Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Sometimes in the summer I just don't want a heavy dinner. Tonight was one of those nights. Enter = Chicken salad! It's so light & yummy but filling at the same time. And, a bonus, it doesn't heat up the house! Woo hoo! Let's go!

You'll need:


Cooked chicken, red grapes, celery, slivered almonds, mayo & black pepper.

Come by the cooked chicken whatever way you'd like - leftovers, a rotisserie from the grocery store, grill it, bake it, boil it - today I threw some frozen breasts in the crock pot with a little bit of broth & seasonings. Just make sure if you cook it fresh for this that you give it time to cool. Hot chicken salad isn't quite as yummy as the cold stuff!

Mix everything but the pepper & mayo in a bowl.


Then add in your mayo & pepper! Start out light on the mayo & add more as you see the need. You can always add more but once you have too much there's not a lot you can do.

I started out with 1 cup of mayo for 4 cups of chicken & ended up adding about 1/4 cup more.


You can cover it & chill it until you're ready to eat or just serve it up right away!


YUM!! The celery & almonds give it 2 different types of crunch while the grapes add a splash of sweet. And of course the creaminess of the mayo with the chicken.... goodness. YUM! As a throwback to my childhood we had a loaf of whole grain WHITE bread here at the house so that's how we served it up. But you choose - Hubby at all the leftovers scooped out of the bowl with Ritz crackers! Put it in a pita, a tortilla, a little dinner roll.... oh the possibilities!!

Doesn't this just look like the perfect summer dinner!!?

Chicken Salad Sandwiches:

4 cups cooked chicken, diced or shredded
1 1/2 cups diced celery
1 1/2 cups red grapes, either halved or quartered
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 - 1 1/2 cups mayo
1/2 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients & mix until thoroughly combined. Cover & chill or serve immediately.

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

Ever had a Monte Cristo sandwich!? Ya - me neither, until maybe 7-8 years ago. Thankfully that has been fixed & I am now well acquainted with this delicious little indulgence! (and by little I mean more a quaint/precious sort of a feel - definitely not small!) If you have ever wondered what it would be like to use French Toast to make a sandwich but weren't brave enough to actually take the plunge... don't worry! Somebody did and they called it a Monte Cristo! Mmmmm Boy! It's sweet, savory, hearty & filling. It's got a breakfast-for-dinner feel to it. Serve it up with some fruit & you'll have a full belly in no time!

The line up:


Hawaiian sweet bread, ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, eggs, milk, vanilla, nutmeg & powdered sugar.

So - normally when I make these I just start out by making a sandwich - bread, meat, cheese, meat, bread - and then I dip the whole thing into the egg bath. But this time my hubby jumped in & started dinner on his own & there was NO WAY I was gonna derail that one! LOL And he always has to fancy things up a bit so these pictures show you a higher maintenance way of making the sandwich... and it was great! But if you don't want to fuss this much, just build the darn sammy, dip it in the egg & fry it up on all sides. And you're done - Mommy Style!

OK - so step one is to make your egg bath. Mix the eggs, milk, vanilla & nutmeg in a shallow dish.


Give it a good whisk & then dip your bread.


Fry it up, just like you're making French toast...


If there's room on the pan/griddle you can also fry up the meat to bring a little more flavor out of it. If the pan's small, just do it after the bread. Make sure you get the cheese in between the meats so it doesn't make a melty mess!


Build your sandwich with the cooked sides of the bread toward the inside & then finish cooking the still-soggy-with-egg sides once the sandwich has the meat/cheese in it. Does that make sense? I hope it does... totally clear to me but sometimes clear to me = mud to every one else!!

Once the sandwich is done give both sides a sprinkling of powdered sugar.


Cut it in 2 & dig in!!!


Look at the gooey, delicious insides! Yum... Seriously. YUM!!!

Monte Cristo Sandwiches:

Sweet Hawaiian bread (slices, not rolls)
Ham slices
Turkey slices
Swiss cheese slices
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Option A - the easy way: Use the first 4 ingredients to build a sandwich. Mix the next 4 ingredients to make an egg bath. Dip the sandwich into the eggs bath & then fry it up in a med-hi pan, cooking all sides thoroughly (even the edges). Sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve hot.

Option B - high maintenance (but tastier) way: Mix up your egg bath. Dip each slice of bread into it & fry over med-high heat until side 1 is cooked. As this is going make a stack of sandwich guts, turkey-cheese-ham, and get it into the pan, too - put some color on it. Once side 1 of the bread is cooked, assemble the sandwich with cooked sides of the bread toward the inside of the sandwich with the fried meat in the middle. Continue cookie the assembled sandwich until both outer sides are thoroughly cooked. Sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve hot.