Chicken Salad

I honestly can't remember if I ever posted the chicken salad recipe I used for London's baptism, so I apologize in advance if there are now two chicken salad posts on this blog. Blame it on pregnancy brain, and the crappy search feature that blogspot uses. I've been craving chicken salad and finally got around to making it - yum!! I made about enough for two decent-sized sandwiches (Ben doesn't care for it) but you could obviously modify the recipe based on how much you need. 

Ingredients 

Two small cans of chicken, drained

Two stalks celery, finely diced

Salt and LOTS of black pepper 

1 tbsp lemon juice

Splash of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 medium tomato, diced

1/2 green onion, diced 

2 tbsp (more to taste) mayonnaise 

Directions

Mix everything together, making sure to really mash up the chicken

Taste; add more Worcestershire, pepper or mayo to your liking

Serve on lightly-toasted honey wheat bread, or rolls, or as a lettuce wrap - the possibilities are endless!

This is a great one for parties because you can make it ahead of time! Might also be a nice choice for a new mom; everybody brings dinner, but this could be lunch for several days for her. 

Recipe: French Dip

I'm learning how to cook beef. 

I know, weird right? It wasn't a New Years resolution or anything. I honestly sort-of fell into it. Some women from our playgroup were going in on a grass-fed cow from a local farm and I figured, why not! So here we are, with nearly $400 worth of red meat in our deep freezer and I've never really ventured beyond ground beef. Luckily, the same women who went in on the cow have shared some delicious recipes, which I will now share with you. 

Disclaimer: I made beef stew last night. Coconut curry beef stew, to be exact. Sounds amazing, right? Wrong. I screwed it up, and tried to cook it too fast. So disappointing; I really needed a win tonight ... And I got it!

Ingredients

2-3lbs beef roast (I used a shoulder, no idea how many lbs but it was huge!)

2tbsp olive oil 

Salt & Pepper

2 1oz envelopes of onion soup mix

2c water

20oz beef broth

6-8 hoagie rolls

Provolone cheese

Directions

Make sure roast is fully thawed; season with salt & pepper 

Heat olive oil on medium high heat in a large skillet

Once pan is very hot, sear roast on all sides until it starts to brown (a minute or two on each side should be plenty)

Place roast in crockpot on low

Top with dry onion dip mix, water & broth

Cook covered on low for 8hrs (Meat will fall apart with a fork when done!)

Serve into rolls and top with cheese

Broil on high until cheese is melted and bubbling

Serve with a ramekin of the au jus from the crockpot (optional)

You can find the original recipe here: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/03/french-dip-sandwiches/