Fried Egg Salad

I’ve been reading online about fried egg salads. I’ve been having computer “issues” and dinnertime came last night, I was drawing a blank, and since LC will eat anything I put in front of him I pulled out bacon and eggs from the fridge to make breakfast for dinner.

As I was scrambling the eggs, I remembered the fried egg salad recipe and decided to try the salad with scrambled eggs, resulting in one of the best salads I’ve ever made. I topped my greens with Catalina, topped it with crumbled bacon and the scrambled egg, and it was love at first bite.

Crisp, cold salad, warm egg, sweet dressing, salty bacon, rings of red onion, Law-dee ladies, is this a winner!

Tweaking Salad in a Jar…

I’m on round two of vacuum sealing my salads, and I’m totally hooked.  It’s so easy to grab one of these out of the fridge, pour the dressing right in the jar, shake and serve. 

I’ve learned a few things I’ll share with you and then I’ll shut up about this, well maybe I will. 

• Make sure your greens are damp, not wet, or you will have soggy salad
• Don’t add onion, the flavor is too strong
• Don’t cut lettuce into too small of pieces, it works better if lettuce is a bit chunkier
• Some people add folded paper towel to the top of the jar before sealing to absorb moisture, I haven’t tried that yet.
• It is faster putting these salads together when you know what you’re doing.  My total time start to finish this morning was twenty minutes.

This time I used a head of iceberg lettuce and six small heads of artisan lettuce, which is really tender, we’ll see how that works out.  I added celery, carrots and radishes, and had a total of seven quarts.

I’ve been adding nuts, Craisins, and fruit, long with protein, to this mix.  Today I’m going to try toasting oatmeal and sprinkling it on my salad, I don’t know how that will work, but it’s healthy so I’m going to test it.  I need to buy some flax seed, too, that would be a good addition. I’m reading that people are adding Fiber One Cereal to salads for crunch, can’t quite wrap my head around doing that, though…

Yes, I’m still obsessing, I know.  Be patient with me, it will pass, it always does

They've screwed up Levi sizing!!!!

Please tell me that Levi's run smaller than they used to, PLEASE TELL ME!!!!!   I'm seriously considering cutting the size tags out of my old jeans and sewing them into my new jeans in a misguided attempt to make myself feel better.

They probably make these in China and these are sized for Asian woman.  Thats why they don't fit! Or it's some kind of awful trick they're playing on us, CONSUMERS BEWARE!!! Do you think I've finally gone round the bend????  It appears that I might have.

I honestly don't see anything wrong with wearing yoga pants for the rest of my life.  It won't be so bad, I just won't go anywhere until it's dark, and nobody can tell what kind of bottoms I have on, they will just look black.  It will work, right??? 

Oh, of course it won't work, but these are desperate times!  Maybe I should just buy Walmart's brand of jeans, I bet they aren't sized small!!!  Oh heaven help, I am going to have to order up those Pajama Jeans I joke about.

No, Jan, you are just going to have to eat human bites and then maybe after oh, three or four years, if you're very, very lucky, Levi's will fit properly.

I think this screwed up Levi sizing is political, it has to be, there is no other excuse!    And Levi is missing the boat, they should make all of their jeans HUGE,then we would happily keep going down in size until they fit.  Can you imagine the shrieks of joy that would come from the dressing room when fat women everywhere could slide into a size six?  They would make a bloody FORTUNE!  I think I should email them, don't you???

I really need to curb my enthusiasm…

I was talking to Nisha this morning, gushing about sealing food in jars, and she asked me if I had always been this way?  Super excited, well more like obsessive, about new things I’m trying.  V and I laugh about it, too, I get so caught up in the latest and greatest, and then the next thing comes along and my aging brain forgets all about the last latest and greatest and I’m off to something else.

BUT, trust me, this FoodSaver sealing in a jar thing is a keeper.  Mother always taught me to store foods in the fridge and freeze in glass, it doesn’t pick up odors, it doesn’t stain, it just works best.  And I have all of these glass containers that I use, however, they don’t seal, therefore the food doesn’t stay fresh as long.

So I’ve turned into a one woman sealing machine.  See this picture, it’s bacon, yep, bacon.  You know how you open a package of bacon and it turns brown and dries out, even though you have it in a Ziploc, well no more.  I just stuck my bacon in a quart jar and sealed it up.

Today I found large mouth pint jars, no easy task, as canning season is over and the stores aren’t stocking them, but my local Rural King had them, so I’m good to go.

I popped a quart of salad for lunch, took out some cannelini beans, put the rest in this jar and sealed them.  You’re probably thinking, why would she do this, she isn’t going to keep them long term?  Well, it’s fast, it’s quick, it keeps them fresher, and it’s glass people.  Love this – L-O-V-E this!  Now I need some wide mouth half pint jars and I’m good to go. I don’t bother putting the rings on the jars, that’s just another step, and you don’t need them, these lids are totally sealed.  I learned online to take a small screwdriver, put it at the top of the highest glass ring mark, jut under the lid, give it a half turn and the lid comes off without bending it, and you can reuse it again and again. Oh, the possibilities….

And my lunch today, well let me tell you, it was so good.  I opened a quart of salad, squirted a heaping tablespoon of yellow mustard on top, then I added  packet of Splenda, salt, and pepper, a splash of olive oil and a healthy glug of fat free half and half and squeezed half an orange over the top.  I put on the lid, shook the jar until it was combined, poured it in my salad bowl, added the beans, and a can of drained tuna and tossed.  Delicious, easy, fast, see I’m obsessing.  But this is the best thing I’ve come across in like forever!!!!  Now that I have my pint jars I’m going to attack my pantry and put all kinds of things in pints.  Yes, I know, obsessing…

Oh, I totally forgot to tell you how the salad is working.  It’s perfect, crispy, cold, not brown, the only thing I will do different next time is not add onion, because it’s such a strong flavor the lettuce takes on the taste.  Hubby wanted salad for dinner last night, it was ready for him to eat in 30 seconds.  It’s the damndest thing!!!

~ jan here, doin’ the happy dance

Oprah’s Favorite Things for 2011

I’ve been over Oprah for years now, but my friends and I always enjoy her favorite things, and even though she no longer has a show, she still has a list.

Here’s the link if you’re interested, I found not one thing that I would buy, it’s sure not like the good old days, but then what is….

You can check it out here, see if you have better luck than me, the only thing that floated my boat was the chicken pot pie, and Marie Callender makes a great one for a better  price, so forget that, too…

Corn on the cob without silking it.

Okay, so the poor ole feller has a bit of trouble with one of his ears turning loose, but this is so cool!

Barb’s Amazing Creole Burgers

I made my friend Barb’s Creole Burgers yesterday and they were awesome.

Read all about them and get the recipe on Jan CAN Cook.

Another great Sloppy Joe recipe, I’m a happy girl…

~ jan