Helloooo Potluck Season

It's that time of year again, the holidays have arrived.  For those of you whose work places are like mine you are familiar with the onslaught of 'treat days' and potlucks that generally accompany the season. 

the Thanksgiving Potluck
the Christmas Potluck
the 'half the office is out on vacation so let's eat junk' party

No one wants to be the office potluck scrooge, including yours truly.  So, in order to participate, I had to find a greed-free dish to take to these functions.  I choose to take the perfect salad.  Many moons ago, I fell in love with the Blue Cheese Chopped Salad at Outback Steakhouse.  When I gave up sugar, I gave up the salad too . . . . caramelized pecans, and a super sweet vinaigrette took my favorite salad off of the acceptable list.  Then one day, I realized there was this really cool place called the Internet, where I could find the recipe for my favorite salad, and then find ways to improvise and make it without sugar!

My measurements may be a bit vague, but it always seems to turn out fabulously.

Blue Cheese Chopped Salad

(adapted from Outback Steakhouse)

Ingredients

1 head iceberg lettuce

1/2 Romaine heart

Green onions

Red cabbage

Shredded carrots

16 oz blue cheese crumbles

1 cup pecan pieces

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 cup angel hair pasta, broken into small pieces

2 Tbsp Butter

Balsamic vinegar

Chop the iceberg lettuce, romaine, cabbage, and onions into small pieces (but not mush)

Mix in a large salad bowl with the shredded carrots & blue cheese crumbles and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small sauté pan

Add the angel hair pasta pieces and saute until brown

Blot with a paper towel and set aside

Add the pecan pieces and maple syrup to the sauté pan

Cook on high heat, stirring, until the syrup is reduced by about half

Spread the pecans /syrup on a cookie sheet, or stone, and bake at 400° for about 15 minutes

Let cool, and crumble

Add the fried pasta and candied pecans to the salad, and dress with balsamic vinegar

Enjoy

This is truly one of the most delectable salads ever created, and if you ask me; it's just as good without the sugar (plus, how many people can say they make their own candied pecans?).

Go to the potluck, avoid sugar

JamiK

p.s. A handful of these pecan pieces make a really great snack when you need something to satisfy a craving for sweets.

You don't like what??

Most people gasp in astonishment when I say that I don't particularly like peanut butter.  It's not the taste, but the texture. . . . . It's not that I'm un-American, I just don't like the way it sticks to the roof of my mouth.  But, in breaking with 'life as usual' I bought a jar of peanut butter and made these tasty snack bars.

Recipe courtesy of my sister-in-law SamanthaK:)

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter (I used Smuckers Natural)
1 egg
½ cup honey
2 cups oatmeal oats
½ cup or as much as you would like of berries (dried cranberries, raisins, etc)
½ cup or as much as you would like of nuts (peanuts, sliced walnuts, etc)

Baking:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350*

2. Mix ingredients together in a bowl

3. Compress and mold into 3” x 1” and roughly ½” thick bars onto ungreased cookie sheet

4. Bake for 8 minutes or until brown (10 minutes is too long)
     **(Mine were a little thick - so I actually did bake them for 10 min)
5. Let cool, if bars do not cool all of the way they will fall apart. Once cool they stay together.
6. Makes about 15 bars.
7. Enjoy!

These peanut butter bars are actually quite yummy - they don't stick to the roof of my mouth!  They are sweet enough, too, that I do not even vaguely resent the gingerbread house I made over the weekend with some friends and their kids.  

It's a good thing I don't plan on eating this epic feat of art - it's about the only holiday-ish decoration I have in the house.

Have a fabulous evening!

Be American - Eat Peanut Butter!

Avoid Sugar!

JamiK