Greek Salad with Chicken

Whenever I don't have much time to cook, a greek salad something I can prepare quickly, especially if I have time to pick up a roasted chicken from grocery store.    When I make greek salad, each serving includes about 1/4 cup chopped cucumber, 2 cups lettuce, 1/4 cup chopped tomato, 1 oz of cumbled feta cheese, 4 or 5 kalamata olives, and 3 oz of roasted chicken breast.  

The dressing per salad is a tablespoon of some type of vinegar, a teaspoon of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of oregano, 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice, 1/8 teaspoon of pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. 

I made some hummus earlier in the week and so on both Thursday and Friday night, I had Greek Salad, hummus, and pita bread for dinner.   At only 450 calories per meal, its a light and delicious meal.

Spring Garden Salad with Chicken and Champagne Vinaigrette and Creamy Tomato Soup.

When I am working out regularly, watching my diet, and getting plenty of rest, having a healthy salad for dinner brings at all together and leaves me feeling like I am living well.  

Photo: Iain Bagwell; Styling: Mary Clayton Carl

I like to try new dishes on the weekend when I have more time to shop and cook and I have had my eye on a Cooking Light recipe for Creamy Tomato Soup for some time.   So, tonight I decided to make the Tomato Soup and found a Cooking Light recipe this Spring Garden Salad with Chicken and Champagne Vinaigrette which I thought would go well with the soup.  

I was curious to try Champagne Vinaigrette.  I mentioned this to my wife and she said there are all sorts of exotic vinaigrettes these days and she was right.   There was a whole section of vinaigrettes at the store which I have never noticed before.

The combination of the honey, oil, and vinaigrette made for a sweet and light dressing for salad.   I bought a whole roasted chicken from Whole Foods and used the breast meat in the salad.

Photo: Johnny Autry; Styling: Cindy Barr

For me, the Creamy Tomato Soup was really the star of this meal.   The recipe says that it yields 6 servings of 3/4 cup each.   Those are pretty small servings, but with only 1/4 cup of half-n-half for the entire recipe, we had a little over a cup of soup per serving and easily stayed below my calorie budget for the day.

The soup really did turn out great.   I love tomato soup but I don't like the calories and sodium from the soup I find in stores and restaurants.   This was the first time I have ever made tomato soup at home and I am sure it will become part of my repertoire of delicious dishes for healthy dinners.

Greek Salad with Grilled Chicken (High Sodium version)

I used the chicken I grilled last night in the Greek Salad I made for dinner tonight along with some homemade hummus and pita bread.    The salad was delicious, but when I added up the sodium... I was kind of shocked.   I knew it was going to be high but not that high!   Almost 1300mg of sodium per serving!  Yikes!   So my total sodium intake yesterday was almost 2800mg.  

Becky Luigart-Stayner; Lydia DeGaris-Pursell

If I had more time before I needed to prepare the salad I would have added up the sodium ahead of time.   Most of the sodium is in the dressing.    But the olives and feta also add a lot of sodium to the salad and I used more olives and twice as much feta as was called for in the recipe!

Sodium contributors to the dressing:

1/2 teaspoon of salt...          1179mg
1/4 cup of chicken broth....   140mg

Other major sodium contributors:

2oz of feta cheese...              860mg
20 kalamata olives...           1600mg

Total sodium...                    5101mg

Per serving (4 servings)     1275mg


Next time I make this, I am going to go easier on the olives, feta, and cut the amount of salt in half.   That should put this meal at under 400mg of sodium!

Thai Beef Salad

A Thai salad is often a great choice when we feel like we want something "different."   The combination of fresh mint, cilantro, and fish sauce give this Thai Beef Salad a really fresh and exotic set of flavors and aromas.   This is another Cooking Light recipe from myrecipes.com.

I made this dish once before and it turned out well.   Tonight's version was probably a little better than the first time because I marinated the steak a little longer and I used New York Strip instead of flank steak.   I also added rice noodles to the salad which makes the meal more filling.   Its a little too light without the extra calories added by the rice noodels.

When I grilled the Tandoori chicken the other night, I banked all the coals in my charcoal grill around the outside of the grill which seemed to create a more optimal grill temp in the center of the grill.   I did that with the steak for the Thai salad tonight and it worked well with the steak cooked almost perfectly on the inside and just a little charring on the outside.   I think I can do even better with the grilling if I continue to work on it.   I realize now, after the last two meals, that I have been putting way too much heat on the meat.

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