#54 :: Avocado Salad

I realized at the last minute that our Poblano peppers should probably have some sort of a side dish served with it. I wanted to keep it light, and I had an extra avocado, so avocado salad was my first thought.

Ingredients

• 1 avocado, halved, pitted and sliced
• 4 leaves of Romain lettuce
• 2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• A sprinkle of fresh cilantro
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Lay the Romain on the plate as a base for the salad. Cut the avodado in half, remove the pit, then score the avocado into slices while it's still in the skin. The slices can easily be peeled back from the skin this way. Layer them over top of the lettuce. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lime over the avocados, this will keep them from turning brown so quickly. Mix in a few slices of Roma tomatoes and top it all off with a sprinkle of chopped fresh cilantro and salt & pepper.



Makes 2 servings.

Star Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

#34 :: Wilted Greens w/ Bacon Vinaigrette

Jamie had the honors of setting off our smoke alarm for the first time this evening. He was cooking bacon for the salad, and I asked him to cook it until it was really crunchy. Well, he cooked it until it really got to smokin'! But the best part was.....just as he was explaining to me that he wasn't burning it, and it's normal for bacon grease to smoke....the smoke alarm started blaring. It couldn't have been better timing.

Anyway, the dressing and the bacon turned out great, nothing was burned. I was surprised at how much I liked it, because I'm not usually a vinegar person. I even bottled the extra dressing to keep for another meal.

Ingredients

• 4 hearts romaine, chopped
• 4 slices bacon
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup vinegar (we used balsamic)
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Place romaine in a serving bowl. In a skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until crispy. Remove bacon and crumble over greens. To the pan, add sugar and vinegar, and simmer until sugar is dissolved, scraping up bacon bits that cling to the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour hot dressing over greens and toss. Serve immediately.

*We also added some cheese to our individual salad bowls. I had shredded Asiago and Jamie had chunks of blue cheese.

Makes 4 servings.

Recipe from Cooking for Real on Food Network.

Star Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

#21 :: Orange Viniagrette Salad

We needed a side salad and didn't have any dressing...... so I got to mixin'!

Ingredients

For the salad:

• Romain lettuce
• Orange slices
• Shredded Gruyere cheese

For the dressing:

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 medium-large orange
• 1 tsp. White Wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp orange zest
• 1 tsp. Basil
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Zest the orange first, and reserve the zest for later.

Pour olive oil, orange juice and vinegar in a small bowl and whisk. Add the orange zest, basil and salt & pepper then whisk again until everything is mixed.


Makes 4 servings.

Recipe from Me. :)

Star Rating: 4 out of 5 stars