As promised, I am sharing my carne asada salad recipe, although it’s more of a guide than an actual recipe. This salad is flexible. If you’re missing something, no worries. Really the only required attendees in carne asada salad are, well, carne asada, salad (you know, the greens) and my homemade cilantro crema. Beyond that, do what I describe below or get creative! The world (well, this salad) is your oyster (except there aren’t oysters in this salad, and, actually, as flexible as the salad is, I would skip the oysters).

This is a great go-to dinner option. The cilantro crema dressing is easy to make, the carne asada (which I get from the butcher at the store) grills up in mere minutes, and the salad is super easy to throw together. Also, all my kids like this meal so that automatically makes it my favorite. But, seriously, Nate and I do love it as well!

Carne Asada Salad with Cilantro Crema

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• Salad greens (whatever is your favorite!)
• Sliced, grilled carne asada
• Beans (black, pinto, garbanzo, whatever)
• Fresh or canned corn
• Chopped or sliced avocado
• Chopped tomatoes (I usually forget these)
• Fried tortilla strips or broken up tortilla chips
• Cilantro Crema

Instructions

1. On a plate place your greens. Top with carne asada, beans, corn, avocado, tomato, then drizzle with dressing. Finish off with tortilla strips! Enjoy!

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This post is years overdue. I throw “Kitchen Sink Quesadillas” up on my menu fairly regularly and I’ve always just linked to a page with the recipe typed straight out of a Real Simple magazine, with no notes or pictures. Since it’s such a reliable go-to meal around here, I figured it deserved a bit of attention!

I got the recipe from Real Simple long before I started this blog. In fact, it was one of my first attempts at vegetarian cooking. I’ll never forget the first time I made kitchen sink quesadillas. As Nate and I finished eating, he looked at me and said, “I didn’t even realize there wasn’t any meat.” We were both surprised how delicious and filling our dinner was!

Our family has come along way since then – nowadays about half of our dinners are vegetarian. I really think this recipe all those years ago helped me realize that eating less meat is no big deal!

Anyway, vegetarian or not, this is a great go-to meal and a nice step up from the basic quesadilla with very little extra work. They are simple and fast to prepare and there is also an option to cook the quesadillas all at one time, which can be especially helpful when cooking for a family.

Kitchen Sink Quesadillas

 

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Adapted from Real Simple

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish

Ingredients

• Quesadilla ingredients:
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 can corn kernels, drained
• ¾ cup salsa, drained (you don’t have to drain the salsa, but it makes for a much less messy quesadilla, so if you don’t mind the step it’s good to do)
• Small flour tortillas (twice as many as the number of quesadillas you want to make
• Shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack
• Optional side salad ingredients:
• 1 tablespoon minced red onion
• ⅓ cup fresh cilantro leaves
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• Juice of 1 to 2 limes
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped

Instructions

1. If cooking the quesadillas in the oven, heat oven to 400° F. In a medium bowl, combine the beans, corn, and salsa.
2. Place 4 tortillas on a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with cheese. Lightly spread the bean-corn-salsa mixture over the cheese, then top with more cheese. Place flour tortillas on top. Bake until cheese is melted, about 5-7 minutes. You can also cook the quesadillas on the stovetop one at a time if you prefer.
3. If you would like to whip up the side salad, while the quesadillas are in the oven, combine the onion, cilantro, salt, pepper, lime juice, oil and sugar. Mix well. Toss with the chopped lettuce. (I hardly ever make the salad!)
4. Cut quesadillas into wedges and serve with the salad. Also good with salsa, sour cream and guacamole!

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I have a new favorite go-to meal that happens to be perfect for summer: Chicken Caesar Wraps!

They’re easy, the ingredient list is short and compiled of items I normally have on hand, and I’m always surprised at just how tasty they are!

The other fun thing is you can make them super, duper easy or gourmet them up a bit, using more homemade ingredients. No matter how you make them, they are delicious!

I wasn’t really planning to do a post about chicken caesar wraps, but when we were eating them for dinner last night, Anna said, “Mom, you should take a picture of these for your blog!” She’s always looking out for the blog!

Summer Go-To Meal: Chicken Caesar Wraps

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish, Poultry

Ingredients

• Flour tortillas or other wrap that you like (I prefer uncooked tortillas that you cook on the stove, they are delicious and are nice and flexible, which is perfect for a wrap)
• Cooked chicken breast (You could buy pre-cooked chicken or a rotisserie chicken to make it super simple. I like to grill boneless, skinless chicken breasts on my grill pan salt and pepper the chicken breasts, cook over medium heat until temperature reaches 160 degrees)
• Romaine lettuce, chopped
• Fresh Parmesan cheese, shaved or shredded
• Croutons (You can make your own, but in this case I think the crunchy store-bought kind work nicely because they are so super crunchy, which gives good texture to the wrap.)
• Caesar dressing (again, you can make your own, but I always have a bottle of Girard’s Caesar dressing in the fridge, so that’s what I use!)

Instructions

1. Lay out your tortilla/wrap, pile on all the other ingredients, fold like a burrito and eat!
2. I like to spread some dressing on the tortilla before piling on the ingredients and then topping everything with more dressing before wrapping it all up!

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