Strawberry Poppyseed & Steak Salad

This salad was so great for a hot summer day! I used fresh lettuce from my garden, Brianna's Poppyseed dressing, strawberries picked fresh from the farm, red onions and leftover Southwest Steak. 

Kale & Bacon salad

Kale salads can be hit and miss. The key to a great kale salad is taking the time to prepare it and let it soak up the dressing. I harvested what I thought was a huge bunch of kale from my garden and turned it into a salad.... sadly after all that work it was only enough for 1 serving! This recipe is a little bit of this, little bit of that, no measurement recipe... but it was yummy!

Ingredients: Adjust to the amount of kale

Kale

Olive oil (enough to coat the kale)

fresh lemon juice

sprinkle of parmesan cheese

bacon cut into small pieces

salt & pepper to taste

minced garlic (I used 1 clove)

Directions:

1. Wash and dry your kale

2. Gather it into small pieces and roll it between your hands. 

3. Dice it into small pieces. 

4. Toss together with olive oil, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, bacon, garlic, and salt & pepper.

5. Let sit for at least 1 hour.

6. Enjoy

Tasteful Olive Salad with Apples

For my birthday and Christmas I received a lot of fancy olive oils and balsamic vinegars from the Tasteful Olive, a small shop in downtown Overland Park, KS.

I wasn't sure how I was going to use them all, but I have found a use for most of them! This salad was soo good!

I used a little of the Blood Orange fused olive oil and some of the Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar, OMG, so good!

I happened to get my first order from Door To Door Organics and it included lettuce and some fuji apples.  So all of that was calling my name for a fancy salad.

Ingredients: 

Lettuce

fuji apple diced

feta cheese

red onion 

Dressing: 

 Blood Orange fused olive oil

Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar

salt and pepper

Directions for dressing: 

Drizzle equal parts of olive oil and vinegar and a sprinkle of salt and pepper over the salad. 

Next up, a way to figure out how to use Coffee infused Balsamic! Let me know if you have any ideas!

Chicken with Tomato, Corn, & Avocado Salad

Buttermilk Dressing

• 1/4 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 3 T mayonnaise 
• 2 T minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 T minced shallots
• 1 t minced fresh thyme
• 1 t cider vinegar
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 t minced garlic

Directions: 

Combine ingredients in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Chill buttermilk mixture until ready to serve.

Corn, Tomato, & Avocado Salad

• 2 ears yellow corn, shucked & grilled* 
• 1 small red onion, cut into 1/2-inch slices, & grilled
• 2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved 
• 1 sliced peeled ripe avocado

Directions: 

Combine first 4 ingredients together.  Add in avocado. Sprinkle with salt Dress with dressing or lime juice or dressing of choice.  

*I cooked my corn the day before, so it was not hot in the salad

Chicken

• 4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• Cooking spray
• 1 1/2 t olive oil
• 1 t onion powder
• 3/4 t ground cumin
• 3/4 t kosher salt, divided
• 1/4 t chipotle chile powder

1. Preheat grill to high heat.
2.. Lightly coat chicken with cooking spray. Combine oil, onion powder, cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and chipotle; rub evenly over chicken. Coat corn* and onion with cooking spray. Arrange chicken, corn, and onion on grill rack; grill 8 minutes or until done, turning chicken and onion once and corn occasionally. Remove from grill; let stand 5 minutes. Cut corn kernels from cobs.


Adapted from: Ann Taylor Pittman, Cooking Light JUNE 2013

Lettuce!

I am LOVING my fresh lettuce from my garden! I planted lettuce seeds around the beginning of April.  I pretty much just sprinkled them in my garden! They took off from there! 

To harvest, I just cut, with scissors, off chunks of leaves. I am hoping that it will grow back more! 

Then, I throw it straight into the salad spinner. I give it a few good washes, and it is ready to eat! 

I found these cute stickers in the dollar bin at Target. I stuck them on a few ziplock bags and shared the lettuce with friends and neighbors! 

                 

YUMMY!

Cucumber Salad

Cucumbers always remind me if my Great Grandma Agnes. She would make them for us in her little kitchen, and we gobbled them up. My mom, aunts, and cousins all make & love them now.  They are a staple at family BBQ's. Her recipe is simple. Salt, vinegar, and cucumbers.

However, when I was looking at a cooking magazine they had a new way to make them. I decided I would give it a try. They are much fancier and sweeter, but definitely a keeper! 

Ingredients:

3 cups cucumbers shaved vertically (I used a veggie peeler) I'm sure there is a better way to do this. 

A pinch of salt

1/2 cup finely sliced red onion

1 t sugar ( I like to use Splenda packets, it's much easier to grab 1 than to get out the sugar and measure!!)

1 T apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Combine cucumbers and onions on bowl. Sprinkle with salt & sugar, and pour in vinegar. Mix together. Served chilled

Sorry this is not the best picture! 

Spicy Chicken Salad

This is my 200th post! Hard to believe I have written about 200 things! Here is another one of my  "so glad its spring, lets grill" recipes! 

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 t. olive oil
• 1/2-1t. Berbere Seasoning from Penzey's (SPICY!)
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 large head of romaine lettuce
• cherry tomatoes
• red onion
• croutons

Dressing:

• 1/4 c. red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 t. basil
• 1 t. oregano
• 1/2 t. crushed brown mustard
• 1/4 t. salt

 

Directions:

Wash chicken and pat dry. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with Berbere.

Grill over medium high heat until done (5-6 min per side)

Let cool and slice into bite sized pieces to toss with salad

While chicken is cooling, prepare salad dressing by mixing all ingredients. I like to use a small Tupperware container and put all the ingredients in it and shake it up. 

Combine all salad ingredients and toss salad and serve.  

Adapted from Penzey's

Life Changer. Emay's Salad

My friend Erin sent me this recipe a few months ago.  I decided I should try it. Here are her exact words:

Life changing salad that is. I'm not sure how kosher this is with everyone's various diets BUT it is my new obsession. No real measurements because that's no fun.

Chopped Romaine
Diced red bell pepper
Chopped red onion
Black beans
Corn (I sauteed some corn with cumin until it was a little browned...but grilling corn on the cob then cutting the kernels off would be even more delish!)
Diced tomato
Diced avocado
Toasted chopped walnuts (Add at end for crunch!)
Chopped cilantro


Dressing:
A few tablespoons of EVOO
A few minced garlic cloves (I LOVE garlic and this salad was pretty huge and I think I put in 4...so scale back if you aren't the biggest fan)
Lime Juice
A few dashes of soy sauce (I know, sounds weird, but it works)
Dash of crushed red pepper

SO DELISH!!! I grilled AV some chicken to put on top of his and he loved it. I think some sliced hard boiled eggs would be great as well. 

I cheated a little bit and bought the ingredients I could in the salad bar, so I wouldn't have to chop it all. I changed it a bit too. I added tortilla strips, and took away the walnuts.  I used grape tomatoes instead of diced tomatoes. I grilled chicken with "Arizona Dreamin" spices on it. In honor of her, way down in AZ! I also sprinkled salt and pepper over the salad in the end. It is pretty yummy, and pretty healthy too! 

I also made tortilla soup at the same time with the leftover corn, chicken, and black beans!