Chicken Wonton Salad

This recipe came from my sister’s friend Joy McClean. It is so stinking good! When I make it, I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner until it is gone. Trust me, you will love this. It is especially good in the summer time.

2-3 lb cooked chicken, shredded (I like to wrap it in tinfoil with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and paper and bake it for 30-40 min on 350)
2 heads iceberg lettuce
1/3 package wonton squares (sometimes I use more like 1/2 the package, I really like crunchy stuff) You can freeze the uncooked wonton squares for next time. I have also used egg roll wrappers before. They are made of the same stuff so it doesn’t matter.
¼ cup toasted sesame seeds

1. Toast sesame seeds or buy pre-toasted sesame seeds
2. Fry wontons in a small amount of oil; drain on paper towels(I rip them in 1 or 2" thick, rough strips before I throw them into the oil.)

Dressing:
½ cup sugar
½ cup white vinegar
5 tsp salt (I do 3 tsp)
1 tsp. Accent seasoning salt (I use McCormick Seasoning Salt)
boil until dissolved, cool.
ADD:
½ tsp pepper
½ cup salad oil (vegetable oil)
MIX well.

Toss lettuce, wontons, sesame seeds, chicken and dressing when ready to serve (wontons will go soggy if mixed too soon). I keep everything seperate and just mix it right before I eat it. Sometimes I put sliced green onions in it if I have them laying around. If you like cilantro you could also toss a little of that in to and it would be really yummy.

Spinach Salad

I do a variation of this salad at least three times a week. The best part is you can add or subtract about anything and it is still going to taste fabulous. I buy the huge bag of spinach at Costco and it lasts a week or two. It is also way easy to take to dinners or pot lucks.

Spinach
1 small Johnny Gold apple, chopped
1/2 and english cucumber, chopped
1/2 cup grated motzarella cheese
1/3 cup craisins
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup thin sliced red onion

VARIATIONS:
Add cubed cooked chicken or canned chicken to make it a meal
Add a couple chopped hard boiled eggs
Use sliced grapes instead of craisins
Crush pistachios instead of sliced almonds
Add halved grape tomatoes
Add skinned grapefruit or orange chunks
Add chopped avacado
Add diced pear instead of apple
Basically look in your fridge, see what you have, and throw it all together.

Fill a LARGE salad bowl 3/4 of the way with spinach. Add toppings. Dress salad with poppy seed dressing (just enough to coat) and toss. See recipe in post below for poppy seed dressing.

Poppy Seed Dressing

I just love love love this dressing. Did I mention I love this dressing. I have always been a ranch girl but I have to admit I think I am starting to prefer poppy seed. The best part about this dressing is it is so easy to make and as long as I have poppy seeds around I always have all the ingredients.

1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp dry mustard (If you don't have dry mustard, just squirt a little regular in there.)
If you have a handy dandy tupperware salad dressing shaker thing just put all the ingredients in and shake well. If you don’t you can use a quart jar and do the same thing. Just shake really well each time before you use it because the oil seperates.