the BEST chicken salad you will ever eat in your life

i made chicken salad.  wasn't really expecting a lot, but i figured i'd give it a shot.  and since we're trying (TRYING) to eat more on the "only real food" bandwagon, chicken salad seemed like an easy way to start.  i mean common, it's chicken salad.  not rocket science, right?

WRONG!

there are many subtle sciences into making chicken salad.  get just one wrong, and you have crap.  and no one likes to eat crap.  but the chicken salad i made was sublime.  it was wonderment.  it was damn tasty.  and seeing as the only thing i seem to have time to blog is recipes, here goes:

The Best Chicken Salad You Will Ever Eat In Your Life

one whole roasted chicken, de-boned
2/3 c mayo
2 tbl mustard
2 tbl lemon juice
6 cherry tomatoes fresh from the garden - quartered
5 basil leaves - chopped
hand full of fresh cut chives - chopped
3-4 Thai basil leaves - chopped
1 jalapeno - chopped

i shredded my chicken with the help of Helga (my Kitchenaid), and just dumped in everything else in order and let Helga do the mixin'.  pop it in the fridge for an hour or so to get nice and chilled, then spread a spoonful or so onto some sourdough bread.  delish.  

Stuffed Peppers

I started a running club.  We get together once a week at the local high school track and run/walk/jog laps around the track.  the last lap or so we tend to walk in a pack and today we got to talking about our food intake.  I told the guys about what i'd made for dinner tonight and they asked for the recipe.  so i decided to post it here for all to see.  here you go.  enjoy!



Stuffed Peppers

1lb turkey breakfast sausage
4 green peppers
2 jalapenos
5-6 cherry tomatoes
2 cups of cooked kidney beans (or bean mix of your choice)
5-6 basil leaves
4-5 Thai basil leaves
handfull of chives
1 container of part skim ricotta cheese
4 slices of pepper jack cheese (or provalone, or go cheeseless)

preheat oven to 350

cut the tops off the peppers and clean out the insides.  dice the fleshy part of the tops that you just cut off and set asside.  brown the sausage, add the beans and diced pepper.  dice the jalapenos, cut the cherry tomatoes in half or quarters, and dice the herbs.  add to the pan with the sausage/bean mix.  add the container of ricotta cheese.  when the ricotta is melty, scoop some of the mixture in each pepper, and top with the pepper jack.  pop in the oven for 10 min, just enough to get the cheese melted.

eat.