Grilled chicken caesar salad

So I needed something really quick and fast for dinner.  I had a bunch of lettuce, radishes and green onions from the garden so I decided a grilled chicken salad would fit the bill.  My son requested that instead of the regular greek salad I do, that I make a caesar salad.  I had grilled chicken breasts in the freezer. I always keep them handy for quick meals.

Now I have a lot of salad dressing recipes, from green goddess to the junior league and almost everything in between...didn't have a caesar salad recipe and I was not planning to drive into town for a bottle of salad dressing!  I scoured the recipe books...nothing! Not even in the old, old ones!

Here's the website; http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1615,142189-245199,00.html

I doctored it a bit but it was a hit!

CAESAR SALAD DRESSING
Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1615,142189-245199,00.html Content Copyright © 2011 Cooks.com - All rights reserved. 1 cup mayonnaise 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp Worcestershire 1 clove of garlic (minced) 1/4 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 1/2 c Parmesean cheese 1 tbsp of milk or half and half Mix all ingredients together and shake or whisk until well blended. thanks to Shannon for sharing!

I added a little less mayo and a little more lemon juice. I also used fresh parmesean.  I was going to use a little anchovie paste but I had used it up a few weeks ago in a puttanesca sauce. Ok, did I just say or type that? I sound like an uppity-food snob! he! he!  Anyway, I think it could use a touch of the paste but even without it, it was a quick and easy great tasting dressing. 

I'm thinking it would be a great base dressing to add fresh dill or basil or just about any herb for a creamy dressing.
I'll definitely be making and keeping this dressing in my fridge all summer long!

Greek Salad

I went to the garden and came out with green onions, lettuce, spinach and sugar snap peas.  What to do about dinner? Well, I made a greek salad! When I do a salad, I usually make them individually because each person in the family likes certain things except me.  If it grows in the ground, I like it.  Except lima beans, don't care for the texture.  But I'm planting them after the peas finish producing for my daughter, who really loves them!

Here's my recipe, feel free to exclude anything that you don't like!

Greek Salad
leaf lettuce and spinach
 feta cheese, crumbled
olives, I use calamata but kids might just like plain old black
sliced beets, you can use a can/jar. I use the ones I have canned and they are pickled.
Tomatoes, green onions, carrots, cucumbers, red peppers anything else you can get the family to eat!
Diced pineapple - I know this is weird but we had a place in Indiana that had the best greek salad and they put pineapple on the salad.  It gives the salad a little sweet in an otherwise tart salad!
I put sliced grilled chicken from my big batch cooking because my son doesn't think it is a meal unless it has meat!

Fill each salad plate with the amount the person wants, then add all the extras to taste.

Dressing:
I lifted this off the internet and changed it a bit to suit our tastes so feel free to omit anything your family doesn't like.
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons (t) oregano
2 t basil
2 t garlic powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t black pepper
1 1/2 t dried onion pieces
1 t honey mustard
1 cup red wine vinegar

You could also just use prepared but I don't like them because they usually contain sugar and we get enough of that already.

Grilled Chicken Salad

Now that spring is officially here, I can really fire up my grill! Grilling at our house is done by me, not the man. My man's family doesn't do grilling. Over the years, I have purchased several different types of grills as presents and they always disappear after a short time. I came to the conclusion that they just don't grill. My family would cook everything on the grill in the summer if possible. I grew up without whole house air-conditioning until I was in my teens. We had a couple of window units, one in the kitchen and one in the living room. My mother would cook a large lunch and then try not to heat up the kitchen anymore.

I still hold to that and try not to use the oven very much in the summer. I have made bread on the grill and do a lot of ice-box pies. Yes, I said ice-box. I call my fridge the ice-box. I thought everybody did until I got married and moved to Indiana. First time I said to get something out of the ice-box to a friend, she just stood and looked at me. Sometimes, my Okie shows a little too much! Anyway, I like to grill!

Since I covered the big batch cooking back in January, is it almost April, good grief how time flies! Anyway, you know that when I grill chicken, I grill a whole lot at a time and freeze some for days when I don't have time to fire up the grill. Today is one of those days. It's soccer tonight, so we're having a grilled chicken salad. I have a lot of different variations on this but tonight, we're going tex-mex.

Tex-mex Grilled chicken Salad

Romaine lettuce, washed, dried and torn into pieces. Fill a plate with enough for each family member
1/2 - 1 grilled chicken breast per family member, if you're using rotissore chicken, use 1/2 - 1 cup per member. You can use the chicken hot or cold.
chopped tomato, red bell pepper, green onions, black olives
1 cup ranch dressing with 1/2 mashed avocado stirred in ( I use my frozen guacamole)
shredded cheddar or co-jack cheese

I make a bean salsa to eat on or beside the chicken salad. It's super easy!
1 can drained and rinsed beans; can be black, pinto, red; use what you have! If you have a large family, use two different kinds of beans
1 cup frozen corn, it will thaw as it gets mixed up into the salsa
1 tablespoon diced fine; onion
1 tablespoon diced red pepper or jalapeno (I keep some frozen for this)
1/4 cup italian dressing
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1-2 tablespoons dried cilantro or fresh if you have it. Do this to taste.
you can add a little tomato if you'd like.

Mix all together and let sit in the ice-box for a while. It's actually better the next day.

I do this in an assembly line. I usually make everyone's and hand them out. That way, my son doesn't take all the black olives!

Sometimes, I put corn chips under the lettuce, then top with chicken, all the veggies, the dressing and cheese.

The entire dinner can be made in under 15 minutes if the chicken is already grilled!

Off to soccer!

Chinese Chicken Slaw

My son and I were on our own the other night for dinner. My husband and daughter went out on daddy-daughter date night. Every year, we have a daddy-daughter dance in our town and they've attended. I take her to get her hair done and buy a dress. Daddy buys a flower for the pretty girl and they go out to dinner before the dance. This year, she decided that she was too old to go. It made my husband very sad but he, typical male, didn't say anything about it.

My daughter commented a few days after the decision not to go was made that what she was really going to miss was the dinner with her dad. I happily volunteered that her dad would take her out for dinner anytime she wanted. Well, they got dressed up the other night, went out for linguine with red clam sauce and ice cream for dessert. Dad was in his element! What a happy man he was to show his little girl around town, except this time, his little girl wore high heels!

Son and I were on our own for dinner and I didn't really want to go out. I found a head of cabbage that needed to be eaten. I decided to make chinese chicken slaw. I had a rotiserre chicken I had purchased earlier in the day so I deboned it and chopped it coarsely. Here's my recipe for the slaw I made and I do say, it was delicious!

Chinese Chicken Slaw

1 head chopped cabbage
1/2-3/4 cups chopped chicken per person
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup black seedless grapes per person
2 T toasted almond slivered per person

dressing:
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon chili oil (too taste, it's really hot)
mix all together and let sit until salad is ready

I chopped the cabbage and chicken and let my son take out what he could eat onto his salad bowl. I then put the oranges, grapes and almonds on top and poured some dressing on top.

It was a hit! He told me I could make that anytime. Maybe I just will, it took all of ten minutes to make!

I'm sure I could persuade the other two to do a daddy-daughter dinner more often!