Tomato-Avocado Bruschetta

I actually got this recipe from Erin, so we'll give her the credit. :)  I've made this oodles of times now, and my man particularly loves it.  It's also great to use up all the millions of cherry tomatoes that are ripe right now!

Ingredients:

3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbs white balsamic or white wine vinegar (or I use regular balsamic)

1/2 tsp salt

10 oz grape tomatoes, quartered (about 1.5 cups chopped tom. well drained)

1 avocado, peeled, pitted, diced

1-2 cloves garlic

2 Tbs fresh slivered basil

4 oz chevre cheese

4 oz cream cheese

1 loaf french bread, or rosemary and olive oil bread, sliced  1/4" thick

In medium bowl, whisk oil, vinegar, and salt.  Add tomatoes, avocado, garlic, basil. Toss gently.

In small bowl, combine cheese until evenly blended. Chill until ready to assemble. (I often just use cream cheese cause, well, it's just simpler...)

Brush bread slices with olive oil and grill (or toast) on both sides.

Spread cheese mixture on bread and top with tomato mixture. 

It's divine!

Did you know?

Did you know you can cook a whole chicken in a crock pot and get the same kind of goodness that a store bought rotisserie chicken offers? Well... it's true! My mom said that many of her friends in New Zealand cook their chicken this way and I thought I'd give it a shot.

It was SO EASY! All I did was buy a whole chicken, put it in the crock pot, sprinkled on some salt and dried basil, added 1/8 of a cup of water (which I'm not sure was really needed) and turned it on HIGH. Three hours later I had a completely cooked chicken that I can make several meals from. It was SO moist and had soaked up the flavor of the salt & basil perfectly! And a plus for the summer time ... there was no heat pouring from my oven! Hooray for crock pots!

My mom also suggested dividing the chicken pieces up into measured amounts (2 cups, 4 cups, etc) and freezing them for later casseroles/recipes that call for cooked chicken.

Thanks to my mom for a money-saver, time-saver, heat-free tip! :)

Spring greens and Rotissiere Chicken

OK...so I went digging for salad recipes and this is one I made last night. I know some of you don't like nuts and some of you don't like fruit in your salad...but I thought I would share anyways.
ingredients:
1 Rotisserie chicken (I bought it in the deli for convenience)
Spring greens
strawberries
blue cheese
honey roasted cashews (or peanuts)

All I did was pull all the chicken off the bone. Next I laid out the spring greens and put all the ingredients on top (just as much or little as I wanted). The recipe called for lemon juice as the salad dressing but I used a light raspberry vinaigrette and it was really good.
We even have enough chicken leftover to make chicken salad sandwiches or whatever else and the best part - it was easy!