How I Made Oven-Roasted Vegetables!

Anthony requested salads for supper for this evening after we had pizza and ice cream last night. I wanted to make some oven-roasted vegetables to go with our tuna salad and lettuce. I found All Recipe's Roasted Vegetables Recipe online. The only vegetable that I used that they used was an onion. Other than that one, I used all my own vegetables. They used squash, sweet potatoes etc. I used french green beans, baby tomatoes, mushrooms, and carrots. Further, I used dried herbs instead of fresh, but used the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, and the oven temp and time from the recipe. I thought the lettuce, tuna and oven-roasted veggies ensemble turned out great. I thoroughly enjoyed my hot and cold plate. Anthony said he probably would have liked rice with the vegetables better than salad. I blended some of the vegetables in a mini blender for baby Shastya. I smelled my freshly blended baby's food, and said I could blend the rest of tonight's vegetables to make a terrific pizza sauce. Anthony said maybe I could do that, tomorrow night!

Jawbreaker Salad

I do not believe I sliced the carrots thinly enough for our dinner salads. My teeth and jaw were sore by the time I had eaten half of my salad. I left the leftovers for Anthony.

4th Meal

We had lentils and rice for dinner earlier, but Anthony and I were hungry again. We didn't want to eat anything too unhealthy. I asked Anthony what he wanted, he replied, "chicken salad." Well you have to understand, Anthony doesn't like mayo-based chicken salad. You also must understand that we have shrimp in our fridge this week instead of raw chicken. All things considered, I replied to Anthony, "continue." He said, "well we have those chicken strips, and spinach . . ." I was like, "Oh!" I had forgotten we had frozen fried chicken strips in the freezer. I then gathered supplies to make our salad: spinach, celery, chicken strips, dried cranberries, grated parmesan cheese, frozen pecan pieces, and bacon ranch salad dressing. I heated the chicken strips in the microwave, and I chopped some spinach on a plate. Meanwhile I snacked on frozen pecan pieces. Then I thought twice about the celery and the grated parmesan. I ended up returning them to the fridge without using them on our salad. I also put the pecans back in the freezer without using them on the salad. I didn't want our salad dressing to be gloppy so I added a little water to it and shook it up. Our salad 4th meal of the day was amazing, not too heavy, and not too light.

vegetables

We had soup and salad for dinner. Shastya was completely mesmerized with the bright, colorful salads. I think kids are probably taught to like all the fats and sugars that are so common in the American diet. Those nutrient deficient foods are not pretty, and they don't even taste as good as fruits and vegetables.

Fried Beans Over Romaine

We were hungry for a midnight snack. I asked Anthony what he wanted. He said salad. I just scrounged up some leftovers in the fridge for salad toppings and fried them all up with eggs. I got the  scrambled egg on salad idea from Anthony awhile back. We sprinkled black pepper on top of the salads. Anthony used chipotle ranch on his as well.

Fried Beans Over Romaine:

1/2 Head of Romaine Lettuce

3 Tb Leftover Vegetable Filling from Dill Dumplings With Vegetable Filling

2 Eggs

1/2 Can of Red Kidney Beans

Poached Chicken With Fresh Berries Over Napa Cabbage

This salad came to my mind shortly after I returned home from the grocery store with a bunch of great whole fresh ingredients! I did not let the fact that I didn't know what one of the ingredients was deter me from creating a fabulous salad. I mean, I could ball park the ingredient. It was definitely in the cabbage/ greens/ lettuce family. I thought it might be Swiss chard or Chinese cabbage. Anthony and I had just watched an episode of Iron Chef America on Amazon recently, and  the "secret ingredient" on that episode had been Swiss chard. I made our salads for lunch still not completely knowing what our mystery item was.

After lunch I googled Swiss chard. That was not our item. Then I googled types of cabbage. I saw pics of Chinese cabbage and Napa cabbage that looked similar to what I had brought home from the store. Taking a closer look, a certain Buzzle article clarified for me that what I had just used for our salads was indeed Napa cabbage. I told Anthony of my discovery. I laughed as I told him that I had seen Napa printed on the big twisty tie wrapped around my Napa cabbage, and that I had just thought that it said Napa like oranges say Florida, or some produce says California.

Poached Chicken With Fresh Berries Over Napa Cabbage:

1 Raw Chicken Breast

1/2 Head of Napa Cabbage

4 Large Strawberries

Handful of Blackberries

1 Lemon

Black Pepper

1. Drop raw chicken breast into boiling water. Turn heat down a little. Cook until done.

2. Cut cabbage and strawberries. Arrange first four ingredients on two plates.

3. Cut lemon in half. Squeeze lemon juice over salads. Sprinkle salads with black pepper.

  

Splendid Salads

Ingredients:

1/4 Head Iceberg Lettuce

1/2 Green Pepper

2 Stalks Celery

1 Yellow Squash

4 Slices Lunch Meat Ham

2 Sliced Cheese

Small Handfull Seasoned Tortilla Chips

2 Tb Bacon Ranch Salad Dressing

Ground Black Pepper

Southwest Salad

Ingredients:

Iceberg Lettuce

1/2 Green Bell Pepper

1/2 Can Black Beans

Chipotle Tortilla Strips

Chipotle Ranch Salad Dressing

Festive Salad Dressing

Anthony thought a salad would be good to have for dinner since he had eaten some of his own leftover graduation cake throughout the day, since he had eaten some of our friend's graduation cake in the afternoon, and since we had eaten some of the gingerbread and icing for the gingerbread house later in the evening.

Anthony began to chop up the salad ingredients: iceberg lettuce, ham, cheddar cheese, and mini peppers. I began gleefully laughing . . . . Then I retrieved the molasses and ginger I had just shelved after completing our gingerbread house. I also giggled as I went to the fridge for the chopped garlic. This was going to be an epic salad dressing for sure! Epic because of the festive ingredients, and epic because I knew Anthony would think these particular festive ingredients to be preposterous in a salad! I whipped them together, then added oil and apple cider. Interesting.

Anthony and I both agreed that my new festive salad dressing was not that far out. It reminded us of sweet salad dressings we had eaten before. Neither of us is that wild about sweet salad dressings. But alas, we were out of ranch and had to have some kind of salad dressing.

Gourmet Hot Ham & Cauliflower Salad

I created this salad this evening for my husband and me. It reminds me of a Pennsylvania Dutch salad I grew up with that was served with hot bacon salad dressing.

 

Hot Ham & Cauliflower Salad

Spinach

Iceberg Lettuce

McIntosh Apple

Parmesan Croutons

Cauliflower

Lunch Meat Ham

Salt

Black Pepper

Cayenne Pepper

Spicy Mustard

Clover Honey

Milk