Chicken Salad

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This recipe is a take from Luby’s chicken salad. I used to love eating it and the tuna salad with crackers for lunch during my work week. However, I have not seen a Luby’s in Pensacola – just Piccadilly’s. Luby’s used to be my parent’s favorite place to eat. So I am familiar with a lot of their dishes. I have also seen this recipe called “Almond Chicken Salad”, but it doesn’t include the grapes and seasonings. I think you will find that by adding the green grapes and seasonings to this, makes a wonderful light lunch.
The only negative thing I have to say is it will not keep long in the fridge due to the mayonnaise and grapes. So only make what you will eat in about 4 - 5 days.

Chicken Salad

1 ½ - 2 cups cooked chicken cut into bite size pieces or cubes (oven roasted, poached, or rotisserie work the best)
¼ cup chopped celery
¼ cup chopped green onions
¾ cup green grapes sliced in half
¼ cup toasted nuts (almond slivers, walnuts, pecans, etc)
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. ground mustard
1 tsp. garlic powder
1-2 TBSP orange juice

Preparation

In a large bowl, add your ingredients listed above combine and chill. This salad tastes wonderful with crackers. The curry powder and ground mustard gives it a flavor that will make you crave the taste of this salad.

My serving suggestion is to serve it on a bed of lettuce with crackers.

As always, I make mine without the onions because of my husband’s reaction – heartburn and indigestion, but they really go well with this salad.

Waldorf Fruit Salad

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This is a good way to eat your fruits, but if you are like us, this salad will go fast. Everyone loves the taste of the red grapes as they burst in your mouth! Such flavor and sweetness! I add mandarin oranges versus regular Florida oranges because they are sweeter. I have tried adding regular oranges and I just don’t prefer it that way. However, you may wish to add regular orange slices as well. You can also replace the pecans with whatever you have on hand like walnuts. I prefer the pecans, though. You can also leave them out, but they add so much to this salad, they will be missed!

Ingredients

4-5 bananas
1 cup seedless red grapes (make sure they are seedless)
1-2 apples cut into cubes
1 15oz can mandarin oranges
1-2 celery stalks diced (optional)
¼ - ½ cup Mayonnaise (like Real Mayo – not miracle whip)
1-2 cups Cool Whip
½ cup of chopped pecans


Preparation

In a large bowl, peel and slice your bananas, add your chopped apples, grapes, and mandarin oranges, dice and add celery (optional), Mix together. Add your cool whip about 1 cup and ¼ - ½ cup of Mayo. You may need to add more, you will know by the taste. And finally add your pecans and mix well. I apologize, about the amount of mayo and cool whip, I usually buy a small container of cool whip and use about half of it, and add a little mayo to it (not a lot) til it tastes right. It doesn’t matter if you use light or fat free cool whip either. I use regular mayo because I read that the fat free is actually higher in calories than the regular. So anyway, I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Southern Potato Salad

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My husband’s family taught me a quick way to make potato salad that I want to share with everyone. I used to wash my potatoes and slice them when I cooked them, but his family couldn’t believe that I went to so much effort. Also, if you like chunky potato salad better, then you will love this recipe. It has the same ingredients that I had always put in there, but this is my husband’s and my youngest daughter’s favorite recipe.

When you cook the potatoes, you don’t even wash them – that is if they came from the store and not your garden! Otherwise, you need to scrub the heck out of them first! Did you know that cooking them this way takes just as much time as cooking them sliced? I didn’t either, but it’s true. It only takes about 15-20 minutes. Slide a knife into them to check for doneness. Also, I usually cook them an additional 10 – 15 minutes, because I noticed that when they are really soft, the skins just peel right off, there will not be any potato clinging to the skins. You can do it either way, but I think the latter will yield more potato. The skins can be removed with a regular table knife – no need for a sharp knife here, but if you cook them an extra few minutes, you won’t even need the knife, they will peel right off with your fingers.

Also, just a note for boiling eggs. I once heard that to make the perfect hard-boiled egg, you boil the egg for 1 minute then remove from heat for 12 minutes. I boil my eggs for 2 minutes, because I find them a little undone the other way. Just don't forget to let them sit for 12 minutes.

Old Fashioned Southern Potato Salad

INGREDIENTS

5-6 Med-Large Potatoes
5 hard boiled eggs (the rule is 1 egg for each potato, that is what my in-laws go by – I usually just go under the number of potatoes and it comes out fine)
2-3 TBS dill relish (some people prefer sweet, but I encourage you to try it this way first)
1 TBS mustard (regular yellow – not grey poupon)
1-2 tsp Paprika
1 cup of mayonnaise (not miracle whip – Kraft Real Mayo)
Salt & pepper to taste

In a large stock pot, boil 5 –6 potatoes until tender. Read the paragraph above for cooking them. Peel potatoes and add chopped boiled eggs in a large bowl. Add mustard and mayonnaise and combine. Add the other ingredients and seasoning to taste. If the salad seems too dry, add more mayo. Sprinkle a little paprika on it before serving. Most prefer to eat this salad warm, so if you refrigerate it, it may be warmed up in the microwave. Also, it tastes wonderful with baked beans – try Bush’s they are excellent.

You may add chopped celery or onions to this recipe, but I never cook with onions because my husband is allergic to them. Either way, I hope you enjoy this recipe - especially with hamburgers or with an outdoor barbecue.