RESOLUTION WEEK - TURKEY SALAD WITH TARRAGON VINAIGRETTE

Holidays over - Resolution diet in! Good Luck to All!

I really like the tight leaves of Belgian endive but if you prefer the lighter greens from heads of romaine lettuce, they are great too. You can also substitute chicken breasts for the turkey. Helpful diet hint: Rotisserie chicken or turkey breasts pack a lot of calories as they are constantly basted with butter and oil. So buy boneless breasts and fry in a pan with cooking spray.

Salad:

2 cups diced turkey

1 cup thinly sliced celery hearts

1/3 cups non-salted toasted almonds

1 Fuji or Honeycrisp apple (sweet apple) cut into 1/2 inch cubes

2 oz crumbled blue cheese

1 Belgian endive leaves separated and cleaned

In a large bowl toss all ingredients except lettuce and blue cheese and sprinkle blue cheese on top. Reserve the lettuce leaves.

Vinaigrette:

2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon

2 tsp grainy Dijon mustard

2 tbl tarragon vinegar

6 tbl extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

Whisk together all ingredients and taste to adjust seasoning. Pour over turkey mixture and toss well. Serve with lettuce leaves on the side. Fill the leaves with the salad and dive in!!!!

For a less calorie salad, limit the blue cheese and oil.

Get a good start!

ENJOY!

BASIL VINAIGRETTE DRESSING

This dressing is delicious over a nicoise salad of mixed greens, tuna steak and nicoise olives. You can also serve it over fresh sliced heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella salad...or experiment using your favorite vegetables.

It can be refrigerated up to 5 days, but if you are not serving it immediately, don't add the basil until you are ready to serve, about 15-30 minutes ahead, as the other ingredients will wilt the basil.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

3 tbl chopped fresh basil

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 tbl Dijon mustard

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp honey

1/4 kosher salt

1/8 tsp fresh pepper

In a glass cup or jar with a tight lid, whisk together all the ingredients and shake to fully combine.

That's It!

ENJOY!

CAESAR DRESSING

I am so very sorry to my loyal followers that I did not have a new post yesterday. We had a big birthday bash at our house (pictured above) and I got distracted. I Love Love having parties and this one was great. At the party I made my famous Caesar salad dressing and here it is....

Ingredients:

serves about 6 people

6 small heads of romaine lettuce

croutons

4 tbl fresh shaved parmesan cheese

4 cloves garlic

4 egg yolks

2 anchovies

1 tbl dijon mustard

1 cup olive oil

salt

pepper

In a wooden bowl cut a garlic clove in half and season the bowl on the bottom and sides. Make sure every inch and a half is seasoned...the smell is divine anyway. In a blender combine all other ingredients except lettuce, croutons cheese, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. Taste it...I always add some salt but the anchovies are very salty so be careful with that...but I love the pepper......so YOU choose your taste level....

Combine with romaine , shaved cheese and croutons.

If you do not have the wooden bowl to serve in, just blend all ingredients and it will still be wondefulish...

ENJOY!

CALZONE OR SUBMARINE DRESSING

I have not perfected the calzone, but I work on it often to get the ratio of dough to ingredients to liquid. I will post my calzone when it is READY. In the process I came across this little beauty. It just seems to have the perfect balance of oil to vinegar and the spices are a great balance too.

A product of V. Formusa Co. based in Chicago under the brand Marconi, I found it at a grocery-size Italian market. Not sure how widespread it is marketed, but worth looking for or they do have a website. Just go to http://www.marconi-foods.com/. You will also find tons of great products on this site including some standard Italian salad dressings and vinaigrette's. Even when I don't quite achieve the perfection I want in my calzone, the flavor of this makes all the cold cuts I use taste great and all subs are fantastic.

ENJOY!

MY FAVORITE SALAD DRESSING

Girard's makes a wide variety of salad dressings, I think about 20 in all. Girard's began in the mid 1930's with an original French salad dressing. With its popularity, Wilfred Girard opened Girard's French Restaurant in San Francisco.

The salad dressing company has been bought and sold a few times moving up and down the California coast to its current home in Los Angeles.

So famous for high quality ingredients and their trademark triangle bottles, these dressings are great. My favorite is the Light Caesar dressing.

On grocery shopping day, I buy an assortment of vegetables and chop them up and put them in individual glad containers and store them in the refrigerator. During the week, my family's favorite appetizer is to dip the fresh vegetables in the salad dressing. A confession---- Wheat Thins and Triscuits taste pretty good "dipped" as well. Makes me feel better when our dinner may not include enough vegetables, it's a fun way to get your daily.

Try it and you will LOVE it. It is sold in most grocery stores or online at http://www.girardsdressing.com/

ENJOY!