Strawberry Spinach Salad w/ Poppyseed Dressing

FRIDAY, AUGUST 20TH, 2010

In an attempt to get back to our post-vacation "health", I decided to try to make salads a more interesting part of our meal. There are so many good ones out there that are super simple, and very yummy. I came across a blog which had this recipe (http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/06/strawberry-spinach-salad-with-poppy.html). I decided to try it out, with my own modifications.

Ingredients:

Salad:

Baby spinach
Strawberries
Green onion
Goat cheese (optional

Dressing:

1/4 c. white wine vinegar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. poppy seed

1. I first prepared the poppyseed dressing by combining the sugar, vinegar, salt, and mustard in a food processor, and processing for 20 seconds.

2. I then added the oil and blended on high for an additional 10 seconds.

3. I removed the dressing into a bowl, and stirred in the poppy seeds, and refrigerated until I needed to use it on the salad.

4. For the salad, I simply combined the spinach, sliced strawberries, green onion, and goat cheese (we had some left over in our fridge).

5. I just spooned the dressing over top as needed, but you could also combine and toss it all together.

Overall, this was a pretty good tasting salad. Hard to screw up! I would have liked if we had more goat cheese to add to it, as I felt it went well with the dressing and strawberries. Will definitely (try to remember to) do this again!

Hearty Salad from the South-West of France

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 2009

5 stars (out of 5 - a very hearty meal in a bowl)

It was SB's birthday dinner and he wanted us to make this huge salad that is popular in the south of France...

Ingredients:

Spring salad mix
Prosciutto
1 package Magret de canard (fumé)
Cherry tomatoes
Shredded cheese*
Potatoes (1 per person)
Eggs (1 per person)

Dressing: (as you wish)
Dijon mustard
Olive oil
White wine vinegar

1. First we peeled the potatoes, and sliced them as finely as we could. We put them in a pan with olive oil and fried them for a long time. You want them to be very well-cooked.

2. As the potatoes were cooking, we shredded the cheese and chopped the cherry tomatoes in half. We also started boiling the eggs (1 egg per person; for soft-boiled we left them in for four minutes).

3. We then made the dressing by mixing in dijon mustard (3 tsp) and white wine vinegard (1 tbsp approx) and olive oil, until smooth.

4. After the potatoes were ready (see above pic), we started the salad by using HUGE bowls and layering the bottom with the spring salad mix and tomatoes.

5. Next, we added a layer of magret de canard...

6. ... and topped this with another layer of salad, followed by the cooked potatoes.

7. Then added the cheese...

8. ...prosciutto...

9. ... and then the magret de canard and potatoes.

10. Finally, we topped it with a soft-boiled egg and the dressing.

We served it with champagne to complete the French experience ;)

My version, sans meat:

Me, not sure what to expect:

SB looking happy with his creation:

And yes, SB did finish his whole HUGE salad:

Overall, this was a quite delicious salad. I liked the warm egg and potatoes , which made it a very hearty meal (even without meat). I think that for us Canadian meat-eaters (and the budget-conscious), just one of the meats would suffice, but what do I know?! I will definitely be making this again, on another special occasion.

Chicken/Chick'n Caesar Salad and Wrap

TUESDAY, AUGUST 11TH, 2009

3.5 stars (out of 5 - super easy, but not super impressive)

I'm posting this, not because it's special in any way, but rather because I had forgot what a super-quick, easy meal this is, and thought it would be a great reminder. I have yet to try my own Caesar salad dressing, but maybe when I have a bit more time. For this salad, I splurged on some better salad dressing from the store.

Ingredients:

1 chicken or chick'n breast*
Romain lettuce
Caesar salad dressing
Parmasan cheese
Croutons (optional)
Flour tortillas (optional)

{*Note. Any simulated chick'n meat will do for vegetarians.}

1. First we heated the frying pan, added some olive oil, and cooked our respective meats. As they were cooking, we tore up the lettuce (okay, we used a pre-made salad... sooo bad and soo lazy!) and added the dressing and parmasan cheese. We then added our meat on top of the salad. A better way to do this is to add your meat directly to the salad, but we forgot :) Garnish as you please!

2. I preferred to have a Caesar salad wrap, so just wrapped it up. It was a bit disappointing how little salad I could fit in there, though, after all my chick'n.

Overall, this is such a simple thing to do, and with the chicken added it makes a great light dinner or lunch. We'll definitely do it again on lazy days!