Food Friday - Simply Salads

from Kris B.

I grew up with a stay-at-home mom who cooked dinner nearly every night, a dinner that most often was meat, potatoes, and vegetables.  Our family meals were like those that restaurants now try to lure you in with by touting their fare as "home cooking."  Of late, both meat and potatoes have gotten a bad rap from various diet gurus.  I have to admit that though we do not eat meat and potato dinners every night, I do like both.  In my cooking now, I live by the motto, "Everything in moderation."  I am always trying new ways to enjoy both of these things while still being conscious of healthy eating habits.

This Grilled Red Potato Salad is a healthier way to enjoy a potato side than is, let's say, a loaded baked potato, french fries, or even those home style mashed potatoes that my mom made.  Potatoes really are not "the enemy."  It is the way we cook and dress them that often pushes their calorie count over the top.  Served atop a fresh green salad with a honey mustard dressing, these grilled potatoes are "just enough" to satisfy that meat and potato kid that still lurks inside me.  This salad is a perfect light, but also filling, side to serve with any kind of grilled meat.  If you are firing up the grill to cook the potatoes, it makes sense to throw some chicken, steak, a pork roast, or even burgers on the grill at the same time.  And then you have a complete meal and you didn't have to heat up your kitchen!

INGREDIENTS

4 large red potatoes 
Non-stick cooking spray
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp honey mustard
Juice from 1 lemon
2 TBS olive oil
2 tsp vinegar
4 Cups any kind of salad greens
1 Cup shredded carrots
1 diced red bell pepper
1 diced red onion

Dice the red pepper, onion, and shred the carrots.  

(I cheat and buy shredded carrots in a bag at the grocery store.)  Place them in a large bowl and toss with the salad greens.

Whisk together the garlic, honey mustard, lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar.to make the dressing.  

This can be done ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.

Preheat the grill.  Slice the potatoes about 1/2 inch thick.  

Spray one side with non-stick cooking spray/  Place the sliced potatoes with the sprayed side directly on the grill.  cook for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are a deep golden color.  Spray the top side and flip the potatoes.  Cook for another 5-10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

When you are ready to serve, toss the salad and the dressing together in a large salad bowl.  Either layer the potatoes on top, or plate each serving, placing the potatoes on top of the tossed salad.

This recipe serves 4-6.

A few more thoughts:

• Because there are only two of us for most meals at my house, I don't toss the full amounts of salad and dressing at once.  I do it on an "ass needed basis."
• Make the salad your own by adding any other salad fixings that make you happy.  The carrots, red pepper, and red onion add color that makes this a pretty dish when served.
• If you want to make a hearty meal out of this salad, add some diced ham or bacon.
• The grilled potatoes alone are also a tasty side if you sprinkle them with a little garlic pepper after spraying them with the non-stick spray.

Happy eating!


from Tracey G

It's been a busy summer week for sure! The weather has been beautiful and we've been able to enjoy the beach quite a few days this week - nice! But that also means needing easy suppers that can be ready to go when we get home - Harry and I are usually there until at least 6 pm, so planning ahead is a good idea, lol. I try to have things ready to go for when we get home, because if I have to do prep work and cook, it's 7:30  by the time we're actually eating, if not later, because you have to get the car unpacked etc - and that's where this salad can come in handy! I remember the first time my mom made this - I was totally skeptical that this combination of ingredients was going to be weird and a flop, lol. Was I wrong! They go fabulous together, and I was happily surprised ;-)

This salad is pretty much a meal in itself - with the bacon, pasta and olives - you don't need anything else if you don't want to have anything else! But it goes great with anything really, burgers, chicken, pork chops etc. I like to use the high protein pasta - that gives it a little more "oomph" in my opinion. ;-) I think the one I used for this batch was high protein and higher fiber too.

There's really not a whole lot of steps to this one, it's pretty basic and a lot can be adjusted to your tastes, more bacon, less bacon and same thing for the olives - more or less, up to you! I guess that can even be said for the dressing too, lol - go with whatever your tastes dictate! :-)

The ingredients are simple: elbow macaroni (even that can be adjusted to whatever you like or whatever you have on hand), crisply cooked bacon (holds up better after it's mixed in the salad with the salad dressing), sliced salad olives and salad dressing. Mayo works too if that's what you prefer. I've always had it with salad dressing, so that's generally how I make it.

I happened to have some bacon leftover from a breakfast-for-dinner night I had with Harry, it was a 24 oz package of bacon and I normally use 16 oz of cooked bacon in the salad, so after our simple supper there was just enough bacon leftover to make my salad with, which made it even easier to prepare, lol. Usually to get my crispy pieces of bacon, I cut up the raw bacon then fry the bacon until crisp. This particular batch I'd cooked in the oven, my favorite way to prepare bacon these days, lol. Much easier and less mess - although, firing up the oven in the summer can be brutal, lol. But it's about 20 min on a cookie sheet at 

400 ° F, give or take. I start keeping a close eye on it at around the 15 minute mark - doesn't take long to over-do it! LOL My smoke alarms have been proven to work a few times, lol.

So, all you do is cook your pasta according to the package directions, then combine that with a pound of chopped crisply cooked bacon, sliced green salad olives and salad dressing. And that's that, lol.

There's really not a set recipe for this, as sometimes it takes more salad dressing than other days for some reason and so forth, but here's some basic amounts to get you started:

Bacon Green Olive Macaroni Salad

1 lb elbow macaroni, cooked according to package directions, drained well

1 lb bacon, chopped and crisply cooked

1 large jar of sliced salad olives - that's to taste, I get the largest jar I can generally find as I love green olives!

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c salad dressing (or mayo if desired)

Combine all the ingredients, mix well. Refrigerate until ready to serve, allowing at least an hour for the flavors to blend.

Enjoy!