Sunday, March 27, 2011

Chicken Salad

If you've been looking for a yummy Chicken salad recipe, look no further! This is soooo yummy! I made this for a baby shower. Found the recipe on allrecipes.com under Becky's Chicken Salad.


* 2 1/2 cups diced and chilled, cooked chicken meat
* 1 cup chopped celery
* 1 cup sliced, seedless grapes
* 1/2 cup sliced almonds
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup mayonnaise
* 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whip cream to soft peaks.
2. Combine meat, celery, grapes, almonds, parsley, salt, and mayonnaise with whipped cream. Chill.


I added my own twist on it. I quadrupled the recipe for the baby shower and it made a TON! I added 2 chopped gala apples, 1 lemon zest, 1 lemon juice, half a red onion finely diced, fresh cracked pepper, I had walnuts instead of almonds so I toasted them and chopped them up, I added extra grapes and a little extra chicken. I think next time I will add just a splash of white vinegar to add a little zip. The ingredients I added were for the quadrupled batch so you'd want to skim it down to a single recipe. I ended up with a lot of leftovers because we stuffed croissants with the chicken salad. The next night I boiled some penne noodles and added some of the chicken salad mixture, YUMMY!! I actually liked that better then on croissants, but I'm a huge noodle fan.

Black Bean Brownies

* Butter, for greasing pan
* 3/4 cup cooked black beans
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil, or olive oil
* 2 eggs
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, divided
* 1/3 cup flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 9-inch square baking pan.

In a blender, puree the beans with the oil. Add the eggs, cocoa, sugar, coffee, and vanilla. Melt half the chocolate chips and add to the blender. Blend on medium-high until smooth. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the blender and pulse until just incorporated. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake until the surface looks somewhat matte around the edges and still a bit shiny in the middle, about 20 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting and removing from the pan. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve.

Cook's Note: Place a small cutout or stencil on the brownie before dusting to make a design.


Melissa d'Arabian from Food network