Chicken Salad Sandwich

Tired of that same old peanut butter and jelly, lunch meat, or tuna sandwich? Eating at home is clearly the more cost effective choice these days. Although we wish an In-N-Out burger still cost 25¢, that's just not the case anymore. So we thought we would share a fantastic sandwich that has lots of flavor and more importantly a break from the other sandwiches. Grapes, walnuts and celery spice up this chicken salad sandwich and make it a textured, tasty summer sandwich.

6 ingredients needed: bread, a can of chicken, grapes, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise.

The measurements on this recipe are rough. Go by eye. It really depends how much u want in your sandwich.

Start by draining the chicken and shredding it using a fork. Put in a large bowl.

 Take maybe a cup of grapes, depending on the size of the grapes, and slice them into quarters.

Throw the grapes into the bowl.  We like a lot of grapes in ours, its what gives the mix it's sweet taste.

Next ingredient is the celery.  All that's needed is one stock. Slice into small pieces.  This gives the crunch. It's also healthy so hey, that's always good. 

Once again throw the celery into the bowl and go by sight for how much you want.  If you don't want or like or can't have nuts then we would double the celery to add more crunch.

 Walnuts. Delicious.  All you need is about 1/8 cup, 1/4 cup max.  We didn't buy a large bag from the store to avoid over purchasing.  So we went to Sprouts, and scooped out what we needed from their self serve section.  This way we saved $. yey!

So throw the walnuts in and then add in the mayo.  It only takes about 1 tbsp- 1 1/2 at the most.  Stir and go by eye to see if you need more or less.

The great thing about this sandwich is that it's easy to make in mass production.  Make the Chicken Salad Sandwich on croissants and it looks like the sandwich is from a restaurant.  It's truly a nice alternative to the boring ham and cheese sandwich.

Recipe

1 can chicken breast

1 cup grapes

1 stock celery

1/8 cup walnuts

1 tbsp mayonnaise 

Drain chicken and shred with fork.  Place in large bowl.

Dice grapes and add to bowl.

Slice celery into small pieces and combine with chicken mix.

Chop walnuts and add to bowl.

Add in mayo and stir.

Place on bread and devour. 

Tri-Color Pasta Salad

The Tri-Color Pasta Salad is possibly one of our favorite side dishes.  The assembly is easy and quick, and the finished product is addicting.  Its ridiculously easy to eat way too much of this.  Plus, its light and colorful so it's perfect for the classic summer picnic aka Memorial Day.  The other part about this dish is that we have been known to eat it straight out of the serving dish... waiting to put it on a plate or bowl to eat just takes way too long. So yeah, we grab a spoon and go for it. Luckily for us this salad is healthy and that means we can have our fill without worrying about the calories!

This salad uses tri-color pasta, carrots, cheese, broccoli, black beans, and Italian salad dressing.

This recipe is pretty big so feel free to chop this in half, quarters, or whatever you need.  Don't worry about the exact measurements.

Start by cooking two 12 oz packages of tri-color pasta according to the package.

Drain and place pasta into large bow.  Cool the pasta in the refrigerator until cold.

While the pasta is cooling, cut 1 1/2 cups of carrots into small pieces.

Then add the carrots into the pasta mix.

Up next is cheddar cheese. Cut the cheese into small cubes.  You'll need approx. 1 1/2 cups of cheese.

Then add the cheese to the pasta mix and stir.

After is the broccoli, cut approx. 1 1/2 cups of this as well.

The last add in is the black beans.  We just drained one can and threw it in.

The last step is to add the Italian salad dressing.  For this large of a batch we use almost 3/4 of a bottle.

This might seem like a lot, believe us we always try to add less, but as our mother likes to say when we make this, "it soaks it up."  So don't be afraid to douse this thing.  In fact add some, wait a bit before you serve by storing it in the refrigerator and then add some more dressing.

And that's it.  Cook pasta, add in extra stuff, throw in salad dressing and it's done.  It takes next to no time, is delicious, healthy, and wait for it.... cheap.  Coming in at around $9 makes this 20 healthy servings dish equal chump change.

Recipe

2 12oz packages tri-color pasta
1 1/2 cups carrots sliced
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese cubed
1 1/2 cups broccoli
1 can drained black beans
Italian Dressing to taste

Cook the tri-color pasta according to packages. drain and let cool in refrigerator.
Add carrots, cheese, broccoli, and black beans to the pasta. Mix well.
Add in Italian dressing until it is thoroughly coated.  Eat as fast as humanly possible.
Serves a small nation.

Strawberry Banana Angel Food Cake Kabobs

Strawberry Shortcake is simply a classic.  It's light, sweet and healthy all at the same time.  It's also perfect for Mother's Day.  This time we took the traditional recipe and added some chocolate, bananas and threw it on a stick.  These Strawberry Banana Angel Food Cake Kabobs add a little more guilt to this tasty pleasure.   Did we mention it's only $8 for over 20 kabobs. Plus it easily feeds 10 people no problem.

Start with strawberries, an angel food cake (we bought ours but you can easily make one), 2 baskets of strawberries, some chocolate and a banana or two.

We prepped the strawberries first. Cut off the green stems, and dice in half.

Once the 2 baskets are finished add a tablespoon of sugar (or not depending on how sweet you want this). Then refrigerate if you like your strawberries cold.

 Next up the angel food cake.  After cutting many pieces we decided they need to be a bit smaller than the picture. Aim for a square shape.

Then the bananas. We cut one and then added a drop of lemon juice to each side to prevent browning.  Do you have any other secrets to preventing browning? We'd love to learn a new trick.

Up next is assembly. Any combination of strawberries, angel food cake and bananas is good. Or add a different fruit like pineapples or a berry if your heart so desires.

Last for the fun part.  Melt some dark chocolate and drizzle it over the kabobs.

We put some cool whip in a container and the dessert is done.

Hope you enjoy and Happy Mother's Day!!

Recipe

2 Baskets Strawberries
1 Angel Food Cake
1-2 Bananas
1 pkg Dark Chocolate Chips
1 Tablespoon Sugar
Lemon Juice
Kabobs
Cool Whip

Cut stems off strawberries and then in halves.  Add sugar.
Dice Angel Food Cake
Slice bananas and add lemon juice to prevent browning
Assemble strawberries, bananas and cake onto kabobs
Melt chocolate and drizzle over kabobs
Dip in Cool Whip and enjoy!