Thursday, 1/27/2011

I put together the following delicious salad for our dinner tonight.  I used a honeycrisp apple and bagged spinach.  The honeycrisp apples are expensive compared to many of the other varieties, but I find that they are consistently good in flavor and texture and the others are not.  So, I choose to spend the money on the good apples rather than waste it on the bad apples.

CHICKEN, APPLE, WALNUT, SPINACH SALAD

Toss the following ingredients together in a poppy seed dressing:

1 1/2 cups of chopped rotisserie chicken
1/2 apple- diced
1/4 cup glazed walnuts
Freshly ground black pepper
baby spinach

Katie ate some blueberries, mandarin oranges, ham, and peanut butter toast. 

Monday, 8/16/2010

Katie and I picked up Ben from work today on our way home from the grocery stores.  I drove up to Ballard so that we could go to Fred Meyer and the relatively new Trader Joe's.  It is really hot today, and I didn't want to heat up the house by cooking. So, I opted to grill instead.  I bought a flank steak pre-marinated in kalbi sauce at Fred Meyer.  The butcher was nice enough to offer me a steak from the bottom, because it would have been sitting in more sauce.  Ben grilled the steak on direct medium heat while I made up a salad.  I used sweet butter lettuce and added a poppy seed dressing and glazed walnuts.  The sweetness of the dressing was a nice compliment to the kalbi sauce.  Ben said the steaks were on the grill too long, but I still liked mine a lot. Katie had a little steak and cheddar cheese.  I gave her a piece of lettuce, but she stuck out her tongue and gave it back to me. 

Monday, 7/19/2010

Tonight I revamped the strawberry, chicken, spinach salad I made in June. It was much better!

This time I used chicken tenderloins, seasoned with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, and sprayed with olive oil. The oil kept them from sticking to the grill. They were cooked on direct medium heat until cooked through. I think having more flavor in the chicken was the key to making the salad taste better.

I also opted for mixed greens instead of only spinach tonight. It made the salad more interesting in texture and appearance. I still finished the salad with sliced strawberries, candied walnuts, poppyseed dressing, and a parmesan crisp on the side. We poured a little dressing on Katie's tray and let her dip chicken and strawberry pieces into it. She likes to dip her food.

On a side note, Katie only asked for a cookie a couple times today. Thankfully, she did not resort to a tantrum when she was denied:)

Tuesday, 6/22/2010

I've been hearing radio advertisements for a new, seasonal salad being offered at Panera Bread this summer. I attempted to make it at home tonight with pretty good success!

STRAWBERRY, CHICKEN, SPINACH SALAD

Ingredients:

1 can chicken broth

1 lb. cooked, thinly sliced chicken breast

baby spinach

strawberries

candied walnuts

poppyseed dressing

Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Poach the chicken in chicken broth on medium heat until cooked through. Remove chicken from the broth, cool, and slice into thin strips.
In a bowl, combine baby spinach, cut strawberries, candied walnuts, cooled slices of chicken, and toss with poppyseed dressing.

Parmesan cheese crisps:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make 3" circles of grated parmesan, piled a little. Cook for 5 minutes. Let cool and serve with salad.

I didn't measure out exactly how much spinach, strawberries, or walnuts I used. Mix it however you want to:) I didn't toss the chicken in with the salad dressing tonight, but would do that the next time. It was a nice, light summer salad. Definitely worth making again. Katie ate some plain chicken and strawberries for her dinner.