Mexican Chicken Salad a la California Style!

In southern California, summer finally hit - with GUSTO!! It has been hot and humid and just plain miserable.  Now if you live in the East or the South you will laugh at my intolerance of CA humidity. But we are spoiled - I admit it.  And when there is moisture in the air, it is just plain miserable unless you have the ocean breeze. I am just inland enough to miss that cooling mist...

I have been feeling so icky in the evenings that dinner has often been yogurt, frozen  yogurt,  mozzarella slices and tomatoes - in other words, anything easy!!  So I was determined to actually MAKE something and I did - from beginning to end, without a recipe. Granted, making a salad does not require a recipe, but I created a marinade for the chicken breasts and a dressing for the salad and it turned out delicious!!  So I just had to share.......

MEXICAN CHICKEN SALAD WITH GUACAMOLE DRESSING

Cilantro, roasted red peppers, roasted garlic olive oil and lemon juice = best Southwestern marinade

(Disclaimer - totally forgot to photograph the white wine vinegar - oops!!)

Marinade:

1/4 cup roasted garlic olive oil (found this at Costco and love it!!)

1/8 c. white wine vinegar

1/4 c. roasted red peppers
2 cubes frozen cilantro (Trader Joe's) or several Tablespoons of fresh, chopped

juice of 1 lemon

Combine all ingredients and mix with a stick blender.  I have the one from Cuisinart and  use it often!

Place two chicken breasts halves in a ziploc bag with the marinade and put in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.  Turn over occasionally to be sure it is distributed well.

Light ranch dressing, wholly guacamole and taco seasoning (with chives) = perfect dressing!

Dressing:

2 packets of individual servings of Wholly Guacamole! (you can certainly make your own, but I only had a few avocados and wanted them for the salad.)

1/2-3/4 c. ranch dressing - to taste

1 tsp taco seasoning (to taste)

Mix and refrigerate so the flavors can meld.

Salad:

romaine lettuce

black beans (rinsed and drained); kidney beans would work well as an alternative

orange pepper, sliced and chunked

yellow pepper, sliced and chunked\

fire-roasted corn (about 1 cup - I use the Trader Joe's brand)

tomatoes, chunked (about 1 1/2 cups)

2 avocados, chunked

black olives, sliced

1 bunch green onions, sliced

*cheddar cheese, grated (optional)

*jack cheese, grated (optional)

tortilla chips, crushed for garnish

* I used a shredded Mexican blend

Assembly:

Grilled chicken breasts after marinade - YUM!

Grill the chicken and slice or chunk depending on your preference.  You can either mix all of the ingredients like a chopped salad, or layer on a plate with slices of the chicken on top (pictured below).

This was beyond delicious and made enough for several nights. I shared with my neighbor and we both had leftovers. The beauty of this salad is that you can use as much or as little of any of the ingredients as you want.  There are no hard and fast rules. This was fun and I will definitely be creating new salads in the future.  I wish I would have started this earlier in the summer as it's a great solution to eating healthy when it's just....... too....... hot!!

Salad in process...

The finished dinner serving - or several servings!!

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Fabulous Tomato Soup!

My oldest son, Scott, is a fabulous cook.  He and his wife live about an hour away, so I love it when he comes down and cooks for us!!  It's not only a night out of the kitchen, but a chance to eat some delicious food.

Not that long ago he treated me to some of his tomato gorgonzola soup.  Since I am a cheese junkie, that just sounded like pure heaven - and trust me - it was!!!

His recipe is very simple but it is sheer rich, savory goodness. And the star of the recipe is fresh roma tomatoes!!  You chop them up, add some canned tomatoes, seasonings, half and half or evaporated milk, blend it up and then you add as much gorgonzola cheese as your taste buds will allow.  Trust me- you will never EVER eat canned tomato soup again. This is SO easy and SO good (but I have to admit it's better when Scott makes it!)

I was craving a grilled cheese sandwich while this was simmering.  The pairing of the grilled cheese and the soup just transports me back to childhood.  But I was tired and just didn't feel like going to the work (can you spell l-a-z-y??!!??)  Then I remembered I had some of those big biscuits in a can that really needed to be used, so I made baked cheese biscuits.  They were really good fresh out of the oven.  Not sure they were as good as a steamy buttery grilled cheese, but they tasted great at the time!  It was an easy dinner  and the soup and biscuits were enjoyed for many nights!

Scott's Fabulous Tomato Soup

  6-8 Roma tomatoes

·        2 cans of stewed tomatoes (Preferably with Italian seasoning)

·        2 small cans of tomato paste

·        Salt, pepper, additional Italian seasonings to taste

·        Garlic, if you feel like it 

·        Blue cheese or gorgonzola

·        Small container of heavy whipping cream

In a large pot heat up the three different tomatoes and seasoning. Once the fresh romas start to break down and get real soft, use the emulsion blender to pulse it all together into whatever consistency you prefer. Taste the soup at this point to make sure the seasoning is correct. Add seasoning as needed.

Add in heavy cream (probably about half to two-thirds) and a good handful or two of the cheese and stir in with a spoon. Once the cheese is melted, serve with one more small pinch of cheese on top.

Enjoy!!!

**  Really Scott?  How can you  NOT feel like garlic? It makes everything better!!

***  I have substituted the heavy cream using fat free evaporated milk or fat free half and half with equally excellent results.  I think the FF half and half is my favorite.

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