My Blue Kitchen
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
  salad
saladview
So, I am eating lots of salad. I do love salad with lots of stuff in it. And you know I love kitchen gizmos too. Well, this little salad bowl gizmo thing enables you to throw together a quick salad in the morning and put the dressing in the top separately. When you are ready to eat just PRESS and the dressing magically comes out of the little compartment onto your salad. Shake and you have a lovely tossed salad. I keep little containers or baggies of leftover stuff in the fridge like chick peas, canned artichokes, roasted veggies, cooked chicken, chopped veggies so it just takes a few minutes to throw it together. I love the organic salad greens that come in those plastic containers. I usually mix up a dressing that lasts around 5 days or so.
wagonpress
Today I used that tuna that comes in a bag that you don't have to drain, feta cheese, chick peas, canned artichokes and fresh herb salad.
Saladstuff
 
Comments:
Today's salad is a winner! I am eating it already.

Mexican Chicken salad over greens

Cubed cooked chicken
celery, onion, red pepper
chickpeas (beacuse they were open- black beans would be good)
a little bit of finely cubed feta
dab of sour cream
dab of lite mayo
whole foods taco seasoning sprinkled on (or mix up cumin and chili spices)
2 T or so of salsa (makes it so you don't need as much mayo)
cilantro

mix it all up and put it over greens

Neil's was rolled up in a large whole wheat flatbread.
 
Let it be said that this is indeed delicious!
 
Since I always make the same dressing at our parties and you've said you like it, here it is:
Pete's Bistro Vinaigrette
- 1 part red wine vinegar (say 1/3 cup)
- 3 parts extra virgin olive oil (1 cup)
- 1 or 2 diced shallots
- 1 or 2 tablespoons good dijon mustard
- salt and pepper

drop the shallots into the red wine vinegar. add the mustard and salt and pepper to taste. whisk in the olive oil. enjoy! keeps for a few days in the refrigerator.

ps - don't be shy with the shallots and mustard. the dressing should taste pretty strong. it will mellow out a bit mixed in with the greens.
 
my other go-to dressing is a creamy lemon vinaigrette:
same recipe as above, but use 1/4 cup lemon juice plus 1/4 cup white wine vinegar to replace the red wine vinegar, omit the shallots, and add a tablespoon or two of sour cream at the end. great with chicken breasts mixed in with the greens.
 
OOO, thanks for sharing those! They look fab and I will definately try the creamy lemon one tomorrow for lunch!

You do make my favorite salads. Oh how I wish we were all at Pete's Bistro right now!
 
heidi,
i saw the link to your blog at greta and jim's blog. your kids look beautiful. i love your sense of layout of this blog, it reminds me of amy sedaris' cookbook. i love her! i'm sure your recipes are great, i don't think amy sedaris' made a serious cookbook. but the design of it was great in any case.
salads are great. i am finally eating more of those these days. leila is doing super well, no more elecare since she turned one. no more prevacid since she was five months. thank you for being so supportive when we were going through all of leila's reflux and allergy problems. it really helped to know there were other people out there i could talk to about her struggle and mine.
i recently told my sister, who's been very successful with breastfeeding, about you and about how much your little family has been through, and how you also had to do a TED diet to help charlie out when he was strugling through his allergies.

glad you are all doing well. say hello to neil.

-evelin o'hara
 
that looks so fresh and delish-where'd you get the great bowl?

And Pete- that lemon dressing sounds like it's going to be my new favorite dressing-Do you think yog can be substituted for the sour cream?
 
Yes absolutely on the yogurt thing. I've done it.

I'm actually making that dressing tonight. I'm going to sear some chicken breasts, slice them, and add them to the lettuce and dressing with croutons and avocado slices. We eat that all the time.
 
hello- sorry this post was here for so long. i couldn't get anything new to post.

anyway, stan, i got the container at the container store but i recently saw then in the pathmark grocery store.

evelin- so nice to hear from you and to hear leila is doing well!

pete- that dinner sounds divine. i am going to try that dressing! when you cook your chicken breasts by searing them do you finish them in the pan or put them in the oven? Do you flatten them at all or just put em right in? Still trying to figure out how to cook chicken well.
 
I do the chicken breasts in my huge cast iron pan. I don't flatten them. I use just enough canola oil to cover the pan. I make sure the pan is good and hot before I put in the breasts. I usually do about 4 minutes on each side and then another 1-2 minutes per side, total time usually ends up being 10-13 minutes. They should start to feel a little bit firm when you press down on the thickest part. The tenderloins I pull off the breast usually take about 6-8 minutes.

I have finished bone-in chicken in the oven, but most meat I sear in the cast iron ...
 
ok, I am going to try that. The only way I have been successful is to pound them flat first. I just learned about removing the tenderloin from the Cook's Illustrated book. See, these are things you just don't know about as a vegetarian! I don't ever remember my mother cooking chicken breast. When we had chicken it was usually roasted whole or cooked with the bone in.

And I am eating a salad with the lemon dressing right now and it is sooo good!!
Thanks Pete's Bistro!
 
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