Getting my greens on

Today I made one of my favorite salads. It used to be on the menu at Passion Fish in Pacific Grove.

It was a salad that included pan seared goat cheese, pears, candied walnuts and a wonderful balsamic dressing.

It has been years since they included it on their menu but I remember it very fondly.

Yes, the candied walnuts ended up a bit 'well cooked' but they still had a wonderful combination of sweet and spicy.

The panko coated goat cheese slices browned in a hot skillet is what puts this dish over the top. The tart and creamy flavor of the goat's cheese pairs perfectly with the bite of the balsamic vinegar and the sweet/spicy zing of the walnuts.

So, that has been my response to dealing with a low salt (not no salt) diet - bump up the spice!

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

Creamy avocado dressing

A big salad with creamy avocado dressing.

Just a short and simple post. I am very busy trying to get all the little details set before my upcoming trip on Wednesday.

I did discover this morning that hellofax is a pretty handy way to fax documents from your computer AND it lets you sign a scanned document before sending. 

I am just doing the free online trial at the moment but it sure made my life easier today when I needed to send out an important fax.

My creamy avocado dressing is super simple:

1/2 and avocado, mashed
1 tsp of soy sauce
1/2 tsp of Vegenaise
1/2 tsp of Miso Mayo
1 Tbsp of water


Mix everything with an immersion blender until smooth.


I am off to see about ordering a bag for my laptop.

 Happy Wednesday everyone!

Ranch salad dressing - a continuing obsession

As predicted, after my endless days of eating out all I feel like having is salad and lots of fruit.

My breakfast this morning was a salad:

Sunrise ranch salad.

In fact, I had salad for dinner last night too.

Deconstructed beef kebab salad.

I had one beef kebab left so I pulled everything off the skewer, grilled it up and tossed it with some lettuce.

A healthy dollop of guacamole went on top.

As you can see from this shot - a certain furry someone is fully recovered :-)

Connor is hoping that I will suddenly keel over while taking pictures so he can get to enjoy/steal my salad.

The dogs did get a nice chunk of beef to enjoy - Connor was just hoping for a miracle.

This morning I made more of my ranch dressing.  The first time I made it I made a batch that was enough for 5 - 6 servings. 

Making a big batch was a huge mistake. I could not control myself from going back to the jar over and over again until I finished all the dressing in one day.


Self-control is not my strong suit at times...


So, this morning, I am including a version that serves one for those of you that are like me and become unrestrained around ranch dressing.

For my salad I washed and dried 2 cups of iceberg lettuce and 1 cup of spinach.

Then I diced up one scallion and 1/2 an heirloom tomato.

I did want some protein so I poached an egg.

Then I made the infamous dressing. I didn't have all the ingredients for the original version so there are some substitutions.


Ranch Dressing for one

Ingredients:

1 tsp of Vegenaise
1 tsp of unsweetened soy milk
1/2 tsp of water
1/2 tsp of Siggis non-fat plain yogurt
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 tsp of onion powder
1/4 tsp of dried parsley

Instructions:

Whisk all of the ingredients together and let sit in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to give the flavors a chance to marry.

Drizzle the dressing over any greens or vegetables of your choice. Enjoy!

*Note* this recipe makes an intense ranch flavored dressing which is what I was looking for but if you want a more traditional ranch flavor reduce the onion and garlic powder to 1/8 of a tsp each.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Saturday!

Clean as a whistle

No, these aren't my teeth. I wish...

I just got back from the dentist. I am cavity free and from what the dental hygienist said, I do a great job at keeping plaque at bay.

Unfortunately, things are not all roses and rainbows. I have a chipped front tooth (it happened when I was six) and when I was a kid I was so proud of it that I refused to get it fixed.

But it seems the two front teeth are starting to show the effects of the 'traumatic teeth event' and are started to turn a darker shade. Ewww.

So it looks like I may have to get veneers in the future, sigh.

After the bad news I headed over to Draeger's and treated myself to a breakfast salad.

When I got home I realized that maybe I shouldn't be eating beets (which stain everything) with newly polished teeth so I picked them out.

I couldn't resist adding a light sprinkle of blue cheese.

I love the big slices of chicken breast that are available at the salad bar.

And I picked up some fun things:

Organic rainbow carrots and organic Lacinato kale.

The kale is an incredibly deep shade of green. I can't wait to figure out a way to use it.

And lastly:

Organic and locally made fresh pasta.

I picked a shape that I thought would work well with mac & cheese.

And before I have to truly contemplate the possibility of veneers I am going to head out and pick up some Crest White Strips and see if they perform a miracle on my front teeth.

Kinda Cobb - kinda not

Today I wanted a Cobb salad but I didn't want all of the fat that comes with it so I made my own version.

I chopped up some iceberg lettuce along with some romaine.

Here is a handy tip if you love the thin strips of carrot but you don't have a food processor. After you clean and peel the carrot, just keep peeling. You will have very thin flat strips of carrot that are easy to slice into thin strips.

It wouldn't be Cobb-like if there wasn't some bacon - turkey bacon that is.

The lettuce went into my big salad bowl and then the following was tossed in:

1 cup of cooked chicken
1/2 cup of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp. of chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 Tbsp. of Newman's Own Balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 cup of diced avocado

Happy Friday everyone!

Salad biryani

My lunch started off with this:

I usually don't buy more than one head of lettuce at a time but the label of 'Petite Heirloom' caught my interest.

And I was pleasantly surprised by these adorable little leafy guys.

And the good news is that one of these heads is just the right amount for a salad for one.

While I washed the lettuce, I warmed some leftover biryani in the microwave.

My friend gave me a taste of this when I was hanging out at her place the other day and I LOVED it. It has an amazing mix of textures and flavors and it is practically addictive.

I tossed the lettuce with a simple dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and spooned the biryani over top along with some slices of avocado.

And I did toss in some of the tomatoes left over from the breakfast bruschettas.

It has been quite a day so far. They fixed my bathroom fan which was screeching and sounded like someone having their fingernails peeled off one by one. Yeah, it was disturbing. Even the plumber that was working in there yesterday was unnerved by the sound.

They also came in and checked out my blinds and replaced one side - Woot new blinds!!

So although the construction mayhem has not been fun at least I got some things fixed :-)

There is a possibility that I may be going out tonight to the restaurant that makes that wonderful biryani - *fingers crossed*.

Fueling up

I got back from a trip to the store to pick up a couple of items I needed for the 'fancy' meal I am making tonight.

And as usual I paused too long at the meat counter and ended up getting a steak in addition to the other items. It did make for a fast, protein packed lunch.

Steak and spinach salad.

I usually overcook steaks but I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to cook this one to a perfect rare/medium rare.

And I made a pan sauce with a little sherry and some non-fat evaporated milk.

The dogs enjoyed a few of the fatty/really rare pieces that I didn't want to eat. 

Now that I am fully fueled with a vitamin and protein rich lunch - it is time to get back to work!

Salad with pan seared scallops

I started out by mixing lemon juice, olive oil, dried basil, black pepper, mirin and some nutritional yeast in the bottom of the salad bowl. Then I added in a few handfuls of baby green mix and tossed in the dressing.

Then I broke an item I picked up at the store today - 

I rinsed them and patted them dry then seasoned each side with a little salt and pepper.

They went into a skillet on high heat with a little olive oil. I cooked them for about 2 minutes on each side until each side had a nice golden brown crust.

A great fast dinner.

I am going to go lay out my exercise cloths so I will be all ready to hit the gym sometime after breakfast tomorrow!

My lunch out

I spent the morning/afternoon enjoying a wonderful walkthrough of my sister's soon to be new home.

And afterwords we went to a cafe called Sprouts.

You can build your own salads:

I chose a pre-made salad called the Kyoto.

It had everything in it but the kitchen sink. Tofu and edamame, nori, seaweed, noodles, etc. 

Check it out. 

Shreds of nori over the tuna.

Tuna with a spicy pepper crust seared on the outside and raw on the inside.

Edamame and noodles, Yum!

My brother had the Hunter Salad which included beef.

I am so tired I can barely keep my head up. 


I hope everyone had a great Monday!

Bye, bye blue cheese

My sister gave me some disturbing news today.

It seems that aged cheeses such as blue cheese (which as you all have seen I have been eating quite a bit of lately) can trigger migraines.

With one tear dramatically spilling down my cheek, I gave away the rest of my Point Reyes blue cheese to my neighbor. 

And then I recovered and went home and made this:

A simple salad with butter lettuce carrot, cucumber and almond slivers.

 
I made a simple dressing with 1 Tbsp. of Udo's oil, 2 Tbsp. of balsamic vinegar, a pinch of oregano, a pinch of dried basil and some cracked black pepper.

I like using this Tupperware container to mix the dressing.

It has a screw top which guarantees I will not fling salad dressing all over my kitchen when I mix it - which has happened before...

And then I realized I should add some protein to my salad - 

Turkey.

For dessert I enjoyed this plump beauty - 

A juicy plum.

Can you tell I have been having way too much fun with Adobe Lightroom?

The program makes it really easy to give photos that extra bit of oomph!

Oh, and I forgot to tell you what the dragon fruit tasted like. It tasted like a cross between jicama and kiwi - but I am not completely sure the fruit was actually ripe - which could account for the lack of taste.

Distractions

I was distracted this morning. I spent too much time organizing, deleting and re-organizing my photos.

But on the positive side - My camera's memory card is almost empty.

I ended up having lunch before heading out to do errands.

I simmered 1/4 cup of quinoa with 3/4 cup of water until tender. I mixed 1 small can of tuna with mustard, powdered garlic and pepper.

I dressed some salad greens with raspberry vinaigrette (with a 1/2 Tbsp. of Udo's oil).

The quinoa and tuna got mixed together and placed on top of the lettuce with a few cherry tomatoes on top.

Oh, and one orange.

My thoughts on weight loss? I know that the conventional method of counting calories and strictly controlling my food intake will not work for me.

I am too contrary in nature and the hyper focus on what you CAN'T have on most diets would drive me crazy.

So, I decided that I will approach it from a nutrition perspective. I have certain things I want to include in my diet - suffiecient amounts of Omega 3's, more trace minerals, lots of antioxidants, etc. - so I am just going to keep track of what I want to INCLUDE in my diet.

I figure after I fill in all the things I want - there will be little room left for the other stuff. 

And I believe that when you provide your body with great nutrition - all the other stuff will just fall into line naturally.

I will find out soon enough if this approach works :-)

Endless experiments

This is the one salad I keep experimenting with and I still haven't created a version I really love.

Chinese Chicken Salad Take 2:

Red leaf lettuce.

Shredded green cabbage.

Shredded carrot and chopped green onion.

Next, I pan roasted a chicken breast:

The chicken turned out very juicy!

I chopped the chicken into large chunks.

I tossed some almond slivers into a dry, hot pan and let them cook till nicely brown.

And do yourself a favor and don't step away from the stove while they cook (like I did) because you will end up with a pan of burnt almonds (like I did). They really only take about 20 - 30 seconds to toast.

Did the salad turn out pretty? Sure.

Did I love the dressing? Not so much.

I mixed soy sauce, sugar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and ground black pepper.

It was ok - but not great. 

Does anyone have a recipe for homemade Chinese Chicken Salad dressing that they LOVE?

Oops, I almost forgot my drink:

Cold Chamomile tea.