Fruit Salad (Ambrosia)

This is a recipe given to me by my (crazy) Aunt Karen. It's relatively easy to make and serves as an excellent addition to a big breakfast. Or it functions nicely as its own light breakfast. I often use it for breakfast potlucks since it make quite a lot!

Aunt Karen Fruit Salad

Ingredients:
1 can peaches, cut up
1 can pineapple tidbits
1 can mandarin oranges
handful of red grapes, halved
handful of marachino cherries, halved
2 bananas, sliced
1 box tapioca pudding (cooked variety)
1 box coconut pudding (cooked variety)

Directions:
1. Drain all canned fruit, reserving liquid to 3 cups (add water if needed).
2. Mix pudding with reserved liquid and whisk thoroughly.
3. Heat in microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes. Stir well. Repeat once more and again if needs thickening. Stir frequently.
4. Cool pudding mix in refrigerator.
5. Combine all fruit but cherries and bananas with cool pudding. Fold in with spatula.
6. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Mix in remaining fruit just before serving.

Optional add-ins:
Handful of strawberries, sliced
Handful of dried coconut
Whatever else sounds good!


Notes: I will sometimes use vanilla pudding instead of coconut if I'm serving this to folks who aren't fans of coconut. It still comes out good!

Also, if you're going to add red fruits like cherries and strawberries (which I recommend), make sure you thoroughly rinse/wash and dry them off before adding to the rest of the mix. The red has a tendency to 'bleed' into the rest of the salad!

Taco Salad

This is a recipe I stumbled onto while looking for salad recipes. I wish I could remember the link to the blog with this and other salad recipes. I'll post it if I can track it down. However, this is a truly excellent meal and has swiftly elevated itself to one of my and Kate's favorites!

Taco Salad

Ingredients:
1-1/2 Pound Ground beef
1/3 cup salsa
1/4 Cup Onion, chopped
8 Ounce Can corn, drained
8 Ounce Can garbanzo beans, drain
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1/2 Teaspoon Dried oregano, crushed
1-6 1/2 oz Package Tortilla or corn chips
1/2 Head iceberg lettuce, finely shredded
4 Ounce Cheddar cheese, shredded
French dressing

Optional Toppings:
2 Tomatoes, cut in wedges
1 Avocado, peeled and sliced
Pitted black olives, sliced
Sour cream

Directions:
- Brown meat and drain off fat. Add salsa, onion, corn, beans, salt, pepper and oregano. Simmer 5 minutes.
- For each salad, serve meat mixture over tortilla chips. Top with lettuce and cheese. Drizzle French dressing over top. Add tomatoes, avocado, olives and sour cream, as desired.

Notes: Kate and I never use iceberg lettuce - we prefer a blend of "real" salad greens, like spinach, romaine, etc.

Apple Slaw

This little item is something I threw together for our Christmas potluck this year. I originally found the recipe in a book "Semi-Homemade Cooking" by Sandra Lee. It turned our pretty well...

Apple Slaw

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sour cream (I occasionally use unflavored yogurt instead of sour cream)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp ranch seasoning and salad dressing mix
1 package (8 oz) shredded cabbage and carrots
3 green apples, cored and diced
4 green onions, thinly sliced
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Whisk sour cream, sugar, vinegar, and ranch seasoning in a large bowl to blend.
2. Add cabbage mixture, apples, and green onions.
3. Toss to coat.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (I didn't use much at all)
5. Cover tightly and chill 20 minutes or up to 4 hours.
6. Serve cold.

Makes about 4 servings.