Cobb Salad Dressing

Here is one of my favorite salad dressings this summer. I seriously can't get enough. I think it is part of my red wine vinegar addiction. We love it over any kind of spinach salad.

• 1/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. red wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp pepper
• 3/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 3/4 c. veg. oil

Mix all ingredients in a jar and shake really well and serve quickly. It stores in the fridge forever!

Jay's Signature Pizza Crust

Here is my favorite no-frills pizza crust. It has a kind of crispy outside and soft and chewy inside. I love it for grilled pizzas! I usually make it in my bread machine, but you can certainly make it by hand, just be sure to knead it plenty and let it rise. I'm just usually lazy or busy doing other things.

• 2 1/4 tsp yeast
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 c warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

I put all of the wet ingredients in first, then the dry ingredients in last. (yeast very last.) Turn on the pizza dough setting, come back and hour later, and pizza dough. Unless it is humid. Then, I usually have to add another cup or so of flour and let it run some more.

Bake in an oven preheated to 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes until the cheese and crust are golden.

Chicken and Rice Wraps

Here is a recipe that is great for making a big batch and putting in the freezer. I have these for lunch a lot, and they are a lot healthier than Hotpockets. (Do I have you singing the song yet?)

1 lb. chopped grilled chicken(or just boiled)
1 c. salsa
black beans (probably about 2 cups - whatever I have left over from the other night)
1-2 tbsp taco seasoning
2 cups cooked brown rice
12 whole wheat flour tortillas

Combine chicken, salsa, black beans and taco seasoning. Heat until warm. Stir in rice. Spoon over tortillas. Serve with extra salsa and sour cream.

The extras can be saran wrapped and then put in a freezer bag and into the freezer. Warm in the microwave for 1 minute and 45 seconds or until the middle is warm.

Baked Egg Rolls

I love egg rolls, but not all of the calories that can go with them. I mean, you think about what is in an egg roll and it shouldn't be all that unhealthy - it is stuffed with vegetables for Pete's sake! This week we decided to try baked, yes BAKED egg rolls. Even my artery-clogging food-loving husband enjoyed them. The kids ate them pretty well, too (especially considering they aren't really a kid food.)

• 1/2 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2 head of cabbage, finely chopped
• 2 carrots shredded (or you could buy the pre-shredded)
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 bag of bean sprouts
• 2 or 3 mushrooms (optional) I just like 'em
  
• 1 tsp minced ginger*
• egg roll wrappers
• cooking spray
  

Brown the beef, drain it and rinse it (get rid of as much of the fat as you can!) Then, using the same skillet, throw all of the veggies in along with the ginger and cook 3-5 minutes (just until they are beginning to get tender.) Remove from heat, and add the ground beef back in. Let the mixture cool enough to handle. Then, get your wrappers and roll, baby, roll. Once everything is rolled away, spray both sides with cooking spray, place on a cooking sheet and bake at 450 7 minutes. Flip, then bake on the other side for 7 minutes. You be the judge - if it still looks doughy and not crispy, keep baking. It won't look like a deep fried one, but it shouldn't look raw either. These will be crunchy. If they are chewy, back in the oven they go!

*a note on ginger - yes, you can buy the root and grate it yourself. But, this is expensive, and do you really need that much ginger? If you do, go for it. I, however, would never use that much, so instead buy it in the jar. Wal-Mart used to carry it before they jumped aboard the product downsizing train. That is a rant for another day, so I will just say that I have found it at Ozark Natural Food in a jar. Expect to pay about $5 a jar, but it lasts forever and you use relatively small amounts of it. If you can't find it in a jar, you can just buy it in the powder form in the spice aisle at Wal-Mart. The flavor is close to the same.

Potato Skins

Here is how I made them. A little labor intensive, but well worth the effort and a lot healthier and cheaper than the TGI Friday's variety in the freezer section.

You'll need:

• Russet potatoes
• Turkey Bacon (or you can use the regular kind, but I was attempting to cut a few calories)
• 2% cheese (same thing here)
• olive oil
• salt (I like kosher for this)
• fresh tomatoes, diced
  

It's summer, so I baked the potatoes in the microwave (after washing them and poking holes using a fork). **If you get crazy and decide to let a four-year-old help, guard your fingers. And hands. I'm just saying.** I had smaller potatoes, so it took about fifteen minutes.

While the potatoes were doing their thing in the microwave, I cooked the bacon and then let it drain on a paper towel.

Once the potatoes had cooled enough to handle, I cut them in half and scooped out most of the middle, using a tablespoon. Do your best to leave the skin and about 1/4 inch of the meat intact. If it breaks, it will just be ugly, but your stomach won't mind. :)

Next, mix some olive oil and kosher salt and a little garlic powder (about an 1/4 of a tsp).

Here is where you get to make a decision. If it is hot, you can do this on the grill, if not you can bake it in the oven at about 475. It is July, so outside we go. With a pastry brush, brush your olive oil mixture onto the inside of the potato and place it face down on the grill (or a cookie sheet if you're inside.) Brush the outside, and close the grill (or put it in the oven.)

Go back inside, chop your tomatoes, crumble your bacon. Relax. When you've reached 7 minutes, go back out and flip those babies over. Fill with tomatoes first, then cover with shredded cheese and top with bacon. Close the grill and let the cheese melt. Pull them off and you are done!

We had ours with sour cream, salsa, and ranch. Some parties just ate a lot of sour cream and a little potato. Oh, to be one again.

This Week's Menu

Here is what we're eating this week:

• Sunday lunch: Spaghetti and Meatballs (this was straight from the freezer, a quick after-church meal)
• Sunday dinner: Potato skins
• Monday: Baked Egg Rolls
• Tuesday: Goulash, Black Beans, Broccoli
• Wednesday: Chicken, Bean, Rice Wraps (I'll make extra for the freezer!)
• Thursday: Ham on the Grill
• Friday or Saturday: Grilled Pizzas

* We usually eat out once on the weekends. If not, there are usually leftovers, or we scrape something together out of the pantry/freezer. :)

Watch for recipes to come!

Summer Pasta

We have a tradition around our house, and that is that Sunday night means pasta! We had some summer squash leftover from Farmer's Market earlier in the week that needed to be used, so here is what I threw together:

• Start your water for whole wheat penne pasta. Cook according to directions on box.
  
• Cook two chicken breasts (I diced mine for time and little mouths' sakes), sauteed in olive oil until no longer pink - salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat (I stuck it in my serving dish.)
• Two cups of thick slices of squash, sauteed in two tablespoons of olive oil. Cook until fork tender.
  
• Once squash is ready, toss in 1/4 cup chopped onions and a teaspoon of minced garlic. Cook for two minutes, or until onions are tender. Pour in one 8 0z. can of tomato sauce, 1 c. of fresh diced tomatoes (leftovers from hamburgers the day before for us)*, add chicken, and cook until warm.
• Once pasta is cooked, drain and rinse, and put into serving dish. Pour chicken and vegetable mixture over pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. David voted that next time it needed more cheese, but that is always his vote. I'm pretty sure he'd eat the whole tub of cheese if I'd serve it to him that way. :)
  

We had this along with fresh green beans (we ran into a plethora of fresh green beans, so we will be eating tons of them until they are gone!)

*If you don't have fresh tomatoes, you could just add a can of diced tomatoes instead of the sauce and fresh tomatoes.
**Depending on how much salt you added to your chicken, you may need to add a little more to your sauce.

Taco Seasoning

Have you ever noticed how many unnecessary added ingredients there are in packaged mixes like taco seasoning? Around here we try to avoid lots of extra sugar in unnecessary places, and save it for the good stuff like cookies and ice cream. We also try to consume as little msg as possible because it is a major migraine trigger for me. As a result of this, we make a lot of our seasonings ourselves which is also a big help on the budget. Here is our recipe for taco seasoning:

• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried onion
• 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper***
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then pour into a container for storage. I just sprinkle until it looks right, but probably about 1-2 tablespoons per pound of meat, plus a little water for simmering.

**I bought a set of stainless steel spice jars at Wal-mart that I store mine in, but a Ziploc bag or a small food storage container would work just fine as well. I just sprinkle until it looks right, but probably about 1-2 tablespoons per pound of meat, plus a little water. This will make enough for at least three to four meals.

***This is a pretty mild taco seasoning. I like mine a little spicier, but my kids don't, so I make it mild. You could up the red pepper to 1/4 tsp if you want more heat.

Rubber Chicken Menu

So, from an e-mail I got a few weeks ago I read about the concept of rubber chicken. Tasty, right? What it really means is cook it once, and eat a bunch of times. My family isn't so much into leftovers, but they will eat what we like to call Makeovers. On Monday night we started out with the Grilled Ranch Chicken and I cooked thawed and marinated three ziplocs (translated my family size-servings.) Our week looked like this.

• Monday: Grilled Ranch Chicken, sauteed summer squash, spinach salad
• Tuesday: Grilled Hamburger patties, fresh green beans, spinach salad, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and raw carrots
• Wednesday: Chicken Salad (made from the grilled chicken)
• Thursday: corndogs (straight from the freezer - not my moment of glory, but we were trying to get out to the lake)
• Friday: Chicken Taco Salad (made from the chicken and my homemade taco seasoning that I mix up and keep on hand...recipe to come soon!)

So, the "rubber" part of the chicken is that it keeps coming back, but in different ways. We loved it, especially the fact that it was quick and I didn't have to keep heating up the kitchen to cook another meal. I diced all of the chicken on Monday night after dinner and put it into separate containers so that it was ready to go the day I needed it. Plus, it provided the nice lighter meals that we enjoy in the summer!

Chicken Salad

We had a really yummy chicken salad last night that most of us liked. I searched forever for a recipe and then combined several recipes and came up with my own version that had ingredients that I thought everyone would like and still fit my criteria of what is acceptable health-wise.

• 2 cups left-over Grilled Ranch Chicken
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/4 c. pickles, chopped
• 1/4 c. onions, chopped
• 1/8 c. dried cranberries

Soak cranberries in water to soften. Chop chicken into bite-size pieces. Combine all ingredients. Enjoy!

We had ours on wheat subs (from Sam's Club) with tomatoes and fresh spinach.

A thought about Ranch Mix

You can buy the Hidden Valley Ranch Dip Mix at Walmart in the individual packets, but it is much cheaper to buy it at Sam's. At Sam's it is $6.87 for the 16 oz. bottle and lasts forever (200+ servings.) I can't remember right now if it is by the spices or buy the salad dressing, but if all else fails, ask. It will save you a ton of money (especially if you use it as frequently as I do!)

Grilled Ranch Chicken

This is a recipe for a marinade that originally came from my friend Maren. I think Maren cooks a lot of yummy things, and if I had to pick to eat at anyone else's house, she'd probably be at the top of the list. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it, because it really is one of my favorites and I use it as a base for a ton of things I make. I increased the red wine vinegar from the original recipe, and here is my version:

• 1/2 c. Red Wine Vinegar
• 1/4 c. Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1 package Ranch Dressing

Whisk together red wine vinegar, olive oil, ranch, and water. Combine chicken breasts and marinade in a ziploc bag and place in the fridge at least two hours. (The longer the better.)

Grill!!