Green Salad with Grilled Chicken & Caesar Dressing

This weekend, Mike and I volunteered with our friends Jeremy and Kendra at a camp in rural New York. We spent Saturday wandering the campus, picking up remnants of an epic shaving cream battle and harnessing teenagers into a giant three-person swing that drops passengers from 60 feet in the air. As lovely as it was to escape the city, we were both ready to come home and eat something green and not-fried.

Enter Mike's last-minute salad suggestion. We ran to Trader Joe's, grabbed a bag of mixed greens and some grilled chicken for protein, then came home and quickly assembled what we deemed to be a mighty successful, mostly-healthful meal. Definitely going on our list of recipes to tweak and repeat.

Green Salad with Grilled Chicken & Caesar Dressing
(Caesar Dressing adapted from Epicurious recipe)

Salad Ingredients

1 bag of mixed greens
2 carrots, diced
1/4 cup walnut pieces
2ish tablespoons herbed goat cheese
2 chicken breasts

Caesar Dressing Ingredients

7 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
5 anchovies, roughly chopped
3/4 cup TJ's reduced fat mayonnaise
1/2 cup reduced fat buttermilk
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Preheat a cast-iron grill pan on medium heat (if you have an actual grill, by all means use it instead). Spray it quickly with olive oil spray to lubricate. Quickly salt and pepper the chicken breasts and then place them on the grill pan. Cover with a large sauce pan lid. Grill breasts for 7-8 minutes on each side, or until juices run clear. Remove from heat, let the chicken rest for 4-5 minutes and dice into bite-sized pieces.

While the chicken is on the grill, finely chop the garlic and anchovies in a food processor. Add the mayonnaise, buttermilk, parmesan, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Blend in the food processor until smooth. Season with black pepper to taste. Cook's note: This will make plenty of leftovers.

In a large bowl, combine greens, carrots and about 1/2 of the dressing (or enough to coat the greens). Serve salad with walnut pieces, diced chicken and goat cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.

Roast Asparagus and Caramelized Mushroom Quesadillas with Goat Cheese

Last month we made a fantastic caramelized mushroom and asparagus quesadilla with goat cheese chevre. There are a lot of components to it, so it's not th easiest dish in the world, but it doesn't take all that long and the flavors are totally worth it. Sadly I do not have a picture, but I'm sure we'll make this one again in the near future.

I was a little zealous with the chipotle powder, which Brit's roommate Brooks definitely noticed (and appreciated!). Make sure the asparagus is really tender so you aren't biting into hard pieces in the asparagus. The best part of this dish is easily the goat cheese. I tried my best to cut the cheese into small pieces which were then randomly scattered around the quesadilla. The gooey, delicious surprise when one would bite into the goat cheese was the best part of this meal.

Roast Asparagus and Caramelized Mushroom Quesadillas with Goat Cheese

As is common these days, I found this recipe in one of the numerous food blogs I've subscribed myself to in Google Reader. Brit and I love asparagus, mushrooms, and goat cheese, so this dish was a no brainer.


Roast Asparagus and Caramelized Mushroom Quesadillas with Goat Cheese
(Originally posted on the Closet Cooking food blog)

makes 4 quesadillas

1 tablespoon oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 handful cilantro, chopped
10 spears asparagus, trimmed
4 oz goat cheese chevre, diced
1 cup monterey jack cheese, grated
4 (6 inch) tortillas
Sour cream
Salsa

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and saute the onions until they're soft. Add in the garlic, cumin, chipotle powder and saute another minute. Add in the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and cook until most of the liquid from the mushrooms has been released and evaporated. Remove from heat and mix in the cilantro.

Meanwhile, toss the asparagus with a little oil and lay out on a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes until they are tender. Cut the asparagus into 1 inch pieces and add them into the mushroom mix.

In a clean pan, sprayed with cooking spray, gently heat up a tortilla. Add the mushroom and asparagus mixture, some goat cheese, and some monterey jack cheese. Place another tortilla on top and cook until the bottom is browned. Flip the quesadilla by placing an upside down plate on top of the pan. Quickly invert the two and then slide the flipped quesadilla back into the pan. Cook until the bottom is browned and the cheese is melty.

Serve with some sour cream, salsa, or any other condiment you desire.