Easy Chicken Salad

In keeping with our little theme of really quick and easy meals, we thought we should share our little Lunch secret. Chicken Salad! I'm sure everyone has made chicken salad before, but this is our quick and easy recipe for those who aren't as cooking literate as others. We always make this on Sunday night and make enough for both of us to have for our lunches all week. It literally takes only 5 minutes to prepare. And the best part about it, you can do so many different variations with it. However I'll share with you our normal recipe.

Easy Chicken Salad

2 large cans of white chicken breast. (you can find these at Costco or Sams for a really good price)
2-3 large spoonfuls of Best Foods Mayonnaise
2-3 large spoonfuls of sour cream
Season-All Seasoning
Salt and Pepper
1 cup of chopped almonds
1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese (not the dry grated stuff)

Okay, so I never measure for this recipe because it's a lot up to your taste. So first things first, place the chopped almonds in a flat layer on some aluminum foil and place in the oven under the broiler to toast. (It is crucial that you keep an eye on this! Almonds can burn really quickly so you need to check it almost every 30 seconds.) When the almonds are starting to turn slightly brown and you can smell the awesome nuttiness, pull them out and let cool.

Drain the cans of chicken and place in a large Tupperware container. Mix in the mayonnaise and the sour cream with a fork. season with the Season-All. Add the shredded Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Finally add the cooled roasted almonds and mix thoroughly. Place in the fridge overnight to let the flavors meld together. Enjoy with your favorite bread or croissant.

There are tons of different things you can add to this, it just depends on your taste. You can add chopped celery, sliced apples and grapes, cashews, carrots, onions, and lots of other stuff to make it fancy.

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Honeymoon Monte Cristo

So we have envisioned this blog as being both a place to share some of our favorite meals and recipes, but we also want it to be a place where we can dispel the myth that cooking is hard and needs to take hours of preparation and skill to create something delicious and satisfying. A good example of this is our next recipe, Honeymoon Monte Cristo.

When Laura and I first got married, we stayed at the Anniversary Inn the night we got married. In the morning they bring you a breakfast of yogurt parfait, juice, cinnamon roll, and this really good croissant type sandwich, which they called a Monte Cristo (even though a real Monte Cristo is a sandwich that is dipped in batter and fried, but I think I'd prefer it this way). When we left SLC and stayed in a beach house in Oregon for the rest of our honeymoon, we needed to find something for breakfast since we had to make it ourselves. So we decided that we should try to make our own version of the croissant sandwich that we loved so much. What resulted was something that I think we ate almost every day for about a month, our Honeymoon Monte Cristos.

The Recipe is really simple and quick and addicting. But I think that is what makes this a great breakfast sandwich:

Honeymoon Monte Cristo

1 Large Croissant (Preferably the large ones from Costco)
1-2 Slices of Black Forest Ham
1-2 Slices of Tillamook Swiss Cheese (Yes it has Tillamook. Why? because there is nothing better! Well, I guess you don't have to use it but we recommend it highly)

The instructions are super easy: Cut the croissant in half, place the ham on one side of the croissant and the cheese on the other side. Place in the oven "open faced" under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese gets all bubbly and the sides of the croissant start to turn brown from toasting. Pull out of the oven and close the sandwich and serve. That's it! Really simple and it only takes about 4-5 minutes to do. We enjoyed playing around with the ham to cheese ratio in this sandwich until we both found a combination that we really liked. Laura likes more ham than cheese, where I personally like the balance of both. But we hope that you will try this out and love it as much as we do.

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Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Here is one that I have to give credit to our friend Matt and Rebekah. They shared this super easy and quick appetizer recipe with us a while back and it's always been a big hit. We made these for the Super Bowl and they went fast!

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

A bunch of meatballs. (we like the ones from Costco but homemade ones are the best too)
3/4 cup chili sauce
3/4 cup red current jelly

In a sauce pan, heat up the chili sauce and the current jelly until the jelly melts and mixes well with the chili sauce. Place in a crock pot with the meatballs. Coat and cover and let cook until the meatballs are fully done. And that's it! It's so easy and awesome! Enjoy!

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Ranch Sliders

When I was in Ohio/Kentucky on my mission I was introduced to the wonder that is White Castle and it's little hamburgers nicknamed such names as "sliders", "belly bombers", and "gut rockets". These little hamburgers were kinda good but I have always thought that I could do better, so for the Super Bowl this year, we decided to create our own version of "Sliders." they turned our really moist and delicious, and they didn't "slide" like the White Castle burgers of yore, if you know what I mean. Here is our version:

Ranch Sliders

2 lbs. of Hamburger
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
1 egg
1 Pkg ranch dressing mix
1/4 cup of chili sauce
Salt and Pepper
Half of a diced onion
Rolls

Mix all of the ingredients by hand in a bowl until fully incorporated. If the mixture seems too wet and not mixing well add some more bread crumbs, but not too much or it will not hold up when cooked. (Hows that for some vague instructions) Form into small 1" balls and squish them with your hands until they are flat and about a 1/4' thick. Place them on a plate, cover, and place in the fridge for at least an hour or two.

To cook, either grill or broil them until they are not pink inside. Wrap tight in tin foil and let sit for about 15 minutes. Cut rolls in half and use as a bun. Use any toppings you wish!

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Spudnut Donuts!

When I lived in the Tri-Cities, WA, there was this donut place that was super famous for it's potato donuts called Spudnuts. The spudnut donuts were so good! They are made with mashed potatoes and end up super soft and amazing. I remember that in school our teachers would always use them as rewards for contests and what not. For some reason those thoughts came back this weekend and Laura and I, with help from our friends the Frenzas, decided to try our hand at making some. So here is our version of Spudnut Donuts.

Spudnut Donuts

1 3/4 c. Milk
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. mashed potatoes (about 2 potatoes)
1 pkg. dry yeast
1/2 c. warm water
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
6 to 7 c. of flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 pinches of salt
lots of cooking oil

Peel and cube the potatoes then boil until soft, drain and mash until smooth. Over heat, mix the milk, sugar, and mashed potatoes. Take off heat and let cool. In a bowl sprinkle and mix yeast with the warm water. Let sit until the yeast activates (about 3-5 minutes). Add the yeast and water to the potato mixture. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder and 2 cups of the flower to the potato mixture and start mixing in a bread mixer. Continually add the flour a 1/2 cup at a time until the dough starts to pull away from the side of the bowl. Let sit in bowl and rise for a half hour.

Roll out the dough about 1/4" thick and cut with a donut cutter. Place cut donuts on wax paper, cover and let rise again for another half hour.

In a frying pan, heat up about 1 1/2 inches of cooking oil to 375 degrees. Drop a few donuts in the oil and turn when the bottoms become brown. When all cooked, place on a cooling rack. Brush with a little butter and dip in a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Enjoy!

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