While I’m certainly no Julie of Julia and Julie movie fame, I do enjoy cooking my way through a fun cookbook. My latest venture is Weight Watchers From Pantry to Plate picked up for $1.50 in excellent condition at Goodwill a month ago.  Not one to leave well enough alone, I adapted the Cucumber-Orange Salad to give it a bit more crunch.

Orange Cucumber Salad
1 large orange, juiced
1/2 lemon or lime, juiced
1 garlic clove, minced (if you love garlic, feel free to add more!)
1/2 tablespoon canola oil
Sea Salt to taste

Combine in a bowl and stir.

1 orange peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 cucumber peeled and diced into small pieces
1 mini sweet red pepper diced
1 mini yellow pepper diced
1 mini orange pepper diced
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup diced red onion

Toss with dressing and serve.

This spring salad is marvelous with grilled chicken and fish. In fact, From Pantry to Plate doubles the liquid recipe and uses 1/2 for a marinade and 1/2 for the salad. The burst of citrus with the crunch of veggies makes it a salad that will be making many return appearances this spring and summer.

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Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Salad Dressing:
6 Tbsps olive oil
2 Tbsps white vinegar
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsps apple juice concentrate

Salad:

1 avocado, chopped
1 stick celery, washed and chopped small
6 cups torn spinach leaves or 1 bag (10 oz) washed spinach leaves
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup almonds, slivered (optional: roast in a saucepan for 7 min. with 2 tsp apple juice concentrate)
1 tomato, washed and chopped or 15 cherry tomatoes
red apple, washed, cored, and chopped small
green apple, washed, cored, and chopped small

Whisk oil, vinegar, apple juice concentrate, salt, and pepper in a small, deep bowl. Toss remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Pour dressing over salad to coat. Serve on pretty Christmas plates.

2 bags broccoli florets, 10 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon, 5 thinly sliced scallions, 1/2 cup raisins, 1 finely chopped Granny Smith apple, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1 cup mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar.

In a large bowl, combine broccoli, scallions, raisins, apples, nuts, and bacon. In a separate bowl blend, mayonnaise, vinegar, and sugar. Pour over the broccoli mixture. Cover and refrigerate 2-3 hours before serving.

Kellie Renfroe, July / August 2008 MMCW

Photo by Kellie Renfroe

1 bag of 50 / 50 salad mix (spring mix and baby spinach), ½ cup fresh blueberries, ½ cup sliced fresh strawberries, ½ cup chopped walnuts, blue cheese crumbles, any store-bought raspberry vinegarette dressing (my favorite is Kraft’s Raspberry Hazelnut).

Combine salad mix, berries, and walnuts. Sprinkle blue cheese crumbles on top and drizzle with raspberry dressing.

Additional fun toppings are grilled chicken, grilled red onions, and currants.

Molly Evert, my friend Jen’s fabulous salad, July / August 2008 MMCW
Candied Pecans: ½ cup chopped pecans, 3 tablespoons sugar.

Salad: ½ head greenleaf lettuce torn into bite-size pieces, ½ head romaine torn into bite size pieces, 1 cup chopped celery, 4 green onions chopped, 11 oz. can drained mandarin oranges, 1 avocado cut into chunks, 1 diced apple, ½ cup dried fruit (currents, raisins, cranberries or cherries), ½ cup crumbled blue cheese (optional), 3 chicken breast halves shredded.

Dressing: ½ teaspoon.salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, ¼ cup oil, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (or red wine vinegar).

1. Prepare the pecans: Melt 3 tablespoons sugar in a large frying pan with pecans, stirring continuously until coated.  Don’t let the sugar burn!  Spread on foil to cool.

2. Mix salad ingredients together. Toss with pecans and add the dressing.  Enjoy!

Molly Evert,  April / May 2009 MMCW

2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts, 2 (14 oz.) cans chicken broth

Cook chicken in chicken broth.  Shred meat.  Save broth.

Peanut sauce:  2 tbsp. peanut butter, 1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp. Soy sauce, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp lime juice, 1 tsp minced ginger, 1 tsp minced garlic.

Process sauce ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.  Mix with the chicken.

Cool 1 lb. Rice noodles in the leftover broth.  Add to vinaigrette.

Vinaigrette:  2 tbsp rice-wine vinegar, 1 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp peanut oil, 2 tbsp fresh mint.

Serve rice noodles and chicken with matchstick vegetables: red onion, carrot, cucumber and red pepper.

Molly Evert, July / August 2008 MMCW
3 cucumbers sliced very thin, 1 clove peeled garlic, salt to taste, ¼ cup white vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar.

Slice cucumbers; soak in water.  Add the garlic clove to the water.  Sprinkle well with salt, stirring to dissolve.  Refrigerate for one hour.  Drain water and remove garlic.  Stir vinegar and sugar together until sugar is dissolved.  Pour onto cucumbers and stir.  If necessary, add more salt to taste.

Molly Evert, my friend Jen’s fabulous salad, July / August 2008 MMCW
Layer the following in a flat casserole dish: 1 bag romaine lettuce mix, grape tomatoes, black olives, thinly sliced red onion, red or yellow pepper strips.
Sprinkle with Hidden Valley Ranch dry Italian salad dressing mix.  Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Mix. Top with basil and tomato-flavored feta cheese.

Vicki Webb, January 2008 MMCW
2 hearts Romaine lettuce torn into small pieces, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1 cup sliced red grapes, 1 finely chopped apple, 3/4 cup chopped walnuts or toasted pecans.

Dressing: 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon celery seed, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, 2 tablespoons grated onion, 1/2 cup red vinegar, 3/4 cup olive or canola oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper.

Mix dressing and toss.

Vicki Webb, January 2008 MMCW
Head of lettuce, 1cup thinly sliced celery, 1 bunch green onions thinly sliced with tops, 1 can drained mandarin oranges cut into small pieces, butter toffee glazed almonds. (Honey roasted almonds work well too.)

Dressing: 1/2 teaspoon salt, dash pepper, dash Tabasco, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1/4 cup oil, 1 tablespoon parsley flakes.
Shake dressing ingredients in tightly covered jar and refrigerate.

Place chopped greens in plastic bag with celery and onions. Store in refrigerator. Five minutes before serving, pour dressing on greens; add oranges and toss. Top with nuts.