Chicken Salad Sandwich

If you buy your rotisserie chicken at Costco, then you might as well pick up a dozen croissants. Those two just go hand in hand. The croissants at Costco are so good, and so big (but what isn't big at Costco?).



Chicken Salad Sandwich makes for such a good lunch, don't you think?




Here's how we like it:

chicken
celery
red grapes (they're the best)
mayo
loads of S & P
and lemon juice

served on a big buttery croissant. yum.

ps. Thanks for all the great feedback this week, it made for a fun week.

Have a great weekend!

Asian Chicken Pasta Salad

This might be (in my opinion) the best salad recipe I know. This salad is a meal in itself. It's the kind of salad that you'd serve at a baby shower or a bridal shower, and everyone will be asking for the recipe. It's a family favorite. Doesn't it look so good?!



The recipe is at the bottom, but I thought I'd give you a little of the HOW TO in pictures, with a bit of commentary.
Here are the main ingredients lined up, minus the chicken...the rotisserie chicken if you wish.


The Salad's Dressing Ingredients:


I make two batches of the dressing:
1. for marinating the chicken & pasta in overnight
2. for tossing the salad with right before serving





Toast the sliced almonds & the sesame seeds (separately) in a dry hot pan.

This step isn't completely necessary, but I think it looks nice to take the stems off.


Green onions are my least favorite food, but I know they're important to the salad. My solution is to chop them into oblivion, so as to not notice them.


Here are all the dry ingredients in a big bowl ready to be tossed with the chicken, pasta & dressing.


Round Two of the Dressing:



And here it is! Oh, it's so good. I hope you make it.


The Recipe:

Asian Chicken Pasta Salad

1 box bowtie (farfalle) pasta
4 chicken breasts cooked & shredded or all the breast meat of one rotisserie chicken
1/4 Cup green onions (sliced & diced into oblivion)
1/2 pack sliced almonds - toasted
1 bag spinach (stems removed)
1 sm. bag peapods
1 can Mandarin Oranges (drained)

The Dressing (double this into two batches)
1/4 Cup Sesame seeds (toasted)
1/3 Cup Soy Sauce
1/3 Cup Red Wind Vinegar
1/3 Cup Veg. Oil *or Sesame Oil is great here too
2 TBS. Sugar
1/2 tsp. S & P

Marinate chicken & pasta in the dressing in the fridge overnight.

* It's helpful to under cook the pasta a bit. Al dente would be perfect.
Toss altogether right before serving with round two of the dressing.

St. Patty's Day wishes:

I hope your day is filled with GREEN!

& RaInbOws
& Gold
& Gold chocolate coins
& green M&Ms - (I hear they bring good luck;))
& RaInBow Jello
& beer (root beer, apple beer or bud beer...whichever you prefer)
& Little green men
& RainBow Cupcakes

& No...Absolutely NO PINCHES!

Happy Saint Patty's Day!

Chicken Fried Rice

Today's entry for Rotisserie Chicken Week comes from Good Things Utah, a local daily show.

I love Fried Rice, and I love this recipe. It's everything wrapped up in one dish, and it's a good one.




Ingredients:

1 to 2 Chicken breasts or from a Rotisserie Chicken
3 Scrambled eggs
2 Carrots (finely grated)
1/2 White onion (finely chopped)
3/4 cup Frozen peas
1/2 cup Butter
1 to 2 Garlic cloves (Crushed) or 1 teaspoon of garlic Powder
2 cups White rice (not instant)

Marinate chicken in soy sauce, if you do not have much time, mix it with chicken before cooking
In a large frying pan Cook chicken in small amount of olive oil, add carrots and onions and sauté until clear
Add frozen peas and cook until soft.
In a separate pan cook rice then add to the mixture
In another pan, scramble three eggs, chop finely and add to mixture
Melt 1/2 cup butter, add crushed garlic cloves to butter, stir and add to mixture
Mix all together well, add soy sauce to taste and Enjoy.

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

What kind of Mormon would I be if a casserole didn't make the Rotisserie Chicken Week?! ;) I know a few of you mock the casserole (I'm not gonna name names... you know who you are ), but c'mon... if it gets my kids to eat broccoli, then I say Mock-A-Way!


1. choppin' broccoli
2. washin' broccoli
3. steamin' broccoli
4. layerin' broccoli
5. stir it up (...little darlin', stir it up)
6. saucin' the broccoli



I wish I could say that I follow this recipe exactly, but I don't. Since it's not baking and it doesn't have to be exact, I do my own thing. I love lots of broccoli, lemon juice and curry powder and less chicken. So I mix things up a bit.

The Recipe:

Chicken Broccoli Casserole
(makes 8x8 pan size)
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 Cup Mayo
1/2 Cup Milk (I add extra to make it more thinned out)
1 TBL. Lemon Juice
2 tsp. Curry Powder
2 Chicken Breasts - cooked & shredded (or chicken from a Rotisserie Chicken)
10oz. or more Broccoli (steamed)

Bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes

Serve over rice - technically Arborio Rice is for risotto, but it's the best.

Quick Tip: Broccoli

I have mentioned this little Quick Tip a while back with one of my favorite salads, but I think it deserves it's own post. I saw this on Good Eats (one of my favorites when I used to be a Food Network Junkie) awhile back, and I've been doing it ever since.

A word about broccoli first: Fresh vs. Frozen

In my opinion, fresh will always beat frozen. You lose control when you use frozen. You end up with too many end pieces mixed in with the flowerettes and the quality... the quality is not as good (soggy). There are only a few vegetables that maintain their quality frozen: peas and corn.



For the Quick Tip:

Once you've cut off all the little broccoli flowerettes, and their floating happily in their water bath. Go to work on those stems (don't throw them out!) Shave off all the tough exterior, to find the soft inside. I love to eat it fresh, right then. Avery loves it too! You should try it!

Rotisserie Chicken Week

When it comes to chicken, I love rotisserie chickens. They are inexpensive, easy and work in so many recipes. Although after I saw Food Inc. and watched it again this weekend (you have to see it... have you seen it?). I looked at chicken (meat - in general) completely different. As much as I love the ease of a rotisserie chicken, I now want to make more of an effort in buying organic - cage free when I can.

Change needs to happen when it comes to the food that we eat in this country. Like they say in the movie... "we each get to vote 3 times a day". Every meal we eat is a vote.

Some pros and cons:

Rotisserie Chicken Pros:
- I love that I don't have to cook them.
- I love that they're usually seasoned well.

Rotisserie Chicken Cons:
- I don't love that the plastic container it comes in is not recyclable.
- I don't love taking it apart - it's messy.





Some things that I do:

-I usually buy 2 at the same time.

-Take the chicken apart (shred it) while it's still warm from the store. It's easier to remove the skin and the fat from the chicken.

-Freeze what you won't use right away. Shredded-cooked chicken in the freezer is a great thing on those days that you are in a big hurry to get dinner on the table.

- Place a paper towel underneath the chicken in the container in the fridge.

I'd love to know, do you buy rotisserie chickens often?

Adoption Book Giveaway Winner(s)... Yep, Plural.

This was by far my most favorite giveaway that I have ever done. With past giveaways, I always love to ask each entry to tell something or answer a question to avoid the same old "PICK ME PICK ME".

Well, I forgot to ask a question for this one, and I loved hearing from so many of you how adoption has affected your lives and the lives of so many of your friends and family. Adoption truly is such a blessing for all those involved. So THANK YOU!

Also a Major Biggie Thank you to Amy (the Illustrator) and Ashley (the Author) who upped the winners from 1 to 2. So nice!

Congrats to the winners: Aimee and Arianne!

Song Of The Week: Red Cape

Priscilla Ahn - Red Cape

I know this album has been out for a couple of years now, but have you cranked this one in your car yet?! My favorite part is at the 1 minute mark... so fun to SOL (sing out loud). This song came to me via Tiffany's Anti-Winter Mix. There's nothing like a random mix from a friend. Thanks Tiff!

Do You Like Pina Coladas?

or getting caught in the rain? Or how about making love at midnight? ;)
(Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

If you said yes to any of the above, then you must join me today over at A Pina Colada. I'm sharing 10 things that make me happy!

I met Alisa from A Pina Colada at the ALT Conference in January and once we found out that her younger brother Shaun was an old HS friend of mine, we had lots to talk about.

Thanks for having me, Alisa! I'm so glad we met!

Happy Friday!

I ♥ Phil Dunphy, yo.

Do you watch Modern Family?!

If not, you should, it's hilarious! We love it! I look forward to Wednesday nights because it's Phil Dunphy night, yo.

Rose Rings

I'm guest posting for my blog buddy Jen of Tatertots & Jello today. I'm sharing the How To on these rose rings and my love for ginormous rings that make my digits look smaller. Come join me!

ps. One of these days I need to share my collection of big over the top rings, I have some rad ones!

Giveaway: A Book About Adoption

Giveaway Now Closed

Once Upon a Time: An Adoption Story is a darling little book that helps children understand adoption and how much love is involved. Ashley Hansen Bigler (the Author) and Amy Hintze (The Illustrator) have done a wonderful job together in explaining adoption in a simple and very loving way.

My little family has been blessed by adoption. We adopted our son Aiden in 2008, and he has brought so much love to our home. We couldn't imagine our lives without him. This book will help us when it comes time to explain adoption to him. I love that we have simple resources like this to help show him how much love is involved in adoption.



I grew up with the Illustrator, Amy Hintze. She has such a talent, and really has made this book come to life. She included this picture of our kids (from last May) in a collage on the last page of the book. Which makes this book that much more special to me.



Can you find them?


If you or someone you know has been touched by adoption, this book would be such a sweet gift to give. If you'd like to buy it now, you can RIGHT HERE.


If you'd like to enter this Giveaway:
Please comment on this post by 10pm, Sunday March 15th to enter.

for extra entries: (please leave a new comment for each entry.)
1. facebook
2. blog
3. retweet my tweet about this giveaway with a link to this post.

The winner will be announced on Monday morning, March 15th.

Rainbows

Top O' the Mornin' to ya!

I'm over at Make and Takes today, making these Rainbow Cupcake Toppers. Come join me!

The Big 6-0!

We celebrated the big 6-0 with this guy over the weekend; his way. Which was very low key and just how he wanted it. Our family's favorite Mexican, lots of chips and (the best!) salsa and lots of laughs. It was perfect.

I feel so blessed to call him Dad, we all do.


Happy Birthday Dad!