Croutons

I love caesar salad, but I hate boxed croutons. Enter in this recipe as the solution. Use any sort of leftover bread product you have lying around. I've made it with sandwich bread, buns, etc. It all works, but I do prefer just plain sliced whole wheat bread.

Recipe adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

8 Slices of Bread, cubed
1/2 C. Butter, melted
4 Tsp. Garlic Salt

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350F
~In microwave safe dish melt butter then stir in garlic salt
~Toss bread cubes in butter mixture and stir to evenly coat
~Spread onto cookie sheet
~Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until no longer moist and crispy, stirring part way through to allow for even browning
~Cool before serving

Enjoy

Raspberry Vinaigrette

I don't usually scale down recipes. This one I had to. I made a quarter of the batch. Who needs 4 cups of dressing when it has no preservatives in it, and it's simple enough to make again 2-3 days down the road?

This was great. It didn't separate like most vinaigrettes do (further reading informs me that the honey is the trick). It's a wonderful pink colour and looks really great on your salads, and it's way too easy to warrant buying the expensive salad dressings at the grocery store.

Recipe from Cooking with Chandra

Makes 1 C.

Ingredients

1/2 C. Olive Oil

1/4 C. Vinegar (whatever type you like, I use white)

1 Clove Garlic, minced

1 Tsp. Parsley

2 Tbsp. Honey

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/2 C. Raspberries (I used frozen that I thawed)

1 1/2 Tsp. Lemon Juice

Directions

~Combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse until mixed

~Run mixture through a sieve to strain out the raspberry seeds.

~Serve right away if desired, but best if left to sit in the fridge for a bit for the flavours to blend.

Enjoy

Broccoli Salad

Now as I've mentioned before, when I'm cooking things I make again and again I do not like to use a recipe. As such, I don't have a recipe to share with you guys for this amazing salad. I do have an ingredients list thought, and so my recommendation is make this salad (it's so amazing you have to try it), but add in the extras as you see fit. Remember, this is a broccoli salad, so what I do is mix the dressing up first and pour it over the broccoli florets. Then toss in a few add-in's as per your own tastes. You can even make the base salad of broccoli and dressing and chop up the add-in's and let everyone make their own unique creation. While you can bottle up the dressing and mix it in just as you're going to eat the salad, I would recommend at least combining the broccoli and dressing ahead of time, because it definitely tastes better when the broccoli has been given a chance to soak. Confused yet? Forget everything I just rambled about and just go throw all these ingredients together as you see fit. That's my final piece of advice. So without further ado...Broccoli Salad

Oh...wait...one more thing. Please don't omit the salami (or bacon), this salad just does not taste the same (or even half as good) without it. It needs the salt. Don't bother making it if you aren't going to add it. You've been warned.

Ingredients

Dressing:
1 C. Mayonnaise
1/3 C. White Sugar
1 Tbsp. White Vinegar

Salad:
Broccoli Florets
Almonds, slivered
Seedless Grapes, halved
Salami (originally called for bacon, but the packaged salami you get in a 3 pack from Costco adds a much better flavour)

Additional Salad Add-In's:
Sweet Red Pepper, sliced into bite size pieces
Strawberries, sliced
I also tossed a few blackberries in as well as an afterthought because I had them lying around.

Directions

~Mix all the dressing ingredients together and stir well until they are well combined and the sugar is no longer gritty.

~Prepare your broccoli (the Costco bag of florets is great for this) and any add-ins you wish to have. (My recommendation would be broccoli, almonds, grapes & salami-that is just the minimum for this salad. I actually think that was what the original recipe called for if I remember correctly. It's been a while since I've seen the original.)

~Toss the salad with the dressing.

Enjoy

Kitchen Sink Potato Salad

While I like mayonnaise, it is not a condiment that I feel like I need to eat. I feel that it is a waste of calories, because you can get so much flavour from other things such as mustard, which incidentally is better for you. Plus, mustard adds such brilliant colour to a potato salad. Now, it took a couple of tries, but this time I think I got this potato salad to work, and much to my delight, I was able to completely eliminate mayonnaise from the dressing.

Now, just warning you, this makes a huge batch of salad (I'm sorry, I only cook in large batches), so feel free to cut this recipe in half. Or just make the whole recipe and eat potato salad for every meal for the next week or so. Your choice.

So here it is...Mayonnaise Free Potato Salad...or...Multicoloured Potato Salad...or maybe better yet...Kitchen Sink Potato Salad!

Kitchen Sink Potato Salad

Ingredients 

8 Large Red Potatoes
18 Eggs
2 Carrots (grated)
1/3 Red Onion
12 Sliced Sandwich Pickles (you can use any pickles, this was just what I had)
1/4 C. White Vinegar
1/2 C. Pickle Juice
1/3 C. Yellow Mustard
1/4 C. BBQ Sauce
2 tsp Hot Sauce
Dill
Salt
Pepper

Directions

~Scrub potatoes clean, leaving skin on and cut into cubes. Place cubes in a pot of water and boil until soft. Drain.

~Meanwhile, put eggs in pot of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn element down to med/high and boil for 10 minutes. Drain. Allow to cool before peeling. (Can speed this up by continually running cold water over the eggs.)

~Either cut potatoes into chunks or mash, depending on your preference. Use a potato masher to mash the eggs.

~Combine the eggs, potato and carrots. Add red onion slices and pickles and stir to mix.

~For the sauce, pour the vinegar, pickle juice, mustard, BBQ sauce & hot sauce directly onto the potato mixture. Season with the salt, pepper and dill to taste. Stir to combine.

Enjoy