salad

Chipotle Ranch Chicken Pasta

July 21, 2015 by KateS Leave a Comment

The Eat at Home Challenge is off to a great start! Nearly 1800 people have joined. I’m doing the challenge right along with everyone else, but last week I was sick all week. Summer isn’t supposed to be for viruses, but this one sure did lay me flat! It’s put me a little behind and made the Eat at Home Challenge a bit more challenging for my family. We haven’t eaten perfectly planned meals, but we have eaten. Fingers crossed that this week is better!

Today, we’ve got a recipe from Kate. This one looks fantastic!

I know the summer stereotype is lazy days but my summers are always busy. The longer days always seem to keep us out and about later, which often means less time to make dinner. This pasta has been one of my favorites so far this summer. It’s a recreation of something I got at a local café and it comes together in about fifteen minutes. If you cook the pasta the night before, you can have it on the table in about five.

I prefer to serve this cold – it feels more refreshing on a summer night, especially with fresh-from-the-garden corn and tomatoes – but you can heat it if you want to.

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Chipotle Ranch Chicken Pasta

Author: Kate S

Ingredients

1 lb. mini penne
1 lb. cooked chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
1 ear of corn grilled and cut off
1 tomato diced
½ red onion diced
8 oz. Colby Jack cheese shredded
1 cup ranch dressing
2 tsp. chipotle sauce or more, to taste

Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking.
In a small bowl, whisk together the ranch dressing and chipotle sauce.
In a large bowl, combine the pasta, chicken, corn, tomato and onion. Pour the dressing over and toss to coat. Add the cheese and stir until evenly distributed.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Kate is a home cook and new mom from New Jersey. In addition to sharing recipes with Eat at Home readers, she blogs her cooking adventures at Kate’s Recipe Box. When she’s not in the kitchen, you can find her reading or tending to her garden.

Perfect Pasta Salad {plus tips I’ve learned}

April 29, 2015 by KimM 7 Comments

Pasta salad is a great dish to bring to a party, family get-together or for summer entertaining. It makes a great side, and if you are like me, you can make a meal out of it. It’s also so versatile, that you can add just about anything to it. However, for years…I just couldn’t get it right. After much trial and error, I have come up with what I think is the Perfect Pasta Salad!

First tip, it’s important to cook your pasta al dente (it should say on the box how many minutes this is, I like to use rotini pasta and it’s usually 7 minutes). This will prevent the pasta from getting too mushy/soggy because the pasta will soak up some of the dressing as it sits.
Second, and this is where I often went wrong, you need equal amounts of pasta to vegetables/add-ins. I like to chop my main veggies fairly uniform (“bite” size), like cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, etc. My other ingredients that I use less of because of the strong flavor, such as onions and peppers, are chopped smaller. By add-ins, I am talking about not only vegetables, but also cheese, meats (pepperoni, ham, chicken), etc.
Third, the dressing…everyone has their favorite and how much they like, but too much or too little can turn your perfect pasta salad into a “ehhh, it’s okay” pasta salad. My rule of thumb is 4:4:1 – 4 cups cooked pasta, 4 cups veggies/add-ins, 1 cup dressing. Even when I make a large batch for a cook-out or party, I stick with my ratios. See, math does come in handy sometimes! The pasta and veggies will soak up some of the dressing, so if you make this the night before, you may need to add a little more dressing the next day. This is a good starting point, and you can adjust to suit your taste buds.
Finally, and this is just a suggestion because they are not always readily available, but I highly recommend adding fresh herbs. My favorites to use are basil or cilantro.

I am particularly fond of the above ingredients for my pasta salad. However, I usually add peppers and I always add some kind of cheese, which somehow did not make the picture! I usually use feta, but feel free to add whatever is your favorite.

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Perfect Pasta Salad {plus tips I've learned}

This pasta salad is the perfect side or light meal. Great for parties, cookouts, and more.

Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Author: Kim Morris

Ingredients

8 oz dry pasta will yield about 4 cups when cooked
4 cups desired vegetables/add-ins such as cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, fresh herbs, cheese
1 cup dressing such as House Italian, Oil & Vinegar, etc.
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook pasta according to directions on package for al dente. Drain and rinse with cool water.
Place drained pasta in a large bowl, adding vegetables and desired add-ins.
Add dressing, salt, pepper and stir to combine.
Place in fridge to chill or serve immediately.

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Kim is a contributing writer for Eat at Home and author of food & family blog, Makin’ it Mo’Betta. She blogs about her adventures in the kitchen, incorporating life as mom to teen and tween girls, as well as a young son with nut allergies, and wife to a diabetic husband. Life is never dull!

Green Bean and Tomato Salad with Salt and Pepper Dressing – an easy, whole food side dish

April 28, 2015 by Tiffany King 2 Comments

This side dish is so easy and it’s a great way to use up the vegetables in your fridge. You can use just about any vegetable you want, although I do recommend sticking with tomatoes. They add some juice that creates its own dressing.

The ingredients in this are super simple. It’s really more method than recipe.

I made this on a night that we needed to pack our dinner for a soccer game. The green beans needed to be used, but we weren’t going to be home to eat them hot. I blanched the beans, added the tomatoes, threw on a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a splash of red wine vinegar.

I think the tomatoes would be great paired with broccoli or cauliflower or zucchini or yellow squash. You can add fresh herbs too, if you’ve got them.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more…] about Green Bean and Tomato Salad with Salt and Pepper Dressing – an easy, whole food side dish

Orange and Red Onion Salad – It’s simple, healthy and amazing!

April 2, 2015 by Tiffany King Leave a Comment

Have you ever eaten a salad that was so good you just couldn’t stop eating it?

That’s this salad.

I can’t believe I hadn’t tried this before. It’s amazingly simple. Super healthy. And it’s also one of the best salads I’ve ever eaten.

Two ingredients, plus salt and pepper. How can such a simple combination taste so fantastic?!

This recipe is bright and light. The sweet, citrus of the oranges is perfect with the sharp bite of the red onion.

Try this with pork, chicken, fish or ham. It would be wonderful with fish tacos!

This is more method than recipe. Grab a few oranges and thinly slice red onion into them. Toss with a little kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

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Orange and Red Onion Salad - It's simple, healthy and amazing!

Ingredients

1/2 - 1 orange per person depending on the size of the orange
approximately 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Peel and cut oranges in bite sized pieces.
Toss red onion slices with oranges in bowl.
Add kosher salt and pepper to taste.
Serve.

P.S. Do you struggle to come up with easy side dishes to go with your main dish? We’ve done all the planning for you – side dishes and color-coded grocery list included! Find your perfect Eat at Home Weekly Meal Plan here.

Caribbean Citrus Grilled Fish and Caribbean Citrus Slaw

February 24, 2015 by Tiffany King 4 Comments

When I made these recipes, the entire state of Kentucky was knee deep in snow. But the bright flavors in the McCormick Caribbean Citrus Seafood Marinade Mix made us think of a warmer place.

I know many of you eat fish on Fridays during Lent. This is an easy dinner that’s quick to fix, but has a big pay off in taste.

I used the marinade packet for both the fish and the slaw. I wasn’t sure how it would work in the slaw dressing. After all, the packet does say Seafood Marinade. But it works great! I added a little sugar and more oil. The instructions are below in the recipe.

Using the same seasoning for both fish and slaw keeps things simple and ensures that the main dish and side dish complement each other. If you want to add another side, I recommend sweet potato fries or a simple baked sweet potato.

Here’s what you’ll need for the fish. I cooked mine on a George Foreman grill. But I’ve included baking instructions if you’d rather use the oven.