sweet & sour pork and spinach salad

ever since this recipe first showed up in food & wine over a year ago, it's been on heavy rotation in our house. the first couple times we enjoyed it as is - sweet & sour pork lettuce cups, the mixture rolled in butter lettuce - and we quickly learned that although delicious, it simply wasn't enough food to sustain all of us. so i started making variations - first lettuce cups topped with rice and then this, our favorite - sweet & sour pork with rice on top of baby spinach.

poached pear & brie salad

while nothing has been able to knock my fall apple chicken salad with maple mustard vinaigrette out of the top spot as my absolute favorite salad, this one isn't far behind. sweet poached pears, brie, and candied walnuts are a delicious combination - try topping sliced baguette with them and toasting, just enough to melt the cheese. with so much flavor, a basic balsamic vinaigrette tops this salad off perfectly. don't let the time throw you off - you can poach the pears a day or two before and keep them in the refrigerator. assembling the salad itself takes all of 10 minutes.

winter salad with clementine vinaigrette

i've mentioned before that i'm always on the lookout for new salads to try. i jumped on this one since a box of clementines always finds its way into my shopping cart and each week we always end up throwing a few away. i always have good intentions of eating them all. but just as soon as the weekend is over and monday comes, before i can blink it's already thursday. i breeze through the rest of the week and weekend and soon enough, i'm staring down the last three or four clementines that just didn't make it. while this salad isn't my favorite, it's still light and refreshing and a great way to use up those stragglers.

pomegranate, pear, and goat cheese salad

we try to have salad one night a week for dinner and i'm always on the look out for a new one. this pomegranate and pear version caught my eye because it's so similar to my new favorite apple chicken salad, only this version has pomegranate and pear instead of apple and dried cranberry. it's delicious, with a few tweaks.

pear quinoa salad

in my quest to drop the extra 25 or so pounds i am carrying since i got married and had a baby, i have been on a search for easy and healthy breakfasts and lunches. this quinoa salad is perfect, since it can be both of those or a mid-afternoon snack. i made a batch of this one sunday evening and ate it multiple ways through the next week. i played around with the temperature - some days eating it straight from the refrigerator and others taking the chill off with a quick spin in the microwave - and found i liked it best warm, with a little extra sweetness from a drizzle of real maple syrup. it's both delicious and filling.

fall apple chicken salad with maple mustard vinaigrette

i ate this salad six times in two weeks. six. it is that good. and it wasn't just me that loved it, jason said it's one of the best salads he's ever had. in my opinion, the goat cheese makes it, but if you aren't a fan - i'm talking to you, mom - then skip it. we had ours with fresh honey crisp apples we picked ourselves, but any firm, sweet apple will do. 

eggless caesar salad dressing

soon after jason and i moved in together five and a half years ago, i started planning our meals for the week each sunday. it was a life saver. no more wondering what's for dinner, scrambling to make something out of nothing, or even worse, making multiple trips to the store in a week. ever since, sunday has become our meal planning day.

crunchy croutons

got some day old bread lying around? maybe the heel of an italian loaf? or a few slices of a skinny baguette leftover from a summer barbecue? turn (thanks for spying the typo amanda!) old bread into croutons. easy, quick, and light years better than any you can buy in a package. and they are great on top of a nice crisp, cold, summer salad.

[are you as excited for strawberries as i am?! hang on, i've got quite a week coming up...]

teriyaki mushroom, spinach, and chicken salad

need a break from all the pie and cookies and stuffed birds and alcohol and pasta and all the other heavy foods we stuff ourselves with this time of year(...and we haven't even gotten into the thick of it yet)? yea, me too. this salad is perfect this time of year. the mushroom and chicken is perfectly spiced and just hot enough to wilt the spinach ever so slightly. and since it's thrown together in an easy thirty minutes, it's also the perfect weeknight dinner after an evening of battling the christmas crowds.

want a vegetarian meal? skip the chicken and double the mushrooms. you won't miss it.

teriyaki mushroom, spinach, and chicken salad
adapted from mark bittman, as seen in cooking light
30 minutes, serves 4

1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1 pound sliced baby portabella mushrooms
2 tablespoons peeled minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon (~ 2 cloves) minced garlic
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons mirin, sweet marsala wine, or dry sherry
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
6 ounces baby spinach (about 8 cups)
1 1/2 cups chopped green onions, dark green parts only
vegetable oil, salt, & pepper

1. do all of your cutting and measuring before you start cooking. once you start cooking, it will go fast.
   
2. heat a wok or large skillet over high heat and coat with vegetable oil. add chicken, season with salt & pepper, and cook about 5 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. remove chicken from the pan and set aside.
3. add mushrooms to the pan and season with salt and pepper. cook about 5 minutes until the mushrooms are mostly cooked and almost all the liquid has been cooked off.
4. add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, ginger, and garlic. cook about 30 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
5. return the chicken to the pan. add the soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar. cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. remove pan from heat. toss the spinach and green onions together and serve the chicken and mushroom mixture over the spinach.

my favorite taco salad

i didn't plan it, i swear, but this was our cinco de mayo dinner. yea, i'm a little late posting, i know.

i have been slowly teaching jason spanish words ever since we got together (recently his favorite word was "palabras", no joke) and he has picked up a lot. some questions i ask in spanish he can answer in spanish. and he knows a lot if individual words. so this year for cinco de mayo i decided it was time for a dia espanol. needless to say, it almost lasted the thirty minute drive to work. and it ended something like this -

me: tenemos que ir a la tienda despues del trabajo.
jason: si? you need to go play tennis? since when do you play tennis?
me: no no no. ir a la tienda. the store. this is no good. back to ingles.

that was the end of dia espanol. (but not too bad for someone who hasn't taken a class in 10 years.) just don't ask me about my french.

actually, the salad was the end of the day. and it's good. the only real change i made from the original recipe is using the whole can of beans. what am i going to do with a leftover half can of kidney beans? nothing. so i use them all. and it's not bean overload or anything, so it works out perfecto.

...and if you don't like ground beef or want to change it up, use ground turkey, or thinly sliced chicken breast. one big chicken breast was enough for the two of us.

my favorite taco salad
from eating well serves two

1/2 cup prepared salsa
2 tablespoons reduced fat sour cream
vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces ground beef or turkey
1 plum tomato, diced
1 can rinsed kidney beans
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
4 cups shredded romaine lettuce (enough for two entree sized salads)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. combine salsa and sour cream in a large bowl big enough to hold the lettuce.
2. heat a skillet over medium high heat. add vegetable oil and cook the onion and garlic until soft, about 3 minutes.
3. add beef/turkey and cook through, about 5 minutes.
4. add tomato, beans, cumin, and chili powder. cook until the tomato starts to break down, a couple minutes.
5. remove from heat and stir in two heaping tablespoons of the salsa mixture and cilantro.
6. mix the lettuce with the rest of the salsa mixture.
7. serve the lettuce topped with beef/turkey mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

potato salad

after spending most of the day volunteering at Imagine RIT last weekend, burgers on the grill and this potato salad were perfect end to a hectic day. don't get me wrong, there were some cool projects on display, but the people. they were everywhere. i later heard they exceeded expectations by 8,000 people - instead of the 25,000, 32,000 people attended. insanity.

anyway, back to the potato salad. i'm actually not a huge fan. i mean, i like it, i'm just not in love with it. but who could resist this -

me "so what do you want for dinner this weekend?"
jason "oh my god, potato salad. i would love potato salad"
me "really?"
jason "yea, all i want is a giant bowl of it."

so i caved. and went to my old standby - joy of cooking. it seems like if i can't find a good recipe in one of the other dozen or so cookbooks i have, there are always a couple versions in the joy of cooking that look good. this time i wanted something basic so i went with good old american potato salad. and it didn't disappoint.

american potato salad
from joy of cooking

2 pounds potatoes, boiled until fork tender, cooled and cut into bite size cubes
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 small onion, diced
3 hard boiled eggs, diced
salt & pepper
celery salt

mix the potatoes, mayo, mustard, vinegar, onion, and eggs. season with salt & pepper and celery salt. chill and serve cold.