Recipe Wednesday: Salads Part 1

In the summer, I love having "salad night." Here are two salads that are quick, easy and delicious! These salads are meant to be main course salads. Later, I'll share my favorite "on the side" salads.

Although I make my own dressing quite often, these two salads call for dressings that I can't make nearly as good as the bottle :) They are the Giard's brand dressings and I get them at Safeway--which is affiliated with Vons, Dominicks, Tom Thumb, Carrs and Randalls--so you should be able to buy it at any of these stores! They often go on sale for Buy 1, Get 1 Free, so that's when I stock up.

Salad 1: Chicken Caesar Salad--This is Brookey's all-time favorite dinner. She LOVES this salad!!! The Caesar dressing is perfect and you can taste the lemon in it, which is rare in bottled dressings.

Chicken Caesar Salad
- Several cups of chopped romaine lettuce
- 1-2 cups of poached chicken (click here to see my post on cooking chicken)
- Juice of one lemon
- 1 cup croutons (store bought or homemade, I do both depending on the time I have!)
- A few tablespoons Girard's Caesar Salad dressing (see below)

Optional Ingredients
- 2 roma tomatoes, chopped
- Black olives, sliced
- Parmesan cheese, grated

This dressing is the KEY ingredient!!

1. Shred chicken and toss with about 1 tablespoon of dressing; set aside.

2. Chop lettuce, place into a large bowl and pour the juice of 1 lemon over the top of the lettuce (the lemon is optional but gives the salad an extra fresh kick!)

3. Top lettuce with croutons, tomatoes/olives/Parmesan (if using).

4. Toss salad with a few tablespoons of dressing, add in the chicken and you're ready to eat!


Salad 2: Chinese Chicken Salad--I'm not sure if there is really anything "Chinese" about this salad but the dressing bottle DOES mention it, so I'm just going with it :) All I know is that it's delicious!

Chinese Chicken Salad
- Several cups of chopped romaine lettuce
- 1-2 cups of poached chicken (click here to see my post on cooking chicken)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1/2 cucumber, chopped
- 1 can mandarin oranges (chopped fresh oranges work, too but more work for you!) :)
- 1 handful dry Chow Mein noodles (in the Asian aisle...they add a great crunch!)
- A few tablespoons of Girard's Chinese Chicken Salad dressing

Here's the KEY INGREDIENT:

1. Shred chicken and toss with about 1 tablespoon of dressing; set aside.

2. Combine all other ingredients, add in the chicken and toss with a few more tablespoons of dressing. That's all she wrote :)

If you poached a bunch of chicken per my crockpot method, these two dinners literally come together in minutes!

Enjoy! XO