Waldorf Salad PLUS

Steve said he wanted salad for dinner, and for whatever reason, neither lettuce nor spinach appealed to me. This doesn't happen very often, mind you!

So, I just decided to make Waldorf Salad and call it quits, but of course, it didn't work out that way! Ha! Here is our dinner salad for this evening. We both really liked it, and I hope you do, too!

Serves 2-4, meal or side!

1 large, crisp apple (I used a Red Delicious; they're just now coming into season, so they're good!)

2 stalks of celery, cleaned and sliced

2 medium cucumbers, quartered lengthwise and sliced crosswise about 1/4 inch thick

3 green onions, thinly sliced

24-30 red flame grapes, halved lengthwise

2-3 handfuls of walnuts, depending on how much you like them!

Bleu cheese crumbles (they can be "optional," but they really add a flare to this!)

Mayonnaise, about 1/2 cup?

Dijon mustard, about a tablespoon?

Olive oil, maybe a tablespoon or two--enough to thin the dressing to make tossing easier.

Chop the apple, toss it into a bowl, and add the celery, cucumbers, green onions, and grapes.

Dressing: combine the mayo, mustard, and olive oil in a small bowl. The dressing needs to be pretty tangy to offset the sweetness of the fruit, so add more mustard if I've misjudged my own addition. Obviously, this is "to taste!" Ha!

Toss the dressing with the fruits and vegetables. Add the walnuts, and toss again. I just served it on salad plates without further prep; it would look great on a bed of greens, and you could add extra dressing to seep down into the greens, too. However you serve it, toss some bleu cheese crumbles on top of it! Enjoy!

Portabella Mushroom Salad

I've been playing with a raw food diet, and in the course of this playing, I've learned a couple of nifty tricks to make things taste cooked without any cooking! Woohoo!

One of these is marinating stuff I wouldn't have thought to marinate before. Marinades soften vegetables, so you still get the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes present in uncooked food, and you also get the feel of cooked vegetables in your mouth. For instance, if you take a vegetable peeler and make strips of zucchini (down to, but not including, the seeds) and marinate them, they end up feeling like pasta, but there's no heavy, bloated feeling that accompanies the pasta--at least, for me! Ha!

And the best part is that you can have tasty, feel-good food without cooking--which, in summer, absolutely works for me!

Serves 4 hearty appetites

For the mushrooms:

4 large portabella mushrooms, stems and gills removed, caps sliced in 1/4" widths

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbs. soy sauce

2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Pour the oil, soy sauce, and vinegar into a covered bowl. Shake well to mix. Add the mushroom slices. Shake again to coat. Refrigerate for several hours. The longer they're marinated, the better they taste! And don't worry about soy sauce giving them an Asian taste; when the mushrooms are added to everything else, the flavors blend well.

For the salad:

1 5-oz. bag salad greens

1 5-oz. bag baby spinach

1 beet, grated (I use my food processor--less mess! And beets are optional!)

1 large, or 6 "baby," carrots, grated

1/4 jicama, cut into 1/2" cubes

4 green onions, thinly sliced

Mix the greens and spinach. Divide them between 4 dinner plates. Separately sprinkle the grated beets, the grated carrots, and the jicama over the greens. Top with the green onion slices.

For the dressing:

1/4 c olive oil

1 1/2 Tbs. red wine vinegar

1 1/2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

1 small shallot, minced

1 small clove garlic, minced

1/16 tsp. pepper

1/8 tsp. salt

Add to a covered bowl and shake well to blend.

To serve:

Divide the salad between 4 plates. (See above.) Place the mushroom slices on the salad, spooning a little of the marinade over the mushrooms. Pour some of the dressing over each salad. You can serve this alone or with garlic bread. (Garlic bread isn't considered "raw!" Ha!) MMMMMM!

Citrus, Spinach, Avocado, and Herb Salad

Okay, I'm having you chop the herbs before the avocado! The title sounded better with "avocado" first! Ha!

I've had some kind of flu for 5 weeks! I still have no stamina, so this is easier than it looks to fix! Ha!

1 navel orange and juice

1 red grapefruit and juice

Peel these with a paring knife, and section them by cutting alongside each membrane. Put the sections into a large bowl, so you have tossing room for more than just this! Add enough plastic wrap to press down across the sections and still reach the top of the bowl and fall over the sides.

About 1/2 5-oz. bag fresh baby spinach. (I used between 2 and 3 ozs. for the two of us.)

Place it on top of the plastic wrap.

2 green onions, thinly sliced

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

6 large leaves of basil, rolled together and thinly sliced

1/4 tsp. salt

Add these to the spinach.

1 small to medium avocado, peeled and diced

Add this to the spinach and herbs. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate it.

A tablespoon, or 2, of olive oil

Have a lemon wedge standing by, just in case!

To serve: slide the plastic wrap from between the layers. Add the olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, if there's not much juice from the fruit. Toss to mix.

Serves 2 as a side dish, or it serves one for a meal! Either way, it's good!

Berry Spinach Salad

I had a version of this in a Vail, CO, restaurant. I tried to find it on the internet just now, but I failed. It was a diner, rather than the usual upscale places you find there. We were tired and didn't want to deal with the energy of an upscale place! We were ready for a simple dinner and some sleep! Ha! I didn't expect more than the usual iceberg, tomato wedges, and some onion rings in a salad, and at that point, I didn't care. (That tells you just exactly how tired I was!) To my surprise, there was the salad I expected, in all it's variations, AND there was a spinach salad with raspberry dressing. And THAT'S what I ordered.

As I ate the salad, I (of course) kept tasting the dressing, trying to figure out the ingredients. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out more than raspberry. I finally asked, and the server said it was raspberries. I said, yeah, I know, but what else? She laughed and said, nothing, just raspberries. It opened up a whole new world. I would never have thought of using just a fruit and nothing else!

I've used that jumping-off point many times. I've varied the salad ingredients, but never, never the dressing! I have tried other fruits for dressing, with varied degrees of success. Obviously, summer is the best time for berry anything, since they're in season now--and affordable! I made this salad for my daughter, who was visiting me, and it was January. I bought, for a ridiculous price, a pint of raspberries for this dressing and fed her the salad. She took her first bite, her eyes widened, and she said, "This is the best salad I've ever had!" She ate with a look of rapture on her face. And this was Jenna, who eats what's handy and does as little cooking as possible! Ha!

So, enjoy this salad with its amazing dressing!

4 servings

Salad:

10 oz. baby spinach leaves, washed and drained (Costco's organic baby spinach is great)

1 red onion, sliced into rings and separated

1/2-1 cup walnut halves (I don't use candied ones!)

2 pints strawberries, most halved and 12 left whole (If the berries are all large, you might want to halve them all!)

OPT: 1 pint blueberries

Dressing:

2 pints raspberries

On 4 plates, layer the spinach, red onion rings (you don't have to use all of them--especially if it's a large red onion! Ha!), walnuts--the amount varies depending on your taste, strawberries, and the optional blueberries.

Rinse and drain the raspberries. Toss them into a blender, and buzz until they're smooth. The seeds will still be in there, unless you have a high speed blender (like Vita Mix). The texture of the seeds is good!

Pour equal amounts of dressing over each plate.

Your other option is to pile everything into a salad bowl, pour the dressing over it, and toss. Serve in 4 equal portions. (I usually do this, as it's a lot easier! Ha!)

Either way: enjoy!

Whipped Cream Fruit Salad

I love this salad now, and I loved it when I was a kid! My brother was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 3 (I was 6), so we didn't get to eat sweet stuff! And my parents are from the midwest, so when we visited our extended families, there was always a picnic! And always, always, someone would bring Ambrosia, the sweet salad with marshmallows, jello, and canned fruit! I'm sure there's other stuff in it, but I never got to eat it, either, so I don't know! (My mother fed us only what Mark could eat. A serendipity was that I didn't get cavities, so there's always an upside! Ha!)

This is my mother's version of a diabetic "Ambrosia."

1 15 oz can unsweetened pineapple bites, or tidbits (rings cut into bite-size pieces), drained

1 14 oz. can unsweetened peach slices, drained and cut into bites

1-2 (depends on the size) bananas, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/8"-1/4" slices

1-2 cups whipping cream, whipped and sweetened (my mother used saccharine) with Splenda or xylitol, if you don't want to use sugar!

Mix the drained fruit and bananas. There will still be juice on them, so mix in 1 cup whipping cream, whipped and sweetened. This should be plenty for a dressing! The 2nd cup is for people like me, who like the whipped cream more than the fruit! Ha!

I've actually tried this with fresh everything. Ironically, I think this is the only fruit salad that I like better with the canned fruit. I wondered if it has something to do with the canned juice! I may try it again with fresh, because it goes against my "grain" to recommend canned anything! Ha!

Also, I've been dealing with my dad's failing health and heart for quite a while now, and "easy" is almost my middle name! The last few salads have been what I think of as "refrigerator salads," which means open the fridge and see what one can add to lettuce to make it at least more interesting! Also nutritious! Also tasty! Sleep is out, so I'm using food for energy these days!

Happy eating!

Plummy Salad

Champagne grapes, which I bought for the first time at Costco, taste a lot like red grapes. I think they're slightly sweeter, and they're tiny! They're fun to eat--we just sucked them right off the stem! Ha! I don't know about Steve, but I definitely felt like I was "getting away with something!" Ha! My very proper, Southern-upbringing mother might have frowned, or she might have joined me! I never could guess which it would be, making for an interesting childhood! Ha!

And two days later, I found champagne grapes in another store, and they were almost as big as red grapes! So, red grapes halved would be good! Ha!

4 servings

For the salad:

4 ripe red plums, seeded and diced (Black plums will work, but red plums are prettier!)

1 bunch champagne, or red, grapes

5-oz. bag of mixed greens (or a handful, or two, of greens from a 1-lb. container per plate! MMM!)

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

2-3 slices white onion, quartered and rings separated

1/2-1 cup pecans (this depends on how many nuts you like on a salad!)

For the dressing:

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar (try Costco's Balsamic Vinegar of Modena! MMMM!)

2/3 cup canola, or safflower, oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

OPT: sweetener (agave nectar, xylitol, sugar, etc.) If you're using a high-quality balsamic, it will already taste sweet, so these won't be needed!)

Wash and dice the plums. Rinse the grapes and drain in a colander or on a towel (or?). If you haven't already done so, halve the red grapes, if you're using them.

To serve:

Put the washed lettuce on 4 plates. Top with the cilantro, plums, and grapes. Sprinkle the onion pieces over this. Sprinkle the nuts over the top. (This is a nice-looking salad: red skin and yellow meat of the plums, red grapes, green cilantro and lettuce, white onion pieces, and brown nuts!) Serve with the balsamic dressing!

If you're using more lettuce, this can be a main dish salad. If you've limited yourself to a 5-oz. bag, then it's a side salad--which would be great with grilled chicken! To add more color, add roasted ears of corn! MMMMMMM to any or all! Ha!

Peachy Keen Salad!

And still more salad! Woohoo! Ha!

A word about lettuce--well, several, really! Ha!--I always buy the 1-lb. size box (or bag) of mixed greens. This gives me enough to eat salads for lunch and to feed extra people, if they drop in. A 5-oz. bag gives me 4 skimpy servings, but I also know that not everyone eats salad like I do! I love to pile lettuce on the plates; it gives a salad a luxurious feeling. It's not a "diet food," if it seems luxurious! And it's okay to eat a lot of it, because it's not only nutritious, it also doesn't add a lot of calories--or fat, if you're just drizzling the dressing, instead of pouring it on! Ha! But I actually do like--yes, LIKE--the taste of greens!

4 servings

5 oz. bag mixed greens

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

6 green onions, thinly sliced

2 peaches, halved and diced

1 c. pine nuts

Dressing:

1/3 cup great quality balsamic vinegar (try Costco's Kirkland brand Balsamic Vinegar of Modena--yes, it's really imported! I have to thank Jill Erickson for introducing me to this!)

2/3 cup canola oil (or 1/3 c. olive oil and 1/3 c. canola oil)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

OPT: sweetener or sugar, if balsamic isn't a great quality one! Dressing should be without a lot of tartness!

Combine the dressing ingredients and buzz, shake, or stir!

To serve: layer lettuce, cilantro, green onions, peaches, and 1/4 c. (each salad) of pine nuts. Drizzle dressing over it, add a fork, and enjoy! (Chelsea just said, "It's good." Complete with a roll of her eyes--this is ecstasy, for her! LOL!)

Watermelon Salad

I love salad, and I'm grateful to warm--or hot!--summer weather, so no one here expects me to turn on any heat whatsoever! Ha! I'm also grateful to Mother Nature for giving us lots of fun fruits to mix with various vegetables! I try to do seasonal fruits, even though I know they're available year-round; it seems like someone somewhere is in the middle of summer at all times! Ha!

This is quick, if you use seedless watermelon. I sometimes choose to pick out seeds, because I think the seeded watermelons are better than the seedless! They're more flavorful and sweeter. BUT seedless ones work, too.

The chili powder adds extra flavor, which I also prefer. Chelsea likes less chili powder and a bit more salt. So, maybe I need to add salt, pepper, and chili powder shakers to my table next time!

Salad:

1 small seedless watermelon, cut into bite sized pieces, or melon "balled."

1 small jicama, diced

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

3 green onions, thinly sliced

5 oz bag of mixed field greens

Opt.: 1 small avocado, diced

Dressing:

1/3 c. lime juice

1/2 c. canola oil (or some other mild oil--safflower, for instance!)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp agave nectar, or to taste (this depends on how tart your limes are!)

Mix watermelon, jicama, cilantro and green onions. Add dressing, and toss to coat.

To serve:

Place a bed of mixed greens onto four plates, and spoon the salad mixture over. Spoon the rest of the dressing over the watermelon salad, so the lettuce below will have some, too! Top with avocado pieces, if you're using them. Sprinkle a little chili powder over the top, if you want some extra zip!

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHELSEA!!! THANK YOU, CHELSEA!!!

Sweet Summer Salad

I still love salad!

Serves 4.

For the salad:

5 oz. bag mixed greens

1 pint grape tomatoes (small plastic box!)

2 ears white corn, niblets shaved off and ears reserved

1/4 medium red, brown, or white onion, diced

4 green onions, thinly sliced

1 medium ancho (aka "pasilla") chile, diced This should not be a hot chile! Instead, it's a sweet tasting chile! Be sure to remove ALL the seeds!

2 medium carrots, shredded

1/4 medium jicama, peeled and shredded

1 bunch radishes, cleaned and shredded

2 ripe avocados, cut in large dice (4 cuts lengthwise and 4 cuts crosswise)

For the dressing:

2 large, or 4 small limes, juiced--should be about 1/4 cup juice

1/3-1/2 cup canola oil (Olive oil is too heavy for this!)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves, finely crushed as adding

Corn "milk"--stand the shaved ear on a plate, and run a knife down it to force the rest of the kernels and the juice out. Add this to the dressing to add texture and sweetness.

Agave nectar to taste; this dressing needs to have a sweet taste to it! (Some limes are sweeter than others!)

Mix the salad ingredients except the avocado, and chill. Make the dressing, and chill to allow the flavors to meld.

To serve: mix the salad, still omitting the avocado, and the dressing together and dish it onto 4 serving plates. Top with avocado "cubes." Enjoy!

Broccoli, Onion, Tomato, Carrot, and Jicama Salad with Creamy Dressing

I just realized that I didn't post this yesterday! SORRY!

Have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes that I love my food processor? Or how MUCH I love my food processor?!! And this salad is a perfect food processor meal! Woohoo! Of course, if you like chopping, you can do that, too. In fact, Marste just might be in 7th heaven, if she chops this. I think her body releases endorphins, or something, when she chops, because she says it relaxes her. Me, though. For me, the endorphins are hiding; chopping makes me crazy! I LOVE my food processor! Ha!

So, that said ad infinitum, use the pulse button for this. You don't want microscopic pieces, nor do you want a large piece of broccoli! Something in the middle would be good! Ha!

I fed this to 5 of us on Tuesday night, 2 growing teens, 3 adults, and occasional cubes of jicama to my dogs (who love it), and we ate it all.

6 cups small broccoli florets, chopped

4-5 slices medium brown onion, finely chopped

3-4 medium tomatoes (I like Romas, because they don't have as much juice), or 10-12 cherry tomatoes, chopped and drained (Food processors: use the pulse button 4-6 times on the cherry tomatoes, or on the regular tomatoes: cut them into quarters lengthwise and halve each piece crosswise. Pulse them 4-6 times, also! If you get foam, pour them into a collander and rinse briefly. Drain and toss them into the salad.)

2 medium carrots, shredded

1/2 medium jicama, 1/2" dice--okay, I didn't use the f. p. for this!

Dressing:

1 c. mayonnaise

3 Tbs. red wine vinegar

1 tsp. agave nectar or sugar

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/8 tsp. salt

NOTE: I like tangier salads. This salad, as written above, appeals to everyone else I know! So, if I'm making this just for me, I cut down the quantities--obviously!! Ha!--and leave out the carrots and jicama. I also leave out any sweetener in the dressing, and I add 1/4 tsp. oregano leaves. I LOVE this version!

To assemble: chop, shred, dice, etc. the ingredients and toss together. Mix the dressing and add it, a little at a time, until the salad is a consistency you like. (I like a lot of dressing, but Chelsea likes the vegetables! Ha!) Enjoy!

AMERICANIZED Taco Salad!

My mom fixed us a version of this when I was a kid! I loved it when she did! Typically, she fixed it in the summer--my family ate hot food exclusively in the fall and winter--but I fixed it all year round. Everybody liked it, including whatever drop-in guests that we had! And I usually had all the "fixings" hanging around, so it was no big deal! And what an impact!

And even I know that this bears absolutely NO resemblance to the current taco salads--or any Mexican food, period! It's great-tasting, though, if you're in the mood for a fun-food lunch or dinner! I usually made it without the meat, although my mom's version had 1 lb. ground beef or turkey, fried until it was done. She didn't add any seasonings to it, other than salt and pepper, and it made this salad very filling!

If you're in the mood for spicy, you can add Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper to the dressing or to the soy meat. The addition of spices to the soy meat, or meat, is more contained than the dressing addition. Also, I've tossed in stray bits of jicama and/or corn I have sitting around, which adds sweetness and crunch. This is good, but the original version, left alone, is better! Ha!

For the salad:

Optional: 12 oz. package soy meat, plain

Optional: 1/4 tsp. salt

Optional: 1/4 tsp. pepper

1 head romaine or iceberg lettuce, chopped into bite-sized pieces

3 medium tomatoes, cut into 1/2"-3/4" dice

1 medium brown, white, or red onion--it depends on what I have!--chopped or diced

1 15-oz. can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or more, if you like)

1 small can chopped ripe olives (Jenna won't remember this; I hate olives, so I never added them!)

1 6-8 oz. package good quality yellow corn chips, crushed, but not pulverized!

If you're using it, brown the meat with the salt and pepper, or the soy meat with the pepper.

You can cut stuff up during this time, or you can do it later, while the meat is chilling. To chill the meat quicker, put it on a paper towel on a plate in the freezer. Check it every 20 minutes, or so, because it actually will start to freeze fairly quickly! I learned this the hard way! Ha!

For the dressing:

You can make your own, or you can just buy 8 oz. (we like more) of thousand island dressing.

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup catsup

1/3 cup sweet pickle relish

Optional: few drops of Tabasco sauce

Optional: 1/8 tsp. or more cayenne pepper

Mix everything together in a container. For best results, refrigerate it for a couple of hours. On the other hand, I never plan that far ahead, and I generally use it immediately. Nobody's ever complained! Ha!

To assemble:

Put the lettuce in a large bowl--large enough to toss everything without spilling! Put the meat, or soy meat--if you're using it, obviously!, tomatoes, onions, kidney beans, cheddar cheese, and olives in pie-slice-shaped wedges around the salad. Put it on the table, so everyone can see your artistry! Now, pour the crushed chips over the top. Add the dressing, starting with about half the above recipe, and toss it to coat everything. I think this is a bit dry, so I add more dressing--like, the rest of it! I'm the type who likes a little salad with her dressing! Ha! Serve IMMEDIATELY, since the chips will absorb the dressing and get soggy pretty quickly!

To serve later: do the lettuce and the "pie wedges," cover, and refrigerate until you're ready to eat. Add the chips and dressing, and toss!

This is so good; I'm really looking forward to dinner! Ha! MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Spinach Grapefruit Salad with Citrus Dressing

I love salads. I even eat them in the winter, when tradition dictates warm stuff. So, we have sort of warm salads; I roast vegetables and put them on lettuce of some sort! Ha! After 35 years of this, my husband, Steve, doesn't even blink anymore! His was a meat-and-potato household, as was mine, but I think my mom was more adventurous than his was. Of course, my mom fed the four of us: 2 kids and 2 parents, while his mom fed 12: 10 kids and 2 parents! Under those circumstances, I'm not sure how adventurous I'd feel in the evenings, either! Ha! She amazes me still!

This is one of my favorites, and it's the dressing that pops it. The ingredients for the basic salad are spinach, grapefruit, and onion rings, and, like fashion, if you coordinate the colors, it's pretty enough for a party salad. Pink grapefruit sections with white onion, or white grapefruit with red onion. Either way, it goes great, color-wise, with the deep green of the spinach!

Per serving:

2 cups spinach leaves, washed and chilled

1 thin slice of onion, off a medium-sized one

1/2 grapefruit, peeled (To cut the grapefruit sections away from the membrane, run your knife from the outer edge to the inner core along the membrane walls. Remember, there are 2 sides to each section, so you're running your knife twice between each section! It's quicker the more you do it; "practice makes perfect," to be sickening about it! Ha!)

OPTIONAL: 1/2 an avocado adds creamy texture (and a yellow color, if you're using pink grapefruit and white onion). You can also add walnuts to this. (The brown color provides an "earthy" note!) These two ingredients are just filler, though; the real taste is the combination of spinach, onion, and grapefruit. Obviously, you can add other stuff, too! I wouldn't add really strong-tasting stuff, like olives, for instance!

For the dressing, also per serving:

1 Tbl. lemon juice (1 small, ripe lemon gives about 2 Tbl. juice)

2 Tbl. canola oil

1/2-1 tsp. (or a bit more) honey, agave nectar, xylitol, or sugar--sweetener amount depends on how tart your grapefruit is, so tasting--of both grapefruit and dressing--is involved here!

a few grains of salt to punch the sweetener--not enough to actually taste! 2-4 at the most! So, a tiny pinch of salt!

Stir, or whisk, to dissolve the sweetener and salt and to mix the dressing.

To serve:

Put the spinach on a plate. Separate the onion into rings and arrange on the spinach bed. Arrange the grapefruit over the onions. Pour the dressing over, and eat! MMMMM!

Taco Chili Souper Salad

I’m not a big chili fan. Something about the texture weirds me out. But I made chili using coarse ground beef (instead of regular) the other night, and it was FANTASTIC! I was so excited! Plus I’m using up the beans in my pantry, which I don’t tend to eat, so this was a win-win, as far as I’m concerned. :)

This is also a fairly healthy dish. There is a little bit of fat in the beef and the sausage, and of course if you add guacamole, cheese and sour cream, you’ll increase the fat a LOT, but even still it’s not too bad. (And the avocado fat is even good for you! Actually, I think it’s all pretty ok, unless you’re allergic to dairy, but different studies say different things about that, so I’ll just sing the praises of the avocado, ok? Everyone seems happy with plant-fats.)

I’ve been trying to incorporate more vegetables into my diet though, so I also didn’t really want to just eat a big bowl of chili. I started thinking about serving it over salad, and ta-da! Taco-chili Souper Salad! (Cutesy name, huh? I can’t decide if I like it or not.) The cold, crisp texture of the lettuce, tomatoes and onions contrasts really well with the warmth of the chili. AND since the chili has some juice in it, you don’t even need dressing! (No, really. Trust me. I’m the dressing QUEEN. I promise you don’t need it here, though. ;D)


The Recipe:
Chili only: 6-8
Chili over salad: 8-10

The Soup:
nonstick spray
1 pound coarse ground lean ground beef (ideally 10% fat or less)
2 Italian sausage links (optional)
1 medium onion, chopped (approx. 1 cup)
1 15-oz can black beans with juice
1 15-oz can white beans (also called cannellini or Great Northern beans) with juice
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes with juice
1 14.5-oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes with juice
1 4-oz can diced green chilis
1 package taco seasoning

Spray a large skillet with nonstick spray and add the ground beef. Cut the sausage casings open and put the meat into the skillet with the ground beef. Add the onion and cook the whole mixture until the meat is browned.

Beginning with the meat (if you’re using 10% fat or less, don’t drain the fat), add the ingredients to the crockpot, and stir to combine.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

(*Alternatively:
Saute the onions in a large pot. Add the beef and sausage and cook through. Add the remaining ingredients, and allow to simmer until heated thoroughly. This will produce a slightly thicker chili than the crockpot.)

The Salad:
3 romaine hearts, chopped/shredded/whatever
16 oz cherry or grape tomatoes
sliced red onion
1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly (optional – I did not include it in mine)
1 14-oz can corn (optional – I did not include it in mine)

On the side (optional):
guacamole
salsa
sour cream
shredded cheese

On a plate, pile up the lettuce. Spoon some hot taco-chili over the lettuce, and top with the remaining salad fixings. (Because there will be juice in the chili, you won’t need dressing.)

Perfect: healthy, comforting and refreshing, all at the same time. Who knew? :)

Make Your Own: Ranch Dressing Mix

I love Ranch dressing. Really. A LOT. So much that I really try not to have large quantities in the house at any given time, because I will eat it with a SPOON, ok? And Ranch dip is even BETTER. But since I didn't want to store opened packets of dry Ranch mix, I made 2 cups of dressing when I opened a packet. Two cups is about a cup and a half too much for me to have laying around. Ahem. Plus, there’s the chemical problem. Have you ever READ the ingredients on a packet of dressing mix? Scary stuff.

So I poked around on the internet for a while, cobbled together a bunch of recipes, and came up with my own!

The Recipe:
Makes about 1 ½ cups mix

1 cup dry buttermilk (found in the baking aisle)
2 tsp salt*
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried minced onion
4 heaping tsp parsley
Optional mix-ins**:
2 tsp dill weed
1 tsp dill seed
*My original recipe called for 4 tsp of salt, but it was WAY too much. Start with 2 and add more as you see fit.
**Regarding the optional mix-ins: sometimes I add these to the finished dip. There isn’t actually any dill at ALL in packaged ranch mix though, so this is strictly a personal preference.

Combine buttermilk, salt, garlic powder, onion and parsley in a bowl. Store in a container in the refrigerator until ready to use. (Dry buttermilk will actually go bad once it’s been opened, so always store it in the fridge.)



To make dressing:
1 – 2 Tbs mix
1 cup milk
1 cup mayo
Combine thoroughly and chill.

To make dip:
1-2 Tbs mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayo
Optional mix-ins:
2 tsp dill weed
1 tsp dill seed
Combine thoroughly and chill.

What I Ate for Dinner - Old School Chicken Salad

I LOVE chicken salad. With lots of mayonnaise and celery and onions. I LOVE IT. But I have to admit that I don’t usually eat it on bread. My favorite way to eat it is spooned over a generous plate of cooked, chilled broccoli. I know, I know, it sounds weird. But it’s really, REALLY good, especially in the summer when it’s hot out, and the cool chicken salad and broccoli is a nice change from regular, lettuce-based salads.

The key here is to use LOTS of vegetables (well, lots for chicken salad, anyway) and REAL chicken, chopped. Don’t use canned chicken, although chopped pre-cooked chicken works just fine.

Yum.

The Recipe:

1 pound cooked chicken, chopped
6-8 green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
5-7 large celery stalks, chopped
Mayo, salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine. Chill, and then serve over cooked, chilled broccoli.

FANTASTIC. Really. ;)

Summer Salsa "Soup"

This is for Emily, who needed something that her whole family would eat! Hopefully this works. :)

I love salsa. I mean, I could eat it with a spoon, straight from the container (and have been known to do just that). I’m talking about the salsa from the refrigerated section, full of tomatoe-y, garlicky goodness. I finally figured that maybe I should stop eating salsa from the container because a) it gets expensive (seriously – do you know how much those little containers COST?) and b) it’s not really all that good for you. I came up with this to split the difference. One of the things I like best about this recipe is the "build your own" component with all the add-ons at the bottom. I usually have all but the tortilla chips on hand, and I just throw things together as they sound good. It adds nice variety, and if you're serving this to guests (or families), everyone gets something they like.

The most important thing below is to make sure that you have RIPE tomatoes. Don’t even bother making this in the wintertime, and if you shoot for early summer or early fall, at the beginning and end of tomato season, it’s probably best to get tomatoes on the vine. Get the big round ones, too, not the skinny little Roma ones. You need the JUICE for this to work. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The Recipe:
Serves 6

6 large hothouse tomatoes or tomatoes on the vine, chopped
1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
2 cloves garlic, FINELY minced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
juice from 4 limes
½ -1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and FINELY minced (if you like spicy food, use the whole pepper; if you HATE spicy food, just leave it out)
¼ cup olive oil
2 10 ¾-oz cans broth (I prefer beef broth, but vegetable broth works, too. Chicken broth tastes WEIRD, though. Just FYI.)
1 pound cooked steak strips (optional – I don’t usually include them, but sometimes I need some extra protein)
sour cream, for serving
guacamole, for serving
crushed tortilla chips, for serving
shredded Mexican cheese blend, for serving

Combine everything not labeled “for serving” above in a LARGE bowl. (The picture below is a 4-qt. bowl, and it has no steak in it. This makes a LOT of soup.) Stir to combine, and (ideally) refrigerate several hours or (even better) overnight. (Note: it’ll be good even if you don’t have time to refrigerate it, but it’ll be FANTASTIC if you do.) Also, you probably will NOT need salt for this. I know, I know, I’m the salt queen, but the broth is already salted. Mix it up, let it chill and taste it before you add salt. Seriously. I’m NOT KIDDING. You might be sorry otherwise.

Serve with optional garnishes (not shown below):
sour cream
guacamole
crushed tortilla chips
shredded cheese

Middle Eastern-Style Salad

This is a variation on a classic salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions. It's one of my favorites, and every year when I bust it out again in the spring, I'm reminded all over again of why I like it: the strong flavors of the onions, tomatoes and basil are balanced nicely by the milder flavors of the cucumbers and cheese. Since I do better on more protein, I add turkey or chicken strips to this salad, but you could serve it just as easily without the meat.

The Recipe:
Serves 4-6 as a meal

2 large English cucumbers
1 large red onion, coarsely chopped
16 oz cherry tomatoes (or other small tomatoes), halved
OR 2 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped*
3 oz basil (one large grocery store package)
11 oz goat cheese**
1/3 cup olive oil
3 Tbs red wine vinegar

Optional: .75 oz mint (one small grocery store package)
Optional: 1 pound turkey or chicken strips, cooked

Chop or shred the basil and mint. Break the goat cheese into small, bite-size chunks.

In a large bowl, combine cucumbers, onion, tomatoes, basil, goat cheese, olive oil, vinegar and HALF the mint (it’s a strong taste, and you can always add more – it’s harder to take it out!). Toss to combine, and check for taste. Add more mint if you like.

Serve the salad in bowls, with the turkey/chicken strips on top.

SO GOOD. Like summer in a bowl.

*I use cherry tomatoes, and only halve the big ones. That way the tomato juice doesn’t leak all through the salad, which is helpful if you want to have it for leftovers later. If you’re serving the whole thing right away, either kind of tomato will work.

**Salads like this one usually call for feta cheese, which is a little harder than regular goat cheese. I like the softer goat cheese though, because it’s a milder flavor, and because it’s so soft that as you toss the salad, some of the cheese breaks down into the olive oil and vinegar dressing, giving it a slightly creamy consistency.