Sunday Salads

First of all, a big thanks to my guest blogger for keeping a little bit of new content on here while I have been in a bit of a blogging rut. I'm trying to get re-inspired though and hope to manage a few posts over the coming weeks for the few of you still reading.

Moving on...as a creature of habit and schedule, I am almost always make my menu for the week and go to the grocery store on Sunday afternoon. If I don't get my grocery run in, it typically means we will be eating out every night as there just doesn't seem to be time to during the week. So a few weeks ago, I was trying to come up with something to make for Sunday dinner before I headed to the store, and Andy suggested a salad. We always seem to eat more (and heavier) food over the weekend so by the time Sunday night comes around a light salad sounded perfect - especially since it has gotten so hot outside!

Thus began our new routine of having "Sunday Salads" for dinner. Here are two of our recent creations...

Paneed Chicken over Spinach Pasta Salad

For the chicken, I simply pounded a few chicken tenders until they were thin and then sprinkled with salt and pepper. For the breading, I first dipped the chicken in a mixture of egg and dijon mustard then coated with an even mixture of bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese. I let the chicken sit for 10 minutes in order for the coating to stick then just cooked for a few minutes on each side in some olive oil in a non-stick saute pan.

The "salad" part is a mixture of spinach, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, mini bowtie pasta, and parmesan cheese tossed in some garlic and red pepper infused olive oil and a little bit of red wine vinegar.

Maybe the famous guest blogger will share is Pimms Cup recipe with you later!

Seared Tuna Salad

For the tuna, I coated both sides of the fish with sesame seeds then cooked in canola oil for just a minute or two on each side since both like it rare. The salad was yellow cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges, green onions and yellow bell peppers on butter lettuce.

Tonight I have some salmon in the fridge, so planning on coming up with a fun new salad using it which will hopefully be perfect for this miserably hot summer day!