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! 

Strawberries and Salad

We are still having a great time in Maine.  The weather is great and the scenery is breathtaking.  And the food is fantastic!  My aunt and uncle have wild strawberries growing.  We picked some yesterday.

They are little bites of sweet goodness!  We spent all day yesterday in Acadia National Park so when we got home it was light supper of soup and salad.  My aunt styled the salad just for the blog! 

It was as good as it looks! Lettuce, avocado, tomato, cucumber, radish, olives and smoked blue cheese topped with a homemade vinagrette.  



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

Southwestern Steak Salad

This past weekend, my husband and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage. We enjoyed time away from the kids, a concert and lots of good food! The word gluttony comes to mind. After our weekend at the hotel ended, I headed to the ATL to hang out with friends from college. It was a great time of catching up and more eating. So, needless to say, I'm ready to get back to salads and healthy eating.

Tonight we enjoyed a Southwestern Steak Salad. It was mixed salad greens and baby spinach, roasted corn, cucumbers, avocado, feta cheese and pan seared sirloin steak. It was topped off with a salsa-ranch dressing. The dressing was my fave. I made up some of my homemade salsa (maybe I'll get around to posting the recipe for that later in the week) and then mixed it with some light ranch dressing...yum-o!

Pasta Salad

Yesterday for lunch I whipped up an easy Orzo and Feta pasta salad. Here's what I used:

I started by cooking the orzo. I didn't have any chicken stock, so I boiled the orzo in water seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic powder.

While the Orzo was cooking (it only takes about 5-7 minutes) I chopped the parsley and mixed up the dressing.

For the dressing: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice. I just mixed it all together until I thought it tasted good and added a bit of salt and pepper.

Then all you do is pour the dressing on the cooked pasta, toss in the parsley and feta and mix it all together and here's what you get:

I didn't have any grape tomatoes, but they would taste yummy and make it a little prettier! Our summer of salads will be going on a brief break this weekend. It's our 5 year wedding anniversary, so we will be going off to our favorite resort and spa and NOT eating salads!

Bring on the Salad!

Our first salad of the summer was last night. But last night I wasn't a blogger. Today I am, so you'll get salad #2. Our first salad was a grilled chicken salad, which was so yummy I'm sure it will make a return at some point this summer.

BLT Salad with a Warm Dijon Vinaigrette
(recipe is for 1 main dish salad- increase or decrease ingredients accordingly)


2 handfuls of lettuce
(I used a combo of baby spinach and spring mix- which by the way you can get super cheap in a bulk bin at Whole Foods)
1 tomato, chopped
1 slice of bacon, diced (I used turkey bacon- Wellshire from Whole Foods- it was on sale and I had a coupon; cheap and healthier than regular bacon!)
1/4 avocado, diced (I know there's not an A in BLT, but I just really like avocado!)
1 handful of croutons (optional; I had some bread I had made, so I just crisped a bit of that up and threw on the salad)

Toss all salad ingredients together- then make the dressing

Warm Dijon Vinaigrette
2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 green onion, chopped
1 T spicy brown mustard
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 T red wine vinegar (I have pomegranate infused red wine vinegar on hand, so that's what I used)
dash of salt
juice of 1 lemon

Heat the olive oil in a non stick pan and add the green onions. Once the onions have softened, add the mustard and both vinegars. Whisk together then turn off the heat. Add the salt and lemon juice. Stir together and then pour over the salad.

Enjoy the yummy goodness!

Even our almost 1 year old enjoyed a deconstructed BLT salad! Hers was more of a BATC salad; bacon, avocado, tomato and cheese salad!