Healthy Chopped Cobb Salad

I had dinner at my friend Katie’s place on Friday while her husband (!!!) was at Topgolf with his boss.  Since their wedding the week prior, I’ve seen her almost every other day (they’re honeymooning later in May…)

Katie cooked us a delicious pizza with fresh Garlic & Herb dough from Trader Joe’s.  I brought a salad over and I think it’s now one of my favorite recipes.  If you already had eggs hard-boiled, it would only take a minute to throw together.  And compared to a typical Cobb salad, it was actually pretty healthy with the dressing made mostly from Greek Yogurt.   

Healthy Chopped Cobb Salad (adapted from Club Narwhal)

Ingredients:

• ½ head romaine lettuce, chopped (I had a pre-chopped bag…)
• 2 ears corn, shucked (you could use canned corn, but the fresh only takes a few minutes and is definitely worth it!)
• ½ pint cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in halves
• 4 eggs, hardboiled
• 5 slices bacon, cooked (I used Smithfield Cracked Peppercorn Coated)
• 2 avocados, sliced
• ¾ cup blue cheese crumbles
• 6 oz. plain Greek yogurt
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• Salt and pepper, to taste

 

Directions:

1. I already had my hard boiled eggs prepared ahead of time, but if you don’t, place your eggs in pot with cold water, covering them by about 1”.  Put them on the stove with medium high heat.  As SOON as the water starts to boil, turn off the stove, cover the pot, and set a timer for 10 minutes.  When the timer goes off, put them directly into ice water – you’ll have perfect hard-boiled eggs that should be easy to peel.    

2.  At the same time, bring another pot of water to a boil.  Add the ears of corn and boil for 4-5 minutes, or until corn turns bright yellow.   

3. While cooking the corn and eggs, you can prepare your bacon in a skillet, getting it nice and crispy. 

4. Add your romaine, tomatoes, avocado, and ¼ cup of the blue cheese crumbles to a bowl.  Slice the eggs into halves, cut the corn from the cobb, and break the bacon into pieces.  Add all to the bowl. 

5.  For the dressing, mix together the remaining ½ cup blue cheese, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and garlic powder together.  Drizzle over the salad & serve. 

When transporting it to her place (which is only a 3-4 minute drive), I used the silicone poppy lid that Lance’s sister Brandi gave me for Christmas!  It seals completely to the top of the bowl to keep anything from spilling – and it keeps me from wasting plastic wrap.  Plus they’re heat resistant, so you can use them on the stovetop, in the microwave or oven, and put them in the dishwasher! 

I made a mini-bowl for Lance to enjoy as well while we had our girls’ night (and I brought home plenty of leftovers from Katie’s place for lunch the next day).  

Shrimp Stir Fry with Homemade Peanut Sauce

 

We had shrimp and lots of veggies in the fridge, so a few nights ago I threw together this stir fry!  It was super easy – and we had plenty left for the next few days (I need to learn to portion better when cooking for two…although the leftovers were delicious).  Feel free to use any combination of your favorite vegetables, substitute for other meats, or take out the shrimp to make this a vegetarian-friendly meal. 

Shrimp Stir Fry with Homemade Peanut Sauce (adapted from Averie Cooks & Rasa Malaysia)

Ingredients:

• 15-20 medium shrimp, deveined, tails off
• 3 – 4 cups of mixed vegetables, chopped (I used about a handful of each: white onion, red bell pepper, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots,  and snap peas)
• 1 14-oz. can whole baby corn, drained
• 1 8-oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup peanuts
• ½ cup Jasmine rice
• 2 T olive oil
• ½ cup chunky natural peanut butter
• ¾ cup coconut milk
• 2 T Thai red curry paste
• 2 T apple cider vinegar
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare the rice according to the cooking instructions. 

2.  Add the peanut butter, coconut milk, red curry paste, and apple cider vinegar to a saucepan and whisk together.  Warm it on low heat and continue to whisk. 

3. Meanwhile, drizzle a large skillet or wok with olive oil.  Add your mixed veggies and let cook for 3-4 minutes.   

4. Sprinkle the shrimp with salt & pepper and add to the vegetable mixture.  Cook until shrimp is opaque and vegetables are tender.

5. Add the rice and egg to the mixture, mixing so the egg gets scrambled.  Pour the peanut sauce in and combine until everything is coated. 

 

I actually was expecting the red curry paste to be spicier than it was – I liked the flavor of it, but it really wasn’t very spicy at all.  You could add a bit of Sriracha or red pepper spice if you want your peanut sauce to have more of a kick.   

Florida State Fair 2015

 

Lance and I spent our day off last week at the Florida State Fair.  We’ve been a couple times the past few years.  We rode the swings last time we went, but this year we skipped the rides and just did the shows, saw the animals, and ate everything deep-fried.

 

If you donate anything to Goodwill this time of year, they’ll give you a coupon for $2 off your fair admission (so it was only $9 each instead of $11).  

We started off with the Kachunga alligator show (which we’d seen before…a trainer gets in the water with a live gator & carries it on stage…) But the best show I thought was the Sea Lion Splash.  I can’t believe the kinds of tricks they can teach these animals to do!  They did the normal balancing a ball on their nose, but the coolest part I thought was one of the sea lions doing a handstand on its flippers! It was well worth the fair admission just to see that. 

We have to enjoy funnel cake when at the fair, so we split one after the sea lion show.  There were dozens of stands selling them, but we went for the one that let you do the powdered sugar yourself! Look at this sugar bomb.

Then we checked out all the cute animals – giraffes, baby goats, sheep, and chickens with funny hairdos.  You can get up close and pet most of them (the giraffe grabs carrots right out of your hand with its long tongue!)

 

We didn’t get the chance to see the Welde Bear show this year, but when we went back in 2012 I got to feed one of the bears a treat through the fence!

For lunch we split a giant turkey leg and some freshly squeezed lemonade. 

We watched a crazy high-dive show.  It was pretty cheesy, but we saw there was a platform 80 feet up, we stuck around hoping someone would jump from it into the pool below.  That did happen, but the most insane part was a guy in a fireproof suit getting completely engulfed by flames before diving. 

 

Before leaving the fair, we had to indulge in one more fried treat.  This year they were selling deep-fried Reese’s cups.  I have a weakness for peanut butter and chocolate, so we went for it.  They were battered and fried golden, then topped with powdered sugar (I think we had enough powdered sugar that day to last us the rest of the year…) They were gooey and messy inside, but so worth the million calories. 

 

Today was actually the last day of the fair, so if you missed your share of deep fried treats, you’ll have to wait until next year!

The Florida State Fairgrounds is located at 4800 US Highway 301 North, Tampa, FL 33610.  This year’s fair ran from February 5^th – 16^th, 2015.