Chicken Salad

• about 1 lb of diced chicken or turkey meat- cooked
• 3 stalks celery- chopped
• 1 green apple-chopped
• 1 cup chopped grapes
• 1 bunch green onions-diced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro-chopped

Sauce: these are approximate measurements, add in small amounts and taste until its how you like it. 

• 2 cups mayo
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• dash of onion powder 
• dash of garlic powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• dash of cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper 
• optional: curry powder

Mix everything together and serve on croissants as a sandwich or eat on the side. You can mix in your favorite type of lettuce to make it a more classic salad. 

Arugula Salad

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 6-8 cups washed arugula leaves
• sea salt

Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice and sugar well. Toss with arugula. Just after serving, grind fresh sea salt over the top. 

This makes a great salad, good with breakfast quiche, and great on pizza. 

You get salty, sour and bitter from this salad.

chicken caesar salad

• Cooked sliced chicken (8-12 oz)
• 1 clove garlic- sliced in half
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 6 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 oil packed anchovies- dices into small pieces
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 heads romaine lettuce
• 1 cup croutons
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese-shredded

Lower the eggs into a small saucepan of boiling water and cook for 60 to 90 seconds, remove the eggs and as soon as you can handle them, crack them open and scrape out the insides. This is called a coddled egg. Beat the eggs with a fork and slowly drizzle in the lemon juice and oil, still beating. Stir in anchovies and Worcestershire sauce, mashing up anchovies. Toss lettuce, dressing and parmesan cheese together, top with croutons and chicken. 

Tomatillo Ranch Dressing

• 1 packet  Ranch mix powder
• 1 c. mayonnaise
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced
• 1 bunch of fresh cilantro
• 1 clove garlic
• juice of 1 lime

Blend in a blender. 

Serve

Broccoli slaw and ramen salad

• 1 bag broccoli slaw (about quart sized)
• 1 package top ramen
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 bunch green onion-diced
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs sesame oil
• 4 tbs cider vinegar
• 2 tbs soy sauce

Put the broccoli slaw and green onion in a large bowl. Break up the dry ramen noodles into little pieces and toast in a pan with the butter before adding to the bowl. Mix the seasonings packet, oils, vinegar and soy sauce in a bowl and slowly pour over the salad. 

OPTIONAL: Slivered almonds and chilled edamame beans make great mix ins

Cinnamon Sugar Almonds

These make a great snack or a great salad topping.

·         1 cup raw almonds

·         1 egg white

·         1 tsp. cinnamon

·         1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Beat the egg white in a bowl for 15 seconds. Then add in the other ingredients and mix.

Line a cookie sheet with tinfoil (do not skip this step, this stuff sticks) and spray it with pan spray. Smooth out the almond mixture on it.

Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes- ***stirring every 5 minutes***. If you don’t stir the bottom layer will burn. Take them out when they have started to brown and most of the moisture is gone. Let cool for at least an hour then you can crumble them apart and keep for snacking.

As you can see, I forgot to stir once or twice and they almost burnt. Luckily all I had to do was throw out a few overly dark almonds. Most of them were fine. 

Nuts About Berries Salad

Out here in Utah (as well as Arizona and Nevada) there is a great restaurant called Café Zupas. If you have heard of Panera it is similar to that only better.  Zupas sells soups, salads, paninis, and a variety of desserts. Each meal comes with a chunk of French bread and a chocolate dipped strawberry. I always get the try 2 combo where you can choose 2 of the three (soup, salad, & panini) and get the half size of each. My favorite salad is the Nuts About Berries. It has romaine lettuce, berries, cinnamon almonds and a poppy seed dressing. I usually pair it with the Wisconsin Cauliflower soup.

Here is my version of the Nuts about berries salad. Look for my recipe for the cauliflower soup next week.

·         1 bag of your favorite salad (romaine or spinach are my favorite)

·         1 cup of your favorite fruits- cut into bite-size pieces if necessary (grapes, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries…)

·         ½ cup diced cinnamon sugar almonds (recipe will follow in next post)

·         Poppyseed Dressing

o   1/3 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

o   ¼ cup olive oil

o   2 Tbs. sugar

o   1 Tbs brown mustard

o   1 tsp poppy seeds

§  Blend all ingredients together in a blender for 30 seconds

Mix together all the ingredients in a large bowl and enjoy.

For this version I used grapes and dried cranberries as my fruit.

Alternative: This dressing goes really well on a salad of spinach, mandarin orange slices, avocado, bacon and sliced red onion too.