Sunday, July 23, 2006

2 EASY Summer Recipes to help beat the heat!

Hey everyone! Been keeping meals simple and cool for the summer. Here are two easy faves we've been enjoying. Both very adaptable to what you have on hand.


Romaine Caeser Wraps
(Courtesy of the the Tanimura & Antle bag at Costco!) ;-)

  • 2 heads of romaine hearts
  • 2 cups cubed cooked chicken (approx. two 8oz boneless chicken breasts-- but canned chicken is so worth it for summer-- who wants to spend time cooking in a hot kitchen??!)
  • 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (mmm Parmesan! Actually, I substituted mozzerella once and we fell in love with it so we use that a lot instead)
  • 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup creamy Caesar dressing (I usually use Ranch just cuz we have it on hand.. of course, then you can't call it a "Caeser Wrap")
  • 8 9-ince flour tortillas, plain or flavored
  • Anything else you have on hand that sounds good and doesn't require cooking! Last night we had avocado in ours-- thanks Tia for the avococado tool-- freakin' amazing!!!!!! ;-)

  1. Chop Romain hearts into bite-size pieces: place in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients, except tortillas, and toss well to coat.
  2. Soften tortillas in microwave oven (about 20 seconds on high)
  3. To make wraps, place tortillas on plates and spoon Casear salad along center. Drizzle with additional dressing if desired. Roll tortilla from one side, burrito style, folding bottome up and in to hold in salad. Repeat for remaining tortillas. Makes 4-6 servings.
  4. Eat 'em up while they're nice and crunchy!


If you want to turn some delicious summer fruit into something a little more special:

Lime-Ginger Honeydew

  • 1 lime
  • 1 tsp finely grated, peeled fresh ginger
  • 1 large honeydew melon, cut in chunks (approx 10 cups)
  • 1/3 cup Sugar & 3 Tbsp water
  1. Bring 1/3 cup sugar and 3 Tbsp water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat; stir to dissolve sugar. Refrigerate 5 minutes to cool.
  2. Grate zest and juice lim. Stir 2 tsp zest, 1 Tbsp lime juice and the ginger into the sugar syrup. Pour over melon chunks and stir gently with a rubber spatula to mix and coat.
  3. INDULGE! =)
I rarely have everything on hand for this (fresh ginger and limes). For a cheater version of this I will just blend up some honey, bottled lime juice and powdered ginger, then toss in the honeydew and coat. A bit different, but very tasty. I love honey on fruit! The lime zest really does add a nice dimension if you're choosing between buying lime or fresh ginger.

3 comments:

La Yen said...

Ames, buy a big piece of ginger at the grocery store next time you are there. Then put it in a ziploc in the freezer. It will keep for a million years, and you can break off chunks and grate as needed.

Guileless Mom said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Guileless Mom said...

Tia! Thanks for the good tip!!!!! I love fresh ginger!! I should always have it on hand. Now, if only I can remember to pick up the ginger while I'm at the store.....