Easy Couscous Salad

If you love the bright fresh flavors of the Mediterranean this will quickly become one of your new family recipes. It's one of the easiest salads to make and you will feel as if you have been swept away to the Greek Islands or at least your favorite Greek restaurant after the first bite.

What is couscous?

Couscous has the look of coarse cornmeal and the taste of tiny bits of pasta. Its flavor is neutral which makes it very versatile and can be served hot or cold. The box never reads "instant" but it should because it only takes about 5 minutes to prepare. 

Kono’s Hawaiian Macaroni Potato Salad

There is nothing neutral about Hawaiian Macaroni Salad. You either love it (can’t get enough) or hate it (won’t touch it) and it usually isn’t eaten alone, it’s meant to clean your palate.

I know that I shouldn’t put mayonnaise laced dressing and clean your palate together in the same sentence-but it’s true! 

Most Hawaiian macaroni salads add straight mayonnaise, salt, pepper and sometimes… a pinch of sugar – I’m not a fan, but I know that many are. What I am a fan of is my husband’s dressing.

Easy Old Fashion Coleslaw

Coleslaw dressing is a simple mix of mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. 5 pantry ingredients. That’s it!

The work is in the shredding of the cabbage and carrots. At least it used to be. Now days you can get shredded coleslaw mix at your local grocer. However, I think it taste better if you shred your own, so that’s what I do. You can skip the purple cabbage if you choose; its main purpose is to make it pretty. It won’t change the taste.

Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dressing

I found this recipe on the Taste of Home site. It was passed down 30 + years ago from her mother in-law. I love recipes that are generational. It held up to its 5 star rating and it has now become my go to blue cheese dressing recipe.

Once you try it I think you will agree that this blue cheese dressing is truly fabulous.

Rainbow Bean Salad

Rainbow Bean Salad

We are all guilty of the fridge stare. You know, when we stand in front of the fridge with the door open hoping that there might be something in there to satisfy our cravings. Sure… a slice of cake or pizza would be more tempting than a bowl of beans. However, this simple sweet and tangy bean salad is surprisingly satisfying.

Susan's Caesar Salad Dressing

Susan's Classic Caesar 

There are so many wonderful salads out there but the one salad that never gets old is the Classic Caesar - crispy romaine lettuce tossed with Parmesan cheese and buttery garlic croutons is all it takes. The dressing needs a few more ingredients but once you have the dressing made, everything else is a snap.

Make your own Caesar dressing, it’s too easy not to and I promise, you will be thankful that you did.

Shrimp & Dill Pasta Salad

I found this recipe about a year ago on foodiecrush and discovered that I misread the recipe. It called for sweet pickles and I must have had dill pickles on my mind, because that's how I made it and I loved it.  The dill pickles and juice add a nice "humm?" flavor that is surprisingly subtle.

Asian Cucumber Salad (Namasu)

Every culture has their own collection of side dishes.  This simple and refreshing salad is a must when serving up a Japanese or Korean meal.  You can enhance this salad by adding thinly slivered ginger, bay shrimp, clams or squid and/or wakame (dried seaweed). It can be easily turned into a meal (especially when you add the seafood and wakame) by serving it over a bowl of rice or a bed of lettuce.

Broccoli Salad

I’m not sure, but I think this salad may be older than me, yet so fresh.

It’s one of those tried and true comfort foods that my family and friends always enjoy.  I don’t know how it got pushed so far back into the recipe box and almost forgotten.  I suppose that its due to the fact that there are too many recipes and not enough time! Well... lets dust it off and bring it back to the table. 

Tropics Dressing

Tropics Dressing is a "Made in Hawaii" french style dressing.

From what I understand this dressing was named after the original Tropics restaurant in Hawaii back in the 1960's and could possibly be the first time Hawaiians tasted french dressing.

This easy blender dressing is sure to please with its tangy sweet flavor.  I enjoy it drizzled over avocado slices, chicken salad, or tuna sandwiches. You can also mix in a little mayonnaise to make it more of a creamy french.

Greek Salad

I made this salad for Easter and it was deliciously well balanced and colorful.  It had a refreshing crispy crunch from the Iceberg lettuce and cucumbers.   While the Kalamata olives and feta cheese added just the right amount of saltiness.

The Dijon vinaigrette complimented the salad beautifully and brought all the flavors together.  Thank you Ina and Lizzy for introducing it to me.

Crab Louis with Sauce Louis

Dungeness crab season in Oregon starts around the first of December and runs all the way through mid-August.  At my house the first crabs of the season get eaten straight out of the shell (caveman style) with the option of drawn butter (which really isn't necessary), because the crab is so naturally sweet and tender, it really needs nothing more.

Baby Lobster Rolls

I had a sudden hankering for a lobster roll that soon became an obsession.  So much so, that I found myself obsessively surfing the internet to find someone to send me a Main lobster, but the price point quickly took me out of the market.  It was so expensive that it seemed to make more sense to hop on a plane to Maine than have them ship me a lobster which I would just turn into lobster salad.  I couldn’t do it.   All I can say on that subject; is if a Maine lobster showed up at my door, I was going to eat it in its purest form.  Not dressed up.   So that was the end of that.

Antipasto Tortellini Salad

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When my oldest daughter was living in Italy, I had the opportunity to take part in some truly magical meals. Sunday afternoons in Italy are often spent lingering around a table with family and friends, devouring course after course of homemade delicacies. Usually, an antipasto marks the beginning of a traditional Italian meal; something salty, sweet, or meaty to stimulate the appetite. After the antipasto comes the first course—my daughter’s favorite course—the pasta. What I discovered during these languorous Sunday meals in Italy, is that by the time the second course arrived (the meat), I was already full, and there were still more courses on the way!

Spicy Seared Scallop Salad

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I love scallops and was looking for another idea of how to prepare them.  I found this recipe by Cathy Lowe and had to give it a try because it sounded so delicious.  Spicy blacked scallops dotting a bed of mixed greens tossed with creamy mustard vinaigrette.

Haole Potato Salad

Haole Potato Salad

It’s about 33 degrees outside, but dry, and I felt like eating a cheeseburger.  I put Kono in charge of the BBQ and I was in charge of the condiments and sides.  Fries and chips would have been a no brainer but I couldn’t bring myself to do it because the residual grease from Kono’s Chinese take- out the other night is still sticking around like an unwanted guest. That’s when I decided to make potato salad.

Roasted Chicken Salad

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Chicken salad is so comforting to me.  I have been known to eat it straight without a vessel to carry it.  But I also love it stuffed into a papaya or cantaloupe or simply made into a sandwich or as a topping for a piece of toast.  Chicken salad is one of those simple throw together dishes that always seem to disappear in a wink of an eye.

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

My husband loves traditional old school spinach salad with warm bacon dressing. Steak House spinach salad that was prepared for you at your table-side. It's almost impossible to find these days.

What has replaced it is a cold version of what it was meant to be and served with "your choice of dressing." What? no, It should be served with warm bacon dressing!

Sour Cream Salsa Salad

It’s clean out the fridge time again. 

I had ½ an ice burg lettuce, a couple of handfuls of baby pear tomatoes, some fresh mozzarella and bay shrimp.  Digging a little deeper, I found ½ a container of sour cream and ½ a container of salsa leftover in my fridge.  So I mixed the two together to make a yummy dressing to top the other goodies I found. 

It doesn’t get easier than that.

I served this with Mojo Marinated Skirt Steak and Spicy Chorizo Spanish Rice.

Turtle Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

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No, I don’t put turtle in this salad.
I got this salad idea from a local restaurant named “Turtles”. They take a basic bowl of chopped lettuce and top it with corn, beans, olives, beets, onions and tomatoes. It is so simple, yet, surprisingly satisfying. The combination makes for a delicious well balanced salad that is high in protein and fiber rich, all pulled together with a raspberry vinaigrette.