Chicken & Berry Summer Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette

This is surprisingly tangy and more flavor than you'd expect in a salad! Here's the steps to making it:

Ingredients:
2 Chicken Breasts
Italian Dressing/Poppyseed dressing (or you could sub 1 TBSP honey)
Spring Mix Salad
Blueberries
Strawberries
Cinnamon Toasted Almonds
Strawberry Vinaigrette (see below)

Marinate chicken in about 1/2 cup of Italian dressing with a few TBSPs of poppyseed dressing (or honey if you'd rather). This makes a tangy but slightly sweet marinade. Grill 7 minutes on each side on medium high and remove. Put in a ceramic plate tented with foil, this will cook the inside if it wasn't fully cooked and lock in the juices.

Prepare Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup honey
1/2-1 clove garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup strawberries

Throw all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. While blending add 1/2 cup oil.
Then remove from blender and stir in 1 1/2 tsp. poppyseeds

This is crazy tangy stuff, apply in small amounts and add as your taste buds desire.

Plate spring mix and top with sliced strawberries and blueberries. Add the cinnamon almonds crushed coarsely. Slice your chicken in bite sized slices and add to salad. Add vinaigrette in small amounts until it suits your taste.

Chicken Caesar Salad

Yes, you CAN make salad for dinner and still fill up yourself and significant other. Mine has a metabolism of steal and enough chicken, cheese, and dressing work for him!

Let's start with the chicken:

Grilled chicken is something easy to do, but few do right! TRUST me on this and you will avoid the dry chicken and it will come out great every time!
If you have a meat pounder, pound the chicken to be about the same size and thickness throughout. If not, push with your hand (it gets less gross after a few times I promise). You then want to give the raw chicken a light bath in olive oil so it is coated evenly.  You then want to grind fresh salt and pepper over both sides.  Be VERY generous, particularly with the pepper.  If it's mostly coated in pepper that's perfect.

Turn your grill to medium heat.  Cook on one side until you see the white color you're looking for extend just past the half way point on the chicken.  This takes about 10 minutes on most grills.  Flip it only once, and let the other side cook for 8 minutes.  Take the chicken off the grill before it's totally done, it should be a little squishy to the touch.  TRUST ME!  You are going to put the chicken on a ceramic plate and cover in tin foil.  This method sears both sides and locks in juices.  The tin foil bakes the middle portion and you will end up with perfect chicken.  You can do this with a George Foreman as well, just take off a few minutes early and do the same.  

While the chicken cooks in on the plate, you will need: 

2 head of fresh romaine lettuce

1 tomato 

croutons 

Shredded parmigiana cheese

Sunflower seeds

Caesar dressing

Chop the lettuce in fine pieces and arrange on places.  Slice tomato into thin slices and arrange on top of lettuce.  Sprinkle with sunflower seeds.  Lightly pour dressing in Z-shaped strokes across the plate.  Sprinkle with parmigiana cheese.  Add croutons.  

At this point the chicken should have had 10-15 minutes to cook while you prepped everything else.  cut into slices and arrange on top of the salad.  If you're nervous cut the middle first and be impressed as to how moist and cooked the chicken is.  If you took it off too early put it back on the grill for just a few minutes and then back on the plate with tin foil for a few minutes.  But, trust me, it should be done and fantastic!  

Stand back and admire this mouth-watering healthy dinner:

and enjoy!

Summer Salad

I can't get enough of this in the summer!

1 tub (like Costco size) of Spring mix
1/2 cup Feta cheese
1 pt. Strawberries cut into wedges
1/2 cup Sunflower seeds or Pine nuts

Sweet Dressing (such as poppy seed, raspberry vinaigrette, or champagne) to taste.

Add toppings to salad, mix dressing in, and enjoy!

Pina Colada Salad Dressing

For Dressing: 1 pound pineapple flesh 1/3 cup coconut milk 2 tablespoons white rum

RECIPE METHOD

TO MAKE FRUIT SALAD: Peel and slice all of the fruit into bite-size pieces and toss together in a serving bowl.

TO MAKE DRESSING: Place the pineapple in a food processor and process to a puree. Strain through a sieve.

Return to the processor, add the coconut milk and rum and process until combined. Pour the dressing over the fruit salad and serve.

CAFE RIO DRESSING

2 cups mayonaisse
2 cups sour cream
10 sprigs of cilantro
3 los tomates (green tomatoes-fresh or canned
2 green onions (washed and chopped)
2 cloves of garlic
1 jalapeno pepper (seeds and all)
juice of 1 lime
1 or 2 tsp. of salt (depends on how much salt you like)

Blend together in a blender until well mixed.