Steve-O's Chicken Salad

Hey Nik,

We're having to mix it up with the variety of salads we eat around here. Lucky for me, the husband is a big fan of "girlie salads" (his words, not mine).

We had a Steve-O's chicken salad the other day for dinner. Since we're not close enough to get a fix at the restaurant, we have to improvise and make our own.

A bed of crunchy romaine, topped with grilled chicken, sliced olives, thinly slice red onion, cucumbers, carrots, homemade croutons and our version of their dressing. Since the husband is a tomato-hater, I don't buy tomatoes very often. I'm waiting for the 9 plants outside to start producing ripe ones. Otherwise, there would be tomato, too.

The croutons were just little rounds of multi-grain bread from the grocery (pre-sliced, like for bruschetta). I cut them to bite size, tossed them with olive oil, some Lawry's seasoning salt, fresh ground pepper, some garlic and onion powder and some dried herbs. I broke my summer rule about turning on the oven and baked them at 400° until they were good and crunchy.

The piece de resistance of this salad is the dressing. Store bought ranch gets a healthy dose of red wine vinegar and dried dill. Then be generous with it. I figure that the vinegar thins it out and makes it healthier, so I can use more of it.

With the left-over croutons we've also been able to have chicken Caesar salads/wraps. Mmm. The crouton making was totally worth it. Any one want to contribute more salad ideas? I'm hard up for some! (We had a heat advisory warning yesterday with the heat index somewhere between 105°-110°. Humidity is evil.)

Love, Deid

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