Thai Peanut Chicken Salad

This is a good way to use up extra chicken from Thai Peanut Noodles.

What you need (I just cut up enough ingredients to make a large salad. There wasn't much measuring here): 
For the salad:
red bell pepper, diced
salad (I had a butter lettuce blend, so that's what I used)
peanuts, chopped
green onions, chopped
carrots, chopped
A bit of salt

For the chicken & peanut simmer sauce*:
cooking oil 
chicken (I used a pound), cut up into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp Thai sweet red chili sauce
2 tbsp water
*I only used about 1/2 pound of chicken for the salad, so using 1 pound will make a larger salad. Or, save the other 1/2 pound for Thai Peanut Noodles

Steps:
1. Heat the oil in a pan, and start to cook the chicken
2. Mix up all the simmer sauce ingredients
3. When the chicken is getting close to done, add the peanut sauce, saving just a little bit
4. Allow the chicken to simmer in the sauce for a bit, but keep the heat low
5. When the chicken is done, cool it in the fridge, along with the rest of the peanut sauce
6. When the chicken is cool, add it with all of the salad ingredients in a big bowl. 
7. Drizzle with the rest of the peanut sauce. 

Recipe adapted from My Kitchen Escapades.

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Taco Salad

To get this:

Mix these together:

• 1 can of corn, rinsed and drained


• 1 15-oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained


• 1 red bell pepper, diced


• 1 yellow tomato, diced


• 1 garlic clove, minced


• 1 tbs sugar


• 1 tsp salt


• 3.5 tbs olive oil


• 3 tbs lime juice

Let the ingredients sit together in the fridge for at least an hour. Right before serving, mix in 1 diced avocado.

This fresh salad was a hit at our house, even though I'm not a huge fan of black beans. You could make it even more fresh by using corn on the cob and squeezed lime juice. Just beware that this recipe makes a lot of salad. If you like leftovers and/or have more than 2 mouths to feed, you should be fine. Otherwise I suggest cutting the recipe in half.

Thank yous: Recipe adapted from Jennifer at Once Upon a Chef. Her recipe serves 6-8 and includes cilantro. 

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