Maine Lobster Roll

Tonight for dinner we went to a local place for dinner and I had a Maine Lobster Roll.  It was fantastic!  A lobster roll is basically lobster meat mixed with mayonnaise.  So, I guess you could call it "lobster salad".  My aunt and uncle are wonderful hosts and we have seen some amazing sites and enjoyed great food so far.  More to come later!

Salads on Vacation

Summer of Salads is going on a road trip!  My kids, me, my mom, my sister and her kids are hitting the road.  We're loading up in a 12 passenger van and travelling from Dallas, GA to Winter Harbor, Maine.  We're going to visit my aunt, uncle, grandmother and my uncle's mother.  They have a summer house and we had the crazy idea to drive up there.  Along the way we'll see how many salads get eaten!  So, stay tuned for updates! 

The first salad eaten was the Hickory Salad (with a side of onions and mushrooms) at the Briar Patch.  The Briar Patch is a local place here in Dallas, GA that I've been eating at for as long as I can remember.  They had a web coupon for $2.95, so it was also cheap!  I'll try to post a picture of it later, if I can figure out how to get it from my phone to the blog without uploading it to the computer first.

Roasted Chicken and Avocado Salad

Tonight the hubby will enjoy a roasted chicken and avocado salad.  Since it rained here yesterday and cooled everything down I roasted the chicken in the oven.  I love roasted chicken.  I love how it smells while cooking and I love the first bite right after it comes out of the oven.  I will even admit to eating a bite of chicken with the crispy, crunchy skin as soon as it is done.  For the chicken I used bone-in chicken breast with the skin on.  Let's face it chicken just tastes better when it's cooked with the bone and skin.  I seasoned the chicken with a little salt and lemon pepper and then added slices of lemon and red onion to the pan. Here's a look before it's cooked:

I then roasted the chicken at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees.  I forgot to take a picture when the chicken came out of the oven, but here it is after I took it off the bone.

Here's a little side note: Don't throw away the bones!  Put them in a large pot, throw in whatever veggies you have on hand (I had onions and carrots), pour in the pan drippings from the chicken and then fill the pot with water.  Let it simmer for a couple of hours and you have homemade chicken stock!  Here's my pot:

Let the chicken stock cool and then either store it in the fridge or freezer. Homemade chicken stock is the best.  Okay, on to the salad.  Here's what you need to make the salad:

Dice the avocado and chicken and put them in a separate bowl.  Then, make the dressing.  I was making a single serving so I used a couple of tablespoons of mayo, 1 tablespoon of lime juice and a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper.  Mix those together and pour over the chicken and avocado.  Then place a scoop over some mixed greens and it's done.  Here's the finished salad that the hubby took to work:

Salmon Cakes and Salad

We were headed out of town Saturday evening so I needed an easy lunch with ingredients already on hand. I had enough lettuce left for a couple of more salads and in the pantry I found a can of salmon. This led to a cheap and delicious lunch!  Here are the ingredients for the salmon cakes:

To make the salmon cakes mix diced red pepper, salmon, mayo, bread crumbs and the zest of 1 lemon together. I used just enough mayo to make the mixture stick together and I used about a handful of bread crumbs. Form the salmon mixture into little cakes. I was able to get 8 salmon cakes out of it.  You may get more of less depending on how big you make the cakes. I pan seared them in a bit of olive oil until they were golden brown on both sides. With the juice of the lemon I made another batch of agave-dijon dressing to drizzle over the cakes and salad.  The salad was simple; lettuce, tomato and cucumber. Here's the finished product:

Salad Fusion

My husband loves fried chicken. I think I've made real fried chicken once since we've been married. Fried chicken also doesn't fit in with our summer of salads theme.  But, I came across a salad in Martha Stewart Living the other day; it was a Fried Chicken with Puntarelle Salad. (In case you're wondering, Puntarelle is a bitter green.) I had also seen this salad over on The Tasty Kitchen blog http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/salads/warm-roasted-potato-salad/.  So, I started thinking. Maybe I should mix the two since the hubby always likes to have a little meat with everything. And today that's what I did. 

First, the yummy roasted vegetables. I roasted them about 7am this morning since it was going to be close to 100 degrees today and using the oven tends to heat up the entire house.

 

Chop up the veggies, toss them with some olive oil, a little salt and pepper and throw them on a sheet pan. Roast them at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, tossing them about half way through.  I love the smell of roasting vegetables!  And here's what they look like when they are done.

After I roasted the vegetables I pan fried some chicken tenders. You can use whatever breading method you want. I dipped the tenders in a buttermilk and egg mixture then dredged them in flour. After I coated the tenders I pan fried them in about a 1/2 inch of canola oil for about 3 minutes each side over medium high heat.

They turned out pretty darn good!

To put the salad together you simply toss the roasted vegetable with either arugula or a spring mix of lettuces. I drizzled about 2 tablespoons of my agave-dijon dressing over the salad and topped it off with the chicken tenders. 

Ladybug Fruit Salad

This past weekend we celebrated our daughter's 1 year birthday with a ladybug birthday party.  My husband nicknamed her "Ladybug" right after we brought her home from the hospital, so it only seemed fitting to have a ladybug birthday party.  Before I get to the ladybug fruit salad I have to show you the adorable cake we had.

 

 

And here's the smash cake; which didn't really get smashed because Ladybug just wasn't into it! 

 

 

 

 

The cake was made by Hope of Hope's Sweet Cakes.  If you're reading this in the Birmingham, AL area you can find out more about Hope's cakes at hopessweetcakes.blogspot.com

 

On to the salad... When I was planning the birthday party I did a search to get ideas for food and came across this salad:

 

To make this fruit salad all you need is honeydew, strawberries, and mini chocolate chips.  Cut up the honeydew and lay them in a dish. Slice the strawberries in half and then poke the mini chocolate chips in to the strawberries and add them to the honeydew.

Amazon.com: I Can't Even Walk (Without You Holding My Hand) (9781456405137): Justin L. Fisher: Books

This has nothing to do with salads but I wouldn't be a good wife if I didn't post this in my blog! My husband has just written and published his very first book. Here's the link, go check it out. It's a great book and an easy read!

Amazon.com: I Can't Even Walk (Without You Holding My Hand) (9781456405137): Justin L. Fisher: Books

Spinach Salad with Agave-Dijon Dressing

After the Asian Noodle Salad, I decided I needed to make a salad the hubby would actually enjoy eating.  So, today's salad is a spinach salad. Super simple salad ingredients: fresh organic spinach, tomato, green onion, boiled egg, turkey bacon and feta cheese. Oh, and some baked chicken tenders we had leftover from dinner last night.

 

 

I made an agave-dijon dressing to go with it. It tastes fantastic. Here's what I used to make the dressing:

 

 

1 clove garlic, minced (I chopped the garlic and then added salt and smashed it with a knife until it was more of a paste)

1/4 cup oil (I used canola oil because I'm out of olive oil)

2-3 Tbs of red wine vinegar

2 Tbs dijon mustard

Agave nectar to taste

Cracked pepper and salt to taste

Whisk all the ingredients together and enjoy!

 

 

 

Asian Noodle Salad *UPDATE*

Last night's salad was The Pioneer Woman's Asian Noodle Salad (see Sunday's post for the link to the recipe). Here's what mine looked like:

 

Three out of the four people in our family like it. I loved it, AM (our almost 1 year old) loved it and Will ate it; though I'm not sure he liked it. He just wanted dessert, so he had to eat it! My dear, sweet husband did not like it at all. But he ate it since that's all he had to eat for dinner. It was the cold noodles that made him "nauseous" as he ate it. I guess this will be one of those dishes that I just make for me!

Homemade Salsa

Salsa is not really a salad, but it has a multitude of uses. It can be a dip. It can be a marinade. It can be a salad dressing. I love salsa. And I love making my own salsa. Here's what you need:

Tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, juice of 1 lemon, cilantro, pinch of salt. I throw it all in the food processor and give it a whirl. And then enjoy the yummy goodness.

Asian Noodle Salad | The Pioneer Woman Cooks | Ree Drummond

It was a busy week and not much salad eating went on last week. Plus, our AC went out and I was just grouchy and not in the mood to be in the kitchen! I think there may be one salad from last week I need to blog about, so I'll try to get to that at some point. Tonight I'm putting together this Asian Noodle Salad for dinner tomorrow. I'm pretty much following the recipe, except I don't have any cabbage and I'm adding chicken to it. My husband always has to have meat!

Asian Noodle Salad | The Pioneer Woman Cooks | Ree Drummond