Chicken Salad in Lettuce Cups

Summer is here and I have been enjoying every single second of it! Tons of fruits and fresh veggies, farmer's markets, csa boxes, warm (ok sometimes really hot) weather, lots of homemade popsicles and ice cream, I could not be any happier than this!
It is by far my favorite season, my favorite time of the year, and with the wonderful hot weather we welcome any and all salads we can get our hands on, it is definitely cold foods season and again, I am totally enjoying!
I love salads, and as funny as this may sound, my salads rarely involve tons of leaves (which is what most people think of when talking about salads). I make salads with veggies, lots of it, a mix of colors and flavors, crunch and deliciousness tat pack a punch of nutrition to boot, something that only fresh veggies can give us in one big plate.
Zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, amazing summer tomatoes, grilled eggplants and other grilled veggies, avocados, sometimes fruits (watermelon + tomatoes makes an amazing salad!), all of these end up on my salad concoctions. Plus I always add some protein to make it more filling and delicious too: tofu, white beans, lentils or chickpeas (my favorites), grilled chicken, lots of possibilities here, and most of the time I add a bit of cheese too, usually goat cheese, ricotta salatta (both add some white color which make the salad more colorful!) or Parmesan shavings.
Now tell me, how can this be not good? :-)
This talk about salad brings me to this Giada Di Laurentiis recipe for Italian Chicken Salad in Lettuce Cups which I have made numerous times and absolutely love the flavors. I have made it so many times already this summer, and I love it every single time I do.
This salad is packed with good protein from the roasted chicken, crunch from toasted almonds, veggie wonders from delicious roasted peppers and a punch from capers and a delicious vinaigrette, and the best part: you can eat it in cute butter lettuce "cups", which add so much to the meal, I love the experience of playing with your food. Plus I just love butter lettuce, it truly have a "buttery" feel, it is so tender, as I said, I am not big on lettuce, but this is one of my very favorite ones! (I do love spinach salad though, really, really like it!)
You can serve this salad as an appetizer, at a dinner party, whenever you feel like. We have had it for lunch and we love it! All I make is some rice or couscous to accompany it and some more veggies (because I just eat lots of veggies) and we are set.
A refreshing summer meal that is not only filling but totally delicious!
Enjoy!
Ana

Ps: Giada's recipe makes a ton and serves 12, so divide it accordingly to how much you want to make. I usually wing the proportions to make for the three of us (or more when I served it to company), but it is easy to divide in half or in quarters if you need to serve 6 or only 3.
Anyway you decide to divide, don't worry if you have salad left, it is delicious on the next day too!
Also, Giada served it as appetizers and plated every single lettuce cups. I served it "family style", the salad in a big bowl and the lettuce cups in a platter, so each person could put their own portions together, which also ended up offering the option of just eating the salad in your plate without the lettuce if one chose to do so.


Italian Chicken Salad in Lettuce Cups
(Adapted from a recipe by Giada Di Laurentiis)

10 cups shredded cooked chicken (you can use rotisserie chicken, and need about 3 for this much)
2 cups roasted red and yellow bell peppers chopped (drain and pat dry if using
1 1/4 cups paper thin slices of red onions
3/4 cup chopped parsley leaves
3/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/2 cup capers, drained
About 1 1/2 cups red wine vinaigrette (recipe bellow)
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter lettuce leaves
4 ounces of Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler

In a large bowl toss together the chicken, bell peppers, onion, parsley, almonds, and capers with enough vinaigrette to season and moisten it. Taste and adjust the seasoning adding salt and pepper as necessary.
Spoon chicken salad into lettuce cups and arrange into plates. Sprinkle with the Parmesan shaving right before serving.

Red Wine Vinaigrette:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup olive oil

In a blender add vinegar, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper. Turn it on to mix and, while the machine is running, add the oil and blend until emulsified.
Yield: 1 3/4 cups

Stuffed Peppers

It sounds funny, but I believe that almost everyone who cooks on a frequent basis has a recipe for stuffed peppers. I am one of those and I have got to say that I literally threw my old recipe away after making this version last week.
I liked it a LOT and was not the only one to give it five stars at our home. Matheus loved it and made sure I saved the leftovers for him, and my husband could not stop saying that this was definitely a good recipe that I should save and make again.
Yay, lunch that day was definitely a success!!
And the recipe is simple to make, not much fuss and you have yourself a very nutritious and delicious meal in no time! (not counting the baking time, of course...!)
I loved the idea of using bulgur in the filling, it gave the meat a great taste and texture as well. And the addition of spinach and zucchini added a bonus of veggies and vitamins to the dish.
I sort of followed the recipe and made my own alterations, but and am posting the original one here for you all.
The things I did different was to use ground Turkey instead of beef, and I adapted the quantities for the three of us, making 4 stuffed pepper halves (1 was saved for Matheus to have the next day!!). Also, I used my favorite pasta sauce for the tomatoes part (just poured the sauce over the peppers had been stuffed), and added about 1/4 cup of tomato sauce to the meat mixture as I didn't want the filling to be too dry (although the zucchini does add some moisture to it too!).
I also blanched my peppers for a couple of minutes, just to make sure they would be on the softer side after baked, and they came out just perfect for us, husband even mentioned that (yes, he really liked the recipe too!). And since I had boiled some water, I dropped a little ball of meat mixture in it to cook, just so that I could taste the seasonings and see if it had enough salt and spices in it. Easy to taste and help you adjust the seasonings to your like.
We had ours with brown rice since it was cold outside and we wanted a nice homemade meal to warm us up, but I am pretty sure a green salad on the side would also be great with this.
This was definitelly the best stuffed pepper I have had (Husband said that too!), and it will be repeated here for sure. And if you end up trying, I hope you like it as much as we did!
Enjoy!
Ana

Greek Style Stuffed Peppers
(Recipe by Ellie Krieger)


1 pound lean ground beef
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 medium zucchini, coarsely grated (about 2 cups)
1 small onion, minced (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup bulghur
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, cores and ribs removed
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans low-sodium stewed tomatoes, finely chopped
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese ( I used goat cheese which was what I had on hand. It was delicious with goat cheese!!)

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl combine the beef, spinach, zucchini, onion, bulghur, egg, oregano, salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in a 9 by 13-inch baking dish and fill each pepper half with the meat mixture. Pour the tomatoes over the peppers and sprinkle with the feta cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until the meat mixture is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 25 minutes longer.
Yield: 6 servings.

Another Turkey loaf …

I have posted a recipe for meatloaf here before, but I tried a different recipe last week (which I saw on a new TV show) and it was so good that I had to come and post it here. I actually liked it so much more than the previous recipe, that this one is now declared my favorite.
Meatloaf is not a gourmet dish by any means, but I like the way it tastes and even more the ease of preparation, and home cooking is basically this: healthy food made with love, that taste good and is easy to prepare, right?!
There is no work involved in making meatloaf other than mixing and putting it into the oven, pretty easy but tastes so good! And is versatile too, as you can shape it in any form, bake it in individual portions (using muffin or mini loaf tins), and add anything you like to it from a variety of veggies to cheeses, some people even add whole cooked eggs inside them, making it look prettier when cut through.
I usually make mine plain, sometimes adding grated carrots or zucchini; they make it moister and taste it even better.
This recipe is no different from the others, however it produced a extremely moist loaf, and better than that, it was made entirely with ground turkey breast (which usually tend to be dry).
The different ingredient here is oatmeal, it really added to the moistness of the meatloaf, and believe me, you cannot taste it at all. The one thing I added extra to the recipe was a 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese, as I think it adds a lot of flavor to this type of dish.
This now became a favorite and will definitely be repeated many times here! Give it a try!
Ana

Turkey Meatloaf
1/3 cup oats
¼ cup milk
½ onion, peeled and grated
1 pound ground turkey
¼ cup chopped red bell pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (which I ommited, did not have at home)
2 tablespoons ketchup (I used tomato sauce, as I didn't want sugar added to the loaf)
¼ teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
Ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated cheese
4 ounces tomato sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, stir together the oats and milk. In a large bowl combine the turkey, oat mixture, onion, bell pepper, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, grated cheese, salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mix just until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan. Pour the tomato sauce over the meatloaf and sprinkle with sliced onions (if desired). Bake for about 50 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees.F.
Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 to15 minutes before slicing.
(Recipe adapted from Healthy Apetite by Ellie Krieger)

Sunday’s Pasta

We were all sneezy with our alergies at its peak this weekend, so to make us a little happier I decided to make something different than our usual Sunday' pasta with either red or white sauce. Three-Cheese Chicken Penne Florentine came out perfect, creamy and cheesy! It was delicious, and the best thing is it was a one-dish meal, with starch, vegetable and protein included in one yummy bowl!
I used whole-wheat penne and white cheddar cheese. Also, I don’t actually like these canned soup things, so for the canned soup I substituted 1 1/4 cup evaporated milk + 1 tablespoon cornstarch + a little bit of chicken bouillon, which I put in a pan and cooked over medium heat just until thickened, let it cool a bit and added to the dish as indicated for the soup. (I used evaporated milk but I am pretty sure regular milk would work nicely here)
Very good dish, comfort food at its best! We all enjoyed it and hope you will too!

Ana

Three-Cheese Chicken Penne Florentine
1 teaspoon olive oil
Cooking spray
3 cups thinly sliced mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
3 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (16-ounce) carton 2% low-fat cottage cheese
4 cups hot cooked penne (about 8 ounces uncooked tube-shaped pasta)
2 cups shredded roasted skinless, boneless chicken breast
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed reduced-fat, reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup, undiluted

Preheat oven to 425°.
Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, onion, and bell pepper; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add spinach, oregano, and black pepper; sauté 3 minutes or just until spinach wilts.
Place cottage cheese in a food processor; process until very smooth. Combine spinach mixture, cottage cheese, pasta, chicken, 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, milk, and soup in a large bowl. Spoon mixture into a 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheddar cheese and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Bake at 425° for 25 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly.
Cooking Light, March 2006