Grape Salad w/Blue Cheese and Walnuts

While planning our Father's Day menu, my daughter was inspired by a grape salad that she saw at the grocery store. She had read the ingredients to me and we decided to try it at home. It was a tangy, sweet treat with a right amount of creamy and crunchy. Yum.

Red and Green Grapes (enough to fill a large bowl)

Crumbled Blue Cheese

Walnuts

4T Honey (more if you like it sweeter)

1.5 T Canola Oil (or veg)

3T White or Red Wine Vinegar (I used a little of both...but apple cider vinegar would be good as well. Or you can get fancy with gourmet vinegars like cherry or pomegranate).

Combine the honey, oil and vinegar (adjust the ingredients to your liking). Pour half of the mixture over the grapes. Crumble the blue cheese into the bowl along with the walnuts. Toss. Pour remaining dressing over the salad. Chill about an hour before serving. Enjoy!

A Santa Fe Beef Salad Un-Recipe

Un-Recipe because it was kind of thrown together after I couldn't find the ingredients for the original recipe I was going to try. I wanted something pretty light and good clean flavor. I have still been eating in vacation mode, ya know?

Here is the gist of the salad:

Flank Steak: marinated in a mix of oil, minced garlic, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, cumin, and maybe more. Haha. The husband mixed it together, so I am not certain what all is in it. We like to keep it simple so you can actually taste the meat. After it was marinated for a couple of hours, it was slapped on the grilled to mouth watering goodness. Then we squeezed a tad of lime on it while it was still hot. After letting the meat sit, we thinly sliced it.

Green leaf lettuce: You know...wash it....chop it....arrange on a platter or in a bowl

Diced tomatoes: I wanted plum, Target didn't have plum....so I used on the vine

Thinly sliced red onion because it is pretty

Avocado: ours was mangled due to a little girl who wouldn't stop eating the avocado slices. I couldn't cut it fast enough.

Homemade Tortilla Chips...cause they are good. Just don't make too many...because you can't stop eating them. You should only make a handful. And when I say you, I mean me.

Black beans: rinsed and drained

Arrange it all in a pretty fashion and add a pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Use dressing of choice, but I kept it light and just used lime juice. You can also top with your fave salsa and cheese.

That was fancy, huh? :)

Italian Chicken Salad w/Garlic Croutons

I love being able to use leftovers to make a tasty dinner.

I had on hand (you use whatever it is that you have around):

• Left over grilled chicken (chopped)


• tomato (Roma)


• capers


• a little bit of Romain lettuce


• a little bit of baby spinach


• roasted bell pepper


• fresh bell pepper


• asiago cheese


• sliced yellow onion


• black olives


• stale whole grain baguette

Sounds like the makings of an Italian salad, huh?

So I first mixed together a little dressing:

About 1/2 C red wine vinegar, juice of one whole lemon, 1 T honey, 1/2 t minced garlic, s&p to taste, and about 1/2 C of olive oil (may have been more, I eyed it all).

I then sliced the stale bread into a large crouton size...dipped the bread into a plate drizzled in olive oil and minced garlic and then toasted the bread under the broiler for about 3 minutes (turning once).

I threw all of the chicken, veggies and dressing together and topped the salad with some grated AND shredded asiago cheese and the croutons.

Did that make any sense at all? Either way...it was yum.

Cherries Cherries Cherries

My menu was inspired by Joe at one of my fave food blogs. I did some minor changes due to me trying to loose weight and what we had on hand.

Here is my version:

Chicken Salad with Cherries and Goat-Cheese Dressing

2 ounces crumbled fresh goat cheese (low fat)

1/2 cup fat free sour cream

2 tablespoons chopped chives

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons white-wine vinegar

salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons Olive oil

garlic/rosemary seasoning

2 large chicken breasts

1/2 Bag Spring Mix Salad

1 1/2 cup sweet cherries, pitted and halved (I used a straw to pit)

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

In a small bowl, whisk together goat cheese, sour cream, chives, water and vinegar - season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drizzle chicken breasts with olive oil and season with rosemary seasoning and s&p. Grill until no longer pink.

Remove and place on a cutting board to rest for 5 minutes. Thinly slice chicken.

To a plate add lettuce, chicken, cherries, dressing and walnuts. Enjoy!

The dressing was soooo good, Chad and I will definitely do this again! And the kids LOVED it.

Thanks Joe for the great recipe!

Now, for dessert. I bought some pastry shells and wanted to use more cherries. I made this recipe up...so I will call this:

Cherry Sussy hehe

4 pastry shells

1 C pitted cherries

1/2 C sugar

3T water

1T corn starch

1T lime juice

Fat Free Cool Whip (I had some on hand, added vanilla to mine and froze it... you can use ice cream for sure!).

Left over walnuts from dinner

Bake shells according to directions

In a sauce pan add cherries through lime juice, let it get bubbly and thick...stir stir stir. When cherries are nice and fat and sauce is thick, it is ready. You may have to add more sugar to thicken.

Then arrange: pastry, cool whip, cherry sauce, walnuts.....eat. Yum.

Grilled Spicy Filet Mignon Salad with Ginger-Lime Dressing (adapted from Bobby Flay)

After a day of watching the Food Network with my family yesterday and drooling over practically everything, Chad and I decided to try something new. So I went to the Food Network website and try something out...you can narrow down recipes by ingredient, chef, cuisine, etc.

Me: Ok...what cuisine?

Chad: Thai (I type in Thai and it came up with hundreds of recipes)

Me: Beef, pork, or chicken?
Chad: Beef (click)
Me: Grill or saute'?
Chad: Grill (click)
Me: Which show? (I give him the list)
Chad: Oh yeah baby, Boy Meets Grill (click)
Me: Ok, here are your three choices

And let me tell you, he chose the best one. We were practically licking our plates (ok, I drank the dressing that was left over, not quite licking...right?!?). The kids also cleaned their plates.
We did make a few changes because we didn't have everything listed on the original recipe...but here is what we did:

Marinade:

3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon chili paste with garlic
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 (12-ounce) filet mignons
Freshly ground pepper

Whisk soy sauce, lime juice, chile paste, and sesame oil together in a small baking dish. Add the steaks, turn to coat, cover, and let marinate for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Remove from the refrigerator 15 minutes before grilling.
Heat grill to high. Remove steaks from marinade and pat dry. Season both sides with pepper and grill for 3 minutes per side or until slightly charred and cooked to medium-rare doneness. Remove from the grill, let rest 5 minutes, and slice into 1/4-inch thick slices.

Salad:
1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup chiffonade basil
1/2 English cucumber, halved and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices
2 carrots, julienned
16 cherry tomatoes, halved

a handful of chopped chives

While steak is resting, combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss with half of the dressing and season with chopped chives, salt and pepper. Transfer to a platter, top with the steak, and drizzle the remaining dressing over the top.

Ginger-Lime Dressing:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon finely diced shallot
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
a sprinkling of crushed red pepper (we left that part out for the kids)
Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Let sit 10 minutes before using.