Celia and Charlie LOVE corn on the cob, but after they eat so many pieces I have to draw the line. Celia has eaten leftover corn on the cob for breakfast many times. Over the holiday weekend, we found ourselves with 4 halves of corn on the cob leftover and I was tired of serving it that way. The corn found itself in a great corn and bean salad. The first night we at it as a side dish salad, the second night I used it on steak tostados, the third night I topped nachos with it and brought them to our neighbors for dinner. Needless to say this is a very delicious and versatile dish. Let me know how you use it!
Corn and Black Bean Salad
Ingredients:
1 Can Black Beans Drained
1 Can Rotel, Mexican Lime & Cilantro Style, Drained
2 Cups Cooked Corn (about 2 ears, corn on the cob)
4 oz Chive and Onion Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Diced Vidalia Onion
1/2 Tsp Taco Seasoning
2 & 1/2 TBSP Guacamole Dip (the pre-made dip style)
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Refrigerate until ready to eat or use.
We have quite a variety of salad dressings in our fridge. Earlier this year, my friend Kimberly taught me how to really use coupons to save money when grocery shopping. Because of this, I have an even larger variety in our pantry waiting to be savored on delicious salads. I have completely stocked up because of low, low prices! Opening a new bottle of salad dressing is a fabulous surprise, you really never know what new flavors you're going to get. We have a bottle of Imo's dressing that has been hanging around in our refrigerator for awhile. I've been trying to finish it up so I could open a new bottle of dressing. Last night I succeeded when I made this yummy pea salad. It's a spin on the version you might have eaten at church dinners and you'll love it! Bring it to your next church dinner or picnic.
Peas and Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
2 1/2 Cups Frozen Peas
3 Cups Cooked Pasta
1/2 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
2 Hard-boiled Eggs, chopped
1/2 Colby Cheese, diced
1/4 Cup Red Onions, diced
1/4 Cup Italian Salad Dressing
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
1/2 Tsp Dill Weed
1. Pour frozen peas into a large bowl. Do not cook them.
2. Add cooked pasta to the bowl
3. Chop and dice bell peppers, eggs, colby cheese, and red onions. Add to bowl.
4. Pour Italian salad dressing and mayo into the bowl. Sprinkle dill weed on top. Mix thoroughly.
Your salad will need to sit out while for awhile (1/2 an hour to an hour) to allow your peas to defrost. After that, stir and either serve immediately or put in the refrigerator to enjoy later.
Celia and Charlie love clementines. They're so cute and little and the kids can peel and eat them by themselves. However, when I looked in our refrigerator yesterday, I realized we were each going to have to eat about 5 clementines a day or they were going to go bad. So that this didn't happen, I made a clementine-orange salad. It's a basic creamy fruit salad, so if you have any fruit besides clementines and oranges available, throw it in too.
Sunshine Salad
Ingredients:
6 Clementines
2 Medium Oranges
1/2 Cup Chopped Pecans
1/2 Cup Whipped Creme
1/4 Cup Sour Creme
1 Vanilla Pudding Snack-Pak
1 TBSP Brown Sugar
1. Peel and separate clementine segments. Make sure the clementines don't have any seeds. Throw into a large bowl.
2. Peel oranges. Cut each orange into four circular slices going against the segments (so it looks like a flower or a star). Separate circle into triangles. Make sure you take out any seeds. Throw oranges and chopped nuts in with the clementines.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together whipped creme, sour cream, vanilla pudding and brown sugar.
4. Gently pour creamy mix into fruit and nut mixture and stir. Sprinkle a few chopped pecans on top and serve.
We are blessed with wonderful neighbors. We live in a quiet, little neighborhood and we have become good friends with the neighbors on all our sides and across the street. So, the other day on our snow day, our neighbor Marty brought us a bag of groceries because they were going out of town. I love when people give us food. It's always different from what I would buy and gives me new ideas for recipes. In the bag was half a cucumber. Normally I would just cut it up because Celia loves to eat cucumber slices, but instead I made a sweet bean salad with it. The good thing about this salad is that it tastes better the second day after marinating in the fridge overnight.
Sweet Bean Salad
Ingredients:
1/2 Large Green Pepper Chopped
1 Large Cucumber Chopped
15 Baby Carrots Chopped
1/4 to 1/2 Cup Onion Chopped (add more, if you like onions a lot)
1 Can of Beans (I used small white ones)
2 TBSP Sugar
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 TBSP Rice Wine Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
In a large bowl, mix together green peppers, cucumbers, carrots, onions and beans. In a separate bowl make dressing. Whisk together sugar, olive oil, and vinegar. Pour over veggie mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. I was very generous with both.
We have had Chinese 3 times in the past week- that's a lot! Each time it was delicious, but once again I was faced with the dilemma of what to do with another carton of white rice. I made the rice into a tangy salad, that you'll hopefully love. It's a great change from all of the 'winter' foods we've been eating lately.
Tangy Rice Salad
Ingredients:
3 Cups Cooked White Rice
1/2 Large Green Pepper- diced
20 Small Green Olives- sliced
1/4 Cup Large Red Onion
1/2 Cup Small Cubes of Colby Cheese
1 Cup Frozen Peas
3/4 Cup Mayonnaise
1/4 Cup Italian Salad Dressing (I used the Pasta House dressing)
1 TBSP Dijon Style Mustard
Pour the rice into a large bowl, breaking up the clumps as you pour it into the bowl. Mix the Mayonnaise, Salad Dressing, and Mustard into the rice. Add the Veggies and Cheese and stir.
The vegetables I added to the salad are what I had on hand. Other veggies that would be good in this are artichoke hearts and black olives.
You're probably asking yourself who has leftover blue cheese, well we do. And like so many other things in my life, it was given to me. My mom works as a secretary at a rectory. One of the priests had a party and served a cheese tray. The priest gave my mom all of the leftover cheeses, who in turn gave it to us. I've been meaning to use it and tonight was the night. We're having chilidogs with the leftover chili from last night, so I made coleslaw to go with it. While I initially set out to make Blue Cheese Coleslaw, it turned more into Blue Cheese/Ranch Cole Slaw when my little helper, Charlie, dumped half of the bottle of Ranch into the slaw when my back was turned. I've taken some of the ranch out of my recipe so it won't be so Ranchy (is that a word?).
Blue Cheese Cole Slaw
Ingredients
1/2 Cup Mayo
1/2 Cup Ranch
1/4 Cup Parmesean Cheese
1/3 Cup Blue Cheese
1/4 Cup Honey
3 Splashes White Wine Vinegar
1/8 tsp Celery Powder
1/8 Cup Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
Pinch of Salt
16 oz Bag of Cole Slaw Mix or 16 oz of Chopped up Cabbage
1/2 Cup of Bacon
1/4 Cup of Sunflower Seeds
Mix together the first 9 ingredients in a large bowl until creamy. Slowly pour cabbage into bowl, mixing as you go along. If your cole slaw is too dry, add a bit of milk until it reaches the consistency you like (I didn't have to do this because we have a ton of ranch mixed into ours! You might not have to do it either.). When finished, add bacon and mix in. Finally, sprinkle sunflower seeds on top for an extra crunchy treat.
