ranch dressing

Tortellini Chicken Salad

/ TaMara

This is one of those quick and easy meals to prepare after a hectic day.  You can cook the chicken anyway you like – boil, broil or fry (if you fry, it works best if you cube it first) – or use leftovers from a previous dinner.  Serve it with Broiled Tomatoes or a fruit platter and dinner is complete.

Tortellini Chicken Salad

  • 19-28 oz (sizes vary) frozen or fresh cheese tortellini, cooked according to package directions, drain*, rinse with cold water & ice cubes. Set aside.

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  • 2 chicken breasts, cooked, cooled & diced
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 green onions, sliced
  • 2 cups frozen sugar snap peas*
  • 4 oz ranch dressing
  • ¼ cup cashews

large bowl

Remove any remaining ice cubes from tortellini, draining well. Add chicken, celery & onions. Thaw snap peas under hot water & drain completely*. Add to salad, along with dressing. Garnish with cashews.

*You can pour the hot water from the tortellini over them if you like.

Memorial Day Grilling Menu

/ TaMara

Here’s a grilling menu that is a nice change from BBQ, burgers and steak (not that there is anything wrong with any of that!).  The grilled pears are a real treat, especially with the melted butter baste.  If the weather cooperates, why cook inside when you can cook your entire meal outside?

  1. Honey Glazed Chicken
  2. Grilled Vegetable Wraps
  3. Grilled Pears

Honey Glazed Chicken

  • ¼ cup honey
  • 1 tsp orange zest
  • ¼ tsp dry mustard
  • 1 tsp crushed garlic
  • 1/8 tsp salt & pepper
  • 4 boneless chicken breasts
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Mix together honey, zest, mustard, garlic, salt & pepper. Brush chicken breasts with oil and grill over medium-high heat. After 10 minutes, turn breasts over. After 5 additional minutes begin to brush with sauce. Turn and brush every 5 minutes until breasts are cooked through (approximately 20-30 minutes total cooking time).

Grilled Vegetable Wraps

  • 1 red sweet pepper
  • 1 yellow sweet pepper
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1 summer squash, cut lengthwise (¼” thick)
  • 1 small onion, cut into thin rings
  • 1 tomato, cut into thin wedges
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • ¼ cup Ranch Dressing
  • 4 tomato or spinach flavored flour tortillas
  • 2 oz shredded pepper jack cheese
  • ½ cup snipped cilantro

grilling basket or foil

Seed & slice peppers into thin strips. Toss peppers, squash, onions & tomato with oil. Grill in grilling basket or in foil packet until vegetables are tender-crisp, about 8 minutes. Spread ranch dressing on each tortilla, sprinkle with cheese & cilantro, place ¼ of vegetables in each tortilla and wrap up. If you like you can then toast rolled up tortillas on the grill until cheese melts.

Grilled pears

4 pears, cut into 4 wedges each and place on skewers & grill for 5 minutes, brushing lightly with butter during grilling.

TaMara’s Fault Entirely

/ jeffreyw

Her tomato cucumber salad looked so good I made a stab at one.  Mercy me it was so good.  Used the last of the feta, we were working on a 2 pound brick.  I wondered if we would use it all before it went bad.  Not really sure how long it will keep but the answer to that seems to be longer than we can go without eating it all up.  A happy state of affairs.

Along with the feta I went with a commercial ranch type salad dressing rather than make something up for myself.  This one was ranch with bacon bits.  More bacon would have been a very good idea.

Homemade Tortilla Bowls and Southwestern Salad

/ TaMara

One of my favorite things to do is have salad in tortilla shell salad bowls. I have 4 heat-resistant (Pyrex) bowls – 1.5 to 2.5 qt bowls work best – that I use to make my tortilla bowls.  I lightly oil tortillas, place one in each bowl, so it takes on a bowl shape. I bake them at 425° until bowls are toasted golden, 7 to 12 minutes.

Alternately, there are tortilla bowl forms you can buy if you’re inclined and at the store recently I also saw pre-cooked tortilla bowls – though I would check the fat content on those, it could be very high, since they may be deep-fried. Also, you can make foil bowls, lightly oiled and use those as your forms, that works pretty well. You don’t need the foil to come up to the top of the tortilla shell, about half-way up will allow the tortilla to keep its shape while it bakes.

Whatever way you choose, this is a nice salad to fill them with:

Southwestern Taco Salad

  • 4 tortilla bowls
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 6 green onions, chopped
  • 1 lb chicken breasts, cubed or 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1 pkg. fajita seasoning mix
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ head iceberg lettuce, shredded
  • ½ head red leaf lettuce, shredded
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 2 oz sliced black olives
  • 6 oz canned corn, drained
  • 14 oz black beans, drained
  • 8 oz salsa
  • 8 oz ranch dressing
  • 4 oz shredded Mexican 4-blend cheese

skillet

Heat oil in skillet and sauté onions, add chicken and brown for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add fajita seasoning and water. Stir and let simmer on medium-low heat.

Layer ¼ ea: lettuce, tomato, olives, beans & chicken in tortilla bowls. Mix salsa & ranch dressing together, add some to salad & garnish with cheese. Serve.