Delicious Chickpea Salad

I made this chickpea salad this summer and it blew my mind. The flavors were amazing and intense. I've been thinking about it the past few days and I think it might be making a reappearance soon. Do not skip one single thing...grill the corn (I held it above my gas burner), the herbs must be fresh, and oh baby that lime! It was such a great change up from the typical sumer macaroni or potato salad. Plus it held up well over a few days and the flavor intensified. 

Chickpea Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

(Pinterest find! From How Sweet It Is)

Ingredients:
3 cups chickpeas (or 2 (15-ounce) cans, drained and rinsed)
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2 ears grilled corn, cut from the cob
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1.5 tablespoons honey
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 lime, juiced and zested
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, onions, corn, tomatoes, basil and chives. Toss well with the salt and pepper. In a small saucepan, add the oil, vinegar, honey, garlic, lime juice and zest. Heat over low heat and whisk until the mixture is warm and garlic cloves are sizzling a bit.
2. Pour the liquid over the chickpeas and and toss well to coat. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. It tastes better as it sits! Serve with toasted baguettes spread with coconut oil or whipped feta.

Served up with some grilled flank steak and red wine...can't beat it!

Bonus: check out that Fiesta!

Things We've Been Eating

Crispy fish tacos with avocado, coleslaw, and sriracha mayo

 Dinosaur BBQ seasoned tuna steak sandwiches with tomato and sriracha mayo

 Veggie fajitas: onion, pepper, and mushrooms

Fajita toppings!

 Kale salad with avocado, hardboiled egg, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds

Salad Time!

Mr. Lawyer got me a delicious smoked danish blue cheese for Valentine's day. It's so rich and flavorful. I thought it would be delicious on a salad and it was!

Bibb lettuce, smoked danish blue cheese, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds.

Kale Salad

This salad knocked my socks off which was pretty awesome considering it was made from leftover kale and random bits of things from the cupboards! A salad was in order since I had a bunch of leftover kale from the deliciously healthy Green Meatloaf. There was also some leftover feta languishing away in the fridge so I tossed that it and topped it off with one of my favorite salad topping combos: cranberries and pecans (or sunflower seeds). A tangy lemon vinaigrette was mixed up and my poor leftover kale was turned into a deliciously zippy salad. The tartness of the vinaigrette worked well with the sweetness of the cranberries. The best part is it was amazing the next day for breakfast! Since kale is so hearty it stood up to the dressing and did not get soggy and mushy after it was dressed. The flavors melded together well and I've already got another kale salad lined up for this week!

P.S. Let's admire this beautiful yellow Fiesta salad bowl from the Kitchen Kraft line. Thanks Mother Unit!

Lemon Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Zest of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon agave

A pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Mix it all together and shake, shake, shake!

**Note: this was the basic recipe, I did end up tweaking it by adding a little more of this and that until it suited my taste. 

Soup & Salad

I felt inspired to whip up a batch of my Tomato-Barley Soup.It was a clean out the kitchen pot of soup so I swapped the chicken broth for turkey stock, there was less barley and I added a good shot of sriracha. 

Yum yum!

Don't forget the grilled cheese croutons!

Soup & Salad

It's been a soup and salad type of week.

Mr. Lawyer makes the best Minestrone.

Mr. Lawyer's Minestrone

(this is his base recipe, he's always throwing in whatever is in the fridge!)

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base (He swears by it!)
2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans
1 diced onion
1 (16 ounce) package of frozen veggies (he gets one with carrots, peas, green beans, and lima beans)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dry basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup uncooked pasta (we like ditalini) **see note**
Directions:
1. Throw everything except the pasta in a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add pasta and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

**Note: we like to cook the pasta separate and add what we need to our individual bowls. If you have leftovers and it's all mixed together the pasta soaks up all the broth! Better to keep them separate.**

Crunchy Salad

So we have ourselves a hit and a miss. I loved this salad but I enjoy asian inspired dressings and nuts on my salad. Mr. Lawyer dislikes asian inspired dressing and nuts on his salad. That being said I loved the crunch of the snow peas, apples, and nuts. The dressing is tart and intense. It all felt very summery.

Spinach and Snow Pea Salad with Cashews

(from Fast, Fresh, and Green)

Ingredients:
Spinach and napa cabbage
Sliced snow peas and apples
Cashews
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
Directions: 
1. Mix the dressing ingredients together and whisk well.
2. Toss the spinach, napa cabbage, apple slices, snow peas, and cashews with the dressing and enjoy!

Spicy Slaw!

Mr. Lawyer requested coleslaw to go with our bbq ribs. Not only is bbq and coleslaw a match made in heaven but he hoped to control the amount of dressing in the dish to make it a tad more healthy. While this recipe is still just a ton of mayo we were able to make our coleslaw a bit on the dry side, hopefully this decreased the calories just a tad.

This recipe was spicy! It was different than regular coleslaw and it really grew on me. If you're not a fan of spice you can add less dry mustard. You could shred your own veggies but I picked up a bag of pre-shredded broccoli slaw because I didn't want to fight with my mandoline (we have a love-hate relationship). I'm off to eat the rest of the spicy coleslaw!

Spicy Coleslaw!

(adapted from Bobby Flay)

Ingredients:

1 bag of pre-shredded coleslaw 

3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon dry mustard (or less depending on your tastes)
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. Whisk together the mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl, and then add to the cabbage mixture. 

2. Mix well to combine and taste for seasoning; add more salt, pepper, or sugar if desired.

It's Friiiiday!!

I had an amazing week. Mr. Lawyer not so much. Which means Friday is time to celebrate/feel better! One bottle of red wine, some steaks, and a salad later it has been accomplished! The steak marinade was advertised as the "best ever" and it was pretty good. It started off with a mellow worcestershire flavor and ended on a mellow soy note. Mr. Lawyer liked it more than I did. I prefer more bold in your face flavors. I did the prep work and he grilled the steaks to perfection, special shout out to Mrs. T for sending us the yummy steaks!

My best buddy from school, Ms. J, gave me some fancy flavored (raspberry?) balsamic vinegar which was amazing on the provolone and pecan topped salad.

Steak Marinade 

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Directions:
1. Mix all the ingredients together!
2. Pour marinade over desired type of meat. Cover, and refrigerate for up to 8 hours. Cook meat as desired.

P.S. The new Fiesta color will be announced this weekend. Eeeeeeee!!

Rainbows!

I was pleasantly surprised by this slaw/salad thing. I wanted something super healthy in order to detox from this past weeks yummy and unhealthy food binging....and how many klondike bars can you eat at the lake? Um...a lot. Anyway, this salad was fresh and earthy tasting. It got a spicy zip from the curly parsley and dressing. The pears give it a weird soft crunch that compliments the crunchier crunches of the cabbage and beets. I liked it. Weird. The rainbow color doesn't last long because the beets do stain everything so if you're going for presentation don't stir it up until the last minute. It also makes a ton so be prepared.

Since it is so healthy and full of ruffage make sure you keep the scented candles out!

Some of the shredded things.

All mixed up!

 mmmm healthy lunch.

Shredded Rainbow Salad

(From Everyday Food by Jamie Oliver)

Ingredients:
2 raw beets, trimmed, scrubbed, and quartered
1/4 red cabbage, quartered
2 large carrots, scrubbed and trimmed
1/4 white cabbage, quartered
2 pears, stems removed and quartered
1 cup walnuts halves, roughly bashed (I omitted this)
2 handfuls fresh curly parsley
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 teaspoons mustard
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
Hot sauce, to taste
Directions:
1. Put a coarse grater attachment into a food processor and push ingredients through in the following order (to stop the beets from staining everything): beets, red cabbage, carrots, white cabbage, and pears. If your food processor is small, do it in batches.
2. Turn vegetables out onto a platter so you get a pile of rainbow colors. Mix mayo, mustard, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce and hot sauce.
3. Add walnuts and herbs and toss everything together until well mixed. Drizzle with dressing.

Fancy Salads!

I'm continuing my eat more salad plan. The first week I stuck to pretty traditional/favorite flavors so this week I decided to get all fancy. I normally prefer savory salads but this sweet and tart salad really hit the spot. I looked at several different recipes and pulled my favorite parts from each. I had extra feta to use up, wanted some onions to balance the sweetness and I wanted the pecans for an extra crunch. I'm sure candied pecans would have been fabulous but less healthy.

Strawberry Feta Spinach Salad

Ingredients:
Spinach/baby romaine
Sliced strawberries
Red onion
Pecans
Feta Cheese
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup raspberry wine vinegar
2 tablespoon-1/4 cup sugar, to taste (I stayed on the lighter side)
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
Directions:
1. Put together your desired amount of spinach, strawberries, onion, feta and pecans. I generally like more stuff on my salad than Mr. Lawyer.
2. Mix together the oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard and poppy seeds. Dress your salad lightly and enjoy!

The dressing, nice and tart!

Salad Week!

It's Salad Week! Time to detox from our 3 week eat-fest. 

Everything is all chopped up and ready to go for ease and convenience. I guess it worked because Mr. Lawyer took a salad for lunch. Topping choices: peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, tuna, cranberries, sunflower seeds. Not pictured are carrots, cheese and hard boiled eggs. 

Bang Bang!

One time for a semi-fancy date in the 'Cuse, Mr. Lawyer took me out to Bonefish Grill. I fell madly in love with the Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos. There are two copy cat recipes floating around the net. I went the the more simple one (that doesn't involve milk and panko). It was good, had a nice bit of crunch, but could have used some more spice. 

In other words: Wicket and I got down and dirty with the frying.

Wicket did a much better job at containing the splatter than The General did. Respect. 

In other news: peanut oil is a smokeless gift from the gods. My apartment is not smokey or smelly. Props.

The shrimp was delicious. I would be curious in trying the more intense recipe but this was a nice imitation. My special talent for making salads unhealthy shined tonight.

Fake Bang Bang Shrimp

(inspired by Bonefish Grill)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
3 drops Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (or to taste)
1 pound shelled and deveined shrimp
Dry cornstarch
oil for frying
lettuce
chopped scallions
Directions:
1. Mix mayonnaise with Thai Sweet Chili Sauce. Add hot sauce to taste. 

2. Dredge the shrimp in cornstarch. Deep fat fry the shrimp until lightly brown. Drain on paper towel, put in a bowl and coat with the sauce. 

3. Serve in a lettuce lined bowl, top with chopped scallions.

Salad Bar

It's been a leftover/clean out the fridge week. The fish smell had finally started to go away and then Mr. Lawyer reheated the one leftover fillet tonight. Blerg. My Yankee Candles are getting a work out this week.

Behold my salad bar made from leftover turkey burger condiments!

I have a wonderful knack for making my salads unhealthy.

Oh well.

More Salad!

We have been very good about sticking to our healthy eating plans. Behold tonight's dinner:

Salad with Tuna!

See? Boring blog posts. Time for some excitement!

Detox with Wine?

Mr. Lawyer and I have been detoxing from our indulgent vacation. We've been eating copious amounts of oatmeal and salads in order to get back on track and while it might do a body good it makes for lame blogging. My problem with salads is I like all the stuff on them which obviously negates the health factor. My personal goal is to start cutting back on all the yummies, perhaps I will only slice up one piece of cheese on my salad and stay away from that brown sugar bacon. This beauty has Cabot Cheddar, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, yellow pepper, tomatoes and is topped off with my sweet vinegar dressing.

However last night I made a wine slushie to celebrate my new job, woo! And the best part is you only really need one ingredients: wine! Using a sweet wine is essential, I used a sweet NYS red. I had my first wine slushie at the Great New York State Fair and it was heavenly. This is the first year in many that I didn't go to the Fair but I suppose it's healthier that way. At this point it's all about the food...wait who are we kidding, the Fair is *always* about the food!

Wine Slushies

(from the kitchen of some genius)

Ingredients:
Sweet Red or White Wine
Optional texture changers: ice cubes, fruit juice or spritzer
Directions:
1. Freeze the wine in ice cube trays.
2. Throw the frozen cubes into the blender.
3. Optional choices to alter texture: ice cubes for more crunchiness or juice/wine/spritzer for a beverage you don't need a spoon or straw for.

A Tangy Dinner

My lawyer is a keeper. I've been super busy with work and studying so Mr. Lawyer had dinner ready when I came home. I did make the marinade in the morning but he picked out the recipe and did all the cooking. It was good but tangy. I really liked it but if you're not a fan of tang I wouldn't recommend it. It did make a ton of marinade, you could probably get away with using 1/3 cup of everything. And it might be yummy to add some fresh chopped garlic instead of powder. He also made this yummy salad he has made before but this time he but some fresh basil from Weggy in it and it was more delicious than the other times he made it! The salad is also tangy so it was a doubly tangy and delicious dinner!

Tangy Chicken Breasts

(allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions:
1. Place chicken in a single layer in a bowl or pan. Mix together Worcestershire sauce, oil, lemon juice, and garlic; pour over chicken. Cover. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
2. Take chicken out of marinade, and place on broiler pan or grill. Broil until done, approximately 7 minutes on each side.

Mr. Lawyer's Cucumber and Tomato Salad

(Adapted from his mother's kitchen)

Ingredients:
1 container cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped up
Fresh basil, to taste and chopped
Olive oil, to coat
White balsamic, to coat
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Cut up the tomatoes, cucumber, and basil.
2. Add enough olive oil and balsamic to coat the veggies. Salt and pepper to taste.

Happy Easter!

The centerpiece!

The Easter Bunny brought me broccoli salad. In this case the Easter Bunny is Grandma. I admit I have an unhealthy obsession with Grandma's broccoli salad and request it at every family gathering (if anything I am predictable). Responses range from "I'm on my way to the store for broccoli" to "Jenni, broccoli salad is not Thanksgiving food." False. Broccoli salad is all the time food. I am in possession of this recipe but I have never made it myself. I refuse. It always tastes better when Grandma makes it. However Mr. Lawyer thinks it would be a perfect shore food so I might relent this summer.

Grandma Nancy's Broccoli Salad

(the kitchen of Grandma!)

Ingredients:
Broccoli tops (1 good sized bunched), chopped fine
6 slices of bacon, fried crisp
1/2 cup chopped onion (red I believe)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pineapple tidbits
Dressing Ingredients:
3/4 cup mayo
1/2 sugar (mix well)
1/2 cup vinegar
Directions:
Aaaaand that's all Grandma gave me. But it's a salad so it's not that complicated to throw together. However she does wait till serving to mix in the dressing and bacon. But it's also delicious the next day as leftovers (which I always steal and will fight my own brother and/or cousins for). In fact, I just finished some up now. Delicious.

Dinner Party!

What's a girl to do when she's missing Upstate NY and all it's snowy glory? Throw a dinner party of course! Because then you're just spazzing out about food. Luckily Woody and Amanda decided to indulge me with less than 24 hours notice because that's how they roll.

The Menu:

Drinks: Homemade Lemonade, artfully crafted into Vodka Lemonade Martinis by the masterful Woody

Apps: Chicken Wings from Amanda

Dinner (by Giada!): Caramelized Pancetta and Fennel Salad and Creamy Baked Fettuccine with Asiago and Thyme
Dessert: Zucchini Nut Bread Cookies

And it was all pretty yummy. I would definitely make the salad again even though I couldn't find pancetta and subbed in some prosciutto. I'm slightly enameled with fennel (but only cooked/baked and absolutely no fennel seeds!) The pasta was decent but obviously not your normal heavy mac and cheese. It was light and slightly tangy from the asiago and creme fraiche, the thyme added a nice subtle flavor. If I made it again I would definitely beef it up with some chicken or veggies to give it a little extra something.

Caramelized Pancetta and Fennel Salad

(By Giada, Everyday Italian)

Ingredients:
1 bulb fennel, halved and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
5 slices pancetta (prosciutto or bacon can be substituted)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5 ounces (about 6 to 7 cups) mixed salad greens
Red Wine Vinaigrette, recipe follows
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, toss together fennel, pancetta, garlic, brown sugar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place the ingredients on the baking sheet in a single layer. Cook until the pancetta is crisp and the fennel is caramelized, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, place the salad greens, crumbled pancetta, and caramelized fennel. Toss the salad with the Red Wine Vinaigrette and serve immediately.
Red Wine Vinaigrette

Ingredients:2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Directions:

1. Mix the vinegar, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper in a blender. With the machine running gradually blend in the oil. Season the vinaigrette, to taste, with more salt and pepper, if desired

Creamy Baked Fettuccine with Asiago and Thyme

(By Giada, Everyday Italian)

Ingredients:
1 pound fettuccine pasta (I used rotini because that's what I had on hand)
2 cups grated Asiago cheese, plus 1/4 cup
2 (8-ounce) containers creme fraiche
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh chopped thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid.
3. In a large bowl combine the 2 cups Aiago cheese, creme fraiche,Parmesan, thyme, salt, pepper, cooked pasta, and pasta cooking liquid. Gently toss until all the ingredients are combined and the pasta is coated. Place the pasta in a buttered baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup asiago cheese. Bake until golden on top, about 25 minutes. Let sit for at least 5 minutes and serve.

And now I'm not going to cook for the rest of the week. Hooray leftovers!

Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon

I was trying to be healthy and have a salad for dinner but I always get carried away with toppings which negates the potential healthiness of my poor salad. I started with some romaine, a little bit of onion, a couple of carrots, dried cranberries and some sunflower seeds. Then came the hard boiled egg, Cabot Cheddar and the Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon (often known as candied bacon). All of this was topped off with some Hendrickson's Sweet Vinegar and Olive Oil dressing. But everything is better with bacon right? Like scallops. They're fine by themselves but so much better when they are wrapped in bacon.
I first had this wonderful bacon when Melissa made it at the Lawyer's graduation brunch. It's amazing and completely addicting. It's great by itself or on a salad or with waffles or with anything really. Best of all it's incredibly simple (or worst of all?....)

Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon

(Bon Appétit Magazine)

Ingredients:
1 pound applewood-smoked bacon slices or thick-cut bacon slices
1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

Directions:
Position 1 rack in top third of oven and preheat to 400°F. Line large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place large rack on lined baking sheet. Arrange bacon slices in single layer on rack. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over. Bake until bacon is crisp and glazed, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and serve.

Behold the mega-salad!