Spinach Apple Salad

Have you ever seen an almost two year old scarf down spinach?  No lie, we ate this for dinner tonight... My little one ate two adult sized helpings of it.  She wanted this salad over the Pizza that we had.  I got this recipe from my aunt a couple of weeks ago.  I've made it at least 3 times a week since I got it.  I don't know what it is about the dressing, but its addictive. 

One confession... I don't spend the time to fry up the bacon. I just buy the already cooked and chopped stuff for this salad. It makes it quick and easy to throw together. 

If you use the honey roasted slivered almonds, it gives it an even better flavor!  I also make a double batch of the dressing and keep it in the fridge for a week or two. Depending on the color of your purple onion, some dressings will be really pink and others will be more white. 

Spinach Apple Salad 

1 (10-oz) bag fresh baby spinach

1 med. Granny Smith apple, cored, and diced

1/2 lb. crumbled, fried bacon

3/4 C toasted, slivered almonds

Dressing:

1/4 C granulated sugar

1/3 C oil

1/4 tsp. salt

3T. cider vinegar

1/8 small red onion

Toss salad ingredients together. For dressing, place ingredients in blender. Blend until onion is very fine and mixture is well blended. Dress salad and serve immediately. Garnish with apple slices.

Not sure how to measure 1/8 of an onion... easiest way... cut it in half, then that half in half, then that half in half. There you have it.

Simple Taco Salad

My mom used to make this taco salad for us a lot, when we were kids.  She would always add corn chips to it and bypass the taco shells. Either way it's yummy, I just prefer the shells more. Plus it looks really beautiful for the presentation of it.

Simple Taco Salad



1 head iceberg lettuce

1 head romaine lettuce ( I just used all romaine)

diced tomatoes (fresh)

diced avocado ( I left this out)

diced olives

diced cucumber

grated carrots ( I sliced them)

shredded cheese

Frito's (I left these out and used the shell instead)

1 can stag Chile (slightly warm)

Sauce

1/3 C. salsa

1/3 C. 1000 island

Mix 1^st 8 ingredients.  In a separate bowl combine salsa and 1000 island dressing.  Pour over salad mix. Toss with Chili and Frito's. Serve

Tip for a creamier dressing, add a scoop of sour cream.

Taco Bowls

Tortillas (any size you like)

aluminum can (like the one from the chili, remove paper)

Hot oil

Tongs

Place a flour tortilla into a pot of hot oil.  Shape the shell by pressing an empty can (with tongs cause it will get HOT!) into the center of the tortilla. Allowing the sides to fold up around the can. Hold the can there until the tortilla is golden brown.  Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel.

Srawberry Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Our friends made this for us one time and we all just fell in love with it. This salad is so light and fresh! It's also, super easy.  I asked for the dressing recipe, and come to find out, I had it all along. It comes from a book called The Essential Mormon Cookbook. 

We got this book as a wedding gift. I didn't realize what a great book it was until just lately when she showed me this recipe. The only strange thing to me about this recipe, is that it is a poppy seed dressing, and the poppy seeds are optional.  I don't know about you but that seems quite funny!

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing 

Salad

Baby spinach

1 pint of strawberries sliced

1-2 cups Candy Coated Chopped Pecans (recipe below)

In a large bowl, pour in desired amount of spinach. Top with strawberries and pecans.  Serve with poppy seed dressing.

Poppy Seed Dressing

1 1/4 Tbsp    poppy seeds (optional)

3/4 Cup        vinegar

1/2 cup         sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp    grated onion

1 1/2 tsp       salt

3/4 tsp          dry mustard

1 1/2 cups    vegetable oil

Mix everything in a blender. Refrigerate unused dressing for future use. Keeps up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator.

Candy coated pecans

Pecans

sugar

Chop pecans and pour into a skillet.  Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar over the pecans.  Over medium low heat, stir continuously until sugar is melted and begins to crystallize.  Remove from heat and let cool on a plate.

Crunchy Oriental Noodle Cabbage Salad And GIVEAWAY

My sister-in-law makes this quite frequently for out family gatherings.  It never gets old. We love it!  It's so easy and quick. My kids and husband don't like green onions, so I usually just add them into my portion. Give it a try, you'll love it!

In honor of our first 1000 hits, I want to do a giveaway.   For this giveaway, the winner will receive 2 customized hair bows courtesy of Creations By Jennie.  Ok actually that's me.  I have another creations blog for other things I like to create outside of the kitchen. I'll customize 2 bows for you. A few samples of styles are on the link above. 

Here's is what you need to do to be the winner.  Send me a post about your favorite recipe of mine so far. Tell me why you liked it and tell one recipe/or type of food you would like to see on my blog. I will choose a winner on March 1st and let you know who the winner is.

Crunchy Oriental Noodle Cabbage Salad

Salad:

1 large can cooked chicken

1 c. sunflower seeds

2 (16 oz) packages Cole slaw (with the bagged salad) 

8 green onions chopped

2 packages Oriental Ramen Noodles (broken)

Dressing:

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. oil

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 tbsp.  soy sauce

1/4 c. Vinegar

2 flavor packets from ramen noodles

In a large bowl, combine salad ingredients.  In another bowl combine dressing ingredients and stir well. Pour over salad, and toss to coat, just before serving.

Pasta Salad

6 and 3 years ago I gave birth to two beautiful girls.  Yep that's right, they have the same birthday!  In their honor I am going to post one of their all time favorites. Pasta Salad

We love pasta salad! That's about all I can say about that.   It's simple, its yummy and you can make a ton and eat it throughout the entire week.  It's very simple. Noodles, veggies, dressing, cheese and maybe even meat.  This is a great dish to use all of those veggies that need to get eaten before they go bad.  Our favorite is to put in shredded Parmesan cheese. You can use any kind of cheese though.  Also we like to put pepperoni in ours.  This time I tried using the pepperoni sticks because I had a coupon for them.  I really liked it that way. Any pepperoni would work though.

Pasta Salad

1 box of pasta (I like the tri-colored rotini for good color)

Any veggies you want

Sliced carrots

sliced olives

broccoli

cauliflower

cherry or grape tomatoes

cucumbers

pepperoncinnis

sliced bell pepper

purple onion

Cheese( any kind)

pepperoni

1/2-1 bottle of Italian dressing

Boil pasta until al-dente.  Cool and add all ingredients. Stir well and serve cold

Tangy Spinach Salad

A friend of mine made this for me when I got home from the hospital with my 4th baby.  I was never a huge spinach fan until lately and now I am finding some yummy things to do with spinach.  This one is a whole different flavor than your usual spinach salad flavors. Every one that I have served it too has really loved it.  My kids especially love it.  I would have probably never made it just looking at the recipe.  The combo just seams weird to me for a salad dressing. But give it a try, seriously, you wont be disappointed. The original recipe doesn't call for craisins, but I added them to it and it really adds to the salad.  also the dressing is a little thick, like a glaze.  You can add a tablespoon or so of water to thin it out a little.  Don't add too much though, because it will dilute the yummy flavor. The dressing recipe, goes a long way. We use it for two meals.

Tangy Spinach Salad

A bag of Spinach (I like to use baby)

3 hard boiled eggs

1 cup of dried cranberries (like craisins)

6-8 pieces of bacon crumbled

Dressing

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Add all ingredients in the blender and blend well. (I use one of those hand blenders used for personal size smoothies and such)

Cran-Orange Almond Salad

I got this recipe from one of my favorite food blogs Real Mom Kitchen. I love so many of her recipes.  I adapted this one a bit. It calls for Jicama, but I'm not a fan of it.  I also tried the recipe using fresh oranges vs mandarins and decided we like the mandarins better.  This salad is a huge hit at out house.  It is so light a fresh! I nice alternative to a regular basic salad.

Cran-Orange Almond Salad

1 large head Iceberg lettuce
1/2 medium purple onion, sliced really thin and separated into rings
1 large can or two small cans of mandarin oranges. You can use fresh oranges, but we like the mandarins better.
1/2 cup or so of dried cranberries

Serve tossed with orange dressing and sugared almonds. (recipes below)

Orange Dressing

1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/3 cup fresh orange juice (can use the juice from the mandarin oranges)
2 Tablespoons vinegar I like (apple cider Vinegar but have used regular as well)
1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon Good Seasons dry Italian dressing mix (about a 1/2 packet)

Combine ingredients in blender or shaker jar.

Sugared Almonds

4 ounces slivered almonds
3 Tablespoons sugar

Place almonds in a small skillet and sprinkle with sugar.  Cook over medium heat stirring until almonds are coated and starting to brown (a nice tan color) and sugar has dissolved.  (Be careful not to burn)  Allow almonds to cool.

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

My children love this dish.  My friend brought it to a party one day and we've enjoyed making it ever since.  It's a very simple and quick recipe.  I love the beautiful color.  It's light flavor makes a great side dish to any summer BBQ.

                                   

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

3 cups of cubed tomatoes (I use grape tomatoes cut in half)

3 cups cubed cucumbers (I love the hot house ones)

1/4-1/2 cup Italian dressing (I like Kraft zesty Italian)

Stir together and chill.

Creamy Potato Salad

Potato salad is one of those comfort foods that always hits the spot for me. My favorite thing is to ditch the spoon and use Doritos or potato chips as the scoop instead.  I this recipe from Real Mom Kitchen and then I modified it a little. 

The thing I like the most about this recipe, is that my husband likes it.  He usually doesn't eat potato salad because he doesn't like the onions in it. So I make it with onion powder instead and it works great.

Creamy Potato Salad

1 cup mayo

4  hard boiled eggs chopped
1/2 cup diced dill pickles

1 tsp. yellow mustard

1 tsp salt

a pinch of pepper

1 Tbsp sugar
4 large potatoes (boiled until very tender)

Allow the potatoes to cool.  Mix all other ingredients and stir into cooled potatoes. Refrigerate until time to serve.

TIP:

Be sure to cover the potatoes while allowing them to cool. They will begin to turn brown after being exposed to air.  

Delicious Homemade Croutons

When I was a teenager, my first official job was at a pizza restaurant. I loved working there and enjoyed learning new cooking tips.  One of my favorite things to do was to make the croutons. I have to tell you, there is nothing like a home made crouton.  They are so easy to make too.  In honor of my sister-in-law, my first post is one of her favorite snacks. Croutons!

You can do so many things to flavor them.  Ranch powder, and italian seasoning, add a great flavor.  I love just a little garlic and butter.  Leftover sub rolls, or french bread, make great croutons.

Delicious Homemade Croutons 

                                                    

 1 loaf of french bread cubed (about 8 cups)

1-2 cloves of garlic chopped (i use the prepared garlic)

1 cup of butter melted 

salt to taste

Cube bread and lay on a cookie sheet in a single layer.

 Stir garlic, melted butter together, and salt together.  Drizzle over the bread.  Stir to coat and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. I like to take them out after a few minutes and give them a good stir again, to coat them really well. Then return to the oven to finish cooking.