{Chicken Black Bean Salsa Moonlights as Summer Meal}

You may not think a big bowl of salsa makes a meal, but you won’t be able to stop eating this hearty condiment until your belly is full. If you have a garden, run out and pick a few tomatoes, green onions, and as many varieties of peppers as you can. Sauté a pound of chicken seasoned with Mexican spices, throw a few beers on ice, and in 30 minutes you’ll have a perfect summer meal.

Our favorite sidekick for scooping up this salsa is a big bag of Margaritaville Sea Salt Tortilla Chips. (Thanks to my sister, Kalli, for the recommendation a couple of years ago.) For those of you in the Midwest, you can purchase the chips at Hy-Vee, Fareway Foods and Schnucks.

Of course, no meal is complete without something sweet so we topped off this spicy summer meal with a light and creamy, no-bake dessert — Summer Breeze Lime Pie.

Chicken and Black Bean Salsa

1 – 1-1/2 pounds unbreaded chicken breasts, cooked, diced and seasoned with Southwest Seasoning Mix or any combination of Mexican spices

3 large tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (or lime juice from a bottle), to taste – you may want to add more to make it juicier

1/4 cup green onions, finely chopped just past the white part

2 (15 oz. each) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

3 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1/4 tsp salt, or more to taste

1/4 tsp pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup diced pepper (red, green, orange, yellow, whatever kinds you like)

2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped

Sauté the chicken until fully cooked.

Cut up all the vegetables, cilantro, garlic, and stir together in a large bowl with the salt and lime juice. Drain and rinse the beans and add to the vegetables.

When the chicken is done, stir it into the vegetable and bean mix. Serve with chips. Store in the refrigerator and serve leftovers cold.

Happy summer!

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{Key Lime Pie for Two Seasons}

Ah, summer time. That’s when you want to make this chilled, no-bake summer pie. The filling is light and fluffy with the perfect sourness of tart lime. When you bite into the pie, the salty crust balances out the sweetness.

The creamy filling uses lime curd, cream cheese, whipping cream, powdered sugar, lime zest, and lime juice. That’s why it’s great for spring and summer. For fall and winter, my favorite Key Lime pie is the kind you bake with sweetened condensed milk and eggs. Problem is, I can’t find the recipe right now.

A few months ago, I was looking for a Key Lime pie recipe that uses lime curd but I couldn’t find one. Last weekend, I was going through piles of recipes and magazines in my office and found this one in a Midwest Living magazine from June 2005. (It’s not Key Lime, but you can use Key Limes if you want. I’ve never been able to tell the difference anyway.) It’s on my blog and Pinterest board now so I’ll know where to find it next time.

Summer Breeze Lime Pie from Midwest Living 

Now, if I can just find my “winter” Key Lime Pie recipe before November…

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{ Jars of Rainbows }

Before we know it, we’ll be filling our pools and sandboxes and searching for the beach towels. Summer is on its way. Serve these cute jars of rainbows at your first summer bash and you’ll be the talk of the party!

These remind me of those sand jars we made as kids, but the bright rainbow stripes are actually layers of gelatin. Make sure you have hours at home without having to leave though, because these take a minimum of six hours to complete and you can’t be away from them for more than 30 minutes at any given time. (It’s like having a puppy around for the afternoon.)

With that being said, I must tell you that these are definitely worth the time — when my sister and the kids’ grandma saw these, they couldn’t stop talking about them. And taste? Well, there’s a reason why I don’t mind taking six hours to create them — they are like summer in your mouth and the kids love them, too!

7-1/2 cups boiling water, divided (boil as you need it 1-1/4 cup at a time)

6 packages (4 serving size each), gelatin any flavors or see my suggestions below, divided

Gelatin Flavors (From Bottom to Top) for Rainbow Jars

• Grape
• Berry Blue
• Melon Fusion
• Pineapple
• Orange
• Cherry

1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons sour cream or vanilla low-fat yogurt

Glass jars: I used 7 recycled jars, mostly 15-18 ounce (such as jelly, pickle, bbq sauce, etc) but those were really just too big for one serving. Next time I make these, I will use 6 oz.-12 oz. ounce jars and that will be just perfect. So I estimate you will want a minimum of 13 jars if you use the smaller ones.

Let’s Jiggle!

STIR 1-1/4 cups boiling water into 1 package gelatin in small bowl at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Pour 1/8 to 1/4 cup of the dissolved gelatin into individual jars. Refrigerate about 15 minutes or until set but not firm (gelatin should stick to finger when touched). It works best to put the jars on a tray that will fit in your refrigerator so it’s easy to put them in and take them out. Refrigerate remaining gelatin in bowl about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened (consistency of unbeaten egg whites). Gradually stir in 3 Tbsp. of the sour cream into the remaining gelatin. Spoon over gelatin in jars. Refrigerate about 20 minutes or until gelatin is set but not firm (gelatin should stick to finger when touched).

REPEAT process with each remaining gelatin flavor. Be sure to cool dissolved gelatin to room temperature before pouring into jars! It works best if you dissolve your next flavor of gelatin in boiling water when you are waiting for the previous layer to cool in the refrigerator. That way, there isn’t as much time in between the creamy sour cream layer and the new color/flavor layer. Refrigerate gelatin as directed to create a total of 12 rainbow layers.

REFRIGERATE 2 hours or until firm. Top with whipped cream and a fun umbrella before serving. (If this is for a kid’s birthday party, you could put candles in the jars instead.) Store leftovers in refrigerator.

The original Rainbow Ribbon Mold recipe is from Kraft Foods. When My Grandpa  Elroy died, one of the church ladies made the ribbon mold for the funeral luncheon and I thought it was out-of-this-world delicious. And since funerals aren’t always the best place to go around asking for recipes, I searched and searched and found the recipe online.

This time, I changed it up by serving them in jars and I have tons of ideas about other fun ways to make these for different occasions. Some of those ideas include mixing alcohol into the creamy layer for a fun adult summer treat, creating layers of school or team colors, red and blue layers for the 4th of July, matching bridal colors for a shower or layering soft pink or baby blue layers for a cute baby shower treat.

I’d love to hear the creative ideas you have for these!

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