Good Eats and Cool Treats

During the hot summer months here in the deep South I'm always looking for something we can eat in the evening that is good, healthy and doesn't require an oven! We discovered a wonderful little restaurant in Gulfport, MS a few years ago that served the best shrimp salad. It had lots of chopped onions (David loves onions) and a little "bite" to it so I decided I would try my hand at my version of the New Orleans Bistro shrimp salad.

Shrimp Salad

1 lb. cooked shrimp

2 tsps. lemon juice

1 c. mayo (I used lite mayo and you can use fat free)

1 small onion, minced

salt and pepper to taste

ground red pepper (use sparingly)

1 stalk celery, finely sliced (optional)

Combine all ingredients together, mixing well. Refrigerate at least one hour. The longer this stuff "cooks" in the refrigerator, the better it gets!

That's it! How easy is that?

I serve it with crackers and fresh fruit......YUMMY!

A few years ago when I was in Weight Watchers, one of my good friends gave me this receipe. I call it "Guiltless Chocolate Pie". You only need a box of chocolate fat free, sugar free jello pudding and pie mix, fat free milk and "free" Cool Whip.

Here's all you need (plus a pie crust of course)

Follow the directions for making the chocolate pie on the jello box

Fold in 1/2 of the Cool Whip, reserving the other 1/2 for the top of your pie when it's ready

Whisk the jello, Cool Whip and milk together until it has a smooth consistency

Here it is in the pie shell (cook the shell according to the directions - a graham cracker crust is good too) . Put it in the refrigerator until it is firm

I always have a little extra left over so I poured the remaining mixture in my "faux" margarita glasses, plopped a big ol' spoonful of Cool Whip on top and added a strawberry! Am I Paula Deen or what?

Janie over at Southern Lagniappe has a wonderful chicken salad receipe on her blog. I asked her if she minded if I told ya'll about it and she was sweet enough to let me include it.

Best Ever Chicken Salad

Receipe courtesy Fairfield Grocery

Shreveport, Louisiana

3 lbs. skinned and boned chicken breasts

1 (49 1/2 oz) can chicken broth

1 cup finely chopped celery

1/2 cup finely chopped water chestnuts, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped yellow bell pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

3 cups mayo (I found this to be a little too much mayo so you might want to decrease this amount)

1 tsp. ground red pepper

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. white pepper

Place chicken breasts in a large skillet, add chicken broth. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered, 30 min. or until chicken is done.

Remove chicken from skillet and let stand 15 minutes or until cool to touch. Shred chicken.

Combine shredded chicken, celery, water chestnuts and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl.

Stir together mayo, red pepper, salt and white pepper until well blended. Spoon over shredded chicken mixture, stirring to coat. Cover and chilll at least 4 hours.

Yield: Makes about 8 (1-cup) servings

I do not follow this receipe exactly. I don't include the red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, or water chestnuts. Also, I just boil the chicken in water (not using the broth) until done and then "shred" it in my blender. After that I combine the shredded chicken with the onion, mayo, salt and pepper and add a little red pepper, mixing well. It still turned out very good!

These salads are always good, it doesn't take long to make either one, and they don't have a lot of ingredients. I'll bet if you try them, you'll like them too!

I went to one of my favorite interior decorating stores this past weekend and I have lots of pictures to show ya'll.

Tomorrow (Thursday) my sweet little Taylor is having her tonsils out so please keep her in your prayers.....

UPDATE: Taylor came through her surgery just fine.....thank you all for saying a little prayer for Ta-Ta.