Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘chicken salad’

Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

Posted by terrepruitt on April 19, 2021

Many years ago, and I think I have shared this before, my father-in-law made dinner.  He made a chicken casserole and said that he used canned chicken.  I was not looking forward to eating it.  But if he had not told me the chicken came from a can I would have thought he used chicken breast . . . which of course you can do with this.  I am not always so good about remembering to take meat out to defrost so when I need something quick for dinner canned chicken is great.  Plus I like to use it for chicken salad.  Here is a chicken salad recipe.

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Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

1 can of chicken
salt
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon mayonnaise
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup cranberries
1 1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Drain the chicken then put it in a bowl, sprinkle salt onto chicken. Add the ricotta cheese and mayonnaise. Mix the chicken, cheese, and mayo together. Add the chopped pecans. Mix. You may want to pull the cranberries apart or chop them a bit. I find the stick together. Add the cranberries to the mixture. Add the vinegar and mix. Here is where you decide if you need to add more ricotta cheese or mayo. It depends on how dry you want the mixture.

Serve on crackers, bread, a spoon, whatever you want.

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PLEASE NOTE:  When I wrote the recipe I this is what I did.  Some pictures are of the one can recipe and some are of when I used TWO cans of chicken.

Since we got the cranberries I have made this twice so far.  It is really good.

Do you like to make different versions of chicken salad?  What is your favorite?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

My Chicken Salad Recipe

Posted by terrepruitt on October 16, 2017

Last month we had some really hot days where it never cooled down. My idea was to not cook when it was really hot, but I didn’t know what to make. I mean, part of staying cool meant NOT getting in the car and going to the store! So, I was using what I had. I had decided to make chicken salad but give it a Mexican inspired flavor. I posted about it in September. In that post I mentioned my “regular” chicken salad. Well, I had a hankering for that the other day and I thought since I was making it, I might as well share the recipe.

I know there are probably a million variations on chicken salad. I used to never like it because of the celery . . . but I don’t use celery. Here is what I do.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitChicken Salad

1 12 ounce can of chicken (about 8 to 10 ounces)*
1/4 onion
½ cup pickles (4 stackers)
1 green bell pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp garlic salt
2 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise (between 1/4 cup and 1/3 cup)
sprinkle of pepper

Drain the liquid out of the can, then dump the chicken in a bowl. If you buy Kirkland canned chicken you have to use a fork to break up the chunks of meat. Chop the onion and pickles. Chop the bell pepper. Add all the chopped ingredients into the bowl with the chicken. Stir it up. Sprinkle the garlic powder and salt over the mixture. Then mix it up. Add the mayo . . . more or less depending on how mayo-y you like your chicken salad. A sprinkle of pepper (unless you like pepper, then add more).

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitMix it all up. If you have time . . . let it set at least 20 minutes. This will let the flavors meld a bit. But if you are in a rush go for it.

 

*The can is 12 ounces but a lot of it is water, so I think you end up with about 8 to 10 ounces of chicken. So if you are using chicken that is not in a can, I would start there. Also, the ONLY canned chicken I will buy and eat is Kirkland. I have tried other brands and the meat does not look good. It looks dark and there looks like there are a lot of “parts” and not just chicken meat. So I ONLY use Kirkland (Costco).

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I like chicken salad because you can eat it on bread, making a chicken salad sandwich. Or you can eat it on crackers. Today I actually had some in a tortilla. You can fill up a lettuce cup and eat it that way. Or you can just eat it with a fork.

Unfortunately if you put it on bread you kind of have to eat it right away otherwise the bread gets really soggy. Because the combination of mayo, bell peppers, and pickles this mixtures get pretty watery. So, my hubby doesn’t get chicken salad sandwiches in his lunch. (Sorry, Honey!)

Just like I asked in my other chicken salad post . . . what do you put in your chicken salad? And what do you put your chicken salad on/in?

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Mexican Chicken Salad

Posted by terrepruitt on September 11, 2017

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitWe recently went through an extremely hot spell. This is the San Francisco Bay Area, so we are not really accustomed to having EXTREMELY hot weather. Many homes in this area don’t have air conditioning. Most often when we do have hot days, we get cooler nights so it makes the hot days somewhat bearable because the night air has cooled everything down. But with this last heat wave there was no reprieve from the heat of the day at all. So it was hot and it stayed hot for days. Record breaking temperatures were recorded all over. So the idea of making dinner was really unappealing. And the idea of using anything that created heat was just unthinkable. I was trying to come up with something we could eat that wouldn’t require heat at all. The only thing I could think of was Chicken Salad. Now this was all I could think of without me having to go to the store. But I thought that was kind of average because when I make chicken salad I use mayonnaise, pickles, and garlic salt. Not just that, but that is the basic idea. But I wanted a different flavor. I was thinking I could give it a Mexican flavor and we could put it on a tortilla with a little cheese and salsa on top. Had we had avocado and sour cream that would have gone on top, too, for my hubby. So here is what I came up with.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitMexican Chicken Salad

1 can of chicken
1 can of corn
1/4 cup of chopped white onion
1/4 cup of chopped red onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cilantro
1 teaspoon cumin
Sprinkle of pepper
Half of a green bell pepper
– – – –
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons lime juice
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheese
Salsa

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit(The dashes indicate ingredients that were good on their own. They didn’t even need the rest. But it was good all together.)

Chop the bell pepper. Mix the chicken, corn, onion, garlic, garlic salt, coriander, cilantro, cumin, pepper, bell pepper vinegar, and lime juice together. Let it chill for at least an hour, to let the flavors meld together a bit.

Then spoon the mixture onto a flour tortilla and top with shredded cheese and salsa. Roll it up to eat it like a burrito.

As I said, if you have avocado and/or sour cream you could put that on top.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitAs I mentioned, these ingredients are what I had. I did not go to the store so I used dried cilantro. When I make this in the future I am going to use fresh cilantro and I think that will make a big difference flavorwise. I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants because it was just too hot. Too hot to go to the store and too hot to create heat and cook.

I like this because it is chicken salad without mayonnaise. So this means we can have chicken salad twice as often because it won’t be the same ol’ same ol’ chicken salad.

This was even better two days later when the flavors REALLY had time to settle in. So you can make it a day or so before you want to eat it.

Do you like chicken salad? What do you put in your chicken salad?

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Salad On My Mind

Posted by terrepruitt on April 21, 2011

What do you think of when you hear “salad”?  When I was young when I heard salad I thought of lettuce with a few veggies in it.  I don’t eat potato salad and egg salad so I never thought of them, but they are salads.  There are so many other types of salads too.  Wiki says:

“Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes including: vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads.  They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.”

Salads could be considered the perfect food.  At least in my opinion.  As mentioned in wiki there are “vegetable salads” and “pasta salads”.  When you put veggies and meat in a pasta salad you can have a pretty balanced MEAL.  It also depends the ingredients you use when talking meal.  Like my last post, the quinoa has a good amount of protein so mixing it with veggies makes a great meal.

There are salads that are a meal and salads that are a side.  When I make a green salad I add cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, sometimes tomatoes, sometimes broccoli, sometimes nuts, sometimes cheese, sometimes seeds.  For a long time we were using baby spinach as our “lettuce” but then I switched to a mix of lettuces.  We buy spinach every once in a while.  Either way I like the green for a salad.  I don’t use iceberg.

Salads are fascinating.

I mean we even call jello with fruit in it salad.  And they are really fun because they are usually prepared in a jello MOLD so you have a salad in a fun shape.  And oh, fruit salad.  When I was young we called one salad fruit salad and one ambrosia.  Fruit salad was all different kinds of fresh fruit cut up and put tossed together and served in a bowl.  Ambrosia was the same thing but with cool whip mixed in with all the fruit.

Ha . . . I should have checked my past posts before I posted because I already have a posted about salad, pretty much the same thing.  But I can tell you a bit about the salad I posted about.  It is clear to me that some of us have ideas in our mind about what a salad is because there was a time when my hubby (yes, Dear, I am dragging you into my post again!) wouldn’t eat a “salad” that didn’t have lettuce in it.  He would claim it was not a salad, even though his family is a “jello salad family”.  But after we visited Europe and they would often serve a “salad” without lettuce I was able to do the same thing when we got home.  Ahh . . . travel is awesome.   (I think I’ve said this before in a post too!  The part about my hubby.)

One of the comments on my one of my previous posts about salad talked about the dressing on a Greek Salad.  The commenter said she didn’t like the dressing.  But that is one of the great things about a salad if you make it yourself you can put whatever dressing you want on it!

I have yet to make the tomato and watermelon salad that my friend mention in the comments of my “salad” post.  I am putting that in my calendar in June.  So I remember.

Usually I check my blog to see if I have posted about a subject before, but it was late (really late) and I didn’t check and now that I am looking I have several posts on salad*.  As I said and as is now totally obvious, salads are fascinating.

*Here’s a few of the “salad” posts:

Quinoa Salad

Bean Salad

Awesome Salad

Summer Salad

So?  I’ve said a whole lot about salad.  What do you have to say?  Have a recipe?  Like one thing over another?  Have you tried any of the salads on my blog or the suggestions people have posted?  Do tell?  Salad is awesome!

(I think I need to make a “Salad” Category.)

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Greek Snack

Posted by terrepruitt on April 30, 2009

Tonight we are going to dinner in Willow Glen, which is San Jose, but San Jose is large and spread out so having the sections help us determine the general location.  Downtown Willow Glen is where I have my Nia classes, and is fairly close to downtown San Jose.**  We went with a group of people who Yelp (so they are called Yelpers) on Yelp.com.

We are going to Opa.  It is a Greek Restaurant.  I am part Greek.  I didn’t like Greek food until recently.  Since we are going to a Greek Restaurant it started me thinking about one of my favorite snacks that I have been having lately.  Greek Yogurt.   I didn’t even know that there is such a thing until about two years ago—and I am Greek.

There are probably as many different brands of yogurt as there is (types of) Yoga,  just like there are different brands of regular yogurt, but what you will find is that Greek Yogurt is thicker.  It seems creamier.  And it typically has less sugar and a lot more protein.

I have been eating plain non-fat to which I added a little bit of sugar, vanilla, and some super crunchy cereal.  Yum.  So I guess you could say that I am using it like milk.  But I won’t drink non-fat milk, but I will eat non-fat yogurt and get a lot more protein!  Plus with its smooth, think, creaminess it is like dessert for breakfast!

Also, during our heat wave I decided to make chicken salad sandwiches for dinner.  I didn’t realize we were out of mayo when I decided on that refreshing dinner.  But I used the yogurt instead.  It worked great because it is more like mayo in consistency than regular yogurt.  Don’t tell my husband because it also has less fat and more protein than mayo.  And I did add a little bit of mayo so it would taste like regular mayonnaised chicken salad.

So next time you are in the store you might want to pick up some Greek yogurt and do some experimenting of your own with it.  It can be used a little differently than regular yogurt.  Then let me know what recipe you used it in.  I am always looking for new things to make!

**Good thing I looked up the event before we went, granted it was after I posted this, but we actually ended up going to Opa in Los Gatos!  It is important to check on event locations and not assume . . . . . 🙂

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