|
Poll: Favorite Meal-size Salads for Summer
Now that hot weather has struck...I have made a couple of dinners that are salad, period. Minimal cooking. I'm not into HOT HOT HOT kitchens!
If you have a favorite, please add to the list below, with ingredients and a quick how-to. So far I have made: 1. Chicken Caesar: slice up chicken breasts, marinate in Ceasar dressing for an hour. Fry quickly in a little olive oil in a hot pan. Chop romaine and tomatoes. Place lettuce on plates and top with chicken, tomatoes, shaved parmesan, and more caesar dressing. 2. Chicken, Bacon & Fresh Mozzarella: Dice bacon and fry in pan while thin-slicing chicken. Remove bacon and quickly fry the chicken. While chicken is frying, prepare plates of spring mix lettuce and snip basil over the top. Dice some fresh mozzarella. When chicken has cooled, toss with grated parmesan, mix with bacon and spoon over lettuce. Top with fresh mozzarella cubes and cracked pepper. Serve with oil and vinegar. |
My daily favorite salad is roasted chicken breast or tuna fish over tender leafy greens (butter or bib) with my homemade Garlic Dijon Vinaigrette.
I slow cook the chicken on the weekends and slice it up. Place into portion size containers... when I get ready to eat my salad, I pop chicken into the microwave for a couple of mins to thaw and either quickly pan brown it or broil for 4 mins in oven ~ easy pea-sy yumminess!! |
How do your make you garlic dijon dressing?
|
ooh, great thread topic- i love salads!
1. hands down favorite-- i roasted a tray of brussels and bell peppers- usually orange and yellow, or yellow and red- to make them pretty. i toss in sea salt and garlic, and roast until lightly browning-- usually 30 to 35 mins at 350. i keep them in fridge. when it is salad time- i layer lettuce, then roasted veggies, then goat cheese, and sometimes garlic chicken. i dress with apple cider vinegar or champagne vinegar plus EVOO, sea salt and a packet of splenda. 2. tomato and fresh mozzarella with fresh basil. then i top with grilled shrimp (picked the shrimp twist up from a local restaurant). i dress with a balsamic and fresh sea salt. 3. i like to cook shrimp in wing sauce, then top lightly wilted spinach with them, plus bluecheese dressing (ranch would be fine, too if you prefer). chicken also works here. 4. spinach, baked salmon, and green goddess dressing- i usually add avocado and fresh tomato as well. |
Quote:
Robin, I love your food ideas! Kat |
I agree, Paula, great thread!
My J is full of a Garlic Shrimp Caesar Salads - I saute raw peeled shrimp in butter and a clove of sliced fresh garlic, let it cool on a plate and put torn romaine in a bowl. If you want crisp something without croutons I dice celery in there. Assemble romaine, garlic shrimp and scraped pan drippings, Parmesan, celery if using, and use your favorite Caesar dressing. Many times I make a home-made Ranch instead. Kat |
Roast beef, arugula, avocado & tomato, dressed with EVOO and champagne vinegar!
|
I like to prepare a main dish salad that tastes just like a bunless Big Mac.
I grill a burger while I'm chopping the salad: shredded iceberg lettuce a few grape tomatoes diced chopped dill pickles chopped sweet onion "special sauce" dressing: tablespoon real mayo tablespoon sf ketchup tsp sf relish (mount olive brand is the only one I can find in stores) tablespoon sour cream When burger is done melt slice of American cheese on it then cut it up and add to the salad. Stir in special sauce dressing and add a few shakes of black pepper. The grilled burger is really what makes this a keeper... it just isn't the same with a pan fried hamburger. I suppose a slice or two of crispy bacon chopped up and mixed in would send this salad completely over the edge in taste. :lol: |
Quote:
Oh my... yes. This would be delicious! |
Yum, Good thread Paula.
Making me hungry... |
Wow, there are some good ideas on this thread!
Robin, I love the roasted vegetable/goat cheese idea! Also - wing sauce shrimp, and green goddess on spinach and salmon! That's what I'm talking' about! Kat, never thought to dress a salad with pan drippings - great idea! MICHE68, I have made a cheeseburger salad before but not with pickles and onion. My mouth is watering thinking of this. Thanks. ImOnMyWay, steak and avo on a salad....heaven!! Thanks for all the great ideas, ladies! I hope more ideas roll in, too... |
Quote:
Wow, I am loving these ideas too - Love the cheeseburger salad MICH and I'm On, that sounds delicious too... I always say a bad salad is a crime... :D Kat |
One of my favorites, when I'm not in the mood for meat, is avocado & tomato dressed with a mix of EVOO & balsamic vinegar.
I just learned about roasted garlic red wine vinegar and might try that in place of the balsamic vinegar n |
Quote:
My brother-in-law used to dice avocado and tomato and mix with mayo. It was good! |
Shrimp or poached salmon. The shrimp is bought cooked, frozen, peeled...just let it defrost in fridge during the day. Or buy fresh cooked salmon... No cooking, no prep is the goal in the summer.
Make whatever salad base with whatever veggies you like, add avocado slices for richness, goat cheese (or other cheese), walnuts or pecans for crunch, and favorite dressing. |
Robin reminded me of one that I kind of forgot about. Cook some broccoli and/or cauliflower for dinner one night, preferably in the microwave in summer, with enough for leftovers. Make a salad out of the leftover cooked/chilled florets. You could use any type of dressing, but I like it with 3-cheese ranch, some extra shredded cheese, bacon, other chopped veggies like bell pepper or onion, and maybe some chicken if I want some more protein. It's a nice change over the typical lettuce salad.
I also like what I'll call a bowl salad because it's a little messy to eat off a plate. Again lettuce-less, chopped tomato + whatever other veggies I have - usually mushrooms, cucumber, maybe zucchini, bell peppers. Chopped chicken, beef, and/or bacon for protein. Whatever dressing I use ends up blending with the tomato juice. |
i am obsessed with this thread- there are so many great ideas!
i just remembered one thing i love that is a technique-- grilled lettuce is very popular in a lot of restaurants in my area right now- for example, a grilled romaine with shrimp and cesar........ the flavor is out of this world. |
Oh that sounds good Kristine...Robyn and Jey - YUM :thup:
And Robin, yes! Grilled lettuce is popular now :) what a great idea. I had some time to kill (we were waiting for work to come today so I was looking thru my first J on here and ran across a salad I remembered as being really good: Carnitas salad I just put some butter and oil in a cast iron skillet and shredded some leftover pork tenderloin, added salt and some onion powder, fried it up and put it in my salad with romaine, Parmesan (just a little), chopped up a hard boiled egg, added White Truffle Oil and a little Tarragon vinegar and I was in heaven. I was limited as to spices I could use because I was a week pre-op at the time, but you could add whatever you wanted. Kat |
Kristine inspired me to jump-start this thread again, since it is summer and hot... supper salads are a great idea.
My favorite go to dinner salad is mixed greens or romaine, radish, tomato, avocado, bacon bits, hard boiled egg, sauteed shrimp in butter, shredded cheese and those Parmesan Crisp rounds w/ homemade Ranch. It's so good I never tire of it. -Kat |
Dressing
Evoo Acv Fresh ground black pepper Lo salt Feta Black olives Chicken Over mixed greens. |
Haha, you beat me to it, Kat! :D
My only add-on to this thread would be that salads aren't the only cold dinner meal. My go-to this week has been cold leftover quiche! Call me weird, but I really like it sliced up cold. I was going to start another thread about Heat-wave no-A/C faves; not necessarily limited to salads or meals. Here are my other ideas: - SF Jello - I use the microwave to boil the cup of water. - Iced tea - Make really strong tea (4 tea bags) in a mug in the microwave, let it steep and cool, pour over ice in a pitcher, add cold water/sweetener/lemon juice to taste. - Iced coffee - Yogurt and berries - Smoothies with frozen berries, peanut butter, protein powder, pasteurized liquid eggs, yogurt... whatever. - Lettuce wraps with whatever usual sandwich you'd have. - Pork rinds with salsa and sour cream - Cold noodle salads: either shirataki or spiralized zucchini. I like to make a glass noodle type of salad, or it works as any other pasta salad. |
Quote:
Kristine, great ideas! I was inspired talking about this thread so I went for it! :agree: You should start that thread - lots of ideas for keeping cool on a budget. I'll post for sure! |
Ms A: Yum! I love Greek style salads.
I am always looking for really yummy dinner salads - especially now after last night's sweltering kitchen fiasco...cooking and using an oven in a west kitchen on a hot sunny day was misery for the rest of the evening. Brief stovetop cooking only in summer! Here is a salad recipe I copied from Ken's 1st journal, pg 20 2/1/15, I don't think he'd mind if I shared it here - I call it Ken's salad: Spinach, iceberg lettuce, 1 c cottage cheese, carrots, tinned fish of choice (tuna), nuts, Ranch dressing |
Almost 17 years on, and this salad is still very much a favourite of mine:
Tuna Salsa Salad These days I tend to make it with cold poached salmon and avocado oil mayo :yum: |
Demi, that sounds great. :thup: You reminded me that I've often used guacamole in place of mayo to make chicken or tuna salad. Right now, I'm trying to avoid seed oils and I've got half a dozen avocados to use up, so I see this in my future.
Another salad idea: you can use shredded beef or pork just like you'd use flaked tuna or chicken. I've made pulled pork 'salad' with some mayo (the pork is already BBQ-saucy) plus some chopped onion and bell pepper. Be creative. :idea: Kat, Ken's salad sounds great! I've done something like that many times. I love cottage cheese; to the point that I don't keep it in the house. The container is gone in a day. But that sounds like the salad I make at work. :thup: I've started a different thread for general dang-is-it-ever-hot foods and drinks here. We now return you to your specific meal salad discussion. :) |
Quote:
Kristine and Demi, yes, those are great ideas. Oh yay, Kristine! I'll see you there. |
I mentioned this in Kristine's new thread ^ - I've made a molded cold salmon mousse "salad" with a sauce on hot days - pretty good.
Kat |
My favorite is:
Home - 1 avocado cut in pieces 1 tomato or a bunch of cherry tomatoes cut in half Feta or goat cheese - as much as you like no lettuce in this one drizzled with Italian salad dressing made from olive oil, vinegar and Good Seasons mix - Out - right now my favorite is the wedge salad at a local restaurant. It is perfectly made with chilled crisp iceberg lettuce cut in a firm wedge, covered with delicious homemade blue cheese dressing sprinkled with bacon pieces........outstanding! |
In case you hadn't already come across it, there are some delicious low carb and keto salad options here:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/recipes/salads I'm going to have to work my way through them! :) . |
Thanks Demi! I love Wedge Salad, LBangle.
Still making my favorite go-to salad - I am finding Artisan lettuce cheap at Aldi's, so vary it up some. I like the raw shrimp - it only takes 2 min sauteed in butter with a lid on, and I cool and pour the pan drippings in as well. |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:19. |
Copyright © 2000-2024 Active Low-Carber Forums @ forum.lowcarber.org
Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.