Monday, August 21, 2006

A Salad for Sunday

Sundays are always a challenge when it comes to meal planning, I think. For us, the image of the family gathered around the table for a big Sunday dinner of a roast and all the fixings just doesn’t work. (I remember meals like that as a kid, but my mother always stayed home from church to do it.) My hubby and I both teach Sunday School and must leave the house by 9 a.m. We then attend the morning service at ll, and often it is 12:30 or 12:45 before we arrive home -- usually very hungry!

Almost always, I plan a crockpot meal for Sunday lunch. Occasionally we eat lunch out, and sometimes there are leftovers to use up. Once in awhile I plan a meal that can just be put together quickly at the last minute. That was the case yesterday. The main-dish salad I made turned out so good, I thought others might like the recipe too. To accompany the salad, we had Seven-Grain Bread left from Wednesday. Here’s the salad recipe:

RASPBERRY CHICKEN SALAD
6 cups bite-size pieces salad greens (I used the bagged stuff)
2 cups cut-up cooked chicken (I used leftover grilled chicken)
2 cups sliced peaches
1 medium stalk celery, sliced
2 medium green onions, sliced
1/2 cup raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing

Toss all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. (The recipe suggested topping the salad with some honey-roasted peanuts. I had thought of toasting some pecans, but decided not to take the time. We just sprinkled some cashews over our salads and they were good. I think adding nuts of some type to this is a good idea -- adds a bit more protein and makes it more filling.) Yield: 4 servings.

This recipe came from a 1998 Betty Crocker cookbook called “Speedy Summer Suppers.” I hadn’t used it too much because it seemed that most of the chicken recipes called for already-cooked chicken -- something I seldom have on hand. But this summer I’ve discovered a couple of handy ways to do so: 1) Cook a whole roasting chicken or 2 smaller chickens in the crockpot. Take all the meat off the bones and you have a large amount of cooked chicken to use in recipes. (Strain the leftover chicken broth and freeze for later use.) 2) Season a bunch of boneless chicken breasts as desired and grill them. Cube the meat or cut it in strips, then refrigerate or freeze to use in recipes.

Happy cooking!

2 comments:

  1. I'm going to try this salad, I always try and have some grilled chicken breasts in the freezer for something like this...yummy!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Annie!

    There's another salad recipe using cooked chicken in the post "A Picnic by the River" -- I liked that one even better, personally.

    That's a great idea, to keep grilled chicken breasts in the freezer at all times. ( It's an idea that only recently occurred to me. ) A local market has the boneless skinless breasts on sale for $1.79/lb. this week, so I think we'll stock up on them and grill a bunch to freeze.

    Thanks for stopping by to visit at my kitchen table... please stop in again sometime!

    God bless,
    Mrs.T

    ReplyDelete

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