Grilled Caeser Salad and 4th of July

This weekend is a nice long weekend and a time to celebrate America!  I love the 4th of July because it reminds of my youth and the long days of summer in Okoboji.  I lived in Spencer so Okoboji was only a quick 15 minute drive to get to all the action and summer fun.  When I was younger it was all about going to the beach or going to a friends house and jumping off their dock into the lake and swimming for hours.  As I got older Okoboji and the 4th of July was more about getting a group of friends together and going boating for hours, having a grill out and eating a lot, "cruisin' the loop" to see all the people that were out, and fireworks on the lake.

Even though I cannot be in Okoboji this weekend for the festivities I will still get together with family and friends and watch fireworks and have lots of food and a couple grill outs.  With so much fun and excitement already going on this weekend, why not make meal planning a little easier?  I have a salad that will not only be easy but it's a small little spin on a classic salad that will make a huge taste difference.

Grilled Caesar Salad is what you should be making this weekend.  Use it as a side dish, or add some chicken or salmon to it for a hearty main entrée.  Whatever you do, just try it, you won't regret it!

So there's not a lot of ingredients that you need to go out and buy which is a plus.  You will need a head of romaine lettuce, and not that stuff you find in a bag, you will also need some parmesan cheese, Caesar dressing, red onion, and black olives.

So now first step is that you will want to go and preheat your grill.  Get that puppy hot because as soon as you have cut your ingredients it will only take a couple minutes and then you will be ready to eat.

Now we are just going to take off any leaves that are wilted or don't look the best.  Then we are going to wash it and cut it down the middle lengthwise. 

That's all the cutting for the lettuce right now, so just open up the romaine lettuce and set it on a plate, or tray to take out to the grill.

I then spray the cut end of the lettuce with olive oil spray and season with freshly ground pepper and Kosher salt. 

Last thing we are going to cut is the red onion.  Just cut the ends off, and take the skin off the onion.

Cut in thin slices, which you should get between 6-10 depending on how big your onion is.

Now we are ready to pack up all our ingredients and take it out to the grill.  Yes, you can take it all out to the grill because we will prepare the salad outside.

So the first thing after the grill is preheated we are going to throw on the red onions since they take longer than the romaine lettuce.

**You can grill your onions until very soft, I usually only throw them on for about 3-4 minutes because I like the crunchy texture but I love the smoky grill flavor.**

As soon as you turn the onions over is when you will want to put the romaine lettuce on the grill, cut side down.  Shut the lid to the grill, but whatever you do don't leave!!  This step only take 2- 2 1/2 minutes. Let your lettuce cook for only a couple minutes.  You want to get some nice grill marks on your lettuce with a little smoky flavor but you don't want it cooked all the way through.  The lettuce should just start to wilt but still have a delicious crunch.

Look at the lovely little lettuce

Now that you take the lettuce and onions off the grill, go ahead and cut up the lettuce.  First start by cutting through the leaves lengthwise about 4 or 5 times.

Next turn the lettuce 90 degrees and cut the head of lettuce in about 1 in. square pieces. How easy was that?  You don't need to buy bagged lettuce again!  When the lettuce is cut just throw it in a bowl to serve.

 

From here you have 2 options.  #1 option would be if you are serving the salad right away, than go ahead and put the dressing right on the salad and mix until all incorporated.

Add on your cooked red onions, shredded parmesan cheese, black olives, and croutons.  Serve and Enjoy!!

If you are taking this salad to a friends or won't be serving this salad right away, I suggest putting the salad in the bottom of your dish, topped with grilled red onions, parmesan cheese, and black olives.  Wait to put the dressing and croutons on until right before serving so that the salad is fresh and crisp.

 

Hope you enjoy the salad, I know my family loves it.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Grilled Caesar Salad

1 head Romaine lettuce, cut in half

1 medium red onion, sliced in rings

Olive oil spray

Kosher salt and pepper

½-3/4 c. Caesar dressing

½ c. black olives

¼ c. parmesan cheese

½ c. croutons

Preheat grill to medium heat.  Spray romaine lettuce and red onions with olive oil spray and season with salt and pepper.  Grill the red onion for about 2 minutes on each side and lettuce for only 2 minutes with the cut side facing the grill.  Grill lettuce until grill marks appear and the it becomes wilted.  Remove red onion and lettuce.  Place lettuce onto the cutting board and cut into small bite size pieces.  In a medium bowl toss the grilled romaine lettuce with the Caesar dressing, top with red onion, black olives, parmesan cheese and croutons.

-Cool

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Summer for me equals a plethora of events absorbing my weekends. The best part about the majority of my summer travels is that my childhood home and my Mom is quaintly nestled between Waukee and Omaha via an easy exit off I-80 down Highway 191. 

I get to stop by for a visit, a little spoiling and A LOT of food options. Why is it when I go home and have a craving my Mom has everything I need to make it? 

Recently when I was back home, we decided to whip up a couple of delicious  cheeseburgers to kick off summer. These burgers were HUGE. Prior to dinner, we indulged in a "few" kettle chips and bowls of white cheddar popcorn as appetizers before dinner, resulting in my eyes being bigger than my tummy. I was totally down for leftovers the next day. 

However, leftovers sounded amazing at 9 am in the morning. I decided to channel my inner Chef Cool and think out of the breakfast box. I really wanted my cheeseburger but I really wanted eggs and bacon. Boom! WELCOME to the WORLD CHEESEBURGER OMELET!!!! (Can you tell how very proud I am of my recipe baby?)

This recipe couldn't be simpler and I know you will have grilling leftovers at some point over this season. I simply took my leftover bun, burger and pickles and diced them up. I popped the cubed bun in the broiler on low for about 2 minutes to make them into croutons. I shredded some of the sharp cheddar cheese with sliced for the burger. 

In a medium heat butter coated non-stick skillet, I cracked 2 eggs and until blended the yolk with the white with my spatula. Once the eggs were 1/2 cooked (about 2-3 minutes), I placed the burger ingredients in and let cook for another 2 minutes. 

I then topped off my omelet with about 1/2 cup of cheese and let cook for about 1 minute to start the cheesy goodness melting process. Finally flip one side over of the omelet. Reduce heat to low and let the cheese finish melting for about one more minute. 

Here it is!  Seriously, one of my most favorite omelets to date. If you have your fancy pants on, top it off with pretty decorative ribbons of ketchup and mustard with a few sprinkles of diced dill pickles. I chose to get my red and yellow from raspberries, mangos and peaches.

Being home may not be a tropical beach but I was lucky to have 2 versions of cheeseburgers in my hometown with my Mom, which is pretty close to my idea of paradise. 

Cheeseburger in Paradise Omelet

Serves 1

2 eggs, whisked together 

1/2 cooked 4 ounce hamburger, diced 

1/2 hamburger bun, toasted and diced 

1/4 cup diced dill pickles 

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheese 

Ketchup, mustard as garnish, optional

1. Heat a non-stick small skillet over medium heat and place 1/2 tsp of butter in the pan

2. Add eggs, let cook for about 2 minutes.

3. Add burger, bread and pickles. Let cook for another 2 minutes. 

4. Add cheese and cook for 1 minute. 

5. Flip over one side of the omelet with a spatula, turn heat to low and finish melting the cheese for 1 minute. 

6. Decorate top of the omelet with ketchup, mustard and pickle sprinkles.

~Crazy 

Friendly Competition and Freekah Parfaits

Let me tell you guys something that I am excited about this month.  It's a little friendly competition that I have with two of my friends to become healthier and get back on track so that my pants fit a little better.

I am a very competitive person and always have been so this has been great way to jump start my road to getting healthier!   Again this is just a friendly competition so we are all in this together for the end goal of refocusing our life to become healthier with a little fun!

Here is the email I sent out with the rules: 

"Alright so it's the first day of our 21 day healthy challenge, done on June 21st!!

I'm excited to do this with some fun and crazy friends and get our fitness together!

So here's the rules so we are clear:

#1. You get 1 cheat food day a week to maintain balance in your life, any other food cheat days will cost you $5 to the "kitty"

#2  work out each day!  Remember this should be hard for you so be honest and if you don't meet it each day $5 to the "kitty"

#3. Vodka!  You can have 3 drinks a week, any drink past that is $5/ea to the "kitty". You are allowed 1 "binge day" for drinking in the 21 day challenge. 

Whoever contributes the least amount of money to the kitty will win all the money.

If nobody contributes money than we will plan a fun girls night of sushi and vodka!!!

Good luck all.  I don' t like to loose so it's on!

Use this email to respond when you all owe me money"

I am a very cheap person so this competition is keeping me motivating because I don't like to spend money.  Especially if all I have to do is eat more health focused meals, exercise more, and drink less.  

One of the many trails I have discovered around my house because of this competition.

Because of this competition I have gotten back to having grains and proteins already pre cooked in the fridge for the week to use for healthy and convenient meals.

This brings up my recipe of the week that fits into all diets and lifestyles.  It's a freekah parfait.  If you have never heard of freekah it's an ancient grain that has a very nutty flavor and a chewy texture.  It's has 4 times more fiber than brown rice and has about 6g of protein for a cup.  

Freekah is delicious for all sorts of recipes.  Anything you would use rice or quinoa for you can use freekah for.  This recipe is fun because it brings more bang for your buck to a fruit and yogurt parfait.

Look at these cute little treats!

All you need to get started! As you can see I have just scooped out the freekah from the fridge that I had pre cooked to use all week.

 

After the freekah is cooked and cooled, just add in the cinnamon, agave nectar and almond milk and mix until all incorporated.

Next divide the freekah mixture equally between the 4 bowls/ cups.  Add the vanilla Greek yogurt on top.

Finish off each one with some assorted berries and banana slices.  I choose blueberries and raspberries this time because they were on sale and looked delicious.  Mix it up to keep things interesting. I will tell you that I have done coconut yogurt with mangoes and pineapple for the fruit and it was also good.

So delicious and makes me feel more satisfied when I get done eating it, rather than a snickers!!

Happy hump day all!!

Freekah Parfait

Serves 4

2 ½ c. water

1 c. Freekah, uncooked

½ c. Vanilla Almond Milk, unsweetened

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp. Agave Nectar

2 c. Assorted Berries 

1 banana, sliced

1 c. Vanilla Greek yogurt

Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add freekeh and reduce heat to a simmer until liquid has absorbed, about 15-20 minutes. Drain thoroughly and set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  In a medium bowl add the cooled freekah, vanilla almond milk, ground cinnamon, and agave nectar and mix until combined.  Set aside.  In another medium bowl mix the berries and sliced bananas together.  Set aside. 

To assemble: Take 4 plastic cups and equally divide the freekah mixture, top each with 1/4 c. of Greek yogurt and top with about 1/2 c. of the fruit mixture.  Enjoy!

Cool