Friday, October 17, 2008

The most DELICIOUS

Ya know,...not to toot my own horn but,..."toot toot."

I sure come up with some good eats.

Fridays are co-op days, and because they are busy, I try,when I'm on the ball at least, to have a quick meal planned for Friday evenings. I had been out of the habit of planning my meals, but after spending the last few weeks coming up empty of ideas at meal time, I decided it was time to start planning again.

This Friday's menu was Chicken Apple Salads. This has been one of our favorites ever since our first trip to Panera and they had a salad with apples on the menu.

Just as I was about to start I decided I wanted a different dressing. Some kind of honey vinaigrette sounded good to me, but I didn't know how to make it. I turned to the Internet and came up with 8 ba-zillion recipes.

Now what?

I did what all cooks do- I guessed. I looked at a few recipes, and thought, "I can do that."

It turned out to be the most delicious accident I've had for a while.

I wanted to take a picture of the salad....but I was sooo HUNGRY!!!!

Here's what I did:

Chicken Apple Salad

-1 chicken breast per person, cooked and chunked (I used only 2 v. 3 since we aren't big carnivores)
-mixed greens or your choice (we like spinach, and "early spring" greens)
-1 apple, cored and sliced into thin rings (we had Macintosh on hand)
-chopped walnuts (1-2 tablespoons per salad)
-Feta or Goat Cheese crumbles, 1-2 TBS per salad(we prefer the goat cheese for it's mild flavor)
-dehydrated onion flakes to taste (a way I sneak a little savory in and my Non-onion eater will still eat it)
salt and pepper to taste

Honey Vinaigrette Dressing:
I used a Pampered chef dressing mixer which has ounce markings on the side
and mixes the ingredients beautifully.

1 ounce Raw Honey (which according to google is roughly 2 TBS)
3ounces Olive Oil ( I used light instead of EVOO)
1 t. dry mustard
1 t. paprika
4 t. Balsamic vinegar
1-2 t. fresh lemon juice (we like things kind of tangy, use your best judgement)
Salt to taste ( I used my palm to measure...maybe a 1/4-1/2 t??)
Pepper to taste

Arrange Greens on plate, sprinkle with onion flakes, cheese, salt/pepper
top with cheese and walnuts
place 3(approx.) apple rings on top, ( I also used a squeeze of the lemon on top of the apple to add a little zing and prevent browning)
drizzle on dressing ( start with less, you can always add more)
top with chicken breast pieces
Inhale.

You can store leftover dressing in the fridge. The oil and honey mixture may become thick, just let it come back to room temperature and it should thin out ( or place in a mug/bowl of warm water to speed it up.)

Sorry I didn't take a picture. Maybe next time.

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