Salads For Days

In an effort to eat more healthy foods and lose some weight, I have committed to #DailyVeggies, making sure I have at least one serving of vegetables every day. Since I detest most cooked vegetables, this means that a meal-sized salad is my best veggie option. Therefore, #SaladaDay has become my usual lunch. Of course, salads don't have to be boring or bland - not at all! There are many variations and possibilities when it comes to salads. I thought I would share some of my favorites with you, and please feel free to share your ideas with me! I'm always looking for more ideas!

Basic chicken salad: romaine lettuce mix, grilled chicken, corn, bacon bits, cheese, and a light drizzle of thousand island .

Taco salad: mixed lettuce, taco seasoned beef, queso blanco sauce, salsa, sour cream, and cheese. No dressing needed!

Deconstructed sandwich salads: basically the ingredients of a sandwich, placed on top of a salad. This one was lettuce and radicchio mix, chopped steak strips, half an avocado, lowfat provolone cheese, and Green Goddess dressing.

Extra protein salads: for those days when you need more protein, adding navy beans, hummus, and boiled eggs to the salad gives it both flavor and protein kick.

Tuna salad: these days you can get flavored tuna packets in a variety of flavors. I don't usually like tuna, but the ranch flavor is really good! Here's lettuce mix, ranch-flavored tuna, navy beans, peas, cheese, and Green Goddess dressing.

Think outside the box: salad doesn't always have to start with a leafy green base. Try other combinations like beans, tomatoes, avocado, eggs, different cheeses, or other vegetables that strike your fancy. I'd like to hear what ideas you come up with!

Salsa Chicken Bake

This meal was born of Pinterest ideas (who am I kidding?! Most of my recipes are tweaked Pinterest finds!), and hubby heartily approved and went back for seconds. It's easiest made in the oven, but could probably be modified for the grill or even a skillet. I made taco rice in the skillet while the chicken and bean mixture baked, then topped my serving with sour cream. It was very tasty and filling!

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup corn, frozen or canned
3/4 cup salsa
1/2 cup queso blanco sauce
1/2 cup shredded cheddar or fiesta blend cheese

Preheat the oven to 400. Spread the beans and corn evenly in the bottom of a large oven or casserole dish. Trim the chicken strips and arrange them on top of the bean mixture. Spread the salsa and queso evenly on the chicken strips and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes, checking occasionally. When chicken is cooked through, remove from the oven and serve with rice or tortillas. Enjoy!

Tortellini Alfredo with Spinach

This was a relatively simple meal to make. It would have been easier with two pans, but my electric skillet worked just fine. I used a package of premade tortellini and a package of grilled chicken for this tasty, easy dinner. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
Butter or olive oil
1 1/2 cups fresh baby spinach
1 package premade tortellini
1 cup cooked chicken
1 jar garlic alfredo sauce

Lightly sautee the garlic in heated butter or oil. Add the spinach and sautee until wilted. Set aside.

Boil the tortellini according to the directions on the package till tender, drain. Add the chicken, sauce, and garlic spinach mixture. Simmer all ingredients together until heated through, stirring frequently. Serve and enjoy!

Easy Chicken Fried Rice

After having Chinese takeout a few times, I fell in love with fried rice. I decided to try making it on the truck, and after researching a few recipes, I figured I could make it with ingredients I had on hand - leftover soy sauce packets from takeout, pre-cooked grilled chicken, and ready rice. We really enjoyed the result and plan to make it again!

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked chicken
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 package garden vegetable ready rice
2 eggs

Chop the cooked chicken into small pieces and place in a warm skillet with 2 tablespoons soy sauce. Coat the chicken in the soy sauce and heat it through. Add the rice, breaking down any chunks, and the third tablespoon of soy sauce. Sautee together. Push the rice and chicken mixture to the edges of the skillet, opening an area in the middle of the skillet. Add the eggs into the center of the skillet, scramble them with your spatula, and allow them to cook until firm, stirring the rice mixture to keep it from burning. Chop the eggs into small pieces and mix them in with the rice and chicken. Serve and enjoy!

Spinach-stuffed, Bacon-wrapped Pork Chops

I don't like cooked spinach - never have, never will. But my hubby does, and it's good for you, and it was a required ingredient in a Chopped Challenge cooking competition this month. So, after a bit of research, I came up with this idea - make a cheesy spinach stuffing, put it inside pork chops, and wrap bacon around the outside. Now if that doesn't make you start drooling a little, I don't know what will!

Ideally these would be made in an oven, but since I am on the road at the moment, I made them in the skillet. They tasted great, though the bacon outside didn't get as crispy/cooked as I'd like. I used the thickest pork chops that I could find so that the pocket wouldn't cut all the way through them.

While they were cooking, I chopped up baby golden potatoes and sautéed them with butter and diced fresh garlic, letting them cook at the same time as the pork chops. After the pork and potatoes were done, I served them onto a plate, put butter, parmesan, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning on hoagie rolls and placed them face down in the hot skillet to toast. The result? Amazingness.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter
1 clove fresh garlic, diced
1-1 1/2 cups fresh spinach
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
4 oz cream cheese
2 thick boneless pork chops
4 slices bacon
Wooden toothpicks
Italian seasoning

Start by melting the butter in a skillet and sautéing the garlic for about a minute. Take the stems off the spinach and add to the skillet, sautéing until wilted. Combine the mozzarella and cream cheese in a small bowl and stir in the spinach. Set aside.

Using a sharp knife, very carefully cut a pocket into each pork chop, leaving 3 sides intact. Divide the spinach mixture in half and stuff it down inside the pockets. Wrap each chop in 2 slices of bacon, making sure the widest part of the bacon is over the pocket of stuffing, and using toothpicks to secure the overlapping areas. Sprinkle both sides of the chops with Italian seasoning. Cook in a skillet or oven for about 40 minutes, flipping occasionally, until juices run clear and the center of a chop is only slightly tinted pink. Serve and enjoy!

Strawberry Cucumber Spinach Salad

This salad is relatively easy to make, even on the truck (though preferably not while the truck is moving, since bumpy roads and sharp knives don't play well together). The easiest thing about this salad is that it basically makes its own dressing. Cool, right? Look how bright and springy this salad looks!

Ingredients:
1 small cucumber
8-10 strawberries
Fresh parsley or basil
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
Fresh spinach

Peel and dice cucumber and dice strawberries. Place in a plastic zipper baggie and add a few torn leaves of parsley or basil. Add the 4 liquid ingredients, seal the baggie, and gently move the ingredients around to combine them. Prepare two plates of fresh spinach, de-stemmed and torn into bite size pieces, and divide and pour the strawberry mixture over the spinach. Enjoy!

Creamy Lowfat Avocado Dressing

Romaine salad mix, egg, ham, cheese, and avocado dressing 

I have a confession to make. I love ranch dressing. I put it on everything: salads, sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs, mac n cheese, pizza...you name it, I've probably tried it with ranch. But right now I'm trying to drop a few pounds before an event next week, so I'm doing a Salad A Day challenge as well as cutting out bread and sweets and drinking a lot of water. Let me tell you, it's difficult to do while on the road! So I decided to come up with a lowfat dressing for my daily salad, so that the ranch doesn't undo all the work I'm doing. Here's the delicious result!

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
1/2 cup lowfat sour cream
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup 1% milk
A few leaves cilantro, finely chopped
1 garlic clove or garlic powder to taste
Seasonings as desired

Thoroughly mash the avocado. Mix all ingredients together, using a food processor or blender if available; if not, whip as well as possible. Use more milk or water to thin dressing if necessary. Serve with salad or wraps and enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie Pasta

My poor hubby has caught another cold ad is currently feeling miserable. I'm trying to take care of him best I can and fight to keep from catching it. We'll see if I evade the cold, but in the meantime, as I had no soup on hand, I made chicken pot pie pasta for lunch. It was warm, soft, and soothing, just the thing for feeding a sick hubby!

I like that this recipe makes 4+ servings and is made completely from non-perishable items: canned meat and veggies and dry pasta and herbs. That means I can keep the ingredients on hand and make it whenever necessary. I made it in my crockpot, mostly because we're on the road and the crockpot, electric skillet, and microwave are really all I have to work with, but it can just as easily (perhaps more easily) be made in a pot on a stovetop. For serving a larger family, simply double the recipe.

A note on the seasonings: I used garlic powder, dried herbs, and a squirt of bottled lime juice for flavor. Other suggestions would be powdered or minced dried onions, dry ranch or Italian dressing mix, salt and pepper, or whatever seasonings you prefer. You can also add any fresh veggies you have on hand in place of the canned veggies, or use precooked chicken instead of canned. For the pasta, I used mini bowties as they cook relatively quickly, but any smallish pasta would work, such as penne or shells. Also, I used only half a small can of evaporated milk to make the sauce; if you prefer a creamier soup-like consistency, use a full can or more.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb small pasta, cooked and drained
1 can cream of potato condensed soup
1/2 can evaporated milk
1 small can mixed peas and carrots, drained
2 12oz cans white meat chicken, mostly drained
Seasonings to taste

After cooking and draining the pasta, place pasta back in the pot and turn to low. Add the condensed soup and evaporated milk, stir. Drain and add the can of peas and carrots; mostly drain and add the cans of chicken (a little of the water is okay). Add seasonings and stir well. Simmer 10 minutes and serve. Enjoy!

Sweet Corn Salad

I first made this for a cookout with my wonderful in-laws. We were grilling chicken and roasting potatoes, so I wantedsomething cool and summery, though outside the usual monotonous lettuce salad. After looking on Pinterest for hours, I combined several aspects of different recipes and came up with this concoction.

I mixed everything but the avocado the day before and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight, then added the avocado a few hours before serving. Fortunately, the lime juice helps keep the avocados from browning for a little while; unfortunately, by the second day they were starting to show brown spots, so I wouldn't advise keeping leftovers past the second day. This is definitely a salad to serve a larger group of people, so if it's just you, try halving the recipe.

A note on the corn: you want the corn to retain a little crunch, not be mushy. If you're using fresh corn on the cob, grill or boil it for a few minutes. If you're using bagged frozen corn, steam it for half the time in the directions on the bag.

Salad Ingredients:
2 bags frozen sweet corn or 3-4 ears of corn
2 roma tomatoes or 1 box cherry tomatoes
Cilantro
1 avocado

Dressing ingredients:
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
Garlic and herb seasoning, Mrs. Dash, salt and pepper, or seasoning to taste

Start by lightly cooking the corn as discussed above, and remove from cob if applicable. Dice the tomatoes, cilantro, and avocado, mix together with the corn in a large bowl. Mix together the dressing ingredients in a separate cup, add to salad in small quantities and stir till desired taste is reached. Serve immediately or up to 24 hours later if chilled.

Steaks on the Grill

Few things are as iconic of summer as the scent of meat on a grill...the smell wafting through the neighborhood, making everyone in the near vicinity begin to drool! My hubby is the grillmaster of the house, and wow does he know how to cook a fine piece of meat on the grill!

Last weekend we splurged on a feast: New York strip steaks, mashed potatoes, cheesy biscuits, and grilled carrots, with lemon squares for dessert. As I promised those protesting my facebook picture, here are the recipes!

Oh yes...oh my yes!

Steak Rub:
1/4 olive oil, a few splashes Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and a generous amount of steak seasoning, coated on the steaks before and during grilling.

Mashed potatoes:
Okay I confess, they were Betty Crocker dry mix garlic mashed potatoes...but I added extra melted butter and garlic to make them especially creamy and flavorful!

Grilled baby carrots:
2 Tbsp melted butter, a splash olive oil, a Tbsp lemon juice, garlic powder, and Mrs. Dash onion and herb seasoning; placed on aluminum foil and grilled about 10 minutes till barely tender.

Cheesy biscuits:
2 cups Bisquick, 2/3 cup milk, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, garlic powder and Italian seasoning, baked 10 minutes at 450 degrees, with garlic butter brushed on top.

Lemonade:
1 cup bottled lemon juice, 1 1/4 cup sugar, about 9 cups water, mixed and chilled


The meal was a success - a good deal of work but SO worth it. We'll definitely be doing it again!