101 Salads

This listing of salad ideas really could provide variety for the rest of the summer.

101 Simple Salads for the Season

Thanks, Mark Bittman. You are my hero.

Leaf lettace salads

What are your favorite toppings for a basic, leaf lettace salad?

Here are some of mine:

Red cabbage
Peas
Tomatoes
Beans
Nuts (walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc.)
Raisins
Homemade Croutons
Homemade pita chips
Interesting cheese (like asiago, blue, feta, or goats cheese)
Mixed fresh herbs
Red or green onions

Seeking balance

The next recipe my sexy husband and I decided to try from Rachel Ray's cookbook was BBQ spiced chicken, salsa salad, and pumpkin-chipotle polenta. My sexy husband doesn't completely agree, but, to me, this dinner was the perfect balance. With lean chicken, fresh veggies, and pumpkin/corn this meal struck a classic nutritional balance. It also had the perfect balance of textures: meaty/chewy, mushy, and crunchy. Additionally, the flavors complimented really well. I thought that the three parts of the meat were better together than they would have been separately.

I totally loved this meal....everything about it...how the lime in the salad ran into the spicy chicken polenta...how the BBQ rub flavored the meat why better than any BBQ sauce. I just loved it.

Check out the recipes here: BBQ Spiced Chicken, Salsa Salad, and Pumpkin-Chipotle Polenta

The version in my cookbook didn't include the pineapple in the the salad. That's the only difference.

Oh! And, by the way, if I hurry I really can make everything in close to 30 min.

At long last

I've been feeling like we aren't eating well...too much comfort food and not enough salad. So I tried to plan some light meals that include raw vegetables this week. On Monday we had warm chickpea and arugula salad (for a picture see this blog dedicated to Mark Bittman). This salad comes from my mother-in-law's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian cookbook. The recipe came very highly recommended, and it didn't disappoint. I served it with a white bean soup from How to Cook Everything. The white bean soup was fabulous...just my style...really simple and cheap and good.

White Bean Soup

1/2 c dried white beans (navy or great northern), rinse and picked over

6 c water or broth

1 medium onion, chopped

chopped parsley for garnish (optional...I liked it better without the parsley)

salt and pepper

I have found that beans don't get really soft when you cook them with salt, and you need to them to be really soft in this recipe. So, I cooked the beans and onions in 6 c water for about an hour. Then I added a couple of teaspoons Better than Boulion chicken broth base. Better than Boulion is very saltly, so I didn't add extra salt. Once the beans are soft, puree the soup and serve. That's it! I love soup!

After dinner my father-in-law came over to watch Monday night football. Shortly after he arrived, he and my sexy husband went downstairs to grab a beer. They were gone for a long time, and I heard lots of banging around. I assumed that they were checking out my sexy husband's basement project. Wrong. I walked into the dining room to grab my checkbook so we could pay our condo fee, and I caught them with the oven pulled out and tools everywhere. An hour later, my oven was fixed!!!

Out of gratitude I made them apple crisp with homemade icecream.

I thought it might be fun to make little individual apple crisps. It wasn't worth it. We ate two individual crisps per serving anyway.:)

Oh yeah. Now the fun starts.

Sometimes the simplest combinations are wonderful

Some friends of ours were nice enough to give us a huge bag of tomatoes from their garden about two weeks ago, and I'm having a hard time using them up. So I couldn't make dinner for one last night without including them. I also wanted to include Ricotta cheese because I've recently developed a love for Ricotta cheese and I knew I had some in the refrigerator. Additionally, I haven't been shopping in a bit (I don't even have onions right now), and I feel like I've been eating why too many carbs like bread and snack foods and not enough veggies. I really wanted my dinner to be light and healthy tasting...like a hearty salad.

I chopped up 2 small tomatoes and combined them with about a cup of peas (I always have peas on hand. They are the only vegetable that I buy frozen. They always taste so fresh and healthy even when I just grabbed them out of the freezer and ran them under cool water to dethaw), fresh basil and parsley, most of a can of chick peas, and two chopped green onions.

Then I added all of that stuff to about 2 1/2 cups cooked Acini di Pepe (very small pasta balls...the only pasta I had on hand besides egg noodles) that was still hot.

I was very happy with the results. My warm pasta salad tasted really great with a large dollop of Ricotta cheese on top (well, actually, it tasted great by itself too), and it made me very happy.:) Oh! And it looked really pretty!

(I took this picture with my cell phone because my sexy husband had the camera with him.)


For lunch today I combined the leftover chickpeas with two small tomatoes and the rest of the peas to make a salad of sorts. Then I sprinkled some leftover tomato basil feta on top. Tomatoes, chickpeas, and peas are a fantastic combination. You should try it.:)

Rice Salad

Day 1 of my budget make-up, my sexy husband made a fantastic stir fry in his wok with peppers, zucchini, chicken, and noodles. He took pictures. They disappeared.:(

Day 2 I made this awesome rice salad with a cup of brown jasmine rice (brought to room temp), a banana pepper and a jalapeno pepper that I got from a friend's garden, a carrot, a stalk of celery, parsley from my garden, and 3 thin green onions. I "dressed" it with olive oil, white wine vinegar, spicy mustard, salt and pepper. It made about two servings (and since my sexy husband wasn't home last night, I get to have it for lunch today too). A great salad for those nights when salad is all you get...especially if you add beans (I think chickpeas would have been good if I had them). Should I say "yum-o?" I guess not...but it was really good...and different since I'd never had a rice salad before.

You should try it. With brown rice, it has a lot of really nice texture, and it's super economical. If you want more rice salad inspiration check out Mark Bittman's column from a few weeks ago. He has recipes for Indian-Style Rice Salad (with coconut milk), Pad Thai-Style Rice Salad, Citrus Rice Salad with Parmesan, and Japanese-Style Rice Salad.

20 healthiest foods for under a dollar

Someone thinks she has determined what are the 20 healthiest foods for under a dollar. Get the article here.

I wonder why she didn't list carrots. Carrots and celery are both healthy and cheap...a lot cheaper than broccoli. And what about lentils? When I think of healthy and cheap I always think of carrots and lentils...

...And Carrot and Lentil Salad-- the perfect healthy, cheap, filling, refreshing, bright, hardy, summer salad. We often serve it as dinner with good crusty bread.

1c dry lentils
1 c carrots, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf

Dressing:
½ c celery, finely chopped
¼ c fresh parsley, finely chopped
¼ c olive oil
¼ c lemon juice
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp pepper

In a Dutch oven, combine lentils, carrots, garlic, and bay leaf. Cover with water one inch above the lentil mixture. Bring to boil. Then simmer 15-20 min. or until lentils are tender (DO NOT OVERCOOK. This salad is terrible with mushy lentils). Remove bay leaf. Drain and cool.

Combine all dressing ingredients, and pour over lentil mixture. Cover and refrigerate several hours. When I forget to prepare it in advance, I just eat it warm. It's still good that way, and you can have the leftovers cold the next day (the leftovers will keep for a least a week).

My birthday bash

When I was growing up, I really felt like no one every remembered my birthday. That wasn't actually true. My parents always remembered, and both of my grandparents would send me a birthday card... always on time. However, since I had a summer birthday my friends never remembered. I didn't get to bring cupcakes for the whole class or get birthday spankings from the teacher. One year in high school we had a church youth group event on my birthday. I arrived early in the morning to see one of my best friends carrying a birthday gift bag. Finally someone remembered! She saw me, said hi, and walked right past me to give a belated birthday gift to another member of our circle. I wanted to cry!

Mark had the opposite experience. His birthday is always a really big deal. Since he was born on the same day as his aunt, they have always (with the expection of one birthday) spent their birthdays together. And like most occasions in the Bentley household, they do it big.

So every year when my birthday rolls around I get really excited. I wonder what Mark is going to do. But then about a week before the event when no one has mentioned a single thing and Mark keeps acting like he's completely suprised every time I mention in I start getting really nervous. Maybe everyone is going to forget again.

But, of course, Mark didn't forget. He did it big. I felt like I was graduating from high school again. He had a suprise picnic at a park...with some of my favorite people (Nana and Papa, Grandpa Dick, Aunt Lisa and Carl all came from Detroit for the occasion) including some work friends and friends from Youngstown. And he had tons of my favorite food (The way to my heart is through food. Now I REALLY know he and everyone else was thinking of me).

Stoni made his hamburgers with this spiced honey from Estonia mixed in...some of the best burgers ever. Aunt Lisa made fresh salsa (the world's most perfect food...I felt so loved when I realized Mark even made sure I got some fresh salsa!). Nana made the taco salad that I previously posted. Mark's mom and Charlotte made Strawberry shortcake with real shortcake. None of this angel food cake, store-bought stuff (I should post that recipe soon...it's fantastic and totally heathy). My mom, who didn't really have access to a kitchen, brought veggies and dip (I'm always a sucker for dips) and watermelon. Grandpa Dick made his famous french onion dip. And more! There was so much food, I wasn't even able to try everything!

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Every year for my birthday in the Bentley family I get to choose what I want to eat for my special dinner, and so far, for 3 or 4 years running I've chosen El Paso pasta salad. It takes a little bit of time to prepare, but it's totally worth the effort. And, of course, Mark's mom made the effort, and prepared this salad for my birthday bash as well. I felt so loved!

4-5 roma tomatoes, diced
1 (15 oz) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 (11 oz) can kernel corn, drained
½ bunch cilantro leaves, chopped
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped plus 1 tsp of the sauce
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ c olive oil
1 ripe avocado, diced
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1 lb pasta (bowtie) plus ½ c reserved cooking water

Prepare the bowtie pasta according to the package directions. Reserve ½ c cooking water.

In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, beans, corn, cilantro, chiles, adobo sauce, green onions, garlic, and oil.
In a small bowl combine avocado and lime juice. Add to large bowl.
Add warm pasta and reserved cooking water.

Serve warm. (It really is not nearly as good cold)