double duty dinner

Just thought I would share this dinner idea, especially now that it is summer and I am avoiding my oven at all costs :) Sorry this is a really vague recipe but trust me, it's very forgiving. What you do is make the crockpot BBQ chicken one day and serve on buns, then use the chicken the next day for the BBQ Chicken Salad.

Meal #1
Crockpot BBQ Chicken Sandwiches:
-chicken breasts or tenders - I do 4 or 5 chicken breasts if I want leftovers for the salad, but my family is small so you may need to do more
-Your fave BBQ sauce - I use good ol' KC Masterpiece, just pour a bunch on there
1. Cook on low until done, or on high if you're in a rush. Sorry for the lack of time frames but my crockpot is a turbo cooker and can cook chicken in like 2 hours on low. My guess is most slow cookers take more like 3-4 hours to cook chicken.
2. Shred or cube chicken, mix with more BBQ sauce if you want, serve on buns.
ps - if you totally forget to start the chicken early enough (like I did this week) you can boil your chicken. You don't even have to defrost, just make sure you cook it until just done because if you're like me, tough chicken is just not as good. Then just shred or cube and mix with bbq sauce.

Meal # 2
Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad
-leftover BBQ chicken, shredded or cubed
-1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
-1 can corn, drained
-lettuce
-your choice of salad toppings - tomatoes, celery, carrots, diced red peppers, diced red onion, etc. are all yummy
-dressing: mix equal parts of ranch and bbq sauce

we just let each person mix/top their salad as desired. For picky kids just serve everything separate - Kate will actually eat the salad but Sadie likes everything in separate piles and then gobbles it down, minus the dressing.

These are some of my favorite summer meals because they are easy, don't use the oven or stovetop, and are fairly light. Serve with lots of fruit. Actually on that note let me share another concoction - this one is Brent's. I always thought fruit salad needed some sort of whipped cream or pudding or something, but Brent made this once and it is much easier, and healthier and thus our new favorite.

Fruit Salad
Your choice of mixed fruit - some of our favorites are:
-bananas, sliced
-strawberries, sliced
-canned fruit, drained (we love the tropical fruit mix, pineapple, and mandrain oranges)
-berries, cantelope, etc. you really can use anything

Mix the fruit, add a little bit of sugar to get the juices flowing if you don't use anything canned, and chill. It tastes much better chilled.