“Elaine Salad”

I had planned on grilling two filet mignons tonight – one for dinner and one for leftovers later this week.  The filets weren’t quite thawed and honestly I just wasn’t feeling it tonight.

I knew I wanted an Elaine Salad – aka a big salad – ‘its a salad, only bigger – with lots of stuff’ (although I’m not sure mine would be considered it lots of stuff – but it had enough).  I also had some fresh lettuce – picked from my neighbor’s garden yesterday.  So off to the fridge to see what protein I had and low and behold I had some Halloumi Cheese (purchased from Wegman’s).  This is cheese you can GRILL – yes I said GRILL.

Here is a view of it first on the grill:

Halloumi just placed on the grill (~300 degrees)

Halloumi just placed on the grill (~300 degrees)

You want it to get grill marks and you want it to look a bit like chicken when your grill it.  Something like this:

Halloumi Cheese with grill marks - looks a bit like chicken.

Halloumi Cheese with grill marks – looks a bit like chicken.

The rest of my salad included:  fresh lettuce, organic cranberries, pistachios and roasted peppers.  I also made homemade dressing – fig balsamic vinegar, EVOO, Dijon Mustard, Mediterranean oregano, fresh ground pepper and fresh ground himalyan pink salt.  I shook it up in a cruet (it has a line for vinegar, water and oil – I ignored the water line and just filled the vinegar up to the water line).  Making fresh, homemade dressing for you salad is so easy and good for you since you decide what goes in it.

Here is the final picture of the salad (note I did leave the cheese on a little longer – I burnt the one side – still very tasty).  The salad my not look like an Elaine Salad – it was – that salad was in a big salad bowl!

Yummy Halloumi Salad

Yummy Halloumi Salad

In the Kitchen with Kate

Last Saturday, I took my Aunt out for her birthday. I invited my other Aunt to join us as well. We had a fabulous time as always. My Mom and her two sisters are great – our Angels!

Anyway, one of my Aunt’s saw on Dr. Oz about the Paleo diet and she wanted to try it.  I looked up a couple of websites and sent her some links.  And I also sent her a link to Elana’s Pantry – http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-diet-recipes/.

I was invited to my Aunt’s to celebrate Mother’s Day.  I promised her I would bring Paleo friendly food.   Had a great visit with my parents, Aunts, Uncle and my cousins and their kids – a great day!!

Here is what I brought:  Paleo friendly Pesto (used as a dip) and Salad including homemade dressing.  They were both really easy to make too.  Here are the recipes (I forgot to take pictures) (sorry)

Pesto

  • 1 – 2 Handfuls of Basil
  • 2 Garlic Cloves
  • Dry Roasted / Salted Pistachios

Put all ingredients in a high powered blender until smooth.  Makes a fabulous dip with Rice Crisps (gluten free).  If you don’t want to make it Paleo just add some freshly grated parmesan or romano cheese.

Salad

  • Spinach
  • Organic Cranberries
  • Chopped Figs
  • Organic Mushrooms
  • Organic Yellow Peppers
  • Toasted Pecans

Homemade Dressing:  I bought a Good Seasoning’s Cruet to make the dressing.  It has lines on the cruet to show where to fill with Vinegar (V), Water (W) and Oil (O).  I ignored the W line.  I added Fig Balsamic Vinegar to the W line (the W line is higher than the Vinegar line), then I added Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the Oil line.  I then added 1 tablespoon of Honey Dijon Mustard.  I forgot some additional seasonings like oregano – so you can add additional seasonings.  Shake up and you have a fabulous, homemade dressing!

Everyone enjoyed the Pesto dip and Salad with the homemade dressing.  Enjoy!!

PS:  My Aunt has decided Paleo just isn’t for her – she likes her dairy too much.  However, I left her some recipes to try some new and healthy things.