17 posts tagged “salad”
There are many things in life that I adore the idea of - for example: getting a puppy, having a 8-5 workday where I can wear stilettos and carry a briefcase, quilting, natural childbirth, and camping - but if ever faced with these situations, I would doubt my ability to like or even survive them. It's the idea that appeals to me. Husband knows me well, and so when I declare things like, "Let's buy a ranch and start riding horses," he smiles and says, "ok." Both of us knowing full well that I really don't want to buy a ranch. Riding horses? Are you kidding me?
So, when Food and Wine's Best of the Best Cookbook came in the mail, I was especially excited to see that Cowgirl Cuisine was one of the cookbooks that recipes were featured from. Real life recipes from a real life ranch. The only difference between this ranch and the ranch of my dreams is location. I dream of a ranch in Montana. These recipes are featured from the chef at Hart & Hind Fitness Ranch in Rio Frio, Texas. Close enough.
I was immediately drawn to Chicken & Citrus Slaw Tostadas. Husband, not a fan of raw citrus in his food, wasn't wild about these. I loved them. They were so fresh and clean tasting. The chipotle made them quite spicy, so if you don't want your lips tingling from the burn like ours were, scale down a bit on the amount of chipotle you add.
Chicken & Citrus Slaw Tostadas
adapted from Cowgirl Cuisine by Paula Disbrowe
tostada shells
3 oz. firm tofu
1/4 c. fresh lime juice
2 T red wine vinegar
1 T. honey
1 T. Dijon mustard
1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo
2 t. finely grated orange zest
1 t. finely grated lime zest
kosher salt and ground black pepper
1/2 small green cabbage, finely shredded (3 cups)
1/4 small red cabbage, finely shredded (1 1/2 c.)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, coarsely grated
3 T. finely chopped fresh cilantro
3 1/2 cups shredded roast chicken
In a food processor, combine tofu, lime juice, vinegar, honey, mustard and chopotle and process utnil smooth. Add 1/4 c. oil in a thin stream and process until creamy. Transfer toa bowl. Stir in the zests and season the dressing with salt and pepper to taste.
In a large bowl, toss the cabbages, onion, carrot and cilantro; season to taste. Add all but 3 T. of the dressing and toss. Set the tostada shells on plates and mound the slaw on top. Add the chicken to the bowl, toss with the reserved 3 T. of dressing, and mound on the slaw. Garnish and serve.
Lime wedges, for garnish
I love beets! I always have. It wasn't one of those foods I had to grow into, like sour cream. Honestly, I'm quite surprised how many people don't love this vegetable. Compared to most vegetables, I believe they have a much higher natural sugar content. Who doesn't like sweets? I'm not a dietician, so I'm basing this knowledge on two things:
1. My zone-diet friend will not eat these.
2. Jessica Seinfeld, author of Deceptively Delicious, gets away with adding beet puree to many of her desserts.
Unlike zucchini, beets so delicious, you don't have to try to hide their flavor. Add a bit of of vinaigrette and DELISH!
I ROASTED the BEETS according to the Joy of Cooking:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Leaving the rootlets, trim all but 1 inch of the stems, then wash:
1 lb. beets
Place them in an 8x8 baking pan and add 1/2 cup. water. Seal the pan tightly with foil and bake utnil the beets are easily pierced with a thin skewer or knife tip, about 45 mintues for small, 1 hour for medium, and 1 1/4 hours for large beets. Slip off the skins when ready to serve. Leave the beets whole or slice into rounds or wedges.
Vinaigrette
Whisk together and toss with sliced (still warm) beets:
1/4 c. sherry vinegar
1/4 c. oil (typically, vinaigrettes have 2-3 parts oil to vinegar, but I love vinegar, so I use the 1 to 1 ratio)
1 t. dijon mustard
snipped chives
salt and pepper
Husband is not a fan of the chicken breast, so I've been trying to incorporate a little dark meat onto the menu. I've discovered, unlike Husband, that I prefer the dry flavorless taste that is the chicken breast. Dark meat is so chicken-y. Here's a couple of meals where I've marinated the chicken thigh, grilled them, and glazed them with the cooked/reduced marinade.
Citrus-Glazed Chicken Thighs. This was a very tasty marinade/glaze. I think I subbed quite a bit of lime juice for part of the orange juice, so there was a mixture of the two citrus flavors.
Green Bean Spinach and Beet Salad. Delicious! I've made this once before, and both times were winners. It's a perfect summer dish, and would be a great salad to take to a BBQ or picnic.
Meal number two: not so tasty. Even the picture is a bit sad. It might have been because I refused to put both honey and brown sugar in the chicken marinade. I love sugar, especially in dessert!, but two sugars in a chicken dish I couldn't do.
If you'd like to try the original recipe, here it is: Balsamic Chicken Drumettes.
Although it received mostly rave reviews, Orzo with Peas, Dill and Pancetta was a little disappointing too.
I think I've mentioned, and I'm sure you'll agree, that using up leftover ingredients can be hit or miss. Last night, all the stars moved into alignment in my leftover universe (refrigerator). It was a delicious salad!
Here were the odd ingredients that I mixed with a few staples to create Thai Lettuce Salad:
lime juice
cashews
ground turkey
cilantro
small bit of lettuce
small bit of green cabbage (I wished I had napa cabbage)
1 carrot
Though I didn't follow any particular recipe, and I did use Lettuce Wraps and Hot and Sour Dressing from Food of the World: Thailand for guidelines and proportions.
Thai Lettuce Salad
serves 2-3
For the Meat:
1/2 T veg oil
1/2 onion, chopped finely
1 carrot, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Thai chile
1/2 lb. ground turkey or pork
2 T. soy sauce
1/2 t. brown sugar
1/4 t. green curry paste
1 T. cilantro, chopped
Heat oil in wok and stir-fry onion, carrot, garlic, and chile for 30 seconds. Add the ground turkey and stir-fry for 8-10 minutes, until browned and crisp. Stir in the soy sauce, sugar, curry paste, and cilantro, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Let rest while you make the dressing.
For the Dressing:
Whisk together:
2 T. veg. oil
2 T. rice vinegar
2 T. lime juice
1/2 t. soy sauce
1/2 t. sesame oil
1/4 t. fish sauce
1/4 t. green curry paste
Assemble the Salad:
Toss meat mixture with a salad of lettuce, cabbage, cilantro, cashews, and rice. Toss salad with dressing and serve immediately.
Yes, those are bacon wrapped meatballs. And to think, Husband and I declared this week vegetarian week in our household. We only lasted through Monday. I guess one evening of chickpea salad was enough for us.
Everday Vinaigrette, my favorite dressing, usually appears on our lettuce. Last night, I topped our roasted vegetables with this anything but dull dressing. Don't you think the word everyday implies something that leans towards humdrum? Don't let it fool you. This dressing would work for special occasions too.
Everyday Vinaigrette
adapted from Gourmet Everyday Cookbook
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan
1/3 c. water
1 1/2 T Dijon mustard
1 1/2 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
1 large garlic clove
1 1/2 c. olive oil
1/3 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley
Puree vinegar, cheese, water, mustard, sugar, salt, and garlic in a blender. Add oil and parsley and puree until parsley is finely chopped.
Makes about 2 1/2 cups.
It's been a couple of weeks since husband and I have eaten a meal together. Our schedules have been so crazy and so opposite too. When I'm home, he's not, and vice versa. I really haven't cooked at all.
Husband has been eating a lot at work lately, so I'm not quite sure what he's been putting away, but I've resorted back to my single graduate school days. There were a couple of regular lunches that I used to have quite often. It's neat how food can bring back memories. One such meal you see to the left. A turkey or ham sandwich with pepper jack and avocado.
Check out the chips, they are a recent discovery. Flat Earth Chips are so delicious! They're a veggie chip, so they've got a nice earthy flavor along with the 1/2 serving of vegetables in every ounce of chip. Mmm. My favorite flavor: Tangy Tomato Ranch. (It must be everyone else's favorite too, as the store was sold out. Farmland Cheddar is featured in the photo).
Besides the sandwich, my other old-time lunch favorite is a salad of greens, canned tuna, grape tomatoes, feta cheese and a vinaigrette dressing.
I hope you are enjoying meals with your loved ones. I miss them with mine.
Yesterday Husband and I went out for Mexican. We had agreed to try to make it our last stuff-your-face meal before our trip to Acapulco at the end of May. (I fittingly had the Acapulco Shrimp Tacos). If we have any hope of transforming our bodies before we don bathing suits, it's now or never.
In this mind frame, last week I put together a Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad from CookingLight. Nothing will ever replace our love of white trash Taco Salad, but at 8 grams of fat per serving this was a healthy alternative.
Again because of work schedules, Husband and I ate this meal at different times. I enjoyed it. The lime juice really cut through in the dressing, which was not a problem for me. However, Husband is not a lover of raw citrus in dressings, so I was a little worried about his reaction. I had reason to be, unlike the gazillions of favoral reviews for this recipe, Husband didn't care too much for this salad. In Husband's defense, some of the reviews were a bit ridiculous. Does it really look like an entertaining meal? Come on people.
I made three substitutions:
1. ground turkey breast instead of shredded chicken
2. green onions instead of red onion
3. pinto beans instead of black beans
I don't usually go for cutesy things, but for some reason this Valentine's Day, I thought it appropriate to make a few heart shaped foods. Unfortunately, in my haste to eat dinner (I was hungry), I didn't take the proper time to really plate and photograph the food well. Sorry. Please use your imagination. If you would like to try any of the recipes, they all tasted fabulous, in my humble opinion.
Leeks with Shallot Caper Vinaigrette
Prosciutto and Ricotta Heart Ravioli with Mushroom Sauce
Meringue Hearts with Ice Cream and Fudge Sauce
Husband spent a year in England going to school. Every now and then he gets a little hungry for "The Motherland." When he requested fish and chips, I went right along with it. Number one, it's fried food. Number two, I just saw an episode of the Barefoot Contessa where she was making fish and chips with her friend, T.R. Do those initials ring a bell? Finally, I've been invited to join her snobbery in the Hamptons!
We took this menu from her episode: Good Catch. Overall, we truly enjoyed this meal, but we both agree that we've had better chips and tarter sauce. Try another recipe. The chopped pickles were good, but we really didn't think the vinegar and fresh dill enhanced the pickles too much.
The cole slaw was not on Ina's menu. It was an attempt at recreating a coleslaw from Husband's childhood. He said he'd watched his Grandma make this many times, so he knew the ingredients...just not the amounts. She just dumped. We fiddled and tasted until we got a "98% match" in Husband's words. It's very simple, but very good!
Husband's Grandma's Coleslaw
Toss in a bowl:
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
1-2 green onions, choped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
Whisk and add to above ingredients:
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/3 c. plus 1 T white vinegar
2 T sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Maybe it was the disappointment from Ina's baked chips, but we just couldn't get enough fried food this weekend. We had to try fried sweet potatoes the next night.
We were, however, smart enough not to give into our apple cider doughnut craving in the same weekend. This craving has not passed, so maybe another post...
Husband invited his parents for lunch on Sunday. We cooked, ate, and had a good time.
It took us a long time to decide on a menu, as usual. Husband and I always start out with a more ambitious menu than we eventually make. In the beginning, we contemplated a chicken crepe dish. It sounded delicous. You make the crepes, stuff them and bake them with a cheesy sauce. It seemed like a good plan as we would be able to make the crepes the night before, so the prep work the next day wouldn't be too much. It got to be 9pm on Saturday and crepe making didn't sound so fun anymore. We came up with plan B and headed to the grocery store for some last minute ingredients.
Have you been to the grocery store at 9:30 on a Saturday night? It's a ghost town.
Plan B:
Celery Soup
Ham and Cheese Turnovers
Green Salad
It was an easy, but tasty lunch. The turnovers were delicious. Ham and cheese inside puff pastry! Mmm.
Can't forget dessert. Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce.
