No-Tuna Bread Salad

I could swear I've written about this recipe before but when I looked back I couldn't find it, so this may be a repeat. But it's a good recipe, so I'm posting it anyway.

So here's the story behind this recipe. I've cut back on the time I spend watching Food Network; watching chefs cook meat, which I don't eat anymore, isn't much fun. I have continued to record $10.00 Dinners with Melissa D'Arabian, however. She cooks meat but she also makes vegetarian side dishes that can be mains and desserts. Some of her meat dishes can also be converted to vegetarian, like her Tuna Bread Salad. When she made the recipe on her show it looked so quick, easy, and tasty that I had to try it. I left out the tuna, doubled the beans, and used a different dressing. (I'm not a fan of mustardy dressings.) It was a success; The Youngest, aka The Wild Child, was the only one who didn't like it. (He doesn't like anything so that's not a factor in determining what the rest of us eat.) The recipe also calls for Northern white beans but I'm going to try it with butter beans the next time I make it since the white beans are really small and don't hold up to the larger sizes of the other ingredients. I'm also going to change the shallots to green onions, which are easier to find at the grocery.

As for the dressing I used the Good Seasons Italian mix, the kind that comes dried in a little packet. Make that and pour it over the salad; it is tangy and has some bite but without the mustard flavor. Other than that, follow Melissa's recipe for a tasty meal. (I also made the carrot soup recipe from that episode as a side dish; I followed that recipe more closely but made a few changes recommended in the comments.)

Update:
We've decided to rename this recipe Butter Bean Bread Salad since we like the butter beans in it so well. We use 2 cans of butter beans and a can of some other kind of bean, usually cannellini, sometimes pinto, sometimes Great Northerns. Basically whatever we have in the pantry. The green onions are much better than the shallots, too. Also over load on the tomatoes and basil; they make it really yummy. We also like it with the Orange Scented Carrot Soup from the same episode. After reading some of the comments that follow the recipe, we add a couple of potatoes to the soup along with the carrots.

Recipe Review: Southern Style Greens with Beans

DH cooked up a recipe I found on Food Network today and it's a keeper as far as I'm concerned. Quick, easy, healthy and delicious; that's a win all the way around. It's a Sandra Lee recipe, who is not usually my favorite chef since I don't like her reliance on processed food, but I made an exception for this recipe. We had to modify it to make it vegetarian but it was very easy to do. Switch the beef broth for veggie broth and leave off the bacon bits, and presto, it's vegan. I'm looking for more ways to incorporate greens into our diet since they are just so darn healthy so this recipe accomplishes that goal as well. We served it over brown rice.

Click for the link to the recipe:

Sandra Lee's Southern Style Greens with Beans

New Recipe Report

I made the Greek Chicken Dinner last night, adding a bunch of my new favorite convenience food to the recipe, and it was DELICIOUS! The family declared it A Keeper. What is my new favorite convenience food? Pre-peeled garlic cloves! I first used them for the Jamie Oliver recipe and they are so handy. I hate peeling garlic, especially more than just a few cloves, so the pre-peeled is very helpful. I threw a handful in the pan right before it went in the oven; the kids picked them out of the finished dish to smear on crackers.

The recipe was fairly easy to prep, then an hour in the oven and the house smells so yummy while it cooks. I meant to make some bread-from-a-can (Pillsbury french bread) but since I never got around to it the crackers were OK. I think this is an easily adjustable and versatile recipe, too; if you don't like one or two of the seasonings leave them out, or change the seasonings completely, change up the veggies, (any veggie that roasts well would work), change the quantities to suit the number of people you are cooking for, etc.

Jamie Oliver's Tender & Crisp Chicken Legs with Sweet Tomatoes

Delicious, delicious, delicious! I made what I planned on making tonight and it turned out so good; wowee wow wow. Check out the recipe here. I tweaked it a bit, which I'll share. I've already mentioned that I throw in cannellini beans; I used THREE CANS of them tonight along with triple the amount of chicken legs since I can't find "jointed" ones at my grocery. (I've also used thighs in the past which are quite good.) I used a whole 6 ounce jar of pre-peeled garlic cloves to save the work of getting those ready. I don't mind a couple of cloves, but mass quantities- no, thanks. You want them in the recipe, though; the kids even fight over them they are so good, especially spread on bread or crackers like butter. It takes WAAAYYY longer to cook than the recipe calls for. He says an hour and a half; it's more like two and a quarter, although I'll admit it could be the pan I use or my oven that makes it take longer. ??? I stir it at the 90 minute point and see how it's looking before I add the extra time. I leave out the "fresh red chilli" since my kids wouldn't like it; we don't miss it at all. We don't go for the optional potatoes, either. I tried it once and the potatoes were good, but the beans are better and a lot less work. He doesn't say anything about using a lid; we leave it off.

As an added bonus, all that garlic roasting with those tomatoes makes your house smell amazing! It's hard to wait for it to get done. ;)