Revised Cornbread Salad – fat reduced & deconstructed

It took us a long time to try Cornbread Salad but when we did we were definitely fans. However, these days we need a fat and cholesterol reduced version! 

The solution -- create a deconstructed salad and get rid of the sour cream, mayonnaise and bacon!

The recipe is flexible -- add as much or as little of any of the following ingredients . . .

Revised Cornbread Salad – fat reduced & deconstructed 

Prepared cornbread 

Romaine lettuce, torn or cut into bite-size pieces

Jalapeño or pepperoncini peppers, diced (or whole for garnish)

Diced green or red pepper

Pinto or black beans, drained

Frozen corn, thawed & cooked

1 (15 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained

Diced onions

Cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

Strips of Smoked Turkey

Reduced fat Ranch dressing

1. Dice cornbread and toast in oven to make crisp but tender croutons.
   
2. Arrange lettuce on plate.
3. Add as much of any or all ingredients – peppers, beans, corn, onions, tomatoes, turkey.
   
4. Drizzle with salad dressing.
5. Top with cornbread croutons.
   

Recipe without photos . . .

Revised Cornbread Salad – fat reduced & deconstructed 

Prepared cornbread 

Romaine lettuce, torn or cut into bite-size pieces 

Jalapeño or pepperoncini peppers, diced (or whole for garnish)

Diced green or red pepper

Pinto or black beans, drained

Frozen corn, thawed & cooked

Diced onions

Cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

Strips of Smoked Turkey

Reduced fat Ranch dressing

1. Dice cornbread and toast in oven to make crisp but tender croutons.
2. Arrange lettuce on plate.
3. Add as much of any or all ingredients – peppers, beans, corn, onions, tomatoes, turkey.
4. Drizzle with salad dressing.
5. Top with cornbread croutons.

Bone Up on Your Veggies

     Play With Your Food was just one of our presentations for outdoor cooking demos at St. John's Jubilee (St. John, Ks.). In keeping with their theme, Celebrate Life, we prepared healthy (and quick) dishes, and had some fun with local children who had a chance to bone up on their veggies. Barry and I cut and peeled; the kids assembled using a diagram (I found posted on Facebook + received via email as well) as a guide.  

     

     Note: I provided exacting details based on the original diagram (directly below) but the kids changed it a bit, and of course it can be adapted to use the veggies that are on hand.

     Dillons of St. John donated all of the food for our demos, and they had also played around with their own version of the skeleton using a cucumber slice for the head (instead of a bowl of dip) and pepper pieces for eyes.

Bone Up on Your Veggies

INGREDIENTS:

Dip:

Ranch Dressing

Vegetables:

2 Black Olive slices

1 leaf of Curly Lettuce

2 ribs of Celery – cut into 4 pieces (2 for arms, 2 for legs)
2 Sugar Snap Peas (for leg bones or just use 2 sections of celery to create the second leg bone)

6 Baby Carrots (4 for lower arms, 2 for lower legs)

1 Red Pepper, remove top and seeds, cut across the top creating 7 rounds & then cut 6 of the rounds in half for the ribs; cut remaining part of remaining section into 2 smaller 

pieces for part of lower leg bone)

1 small Cucumber, cut into about 9 slices that will be overlapped for spine

3 to 4 Button Mushrooms, thinly sliced for hip bones

4 small Cauliflower Florets (2 for hands, 2 for knees)

2 Grape Tomatoes for feet

2 small Broccoli Florets for toes

    

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Dip — Pour Ranch dressing in a round bowl; add 2 black olives (sliced or leave whole) arranged as eyes on dip + add a leaf or 2 of lettuce for the hair.

2.  Veggies — Wash and prepare veggies as specified above. Arrange veggies and bowl of dip as shown in picture.

Barry on stage at St. John's Jubilee.

Meta on stage at St. John's Jubilee.

St. John kids on stage helping with Play With Your Food demos.

Finally got around to making . . . Buffalo Chicken Dip

     I’ve clipped (as in Evernote) and pinned (on Pinterest) similar recipes, even folded down the edges of magazines that featured this spicy combination of dip ingredients. Now, I’ve actually combined and tweaked those recipes to create my version of Buffalo Chicken Dip.

     Well, it if was left totally up to me, the recipe would call for at least 1 cup+ of hot sauce. But, Barry reminded me that there are others who might like to eat it, too! My solution — go with a minimum in the dip but serve a bottle of hot sauce on the side.

     Most recipes call for equivalent amounts of canned chicken that has been drained. I prefer to cook my own but, our recipe for frozen chicken mix could also be used in this recipe.  

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 cups cooked chicken breast, finely chopped

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened (I use the reduced fat kind)

1 cup ranch dressing

4 tablespoons (¼ cup) hot sauce (such as Tabasco®)

1½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1.     Heat chicken and hot sauce in a Dutch oven or pot over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese, ranch dressing and shredded cheese; heat, stirring until well blended and warm.

Chicken and hot sauce heat in the bottom of a Dutch oven

Other ingredients have been added and blended.

2.     Although you could simply pour the mixture into a bowl and serve at this point, here are two other alternatives:

a.     Transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly – about an hour.

b.     Transfer to a deep-dish pie plate or casserole dish. Bake in 350° oven for 20 minutes or until the mixture in hot and bubbly.

Note: Dip could be made ahead, refrigerated and then heated at a later time using either method a. or b.

Serve with crackers or tortilla chips; add some celery sticks (or other veggies), for dipping, too.

LUNCH IDEA -- I had a little bit of dip that wouldn't fit into the slow cooker so today we baked potatoes and used the microwaved dip as a topper. It was a quick, easy and tasty lunch.

Salsa Pasta Salad . . . for a crowd

Barry mixes up a large batch of pasta salad

     People used to ask for this recipe when I was catering. I didn’t mind sharing but the truth is that I just added a little of this and that. I started out by adding Ranch dressing and veggies but the salad needed some ZIP . . . so I added salsa; now I usually mix the dressing and salsa prior to pouring it over the pasta.

     Use it as a side salad or add meat (deli or chopped up ham, pork or even bacon) and chopped hard cooked eggs for a main dish salad. Sometimes I just added grated carrots and chopped black olives; other times tomatoes, cucumbers, chopped broccoli, etc. go into the mix.

     Here’s the recipe that I finally wrote down . . . really more of a guide. It is written for 50 but will give you an idea for the portions if you want to cut it down.

Salsa Pasta Salad . . . for 50

Grated carrots make a great
addition to this pasta salad.

3½ lb pasta, uncooked – my favorite is the veggie or whole grain spirals

1½ to 2 quarts Ranch dressing

2 to 4 cups salsa

About 1½ to 2 lb. of veggies of your choice, or use meat & chopped hard cooked eggs  (I almost always add grated carrots – they add color and nutrition and sometimes even trick people into thinking that the salad is full of grated cheese.)

1 to 2+ teaspoons coarse black pepper

Fresh herbs, chopped or dried herbs or seasoning blends to taste

1.     Cook pasta al dent, according to package directions – be sure to salt the water (I add liberal amounts and then don’t have to add more later). Drain and cool slightly.

The pasta cooks in salted water.

2.     Mix up Ranch dressing and salsa — since amounts are variable, I generally mix up the minimum amount and if that’s not enough I just start pouring more dressing and salsa directly on the pasta. (Warm pasta will soak up more dressing.)

Whisking salsa into the Ranch dressing.

3.     Add veggies, meat, etc. + herbs and seasonings.

Note: Ideal to chill the salad for several hours (or overnight) to infuse flavors but if I plan to chill it, I wait to add delicate veggies (like chopped tomatoes) until right before serving. If you make ahead and chill the salad, check before serving as you may need to additional dressing or seasonings.

Adding deli ham, cheese chunks and hard cooked eggs makes this into a main dish salad.