A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Copycat Ruby Tuesday's Ham & Pea Pasta Salad

 One of my favorite dishes on Ruby Tuesday's Garden Bar is the ham and pea pasta salad.   From talking with friends, I found that I'm not a lone.  Lots of people hit the salad bar for that pasta dish.  Some even confess to skipping the greens on the bar to save room for that pasta dish.  Tickled to have found a copycat home version for it, I ended up taking it as an entree salad for lunch at work two nights in a row.

Appetizers with Style: Christmas Tree Veggie Plate

My friend, Jennifer, sent me a pic of the appetizer plate she made for a Christmas work party. I LOVE this!  What a great way to turn a simple veggie tray into a festive wrok of art!

It's as straight-forward as it looks: She halved one broccoli spear, leaving about 3 inches of "trunk" and then laid in bite-sized floret bites to form the tree itself.  Next she decorated with yellow pepper slices for garland and then added cherry tomato ornaments. The final touch is a treetop star cut out of yellow pepper using a small cookie/hors d'oeuvre cutter.

Thanks for sharing, Jenn!

 

 

 

Auntie's Fruited Salad with Orange Marmalade Vinaigrette

 

Isn't Auntie Miranda's salad for Dexter Dinner Premiere beautiful?  I'll let her tell you in her own words how she did it from the email she sent me explaining the PERFECT dressing:

 

"On the salad dressing - I knew that I was going to put mandarin oranges in the salad - so I did a Rachel Ray trick when I made the dressing (at home).  I started with a couple of tablespoons of orange marmalade and melted it in the microwave.  I added about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.  I added about a quarter of a cup of EVOO....and here's a trick I learned from Ann the other day.  Rachel always whisks her EVOO in - but I'm like Ann.  When I do that I never get a very good emulsion.  So I put it in the jar and shook it up and it emulsified in no time.

 

You can change out the marmalade to match whatever fruit you're going to put in your salad - strawberry, pineapple, grape, etc.  I just like a little sweetness in the dressing if you're going to put fruit in the salad."

Thanks Auntie!

Eat Clean Diet: Sweet Potato/Cucumber Salad

When I saw this recipe in the Eat Clean Diet Cookbook I knew I had to try it. It's so different!  Sweet Potatoes and Cucumbers?  Interesting pairing.  I made this the other night when when Colleen and Matt and the kids came over, along with Rodney and Aunti Miranda. I knew Aunti would go along for the tastebud ride with me!  We each ate a large serving of it, tasting and comparing to other food combinations.  Our final evaluation was that although we didn't out and out love it and vow to make it once a week for the rest of our lives, that it is different and interesting and a nice balance of sweet, savory, salty, and sour, and full of textures. 

Eat Clean Diet: Cole Slaw

I'm crediting this recipe to Eat Clean Diet. I could have sworn I found it, or something very similar, in either one of the ECD books/cookbooks or on the ECD web site, but going back, I can't for the life of me find it again.  Wherever in my brain, on the net, or in an ECD book it came from, this is what I wrote down so I know wherever the original recipe came from, this is how I ended up making it.

Let me give a caveat. This is not your grandmother's cole slaw but it is very good, much cleaner and crisper tasting, but you have to go into it not expecting the same mayo-tongue feel.  The bite of the yogurt is a perfect match with the other ingredients and it was wonderful on top of a pulled pork sandwich and as a side to meatloaf. It's lightness and bite worked in its favor with the heavier meat entrees I ate it with.

Wilted Lettuce: A Healthy Update to a Classic Salad

I think of this salad as "The Nannie" salad. Not Fran Drescher, but MY Nannie, my grandmother. I don't remember my mom making it very often but I remember my grandmother making it all the time.  As a kid I thought it was pretty good, you know, for something that was supposed to be good for me. I loved the bite of the vinegar, the sweet of the sugar, and trying to hog (I know, bad pun) all the crunchy, salty bacon pieces out of it. Now I love it for all those reasons plus the emotion that it is one of the defining salads of spring, not to mention that by the time you wilt a bucketful of lettuce I feel so good about myself for eating that huge vegetable serving without even realizing it had I not been the one to wilt it.

However, for all the healthy goodness of the fresh lettuces, the big no-no to this salad is the half pound of bacon my grandmother fried to use the grease to make it.  Last night at dinner, after watching me prepare this with olive oil as a base, Gene commented "My grandmother used bacon grease for this."  I said "So did mine but our grandmothers didn't have your heart disease and they didn't know better."  He laughed and said "It was just an observation" and he left nary a leaf in his bowl when he was done so I guess olive oil works just fine.

I admit I love the bacon too but there has to be a better, healthier way.  There is. It's easy if you substitute olive oil for the bacon grease and use Hormel or Oscar Meyer real bacon pieces for the crunch and flavor.  The packaged cooked bacon pieces are real, just the lean parts of the bacon and they only have 25 calories and 1 gram of fat per tablespoon.  It's a substitute I can definitely live better with.

Lemon Cream Dressing

 

A friend who is on a low oxalate diet for kidney stones gave me this salad dressing recipe to try out and it's a winner. I like that it has the richness of a creamy dressing without being heavy and the brightness of a vinaigrette, which makes it perfect over the wonderful assorted greens I brought home from the CSA Tuesday.

Click for the Honey-Mustard Curry Chicken recipe, one of Gene's all-time favorites.

Fennel, Carrot, and Apple Salad

 

Another recipe I made from the Ciao Italia: Five Ingredient Favorites from the other night that was somewhat a hit at our house.  The salad is great. The dressing was simple and fantastic. The only problem was me. Fennel is one of those vegetables I try really hard to like but I just don't care for the taste of licorice so it's not the recipe's fault.  I will make the salad again except I'll probably substitute jicama or chopped celery or maybe even cabbage but still use the carrots, apple, and the dressing.

Did You Eat Your New Year's Day Black-eyed Peas? Cowboy Caviar

I love traditions and so for years I've tried to be a good little New Year's girl and eat my black-eyed peas but the truth is I don't really like 'em.  Until now. I finally found a recipe that I feel like enhances the taste so that I'm willing to down them not only on New Year's Day but on other days of the year as well.

The recipe is called Cowboy Caviar and there are a million variations. This is mine. I tailored the idea of a cold bean salad to accommodate my personal tastes and to incorporate some of my new eating principles.  There are beans, veggies, and olive oil, a trifecta of good for the body and a treat for the tastebuds.  I served this as a side dish on New Year's Eve but we also played around with it as a salsa-type appetizer eaten with tortilla chips, and I mixed some with some cooked brown rice I had in the fridge that I'll be taking in my lunch box at times this year as an entree and eating for lunch on New Year's Day today.  Yummy and versatile.

Caprese Salad with Pickled Green Tomatoes

 

Auntie Miranda went with friends to The Keeter Center in Branson for dinner the night before last night.  The Keeter Center is the small hotel and dining room run by the Hospitality Dept of School of the Ozarks.  And run very well.  We have a respiratory conference down there that's dynamite as a conference and The Keeter Center as a venue is superb.

In the dining room, Auntie chose this Caprese salad with fresh red and pickled green tomatoes.  She said she took one bite, rolled her eyes in delight, and said to the waiter "Can I get one of these to go?"  I went to bed early that night but it was waiting for me in the fridge when i got up the next day. 

Wow. I don't know how much better it could have been fresh because it was still incredibly fresh, crispy, and wonderful the next day.  This is definitely a do at home thing too. I know you can buy green tomato pickles, or even better would be to can them from the garden.  I'm thinking even fresh green tomatoes mixed with red tomatoes and fresh mozzarella would be wonderful fresh out of the garden....maybe drizzle a little honey across the top with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar to add that sweetness from the pickling syrup.

Thanks Aunti Miranda! What a lovely and healthy lunch. We'll definitely be working on a home recipe for this one!