Broccoli Galore

Two dishes of broccoli: 1. Chicken & broccoli casserole, 2. Broccoli salad.

Chicken & Broccoli Casserole. An easy but time-consuming dish...always a hit though. I don't have exact measurements, just get a casserole dish and make layers of the following:

• bottom - rice
• 2nd - steamed or blanched broccoli
• 3rd - boiled chicken in bite-size pieces (season the water w/ salt)
• 4th - 1 or 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup + (optional 1/2 cup mayonnaise)
  
• 5th - bread crumbs toasted in butter
• top - shredded cheese

Assemble all layers except for the cheese and bake for 40 minutes. Remove then add the cheese and broil until the cheese is melted. Remove and wait a few minutes before serving because it gets HOT!

Broccoli Salad. This salad is amazing. I had it at the Souplantation and couldn't get enough. Fortunately for me, I found the recipe online. I also found one from Paula Dean on Foodnetwork.com and liked some of her ideas, so I took a few and adjusted the Souplantation one. Here is the original recipe and the changes I made (in parentheses), including a few of my own (since I had some extra stuff on hand).

Joan's Broccoli Madness

• 1 bunch uncooked broccoli, cut into florets
• 1/2 cup crumbled cooked bacon
• 1/2 cup cashews (substitute w/ spicy/sweet pecans from Trader Joe's)
• 1/3 cup raisins (substitute w/ 1/2 cup dried cranberries)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 cup) chopped red onion
• (grape tomatoes)
  
• (optional on the side pre-shredded cheese)
  

Dressing

• 1 cup mayonnaise (1/2 cup)
• 1/3 cup sugar (1/8 cup)
• 2 tbs apple cider vinegar (1 tbs)

Mix the broccoli, bacon, cashews, raisins and onions in a large bowl. In a second bowl, beat dressing ingredients together gently until smooth.

About 10 minutes (30 minutes) before serving, toss the salad with the dressing to allow flavors to meld. Serve on chilled salad dishes.