Spicy Sweet Citrus Summer Salad

So the summer is winding down, which I wish it could go on forever. I love the summer.  But on the other hand I do welcome fall with its crisp clean air and warm delicious meals.  Enjoy the last days of summer with this crisp bright salad.  The chicken was so good I will probably just use this marinade for grilled chicken basically all the time. 

I also have exactly one year and one week left until I am getting married.  ::exciting:: I have to start dress shopping soon- and what better thing to make yourself feel skinny and healthy then a salad :)

The combo might seem a bit strange- but I really love the different textures and flavors. I'm sure you might have seen a similar combo of flavors before.  The earthy rosemary with the creamy beans and the orange just adds such a fresh pop along with the cool crunch of the fennel and lettuce.  The onion is spicy and sweet, and olives with that salty bite- and the chicken- like to die for so yum.

 ::Side note:: I used chick peas in the picture- but I really wanted to use cannellini beans- and I usually have a can but OF COURSE when I really need them- I don't have them. So I wrote the recipe for cannellini beans (but any light colored bean or even peas could work- or you could just totally omit them)

Oh and for this I totally whipped out my trusty George Foreman Grill.

Spicy Sweet Citrus Summer Tuscan Salad (w/ Grilled Chicken)
serves about 4 to 6

Ingredients

For the Marinade

• 1 orange, zest and juice (if the orange doesn't give a lot of juice, I used an extra splash of regular orange juice)
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• pinch of salt and pepper
• pinch of fresh rosemary
• 2 tsp of canola oil

Mix all these ingredients together and add the chicken.  Pop in the fridge for half an hour at least to let the flavors infuse.

For the Salad

• 1 orange, segmented* (I used the small navel orange)
• 1/2 red onion, sliced thin
• 1/2 bulb of fennel, sliced thin
• 1 romaine heart, chopped
• about a 1/2 can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• about 8 black olives, sliced

For the Salad Dressing

• 1 orange, zest and juice
• couple fennel fronds from the fennel, chopped
• pinch of fresh rosemary, chopped
• pinch of salt and pepper
• about 3-4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• small pinch of cayenne (optional)

1. Grill your chicken. Then I thinly slice on the bias.
2. Toss all your salad ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Add all the dressing ingredients into a small bowl, except the oil.  Mix the ingredients and then slowly stream in the oil while whisking.  Pour a small amount of the dressing on the salad and toss.  Just enough to lightly coat.
4. Then add salad to bowls, top with chicken and drizzle more dressing on if you want.  You can even finish the salad off with some shaved Italian cheese. MmmMMmm.

*Segmented: this is a fancy way to cut up citrus.  First cut off the ends and then cut off the rest of the rind as shown in the pic below.  Then you carefully cut the fruit with a small pairing knife in between the white lines of the pith. (here's a helpful video)

Memorial Day Weekend- BBQ, Beer and Bikes



Pretty awesome right?


Memorial Day is always about BBQ Beer and Bikes for us LOL. But then again that's pretty much our life in general during the summer.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

So over the Memorial Day weekend we packed up and took a 5 hour drive down to West Virginia to the Summit Point Motorsports Park.  It was a CCS Racing weekend.  So proud of Brendan for doing so well first time at this track.  I'm his number one fan and sponsor.  The weather was amazing- hot and sunny.  Got myself a nice tan and my fiance got some race time in.  We had such a great time.  He loads up his truck with bike stuff and I load the pop-up camper with food and everything else. 

We have limited space in the cooler and mini fridge so I need to plan out a weekends worth of meals accordingly.  I also don't like to settle for just hamburgers and hot dogs, so this is a quick run down of what I made for the weekend:

Friday Night (we arrived): homemade burgers and hot dogs after we set up camp.
Saturday Breakfast: bagels, bananas and coffee (we had this everyday for breakfast)
Saturday Lunch: grilled pizza
Saturday Dinner: Chicken Kabobs and Asparagus
Sunday Lunch: Grilled Sausage, Pepper and Onion Sandwiches
Sunday Dinner: Pork Tenderloin with grilled corn
Monday Lunch: Chicken Kabobs and Asparagus

Of course we had A LOT of drinks on hand. It was so hot- water, Gatorade, iced tea, Redbull and of course beer.

We had some cheese doodles, triscuits, hummus and other various snacks too.

Not exactly the healthiest of choices, but hey it's vacation!

Everything I cooked was very simple prep and simple cook.  All the veggies were simply seasoned with salt, pepper and oil.  The chicken kabobs were just skewered boneless skinless chicken breasts seasoned with McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning (my fav go-to summer seasoning).  The pork tenderloin was marinated in garlic, honey, jalapenos, oil, lime juice, salt and pepper.  I even grilled the bagels to toast them up.  FYI if you have never had grilled asparagus- go and make that tonight- they are the bomb.

And if you have never grilled pizza- get on that!  It is probably the closest thing you will have to real brick oven pizza.  It is super simple too.  I really should have brought my rolling pin though- was a pain to roll it out- that's why its super misshaped but whatever it's "rustic".  I packed homemade dough (you could even do store bought), shredded cheese, sliced tomatoes and fresh basil.  Roll the dough out and lay on the grill.  I then brush or drizzle a bit of oil.  Let that cook and bubble up.  When it is ready to turn you will be able to grab it up and it will easily pull away from the grill.  Flip it over and top with tomatoes and basil then the cheese to help everything stay put.  Cover (aka close the lid), turn heat to low and just wait until everything melts.  Even if you burn the bottom, it still tastes really good! (oh yea- don't forget a cutting board and knife!)

Here's all the rest of the weekend!




Lexi sun bathing




Dutchy Moo Cow is hot




Mini fridge is stocked plus we had a cooler



gotta have the hot sauce

Our home away from home (with a/c of course!)

Ya know, just the essentials

Simple breakfast plus coffee of course

My ride

A man of many talents

Took him on the turn

Yea forgot to soak the skewers- oh well!

Race grid

Shade!

Love sausage super crispy- cut sausage in half then serve on buns with ketchup!

Yea, these boys don't play around when it comes to speed

Cooling off in the camper- isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen???!!!!

Held his position against this guy and took 11 out of 23 in this race! So proud of you babe, I love you!

Grilled Chicken w/ Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Garlic Sauce

Super excited for this weekend! The future hubby and I are driving down to West Virginia to the Summit Point Motorsports Park for our first track day together of the year!  Going for the whole weekend means a lot of food prep and BBQ'n!  This week has been a clean out the fridge week because we will be gone close to five days or so.  First one was the Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, then I made a rice, chicken and veggie casserole topped with cheddar cheese, and now this (plus the pearl barley summer salad)!

Will try and have a good portion of the weekend documented- for easy portable grill recipes and just so you guys can see what we do on our free time lol.

Not only is this recipe super easy AND healthy but it's basically a no cooking involved one. Perfect for those hot summer days/nights.

For the chicken I just season boneless skinless chicken breasts with some salt and pepper and throw on the grill, here's the sauce you top it off with (which is a no cook)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup of non fat plain yogurt
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1 garlic clove, grated or pasted
• pinch of fresh thyme
• pinch of lime or lemon zest (if making the pearl barley salad too you use the juice of this there)
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of red pepper flake
• freshly cracked pepper

Directions

1. Put everything into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
2. If too thick add a splash of milk, water, or citrus juice.
3. If too thin add more yogurt.
4. Serve over grilled chicken and alongside the Pearl Barley Summer Salad.