Easy American Chicken Cabbage Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

1/4 cup shredded precooked bacon
1/4 cup crushed croutons
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
2-3 Grilled Chicken breast cut into cubes
1 cup frozen peas
1 cabbage salad (prepacked)
1/4 to 1/2 cup Creamy Poppyseed dressing

Grill chicken and add to mix when it is cool.  Mix bacon, croutons, almonds, chicken, peas, cabbage and dressing. Enjoy!

Stroganoff

1/2 cup shredded precooked bacon
1 cup sliced white mushrooms
1 small red onion, chopped
1 1/2 beef cut into thin strips
2 cloves minced garlic
3 T. garlic roasted tomato paste
1 small can beef broth
1 T. Worestershire sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
Serve: Over rice or egg noodles (Rice is faster in rice cooker)

Pan fry bacon, mushrooms, garlic, onion, and meat until the meat, and mushrooms are cooked.
Add to the pan tomato paste, beef broth, worcestershire sauce, and sour cream.  Let simmer until blended.  Serve over rice.

Creamy Basil Pesto Chicken & Bow Ties

3 boneless chicken breast cut into cubes

1/2 cup shredded precooked bacon

1 cup basil pesto sauce

1/4 cup  cream

16 oz. bow tie pasta, cooked and drained

Pan fry chicken, bacon and cook until well browned, stirring often.
Cook pasta
Stir the pesto sauce and cream into the skillet and heat. Stir in the cooked pasta and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling.

Lewis Family Buttermilk Biscuits

1/2 cup Butter
1/4 cup club soda
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. salt
4 cups biscuit mix

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Roll out dough to 3/4 inch cut with biscuit cutter. Bake for 13 minutes or until golden brown.

Tips and Tricks

Use Big Mouth Chopper by Norpro for chopping fruits and vegetables.

Buy a good rice cooker. We use a Zojirushi. We looked for the best price we could find.  I really love it.

Use preminced garlic.

If I am in a huge hurry I will use canned chicken from Sam's Club (the taste is pretty good for a canned meat.)

Have a good supply of food in your pantry.  Buy a lot when food is on sale. Then you will have a lot of options when you can't make it to the store.

I generally buy meat and cook it on the same day.  I freeze the cooked meat and only need to reheat it for cooking. This save me a lot of time because I don't have to defrost it and then cook it.  Plus, a bonus if I am grilling; I can grill a lot at one time and then not have to grill for a while.

These are just a few I will add more as I remember them.

Chicken Poppyseed Salad

3 cups cooked and cubed chicken

1 bag spinach

1 bag romaine or red leaf lettuce

1-2 c. sliced strawberries (Use Big Mouth Chopper)

1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese (Prepackaged shredded Cheese)

1/2 cup Sliced Almonds

Poppyseed Dressing

Grill or pan fry chicken cut into cubes.  Make sure chicken cools or it will melt the salad.  Blend sliced strawberries, mozzarella, chicken, and sliced almonds. Place lettuce and spinach on plate followed by the chicken mixture. Note: Strawberries do not keep must enjoy salad quickly! 

Chicken Salad Cafe Rio

Café Rio Chicken Salad Directions:
2 lbs. boneless chicken cooked and cut into cubes
3/4 T. cumin powder
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 cups salsa
2 T. cilantro from fresh tube
Spices to taste: garlic powder, cayenne pepper, chili powder
Salad:
1 package romain salad
6-8 flour tortillas
2 c. cheddar cheese
2 tomatoes, diced
1 can black beans, drained

Pan fry chicken, and spices add salsa.  For the salad: Open package salad,cut the tomatoes, shred the cheese and drain the beans. In a large skillet or on a griddle, place a flour tortilla. Sprinkle some cheese on top of each tortilla. Let the cheese begin to melt. Add the black beans, and shredded chicken on top of each tortilla and warm slightly. Place the tortilla on a plate and add some chopped lettuce, tomatoes.

Creamy Sausage Pasta

1 lb. penne pasta

1 lb. ground country pork sausage

2 red bell pepper, sliced thinly (can use frozen precut)

1 onion, sliced thinly

1 garlic clove, minced

2 t. basil from fresh tube

Parmesan cheese-for extra as garnish

Salt & pepper to taste

Cream Sauce:

1 jar alfardo garlic sauce (white sauce)

1 c. parmesan cheese, shredded


Cook sausage in a large skillet with sliced peppers, onions and seasonings. Boil noodles until they are al dente.  In a large bowl add pasta, sausage, peppers, and sauce with cheese.  Serve with a packaged salad mix and french bread.

Poppyseed Chicken

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 small red onion (use big mouth chopper on amazon)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1 can cream of chicken soup

1 T. poppyseeds

1/2 c. Ritz crackers, crushed

Serve: Over Rice

Pan fry chicken, mushrooms, and red onion until cooked.  Cool chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces.  Mix sour cream, soup, milk and poppyseeds. Layer chicken, and soup mix then Ritz crackers. Bake, uncovered, for 30 to 45 minutes at 325 to 350.  Serve over rice.

Chicken Curry

2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1/2 inch cubes can use pork
1 t. salt
1 1/2 T. vegetable or canola oil
2 T. curry powder
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic (use minced garlic out of jar)
1/2 c. carrots, (use frozen precut carrots)
4 red (or russet) potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks (Use bigmouth vegetable cutter)
2 cups yogurt unsweetened
1 (14.5 oz.) can stewed or diced tomatoes
1/4-1/2 c. brown sugar
Serve over rice

Steam potatoes in steamer about 40 minutes.  Fry chicken in oil add garlic, salt,curry powder and onion. After meat is cooked add carrots, and steamed potatoes to mix.  Last add in tomatoes, yogurt, and brown sugar.  Serve: Over rice.