Lunch Saver!

I used to eat salad for lunch at work. The same salad. Every day. But I loved it! It was just a spinach or romaine salad, with pecans, feta, and cranberries. I kept my bottle of raspberry vinaigrette in the work fridge and it was perfect every day! Then one day the fridge got cleaned out and my beloved bottle of dressing was thrown out! Sure it was practically empty...but with salad dressings, perfectly empty really means I have a whole week left!


So for weeks I drifted between leftovers, sandwiches, and boring salads that I tried to swallow without tasting. Until I finally decided to get back in my salad groove! I found this recipe for Santa Fe Chicken Salad from Point-less Meals and it sounded like the perfect heading-into-summer salad!

(Point-less's beautiful salad!)

Here was what really saved me though: I decided to prep a whole week's worth of salad at once! I wasn't sure if all the veggies might go bad, but I gave it a shot. And I was so impressed! Now each day I just grab a scoop of my "santa fe veggies," a bit of mozzarella cheese, some romaine, and finally some crumbled chips. I even made Point-less's dressing and I now keep that at work too. :D Overall, this salad is perfect for a healthy and filling lunch, and it only takes a bit of preparation to last all week!

(My veggie mix. Delicious!)

I included corn, olives, green onions, cucumbers, and carrots in my veggie mix. But I would love to try peppers and beans too, or anything! I also didn't use chicken, since I have enough chicken at dinner every night. I love this salad!

(Just a bit of this each morning. Perfect!)

Here is the dressing recipe:


Dressing
(From Point-less Meals)

• ¼ c. low-fat buttermilk
• ¼ c. light mayonnaise
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 T. cider vinegar
• salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and refrigerate until serving.

(My dressing. Yum, I can taste it now!)

Wings, Cake, and Cookies!

I just cleared my camera pictures and realized I have several cooking adventures I haven't posted yet! (Don't worry, my March skirt is finished and I promise to post pictures eventually..when I get around to wearing it again...).

First, we had my husband's birthday. It was great! Much less stressful than my birthday (probably because he has lower expectations than me :D). I made hot wings for the first time. I do not like chicken on the bone, but for his special day I figured I could be brave. I didn't have any anyway, but he really liked them (ate 18 of them in 2 nights dinner!). The wings sauce is The Pioneer Woman's, which is fantastic. We don't have Tabasco, but I am going to get some for next time! I also did fruit salad, veggies, and cheesy fries (homemade and baked to deliciousness) just for fun. This meal was only missing one of our favorite foods: bacon!

His birthday cake was (of course) a failure, because I made it. This time at least it stayed together enough for me to put on chocolate frosting! I had dreamed up a chocolate ombre cake, but it just didn't happen, so oh well. Next time! Here are the frosting and cake recipes.

And last but not least, I made these fruit loops cookies! I had bought fruit loops for a fun breakfast treat since we were sick of our regular cereal. However, we were not getting through it fast enough! So I googled recipes for cereal cookies and found a great one that works with any old cereal.

My favorite part was the dough. Oh, the dough! I could eat it all day. The cookies were okay, but they were a bit crunchier than I wanted. I was hoping for soft sugar cookies or snicker-doodle-esque texture, but these might have been a bit overdone. However, this is definitely a recipe I will use whenever I have anything to use up. (Or maybe just make the dough and eat it all the time.... :D)