I know, I know.  It is November, and the weather has turned chilly.  And yes, I have stated previously that I am a seasonal eater and have begun making soups instead of salads.  However, last week we had a slightly warmer day, so I couldn’t resist the urge for one more salad dinner.

Working with a base of various lettuces, I decided that this salad could have a touch of autumn added to it if I made a cranberry vinaigrette.  Using pears, pecans, and blue cheese as toppings, this salad would have some great contrasts in flavors from the tartness of the cranberries to the sweetness of the pears to the bite of the blue cheese.

To make the vinaigrette I wanted to emphasize the flavor of the cranberries and create a dressing that wasn’t heavy on oil.  Although I prefer my salad dressing to be light with oil, I decided to try and make this recipe a little thicker.  I found that it worked very well for me, as I prefer to keep my dressing on the side and dip my fork tines into the dressing.  However, my husband prefers to place his dressing on his salad and found it to be a bit thick.  For those who like a thinner dressing, more vinegar or oil could be added, depending on the flavor you want to emphasize.

Feel of Fall Salad Dressing

3/4 cup cranberries, rinsed

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 Tb. sugar

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

Combine cranberries and vinegar in a small saucepot over medium heat.  Allow to boil for 2 minutes, or until cranberries are soft.  Cool for 15 minutes, and then pour into a small bowl.  Add olive oil and sugar, and season with salt and pepper.  Whisk well.  Chill until ready to serve.

Just last week I wrote about the arrival of chilly fall days and making soup.  It may come of no surprise to my fellow New Englanders, but a day or two after that, we had very warm weather.  In this part of the country, you need to have a big bureau with room for both cold and warm weather clothes, as you never know what the day will bring!

So, as the temperature was set to rise to 80, it was no longer soup and homemade bread weather.  The warmth and humidity lent themselves to a salad dinner.  I adore almost every salad available, especially Caesar.  However, with many local orchards full of ripe apples, I wanted to use them in my salad.

I find that in most dishes apples compliment poultry quite nicely, which made chicken an easy choice for the other main ingredient in my salad.  Rather than making a tossed salad, I opted to make a mayonnaise and sour cream apple-chicken salad combination that sat atop lettuce.  With the creaminess of the salad, there was no need for additional dressing.  (However, having said that, I prefer my salads to be on the drier side.  My husband and kids thought that there could have been more dressing on the salad, so you may want to increase the amounts.)

Served with leftover breadsticks from our Turkey Meatball Soup, we kept cool on a warm for September sort of evening.

Apple-Chicken Salad

2 Tb. lowfat mayonnaise

2 Tb. sour cream

1-1/2 tsp. dry mustard

1 Tb. lemon juice

salt and pepper

4 cooked boneless chicken breasts, diced

2 Granny Smith apples, cored and diced

2 Fuji apples, cored and diced

1/3 cup walnut, chopped

Romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces

In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, lemon, salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, apples, and walnuts.  Add mayonnaise and sour cream combination, and mix well.  Chill for 1 hour.

Place torn lettuce leaves in 4 salad bowls.  Top each with Apple-Chicken Salad, and serve.

All four of our children enjoy helping to prepare dinner.  In fact, we often need to divide kitchen assistance so that everyone gets a chance to cut, stir, etc.  After a recent Sunday dinner, in which two of the children helped make dinner, each of them wanted to cook dinner on his or her own.

So, each of them began to envision what dinner he or she would create.  Sammie decided that she would make a pasta dish that could be served cold, as it was a warm end of summer day.  Rather than making a salad with all of the ingredient assembled, she made a choose-your-ingredients pasta salad.  This was a great idea, allowing each of us to choose from an assortment of vegies.  It also allowed each diner to choose the amount of vinaigrette to be placed on the salad.

Rather than using a store-bought vinaigrette for the salad, Sammie and I created our own balsamic vinaigrette.  We wanted something that would have a bit of sweetness but that also would have some tanginess.  Additionally, I prefer salad dressings that are lighter, so we used less olive oil than most recipes suggest.

With a little help from Mom, Sammie made a great meal for a warm summer night.  The combination of farfalle, red and orange bell peppers, broccoli, and olives gave the salad a lot of color, and the homemade vinaigrette added depth to the flavors.

Sammie’s Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. dried mustard

1 Tb. honey

salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a cruet, cover, and shake well.  Chill until ready to use.

July is full swing, and the dog days of August are almost upon us. What’s a cook to do when the kitchen is sweltering – and the oven isn’t even on?

Grill it. Smoky, chargrilled dinners are a summertime staple. Invest in a grill pan and some skewers, and you can cook almost any food over a fire. When the food’s done, make s’mores by roasting marshmallows over the coals for a fun, summertime dessert. (If you have never made s’mores, read the how-to article on our sister site, Outdoors Eagle.)

Use a slow-cooker. It’s not just for cheese dip anymore! The internet abounds in recipes for the slowcooker, and almost any recipe, including bread, cakes, and casseroles can be adapted. It’s a very forgivable method of cooking, and food will stay hot, without getting burned, if that baseball game runs long. For an even cooler kitchen, set up a table outside on the patio or in the garage, and cook there. All you need is an electrical outlet!

Cook once, eat lots. When you do bake in the oven, make extra. Baking an extra fillet of salmon or some chicken breasts won’t make the kitchen any hotter but will save heating up the oven later. Use the extra for cold dishes such as sandwiches, chicken salad, or topping a bagel.

Eat raw. Salads are a natural fit for summertime. Get some ham, chicken, or turkey from the deli, open a can of beans, and wash up some greens to make a meal of it. Canned tuna and cannellini beans, or black beans and corn are great combos packed with protein. Put a stack of plates in the refrigerator to chill and enjoy a healthy, refreshing meal.

With these tasty ideas, there’s no reason to sweat your way through meals ever again. Happy summertime eats!

Monday night is our late dinner night.  With a weekly work phone call for my fiance that lasts until 6:30 and then the drive home, dinner for the adults isn’t before 7:30.  So, the kids get some sort of exciting kid dinner, such as hot dogs or chicken nuggets, and we get a fun adult dinner.  This plan makes all parties happy.

With it being summer, I enjoy making lighter meals.  For our grown-ups only meal, I also try and use as many non-kid friendly ingredients as possible.  We can enjoy a more adventurous meal without seeing little noses crinkle.

As we had leftover Champagne Vinaigrette, I wanted to make a salad that would work with this dressing.  Spinach salad is not popular with the youngsters, so that seemed to be the perfect base for our meal.  Add a a few ingredients, serve it with some multi-grain pita bread and dipping oil, and we had the makings of a delicious dinner for two.

Spinach Salad with Pear and Bleu Cheese

6 oz. bag baby spinach

1 bosc pear

2 oz. bleu cheese

1/4 cup pecan halves

Champagne Vinaigrette

Rinse spinach and drain well.  Core pear, and dice into bite-sized pieces.  Divide spinach into 2 large salad bowls.  Sprinkle pear, bleu cheese, and pecans atop spinach.  Serve with vinaigrette.

*For a more filling salad, grilled chicken can be added.

When planning a meal, I enjoy the challenge of finding side dishes that coordinate with the entree. So, when we decided to make Blueberry Salsa-Topped Chicken, I began to consider options. With a variety of herbs and blueberries in the salsa and lime marinating with the chicken, I didn’t want to serve anything that would detract from these flavors. Plus, the main dish was fairly light, so I wanted to continue with that feel.

I decided to make a salad with a light dressing. As we would spend our afternoon shopping, I also wanted it to be a salad that had few ingredients, so it would be ready within minutes. As my friends and family know, I am a huge fan of caesar salad, which does have few ingredients, but tonight I wanted to try something different.

While shopping we found a head of escarole that looked wonderfully tender. We also purchased some champagne vinegar which would be a good basis for the dressing. Using just a few other ingredients from our pantry, a tasty salad would be made.

The salad and dressing were made in less than 5 minutes. Together they made a superb accompaniment to the chicken.

Escarole and Pecan Salad

1/2 head escarole, rinsed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces

1/3 cup pecan halves

Champagne vinaigrette*

Divide escarole among 2 plates. Sprinkle with pecan halves. Add dressing.

Serves 2.

*Champagne Vinaigrette

3/4 cup champagne vinegar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 Tb. dijon mustard

2 - 3 Tb. honey

1 shallot, finely minced

salt and pepper

Combine vinegar, olive oil, mustard, honey, shallot, salt, and pepper in a cruet. Cover and shake well.

At school, I sit in the Student Activities Room with our student activities advisor and about six other people because the cafeteria is overcrowded and filled with a lot of freshmen and sophomores–not that I have anything against them. One day, I had to eat during the lunch before mine, or “second lunch”, and I decided that I would sit in there anyway. Apparently, there were a group of people who ate in that room just as I did during my regularly scheduled “third lunch,” so that was good; I wasn’t going to have to eat lunch all by myself!

So I was sitting there, eating my sandwich and talking to my advisor when the “second lunch” people all entered. All five of them were carrying salads in hopes of eating healthfully. However, literally, all they were eating was lettuce with dressing. The amount of calories in the ranch salad dressing probably cancelled out the purpose of eating just a salad. They probably should have had the balsamic vinaigrette or olive oil choice. In fact, greens provide generous amounts of the antioxidant lutein which could protect against macular degeneration, and lutein is absorbed much better with a splash of olive oil. Even though lettuce is healthy, you need more nutrition than just pieces of lettuce.

When you are making a salad, don’t just have the greens. A good salad can be so much more than lettuce, tomatoes, and dressing. Try adding some fruits! Fruits provide an abundance of good nutrients, such as vitamin C and potassium, and they help protect against diseases. The fiber in fruits can help lower blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Try adding in some nuts and seeds, onions, vegetable oils, seafood and other proteins, and more. Not only will your salad be healthier, but it will taste better as well!

First of all, it was a crazy, frantic evening. We had errands to run with one child, and another child had to go to a social function. Top all of it off with the fact that my phone just wouldn’t stop ringing.

Earlier in the day, I went to the store and picked up the ingredients for the salad and also made the mustard vinaigrette. Doing these steps before the mad rush of afternoon and early evening made the meal do-able.

Grilled Lamb Cobb Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette
1 lb. of lamb chops1 sweet onion sliced in rings 4 eggs 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese Romaine lettuce fresh spinach leaves 3 white button mushrooms, sliced 2 vine ripened tomatoes 1 Tablespoon of sugar	For the dressing:1/2 cup olive oil 1/4 cup white wine vinegar 1/4 cup of Dijon or spicy mustard 1 clove of garlic, smashed Salt and pepper to taste
Shop for all of These Ingredients At Home with Safeway
Mix all of the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a glass bowl. This can be done ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to three days.Use fresh cracked pepper and a little salt and season both sides of the lamb chops. Put them on the grill over a medium flame. Depending on thickness, they should be ready in 8 minutes on each side. Add the onions to a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil or butter. As the onions become translucent, add the sugar to seal in the caramelizing effect. Use a medium sauce pot filled with boiling water and add a tablespoon of vinegar. Pouch the eggs in the boiling water. Rinse the greens, and place onto a large serving platter. Cut the prepared lamb chops into bite size chunks. Slice mushrooms and tomatoes. Add the caramelized onions, crumbled cheese, poached eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, and lamb to salad. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad and serve. Serves 4.

School is back in session, which means that it is time to think of lunches that are healthy and that the kids like.  The kids aren’t so excited about peanut butter sandwiches, and even daily sandwiches made with lunchmeat tend to get boring.  So, I try to vary the lunches by sending bagels and cream cheese, cheese and crackers, a trail mix with peanuts, or banana bread.

A lunch that works especially well for my kids is pasta salad.  I love that they enjoy this dish for many reasons.  One, I easily can make it while preparing dinner.  Two, this recipe makes enough salad for many lunches.  Three, it is full of vegies, making it a very healthy lunch.  Four, my kids never get tired of eating it.  Five, it is much quicker to pack a container of pasta salad than to make a sandwich.

Lunchbox Pasta Salad

1 lb. rotini

1 bottle balsamic salad dressing

1 yellow pepper

1/2 lb. broccoli

15 baby carrots

small can black olives

Cook rotini according to package directions.  When only two minutes of cooking time are left, add broccoli (chopped into bite-sized pieces) to the pasta.

Cut pepper into 1″ strips.  Slice baby carrots.  Drain olives.

Drain pasta and broccoli, and place in a large salad bowl.  Add peppers, carrots, and olives.  Pour salad dressing, amount based on desired flavor, on top of all ingredients.  Mix well.  Chill for 4 or more hours.

*For additional flavors, the following can be added:  cucumber slices, feta cheese, small cubes of cheddar cheese, or cherry tomatoes.

Makes 6 or more school lunches.

My family and I have spent the past week on vacation in the Mid-Atlantic states. We have been to the beach several times and enjoyed the usual beach fare: french fries, ice cream, Italian ice water, caramel corn. Travelling by car with four children, there also have been numerous stops at fast food restaurants for pizza, fried chicken, and more french fries.

The vacation has been a success, except for the weather. Though when you are somewhere between the ages of six and eleven, overcast skies and chilly temperatures don’t stop you from jumping in the waves or hotel pool. Of course, that means mother and dad spend the afternoon watching from the shore or side, hoping that the kids will tire soon.

So, with the vacation coming to an end, I have been dreaming about returning home and having a nice, healthy salad for dinner. Something with a more exotic taste but nothing too wild for the kids. The salad that should work for all of us would be an Asian Chicken Salad.

Home, my own bed, healthy food. What more could a girl want?

Asian Chicken Salad

1 pound boneless chicken breast

2 hearts of romaine lettuce

4 scallions

1 red pepper

2 large carrots

1 11 oz. can mandarin oranges

1 bag slivered almonds

3/4 cup chow mein noodles

The Ginger People Ginger Sesame Vinaigrette

Preheat grill. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Place chicken on grill, and cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. Allow to cool on cutting board.

While chicken is cooking, shred lettuce into bite-sized pieces and place in large bowl. Cut off ends of scallions and slice thinly. Remove seeds and cut pepper into thin strips. Shred carrots. Place all veggies in bowl and mix well. Divide salad onto four plates or bowls.

Cut cooked chicken into strips and divide among salads. Drain and top salads with mandarin oranges. Garnish salads with almonds and chow mein noodles.

Serve salads to diners, having them put on the desired amount of vinaigrette.

Serves 4.