Summer Salad - many options to create several different salads

We have been trying new salad ideas for summer dinners. When my sister came to visit she made a salad and since then we have tried some other combinations that I will share here. My husband loves these salads (and he is much more of a meat and potato guy. He likes salads, but not usually as a main dish.) This salad makes a good main dish or served on the side as well.

Summer Salad
INGREDIENTS:
Romaine lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
Iceberg lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
4 oz crumbled Feta cheese
1 c dried cranberries (I use Cran-Raisins)
1 apple, cored and diced (I use Granny Smith, my sister used a red apple, I think Fuji) Sprinkle 2 Tbls lemon juice over apple after it is diced to keep it from browning.

OPTIONAL ADD-IN ITEMS FOR SALAD:
1 1/2 c strawberries, sliced into bite size pieces
OR
1 1/2 c fresh blackberries
OR
1 1/2 c fresh raspberries
OR any combination of the above
1 avocado, diced

We have put this salad together and use a balsamic vinaigrette or a raspberry vinaigrette, or an Asian Sesame dressing is good too.

If you want to make this a complete meal, marinate chicken breasts for about an hour. Grill chicken until fully cooked. Then slice into strips and place on top of the salad fixings.

For an easy marinade, place chicken breasts (plan about 1/2 chicken breast per person) in a large Ziplock bag. Pour in 1 c of Italian salad dressing. Let marinade for about an hour, then grill to perfection.

Thursday this n that

*This week has been insanely busy for us and there really isn't an end in sight even though we are approaching a weekend. I have had to work late two nights this week and I have to work tomorrow (although it appears that most businesses will be closed Friday in honor of Independence Day.)

*The boys got to go rock climbing this week. I mean real rock climbing with their aunt and cousins. I didn't know they were going to do that or I would have been a nervous mess while they were gone. Apparently someone took video of them so I hope to get that soon! It sounds like the boys had a blast doing that!

*We still only have one car. We are to hoping resolve this issue in the next week or so. We have looked at many vans, cars and SUV's and haven't found anything in our price range that we both like. I know this seems silly but much to my amazement, there are several vans that don't have cup holders in the right places. I am not buying a van without cup holders for the kids. One van had like 6 for the driver (ok, an exaggeration) and only 2 in the 3rd row of the van. How dumb is that. I kept thinking they must be hidden or something, but even the salesman couldn't find them. We have a couple more lots to look at and we also will do some more searching on Craigslist.

*Lady Bug has been visiting the Intermediate Pre-K class at school and hates it. She has been in the 3-4 year old class for a year and now she is moving to the official Pre-kindergarten class. The teachers in the Pre-K class are pretty strict and I think Lady Bug is having a hard time adjusting to that. Her current teacher is always happy and always smiling, so to go from this to the strict environment I think is hard on Lady Bug. I ask her to tell me what she doesn't like and all she will say is "They say bad things to me." when I ask for more than that she gives me examples of someone being strict. If there was something substantial, I would definitely talk to the directors, but just because she has stricter rules I don't think is justification to yank her out of the school! I really think she will adjust as she goes along. She is only visiting now 2 days a week and then moves up officially at the beginning of August.

*Mr. Man has to work all weekend but Friday night we will watch a firework display over by my office and then Saturday evening we are going to a Lacrosse game here in town with a firework show following the game! Should be good times!

WFMW - Gazpacho & Strawberry Pie

I have posted these recipes before, but this week's Works For Me Wednesday posts over at We Are THAT Family is about summer recipes.

One of my favorite summer soups is Gazpacho. The first time I ever tried gazpacho I was hesitant because I felt like soup should be hot, not cold. Cold soup made me wanna gag. But a co-worker of mine made this soup and insisted I try it. I was hooked! This recipe makes quite a bit of soup. I think Gazpacho tastes a lot like salsa with all the tomatoes, veggies and a little bit of spice to it.

Gazpacho

INGREDIENTS:

1 c tomatoes, finely chopped

1/2 c green bell pepper, finely chopped

1/2 c celery, finely chopped

1/2 c cucumber, finely chopped

1/4 onion, finely chopped

1 clove minced garlic

3 Tbls red wine vinegar

2 Tbls olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 c V-8 juice

1 c spicy V-8 juice

1 Tbls ground cumin

1 Tbls beef bouillon crystals

Mix all ingredients together and chill for at least 2 hours. Remove and let sit for about 30 minutes before serving.

Can top with sliced avocado or sour cream or cheese or all three.

One of my favorite summer dessert recipesis a strawberry pie that has a layer of sweetened cream cheese, a layer of chocolate and then topped with strawberries!

Strawberry Chocolate Pie

INGREDIENTS:

2 c strawberries

1 1/3 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla, separated

16 oz cream cheese, softened

milk

7 oz Hershey bar

1 pastry pie crust

Melt Hershey bar with about 3 Tbls milk over very low heat; stirring occasionally until smooth. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Pour into baked pie crust and refrigerate until firm. Soften cream cheese and stir in 1/3 c sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and a small amount of milk. Spread cream cheese over top of chocolate layer. Wash and hull berries, set berries onto a papertowel to dry. Dip berries into sugar and set close together on cream cheese layer. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving.

For more great recipes hop over to We Are THAT Family and see all the options!

An open letter to the makers of kids stuff

Dear Maker of Kid Stuff:

I know we have never met formally, but over the last several months you have been a serious thorn in my side.

Lets start this discussion with a terrible event that occurred about 4 months ago. My kids begged and pleaded and begged some more for these text messengers. With all the lovely fundraisers that happen at school with the promises of big winnings (junky toys and the like) if you sell the most wrapping paper or chocolate bars, my boys had seen these text messengers often. Not being good sales people (and having parents that won't take the junk to work and sell for them) they kept falling short of being the "big winner" at school. Maybe you could say it was our parental guilt for not having helped them sell a ton of this junk to our friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers that caused the moment of weakness, but we all piled in the car one evening and drove to our closest Toys-R-Us store and picked out the text messengers for a small price of $25.00. These are the junkiest and most cheaply made things I have ever spent $25 bucks on (and when I say "I" I really mean my innocent kids; my husband and I only agreed to let them buy them if they spent their saved up allowance! More parental guilt now.) These text messengers only work if you are standing within 4 feet of the other unit and both units are pointed at each other. Seriously? Seriously. I would have expected this from a dollar store item, but not a well known toy store.

More recently, we allowed the boys to once again use their hard earned allowance money to buy a digital camera. These cameras proudly advertised on the packaging how you could take up to 152 pictures and then play games with your photos and make jigsaw puzzles from these photos. Guess what you Makers of Kid Stuff, you can, more accurately, only take about 100 photos and that is if you set the resolution to "Lo", which translates to fuzzy, crappy pictures that are not worth saving. For the better resolution (and I use that term very loosely) you can only get 20 pictures before you must download to the computer. These cameras were only $12 dollars, but still, my kids expected so much more for what they paid for. I guess you Makers of Kid Stuff might say it is a lesson well learned, but you didn't have to see their sad little faces when the cameras did not live up to their expectations. We bought these cameras just before a camping trip and they couldn't even use them. Highly disappointing for us all! Again I tell you, that we would have expected this poor quality from a dollar store item.

How can you sleep at night knowing that there are thousands of children highly disappointed in the product you so sloppily make and advertise gearing it towards young children. I am sick of being the "bad guy" always telling my kids "no" because they don't understand that this stuff is junk and the ol' saying "You get what you pay for" doesn't necessarily apply here. The kids are spending a decent amount of money (especially for a kid who only gets $3-$4 a week in allowance) and getting junk that doesn't live up to it's colorful advertising.

So, I would appreciate you either making the product more worth the amount spent (for example, making the text messengers $5 bucks instead of $25 and those cameras were really worth more like $5 also, not $12) or improve the quality of the product for the amount of money charged!

Thank you for your time, of which you must have a lot because you certainly aren't spending the time in making good, quality items for children.

Sincerely,
A mom who is fed up

Friday Recipe - Our 4th of July menu

With the 4th of July being only week away, I thought I would post about our 4th of July menu along with some decorating ideas. There are no pictures here, but I promise after the big shindig I will have pictures to post!

First let's start with the menu:

Grilled hamburgers (with all the fixins - lettuce, tomato slices, sliced onions, pickles, etc)
Marinated cucumber slices
Calico Beans
Cornbread
Cole Slaw
Potato Salad
Frog Eye Salad
Patriotic Cupcakes
Sparkling punch
Watermelon Pops (I've never tried these before, but they look too cute not to try them out!)
I always have some bags of chips on hand to go with the burgers too.

Now on to the decorations:

I took empty cans (from beans and other miscellaneous food items) and covered them with scrapbook paper and ribbon to hold utensils and other items that will be on the table. I will be wrapping up red, white and blue napkins with utensils and standing them in one of my taller decorated cans.

From here, I got the idea to make personalized cups for us. I used 12 oz cups we already had that are red. I embellished them with ribbon and stars and wrote names of the people I know will be here that day! I think they turned out pretty cute!

Oh and I bought some glow-in-the-dark paint and the kids and I are going to make shirts with stars on them this weekend (Thanks to my good friend at Lions, Tigers and Boys, Oh My! for the idea!)

I can't wait to post pictures next weekend!

The Lazy Days of Summer

The kids had all disappeared outside the other day. The weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. Sunshine bright overhead. I went looking for them and through the window I spotted them.

Each one in the tree. The boys had taken their journals out there to write. I thought it was really cool and made me wish my fat butt would fit in the tree and I could sit there and write too.

I feel so special

I got off work a little early to take my sister to the airport. My sister had our car yesterday so she, Mr. Man and Lady Bug picked me up from work about an hour before I normally leave the office. We laughed all the way to the airport, in horrible traffic, but hardly noticing the traffic because we were having so much fun!

After hugs and kisses we watched her go inside the terminal and I got weepy.

THEN, back at home as we are pulling in our driveway I notice my big blue planter is missing from the front of the house but before I can ask Mr. Man if he knows where it is Lady Bug is inside the house screaming with excitement! There was a new outfit (complete with new shoes too) for her. I get inside and notice that our table is all set for dinner. There is our red "You are special today" plate sitting in the middle of the table covered in chocolate dipped strawberries and a note that says:

Thanks so much for your hospitality! Your house is so cute and comfortable!

There is chicken marinating in the refrigerator for grilling tonight and I also made a salad.

Enjoy and I will talk to you soon. Love you!

I cried. She is so sweet to do have done all that. But just then, Mr. Man goes out to start up the grill and he hollers for me to come quickly. She planted flowers for me on my deck. Last week, I mentioned to her that I wanted to plant flowers and was hoping to do it in my time off last week, but we just never got around to it. I cried again.