What to do, What to do...

Summer is slowly starting to come to an end. We still have our family vacation left, but I do have to go back to work for about 5 days during August for some workshops. So, now I'm trying to decide what to do on this blog. I obviously won't be able to do the summer of salads because it won't be summer. Besides, I'm getting a bit tired of salads.  I love salad and we'll probably eat a delicious salad once a week, but salads are hard to keep up with. What should I do? A blog about trying to eat healthy? A blog about experimenting on my family with new recipes? A "what I'm cooking this week" blog? Or should I go in a completely different direction and blog about trying to organize the chaos that is known as our house? Feel free to leave a comment about what you think this blog should be about, either here or on Facebook.

A Beans and Basil- not so much salad

So this week is "cook from the panty" week at our house. We haven't had too many salads this week.  I did send a salad with my husband Monday and it looked pretty good, even though I didn't eat it.  The idea for the salad came from here: Main Course Salad with Beans and Basil.  I didn't have and beans or basil or artichoke hearts or olives! So, here's how my salad ended up:

My version had roasted red peppers, tomatoes, feta cheese, and smoked turkey sausage.  I made a dijon vinaigrette to go with it.  So, for not having most of the ingredients, I thought it turned out pretty good. 

Taco Salad

Tonight I made a taco salad.  Who doesn't love a good taco salad?  It's so easy and you can make it any way you want it.  It can be made with a tortilla bowl or you can use chips or neither.  The toppings for a taco salad are endless.  Here's how I made my taco salad.  I started by making flour tortillas.  It is completely okay to buy tortillas, but lately I've started making my own.  It's fairly easy, just a little time consuming.  It takes very few ingredients, which I usually have on hand.  And, most importantly, I know what is in them.  There's no preservatives or ingredients I can't pronounce.  I've tried several different recipes so far this summer and haven't really decided on a favorite.  Here's the one I used today: Healthy Homemade Tortillas.  After I had the tortillas made I put a tortilla in a small corning ware dish and baked it to make a bowl for the salad.  And here's the finished product:

Tonight I used ground beef, corn, black beans, tomatoes, cheese, lettuce and sour cream for the salad.  It really would have been great with salsa and guacamole, but I didn't have everything I needed to make salsa.  I also didn't have any avocados, so no guac tonight. 

Shrimp, Tomato, and Feta Salad

Tonight we had a simple and light summer salad.  I came across this salad Saturday while I was watching "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" on Food Network.  I made a couple of changes, like adding lettuce and leaving out the onion (I didn't really feel like chopping onion tonight).  Here's what my salad looked like:

And now here's the link to the recipe: Shrimp, Tomato, and Feta Salad.  Oh, one more thing about this salad. I only bought a 1/2 lb of shrimp, but when you cut them in half like the recipe says it doubles the amount of shrimp!  Very budget friendly!

Pulled Pork Salad

We've had three different salads this week, but I'll start with the pulled pork salad.  Country style pork ribs were BOGO at Winn Dixie last week, so that was our protein this week.  I put the ribs in the crock pot and made a sauce of store bought bbq sauce and balsamic vinegar and a touch of agave nectar to give it a little sweetness.  I poured the sauce over the ribs and then let them cook on low for about 10 hours.  They turned out so yummy!  And here's the salad:

It was such a good salad.  It was a pretty simple salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and sauteed onions.  I found recipe for a dressing at The Tasty Kitchen blog, but I don't remember the recipe I used.  I do know it was apple cider vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, garlic and a touch of apple juice.  It was fantastic! I'll have a couple more salads from this week to post sometime over the weekend.

Spicy Pasta Salad and Marinated Tomatoes

Just a quick post today.  It was a week spent recovering from our trip to Maine and getting ready for a yard sale.  I made two quick salads this week, both of which were Pioneer Woman recipes.  The first salad was a Spicy Tomato and Basil Pasta Salad. Here's the link: Spicy Pasta Salad with Smoked Gouda, Tomatoes, and Basil.

It was a pretty good salad.  I substituted smoked cheddar for the smoked gouda because that's what I had and I used dried basil because I didn't have any fresh basil.  I also add chicken to it to make it more of a main dish salad.  My husband actually warmed it when he ate it and said it was fantastic.  So, I guess this one will go in our rotation.

The second salad was just marinated tomatoes.  Not sure if you classify this as a salad, but I served it like a side salad.  It was good, but will probably be even better tonight after it's had plenty of time to marinate.  Here's the link: Missy's Marinated Tomatoes.  

That's it for today.  Sorry no pics this time around.  I just haven't gotten around to uploading them.  This week I'll be contemplating what I can do with eggplant.  It was a dollar at the local farmer's market so I picked one up. 

Smoked Blue Cheese and Steak Salad

I've made a steak salad before but it wasn't made with THIS cheese.  All I can say is this may be the best blue cheese I've ever had.  I discovered it on our trip to Winter Harbor, Maine.  It is smoky and creamy and tangy and all sorts of yummy goodness.  You can find this cheese here: www.grindstoneneck.com.  Here's a picture of the cheese.

And what goes great with blue cheese?  Steak.  Top sirloin was on sale this week at Winn-Dixie so that's what I used. I seasoned it with a little salt and pepper and pan-seared it to a nice medium pink.  I mixed up a little balsamic vinaigrette and put the salad together; lettuce, tomato, and smoked blue cheese.  It was delish!