Green Bean, Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad

Hopefully, like me, you have plenty of cherry tomatoes growing in your garden. I love eating them just picked from the garden, so it is amazing that any make it back into the kitchen! I'm not growing green beans this year, but I got some locally grown for this recipe.

This salad is a perfect side dish, or can be eaten as a main course. I like to include it as one of several salads for our evening meal.

Green Bean, Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad

1-2 cups green beans, blanched and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large seedless cucumber, chopped

1/2 c. chopped flat leaf parsley

3 TBSP balsamic vinegar

1 TBSP lemon juice

4 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Assemble all vegetables in a bowl. Mix balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper into a small bowl and whisk until blended; pour desired amount of dressing over the vegetables.

Oven Baked Ono with Spinach, Blueberry, Kiwi Salad

I've been fixing fish for most of our evening meals. I decided to bake some Ono and served it with a fantastic spinach salad. Here is the recipe:

Spinach, Blueberry Kiwi Salad

2-3 c. baby spinach, washed and torn
6 oz. blueberries
1-2 kiwi, peeled, cored and diced
1/4 c. walnuts
Pomegranate Vinaigrette Dressing, to taste

Plate the spinach. Add the blueberries, kiwi and walnuts. Squeeze the dressing as desired onto the salad. Serves 2-3.

Here is the dressing. I bought it at Whole Foods. It is oil free, and mostly fruit concentrates. Very light but perfect for this salad.

Broccoflower Salad for St. Patrick's Day

Looking for something green to eat today besides green cookies or cupcakes with artificial coloring? Serve a Broccoflower Salad with dinner tonight. Actually, this salad is great any time of the year, but the color is perfect for today. I made mine up today for lunch, and served it on a green leaf lettuce. First, finely chop a head of broccoflower into pieces no bigger than 1/2". I only use the flowerettes. This is what it should look like, below.

I found some Brussels sprouts in the vegetable bin in the refrigerator. After washing, I cut off the ends, and thinly sliced them. You can use a mandoline, or can cut them with a sharp chopping knife. If you don't have Brussels sprouts, don't sweat it! I needed to use mine up.

This is what it looks like after adding the 10 small sliced Brussels sprouts.

Next, wash a couple of celery stalks. I cut them in 3 pieces lengthwise, then chopped them up.

If you have bacon, cook up 4-6 pieces until crisp. Cool, then chop into small pieces. I rarely have bacon on hand, but I do keep bacon bits in the fridge. I added about 1/2 c. If you want to keep this meatless, omit the bacon, or use a substitute bacon product.

Looking good! You are going to love this salad!

At this point, rummage through your fridge. I added a couple of teaspoons of hot spicy mustard left over from a cheese/cracker gift pack at Christmas. Add up to 1 c. mayo, 1/8 c. Parmesan cheese (I grated mine into the bowl, you can use whatever you have on hand), 1 TBSP sugar (or not...I didn't), 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp pickle juice (just drained some off from my bread and butter pickles) and 1 TBSP dried onion. You can add 1/4 c. sunflower seeds and 1/2 c. raisin if you like. I added the sunflower seeds, but forgot to add the raisins. Bummer.

Don't be afraid to experiment with what you have on hand in the way of condiments and add-ins. Mix it all together, and serve on a lettuce leaf as a main dish or just serve it as a side with your other food items. Enjoy!

Thai Tuna Wraps

This is such a great recipe! My understanding is that this is a recipe from Pampered Chef. I got it from a friend, who got it from a friend! I have altered the recipe to decrease some of the mayo.

Thai Tuna Wraps

2 TBSP Lime Juice
1/2 c. mayonnaise or miracle whip ( I use less)
1 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP sugar
3 c. cabbage, chopped (or use a bagged coleslaw)
1 medium carrot, shredded
3 green onions, sliced
1 can tuna, drained and flaked
flour tortillas

Mix the first 4 ingredients with wisk. Add the flaked tuna, and mix with the cabbage, carrots and green onions. I didn't have a carrot or the green onions, but I am undeterred by missing ingredients. It tasted great!

You can used spinach tortillas, or another specialty tortilla. This can be served without the tortilla, too!

Broccoli Salad with Bacon

For dinner tonight, I made this wonderful Broccoli Salad and served it with leftover risotto, and sweet barbecue chicken wings (got these and used a beer rebate for cheap wings).

The most expensive part of this recipe is the broccoli. I bought the crowns only and paid $1.30 for them. I got just enough for the recipe, which serves 4. The bacon I had only paid $0.50 (after coupon), and have stored it in the freezer. We don't eat much bacon, but it is nice to have on hand if I can get it for such a low price.

When purchasing broccoli, make sure you are getting tight bud heads that are dark green, no yellow. Cut the flowerettes off leaving about 1 inch of stem, and then split these lengthwise to make smaller, bite size pieces.

Dice the celery....

Add each item to the broccoli....here I just dumped in the red onion and celery.

My husband ate the seedless red grapes that I was going to use in this recipe.....yep, major failure to communicate on my part. So, I just did without them. I did add the raisins (which he hates...but I love!) and the sunflower seeds.

I cooked up a pound of bacon, half went into this recipe, and the other half into the refried beans I have cooking in the crock pot (I'll post this recipe later tonight). Isn't this looking yummy?

You can make your own dressing or use ready made. I had gotten Kraft dressing at a great deal a while back, so just used some creamy poppy seed dressing.

Broccoli Salad with Bacon

2 c. broccoli flowerettes, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 lb cooked bacon, chopped or crumbled
1/2 c. chopped celery
1 c. seedless grapes, cut in half
1/2 c. raisins
1/4 c. diced red onion

Dressing
1/2 c. mayo
2 tbsp sugar,
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Whisk together and pour over salad.

Art City Trolley Salad Recipe

Do you want to eat a delicious, restaurant quality salad, yet be in the comfort of your own home? This is a wonderful salad to enjoy, similar to what is served at the Art City Trolley in Springville, Utah.

Here is the recipe:

1 small head of romaine
1/2 bag of baby spinach
1/4 c. pomegranate seeds,
small can of sliced olives
1 c. grated mozzarella cheese
4 -6 strips cooked bacon, chopped
1/2 c. sugared slivered almonds
1/2 red onion, diced
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
poppy seed salad dressing

I arranged all of the ingredients on the lettuces with dressing. You might want to toss all of the ingredients just before serving so everyone can see how pretty it looks. Serve with a nice artisan bread.

If you haven't sugared almonds before, just put a couple of teaspoons of sugar in a frying pan, and dump the almonds on top. Stir constantly while cooking over med-high heat until the sugar melts and the almonds are thoroughly coated with sugar. Pour onto waxed paper and spread out. Let cool and break into small pieces. Keep in an air tight container until ready to use.