The Best No Lettuce Salad Ever

Today I am sharing with you a new and delicious and really healthy No Lettuce salad. On Sunday our beautiful friends, Don and Ina, had us over to their house for lunch. I love cooking with Ina. She is inspirational and she cooks like I do which makes it much more fun when we cook together! What do I mean when I say, "she cooks like I do?" I mean we make things up on the fly. We start pulling stuff out of the refrigerator and chopping and mixing and creating and stirring and tasting and what results is nothing short of intense yumminess!

I credit Ina with the fact that I roast pretty much all of my vegatables now as opposed to boiling them (gag!) or ((gulp)) microwaving them! (Blech!) On Sunday we made a wonderful roasted vegetables mix; sweet young carrots fresh from the farmer's market, parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower. We threw in a handful of chopped fresh herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, and sage), some kosher salt and some herb seasoning from the local organic food store. Added a hefty drizzling of EV Olive Oil and Ohhh, the wonder. I cannot feel guilty about pigging out on vegetables. And I did pig out. (Don't worry, there were still some left after we had all pigged out on them.) We made lots because everyone loves them. My children would probably have licked the platter when they were all gone if I had let them. I would have fairly gorged myself on the roasted veggies alone if we had not thrown together the Best No Lettuce Salad Ever. Never one to leave a just recently conceived recipe alone, I have already tweaked it and added a few items that were not in there before (yes, it was so good on Sunday that I decided to make it for dinner tonight.)

This salad packs more nutrition into one bowl than I think I could get in any other meal and did I mention yet that it is heaven on the palate? I made this in the morning as cooking never feels as stressful in the morning and the flavors get to marry throughout the day.

Mix the following ingredients in a large salad bowl:

(all measurements are the pre-cooked measurements but the rice, barley and pasta all need to be cooked and cooled in the refrigerator for about an hour or two before making the salad. I threw them all in the same bowl to cool.)

1 1/2 cups brown rice
3/4 cup (pot) barley
3/4 cup alphabet/stars pasta. The kids chose alphabet today.
1 can olives, drained and halved (can use red grapes halved if you want a different/sweet take on it)
1 can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
1 can artichoke hearts drained and quartered
3 to 4 sun dried tomatoes julienned
1/8 to 1/4 cup of grated or julienned red bell pepper
3/4 cup finely shredded asiago cheese

For the dressing, in an another bowl combine:
3/4 cup mayonaisse (can use light)
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (0 fat or 2%)
1/4 cup chopped dill (can use fresh or freeze dried)
1/3 cup chopped fresh chives
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. EV Olive Oil

Pour the dressing over top of the salad mixture and stir until everything is thoroughly coated. Go ahead! Lay it on! It's a lowfat dressing!

This cold meal in a bowl is about enough to turn me into a vegetarian it is so good! You may look at this list of ingredients and doubt me but I'm telling you, it is already my favorite no lettuce salad and definitely replaces plain old pasta or potato salad. I am going to make this for the Fourth of July. I have a feeling my Dad won't be able to keep himself from wanting thirds of it... if I know my Dad!

This looks so yummy!!

I must try this recipe I just found over at Scribbit!

Don't miss this!!

There will be fun stuff happening over at my place next week! Tell your friends!

Cheesy Peasy Salad

This salad is one of our all time favorites. It's light and crispy but quite substantial as far as salads go. And so yummy! Company worthy for sure!

What you'll need:
4-6 cups bit sized greens (I like to use a combination of baby spinach, butter lettuce and iceburg)
3 green onions chopped
2 cups fresh or frozen peas (I don't precook them, though you can) If you try this with canned peas I'll be forced to cause you some sort of bodily harm.
1 1/2 cups swiss cheese grated
6-8 Tblsp. Mayonaisse
3 tsp. granulated sugar
5 slices crisp bacon (crumbled or chopped) -- If you try substituting bacon bits for the real deal... well, I promise not to hurt you but I will retract my company worthy rating of the salad!

What to do:
In large bowl layer half of every ingredient. Just sprinkle the sugar evenly and then plop the mayo in blobs on top of the first layer. Repeat the layers ending with the sugar and mayo and cover. Refrigerate for about two hours. Toss just before serving. Bacon can be withheld until after chilling. It will be crunchier this way.

It's Salad Season!

Every Summer I feel the need to make specialty salads for dinner at least once a week. There is just something about the heat of the day that makes me crave light and lucious foods! I love getting new salad recipes! So I'm just going to right ahead and assume that you do too.

I will be posting a couple of sald recipes over the next week as Summer approaches. What can I say? Since there is no snow on the ground it's as good as Summer to me! So I say, bring on the salads!

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Rosemary Grilled Chicken Sandwiches

This sandwich is SCRUMPTIOUS! You will Mmmm and Oooh over it the whole time you are rapidly ingesting it.

I wish I had taken pictures of it as I made them because I'm sure you would believe me more fully about how incredibly yummy they are. You'll just have to take my word for it though.

What you will need:

5 medium sized chicken breasts
2 - 3 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive oil
3 tsp. fresh Rosemary chopped small
3 cloves garlic minced
salt (several shakes)
pepper (a few turns of the grinder)
Focaccia bread or crusty buns

Toppings:
Hellman's Mayonaisse
2 avocados sliced
1 tomato sliced (if you like them... I don't)
1 medium red/purple onion sliced thinly
head of butter lettuce
Havarti cheese sliced
1 pkg. pre-cooked bacon warmed


About 30 minutes prior to putting them on the BBQ, prepare chicken by coating them in 2 - 3 Tbsp. of EV olive oil, the minced garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Let them marinate at least 20 to 30 minutes. Of course you can marinate them for longer if you want to. Cook them on the grill. (I won't attempt to tell you how long this takes to do them perfectly. My husband is master of the grill here so I don't really know how long it takes!)


Now prepare the focaccia bread. Cut into sandwich sized wedges. I like to cut them triangularly as they look more attractive this way. I was unable to find focaccia bread this last time that I made these sandwiches so I bought several of the fresh "crusty buns" instead. But herbed foccacia bread is much preferable. I don't like the cheesy focaccia bread with this. But really, whatever you prefer. Now slice the wedges across the center and brush the inside of the "buns" with a bit of olive. When the chicken is done, pop the buns or focaccia buns inside down on the grill for a couple of minutes to make them just ever so crisp. Just some light grill marking is what you are aiming for.

At the table have all of your toppings available on plates. The bacon can be warmed (I just stuck all of them in together for about 15 seconds) or it can be used cold. Assemble your sandwich as you please and enjoy! These are so incredibly yummy and very company worthy. I'm sure there are plenty of variations you can make to the toppings you'd like on them to make them yours.

I think you're going to love them!