I have always been a salad junkie. Even as a small child, I loved the crunchy cheap salads my grandmother made with iceberg lettuce. In the Just Add Cloth household, we usually have at least one night a week with salad as the main entree. Sometimes we even go on a salad kick and eat it as a one dish meal four nights a week. Mr.JAC requested “something with lettuce and chicken” for dinner last night, so I pulled the random odds and ends from our fridge and went to work. Luckily, we ditched the iceberg long ago and usually have some organic romaine and baby spinach around.
Tossed Romaine with Chicken and Capers
Two large heads romaine lettuce chopped
Two tomatoes diced
One large carrot sliced thin
One baby dill pickle chopped small
Two tablespoons jarred capers
Four small chicken breast tenderloins browned in a pan with lemon pepper
Black olives from a can or olive bar
We rarely buy commercial salad dressing since it almost always has an ingredient either my son or I react poorly to, so I made a simple vinegrette.
Three tablespoons Olive oil
Tablespoon Lemon juice
Three tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp honey or sugar
Tiny pinch sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Toss it all together and serve! This makes a fairly large bowl that should easily serve two hungry adults and two children.
My two year old will eat salad if it is dressed to his liking. For a toddler approved salad, I recommend taking the dressing ingredients and blending them with a ripe avocado to make a creamy dressing. I also will substitute the meat for beans sometimes. We were vegetarian for 10 years so beans are a big staple in our house.
Since lettuce is in season, we used only a small amount of chicken, and recruited inexpensive ingredients, even with all organic this meal only comes to about $7 total. I would love to tell you I bought most of it from our local farmer’s market except that when we went there this weekend, we discovered it had permanently closed! (If you listen closely you can hear me weeping.)
Obviously healthy eating can be delicious and affordable. For some more salad recipes, head over to the Summer Salad link up at Brittleby’s Corner!
Yum! I am loving all these ideas! I don’t cook meat at home, so I would probably do the beans like you suggested! My daughter likes salad, but my son is a little iffy! I love your idea about blending dressing with avocado to make it creamy!
~Thanks for the shout out as well, I am loving this salad linky~