Frugal In Florida

Are you all enjoying the Salad theme this month?  I am! I'm digging out an old favorite that I haven't made in quite a while and feel the need to do it real soon!  I call it a Steak Salad because, well, because it has STEAK in it. Others call it an Asian Beef Salad because it has soy sauce and sesame oil in the dressing, making it an Asian type dish. Then the Evil Jungle? Well, that's from Houston's which is WHERE I got the idea for this lovely, all time, must have lunch/dinner and hey, even breakfast once. (Evil Jungle is very very spicy with a Thai undertone to it and mangos and avocado slices to offset the spiciness. I've never been able to replicate 100%) My steak comes from Costco, and it's in a bag, already cooked, ready to serve. Um, yeah, I know. But it was $12.99 for 2 lbs COOKED and caught me at a weak moment, ok? I had so many visions of what to do with it, and I still may try the others ... It says NO MSG. That's a good thing, ri...

This is like my FAVORITE salad to make ... well, I suppose it's really in the top 5, I love my  steak salad  too ... and the  Olive-Y Garden  Salad, and the  Cabbage Salad  ... Anyways ... this is ONE of my favorite salads, hows that? And with Spring coming sooner than later, I figured why NOT share this again? It's so easy to do and surprisingly good! Here's what you need: Head of romaine lettuce, trimmed, washed and torn/cut into bite size pieces (if you were smart, you've already checked out the  foodsaver tip !) 1 grilled chicken breast (I generally use a leftover one) cut into bite size pieces a little bit of pasta, rigatoni or penne work best (cooked) sprinkle of fresh Parmesan cheese Caesar Dressing (I prefer Kens Light Caesar) Croutons It's so easy. Dump all in large bowl. Mix well to coat evenly. Serve. See that picture? That is made up of ALL leftovers ... the chicken was grilled for dinner a few nights ago, the salad stuff is ALWAYS ...

Pretty damn creative title, don't you think? :-) I've had this 3 of the 5 days for lunch, all from leftover chicken that we cooked over the weekend. Come Thursday, I was tired of chicken AND starting to really look it over to see if it was still "safe" to eat ... I never used to worry about stuff like that IF I knew how it was handled from the time it was prepared to the storage method, in other words, IF I handled it all the way through ... must be a sign of getting "older" :-) Ok. Are you ready for the big recipe? One chicken breast. I used bone and skin on that was baked with some light seasoning. Ripped off the bones and skin, then chopped/diced it up a few heaping tablespoons (from your flatware set) of premade guacamole. I used the stuff I got for b1g1f and then $4 off ... made it pretty cheap a few heaping tablespoons of premade salsa. Again, not the measuring spoon, but the spoon from your flatware. Mash, mix and to...

Yeah, you've heard me say it time and time again, I'm busy. Real busy. I love to cook, but just do not have that much free time in the evenings during the week to do so. Hey, I like to get 8 hours of sleep occasionally and NOT waking up to a dirty kitchen is an added bonus! So what do I do? I make intentional leftovers. Of course. But not leftovers, like meatloaf and mashed taters for 3 nights straight. Uh uh. I would not do THAT. I do stuff like, grilled chicken and pasta on Sunday. But grill more chicken than I need for that night. Come Tuesday, we have chicken Cesar salad. Hmmm... just how does that work, you ask? Easy. Grill extra chicken on Sunday night when you have had all the live long day to putz around and take it easy. Set aside what you want for later in the week and serve the rest. Trust me, if you've got big eaters in the house, you MUST set aside before serving (even hide if you must). Then when you are ready to recreate those leftovers, ju...