valentines decor....

Now all I need is a few grandkids to give hugs and kisses to!