No Brainer Dinner Ideas - Chicken Watermelon Salad

Rose at http://santamakersjourney.blogspot.com/ has a great idea in her blog today. It's Let's Share "No Brainer" Dinner Ideas. She wants us to share some recipes that are our standbys, with no measuring, no thinking and nothing that takes over 10 minutes to prepare. Rose's first recipe is a Grilled Chicken Pear & Pecan Salad. I thought I'd share my recipe for a similar salad made with ground chicken & watermelon. This is a huge family favorite at my house.

Chicken Watermelon Salad:

• ground chicken, my 1st choice or ground turkey.
• seasoning: chili powder, garlic salt, pepper & McCormick Roasted Garlic & Bell Pepper seasoning blend; (season to taste).
• red onion - chopped - 1/2 for the meat & 1/2 for the salad.
• watermelon - cut into bite size cubes, (I buy the small "individual" sized watermelons).
• sweet peppers - chopped, I usually use yellow, orange or red peppers, you can cook some of the peppers in the meat mixture if you like.
• small tomatoes - cut in half, I use grape tomatoes.
• salad greens.
• feta or blue cheese crumbles.
• Greek olives - sliced - I love them, my family doesn't, so they're optional.
• candied pecans - I use Emerald Pecan Pie candied pecans - they're out of this world!
• raspberries, black berries or blue berries - don't have to have them, but sometimes I add several different berries with the watermelon.
• Raspberry vinaigrette, Zesty Italian, blue cheese, or whatever dressing you're in the mood for.

Brown the chicken or turkey with 1/2 of a chopped red onion, chili powder, garlic salt, pepper & McCormick Roasted Garlic & Bell Pepper seasoning blend, (I love this stuff!). I cut up fruits & veggies & store in separate containers. Everyone likes something different at my house. (This could take longer than 10 minutes if the fruits & veggies haven't been cut up ahead of time, but it's worth it!) I've tried layering in a large salad bowl, which is beautiful until the first helping has been served, then all the heavier items go to the bottom of the bowl. I leave everything in separate bowls, then we make our own salads.

I've ordered this salad a couple times at the Los Gatos Brewing Company, http://www.lgbrewingco.com/. They use red & yellow watermelon & top with a chiffonade of basil. (I don't recall much of flavor difference between the red & yellow watermelon.) Oh, it is just sooo good!

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The ground chicken or turkey mix is also wonderful with tomatoes, onions, blue cheese crumbles, chopped sweet peppers, & Zesty Italian dressing; or as a topper over a baked potato.

Enjoy!
Diane