It's Slaw Crazy!

This is an absolute favorite salad of mine, a switch from your run of the mill salad for lunch or dinner.  It has spicy, it has sweet, it has salty, it's a party in your mouth, satisfies all your cravings and it's delicious.  Now what other dish has that all in one bowl?!  You can try it with different dressings, maybe a sweet and sour dressing, a hummus dressing, or a sweet balsamic dressing.  In the summer I usually make my own homemade dressings with fresh berries and balsamic, I mash the berries into the balsamic then pour on the salad.  Recipe below.

To print recipe, click on it, highlight and print.

I always pull everything out when I am making something, so I don't have to keep running around the kitchen, makes life easier.

Start building - slaw, oranges and cucumber....

 Cranberries, pecans and right before serving, top with garlic ginger crispy won ton strips....

 Toss with a light Asian Sesame salad dressing.  Delicious, flavorful, crazy good Broccoli Slaw Salad.

Broccoli Slaw Salad

Ingredients

1/2  bag of broccoli slaw (see note)

2 snack size containers of Dole mandarin oranges

1/2 English cucumber

1/4 cup Craisin dried cranberries

1/4 cup Emerald glazed pecans

1/2 cup Fresh Gourmet crispy garlic ginger won ton strips

1/4 - 1/3 cup Ken's Asian Sesame Salad Dressing, Paul Newman also has a good Asian dressing

Directions

To a salad bowl, add the broccoli and fluff it up.  Drain the mandarin oranges in a strainer, add to the bowl. Peel the cucumber, or if you like leave the skin on, cut it in half and then slice so you have moon shapes. Sprinkle on the cranberries, separate them if they are stuck together.  Add the pecans, and top with won ton strips. Toss with dressing and serve.

NOTE:  I used 1/2 bag of broccoli slaw and it served three people.  A whole bag with all the other ingredients will probably serve at least six.  You can add all kinds of fruit to this, I've used blueberries, strawberries, fresh pineapple, almonds instead of the pecans, golden raisins instead of the cranberries.  Mix it up and be creative, just start with the slaw and go from there.

Linguine With Fresh Clam Sauce

As I have noted in previous blogs, we eat a lot of pasta, we love it and make it so many ways.  The hubby and the kids enjoy Linguine and Clams, I am not a fan of clams, but I thought I could just eat the sauce and the pasta.  It's funny, I used to eat them when I was little, steamed and dipped in butter and thought they were so good, now I don't like the taste of them.  I bought a bag of fresh clams at Wegman's on Sunday and made my version of Linguine With Clam Sauce for the family.  This is how I made it -

The Clams - Cleaned and getting ready to be steamed.

One of my favorite store bought pastas.

Some white wine, lemon, lemon zest, garlic, fresh parsley, salt, pepper and butter.

Mixing up the good stuff!

Add more good flavor.

And the clammies!

Look at that sauce.....uumm uumm good!

Toss it all together and you have heaven in a bowl!

Don't forget the crusty bread, you don't want to leave any of the juice.

I served my pasta with a Greek salad made up of field greens, sliced tomato, feta cheese and Greek salad dressing.  A little wine for the cook, a white Merlot, very tasty.  Dinner was fabulous and this will definitely be on my pasta night dinner menu, coming up in June.  Buon Appetito!

Oh, and do not forget dessert.  What a better way to top off a great meal than Tiramisu Gelato, so good.

Linguine With Fresh Clams

Ingredients

1 box Barilla linguine

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, more if you like heat

4 big cloves garlic, minced

1 cup white wine, I use Pinot Gregio

50 littleneck clams, scrubbed

1/4 cup Italian parsley,chopped

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
1 lemon
Parmigiano - Reggiano cheese

Directions

Start a large pot of salted water on the stove and bring to a boil.  When it boils, add the pasta and cook to your liking. In another large steamer pot with a basket, fill 1/4 of the way with water.  Wash the dirt off the clams, then spread them out in the basket of the steamer pot.  Steam the clams on medium high heat until they open.  While the pasta and clams get going, in a heavy skillet on medium heat, add the olive oil and swirl to coat the pan.  Add the pepper flakes and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes, be careful not to burn the garlic. Take pan off the burner, reduce heat to simmer, add the wine, return pan to the burner. When clams are steamed, remove about 40 of the clams from their shells (reserve 10 for garnishing the pasta) and chop them up (discard any unopened shells) add to the garlic wine sauce, cover and simmer for 5 -7 minutes.  Mix together the parsley, oregano, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a bowl, set aside.  Drain the pasta, pour back into the pan and toss with the clam mixture, 2 small ladles of clam juice (from the steam pot, skim it off the top), the butter, parsley mixture and juice of a whole lemon.  Toss until the butter melts.  Serve in a large bowl and lay the reserved clams on top, sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and serve with grated Parmigiano - Reggiano cheese .  Makes 6 servings.

  

Chicken on a Stick

I like to try new tastes in food, spice things up, keep the flavors interesting.  I get tired of eating the same old things over and over again.   I marinated chicken tenders, in this Thai Peanut Sauce, for dinner the other night then skewered them up.  I used bamboo skewers, you have to soak them before you use them so they don't burn on the grill.

 Skewered chicken tenders and onto the grill.

Grilled French Greens Beans are soooo good....... Olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper is all it takes. Sometimes I use the Finishing Butters from Wegmans.  When you take them off the grill, just toss with the green beans and serve.

 Skewers all done, serve with extra peanut sauce for dipping.  Grilled French green beans, yum!

All together now!  And served up with an Asian inspired salad with ginger sesame dressing.

Chicken Satay

8 - 10 bamboo skewers

4 skinless, boneless, raw chicken breasts, thawed

1 bottle of Thai Peanut Ginger Sauce

Place bamboo skewers in a shallow pan and cover with water.  Trim chicken breasts of fat and any leftover skin.  Cut into tenders.  Marinate the chicken tenders in 1/2 cup of the peanut sauce in a large ziploc bag.  Put the bag in the refrigerator and let marinate for up to 4 hours.  Remove from refrigerator and using the skewers, pierce the chicken on the ends and thread on the skewers.  Place skewers onto a heated grill and brush with marinade from the bottle.  DO NOT USE THE LEFTOVER MARINADE FROM THE BAG.  Cook on one side for about 8 minutes, using tongs turn them over, brush again with the marinade, and cook on the other side for 8 minutes. Serve with warm leftover peanut sauce for dipping.

Grilled French Green Beans

1 bag French Green Beans, washed and patted dry

3 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper

Toss green beans with the olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper.  Put into a grill pan that you use on an outside grill.  Toss and cook until lightly browned and blistered.

Salad

Toss together:

2 heads of romaine lettuce, washed and  chopped

1 cup of Craisins

1/2 cup of sliced toffee almonds

1/2 English cucumber, sliced

1/2 cup of match stick carrots

Pour on:

Ginger Sesame Salad Dressing, Marketside is a good one

Top with:

1 cup of won ton noodles

Quick Meal - Hail Caesar!

If you love Chicken Caesar Salad this is the easy way to make it, you can also put it on a wrap, we like it this way too. If you do the wrap - spread the dressing on the wrap, it helps to hold it together when you roll it up, add lettuce, chicken, cheese and pepper. Voila - Chicken Caesar Wrap.  This is what you need:

1 head of romaine lettuce, grilled chicken breast strips, I get mine from Costco, they're cheap and you get 2 packs of them, then I stick them in the freezer to have on hand for this quick meal. I use Ken's  Caesar Dressing, creamy or the oil one is good too, fresh Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese, a bag of croutons and fresh cracked pepper.

I grill up the chicken, to get it brown and warm, in a little olive oil.

While the chicken is cooking, grate and shave the cheese on a grater 

Wash and chop the romaine.

Start building the salad.

 Add the cheese, croutons and fresh cracked pepper.

 Dress it and you are ready to eat.  Yummy, looks good and takes 10 minutes to prepare!

OH SALAD, I LOVE YOU

One of my favorite quick meals is a salad.  You can do alot with lettuce.  Mix anything into it and it's a meal.  This is my very own concoction.  I call it the Southwestern Chicken Salad with BBQ Ranch Dressing, its filling and tasty.  The recipe is below the pictures.  ENJOY!

So, chop 1/2 head of romaine lettuce put into a bowl.  I always use white because it looks so pretty 

Now add the 1/2 bag of mixed baby lettuces.  Looks good, right

Now add the black olives, avocado, onion and corn. Looks better, right

Now add the cabbage, carrots, cucumber, radishes and jalepeno. Yummy!

 Now, finish it off with the tomatoes, cheese, chicken and the cilantro.  This is looking good!

Now it's always nice to share.  Put the dressing on, can't let the salad go naked

Top with the crunchy tortilla strips. And OLE! You have dinner tonight all in one bowl.

SOUTHWESTERN CHICKEN SALAD

6 oz grilled chicken - I use Tyson grilled chicken strips then warm them up in a little olive oil in a frying pan.

1/2 head of romaine lettuce, chopped

1/2 bag of mixed baby lettuces

1 - small can of sliced black olives

1 - lime, juiced

1 - avocado, seeded and scooped

1/2 red onion, sliced

1/2 cup of frozen corn, thawed

1/2 cup shredded red cabbage - I use bagged

1/2 cup of carrots - I use bagged shredded or baby carrots sliced

1/2 cup of cucumber - I use English cukes they have barely any seeds

2 radishes, sliced

1/2 jalepeno pepper, minced - if you don't like a little heat don't put it in

4 oz shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half

2 tsp - chopped cilantro

Cook the chicken if you like. I do just to get it a little brown.  Start building the salad with the lettuces.  Dice up the avocado and sprinkle with the lime juice (then discard the juice). This keeps it green and from turning brown . Start layering the rest of your ingredients ending with the cilantro. Serve with the dressing.  Recipe is below.  I recommend not putting the dressing on the whole salad just in case you have leftovers (you won't), it's just a suggestion.

BBQ RANCH DRESSING

1 cup of ranch dressing -I use Hidden Valley Ranch

3 TBLS. bbq sauce - I use Sweet Baby Ray's - because is sweet baby!

3/4 cup cruncy tortilla strips, I use Fresh Express

Put ranch dressing and bbq sauce into a container or jar with a lid and shake, shake , shake your booty until it's all combined! Serve with the salad then top the salad with tortilla strips.