A Week of Salad Dinners

During the grillstravaganza of the summer and early fall we had salads with pretty much every meal, but that's tapered off over the last few months with all the one-pot and culinary world tour meals. To get back into some healthier, greens-based dinners we decided to have mostly salad meals last week.

Today we'll cover three different meals where the salad is the main focus instead of the side, but are still exciting enough to compete with a meat dish. First up is an Asian inspired salad where we used tofu in place of chicken or shrimp.

Here we've marinated diced up extra firm tofu in Kraft toasted sesame "anything" sauce, which is meant to be used as a salad dressing or a marinade.

Add in corn starch to thicken and then oil a baking pan and bake the tofu at a medium-high heat until they get crispy. You may need to turn them after a few minutes so one side doesn't get overly crispy.

In addition to the baked tofu, our Asian inspired salad is topped with diced green apple, tomatoes, slices of almond toasted on a skillet, and sesame seeds. Pour on some extra toasted sesame sauce for the dressing.

While the marinated tofu was delicious, next we wanted a salad with a meat component, but we didn't want to do something spendy like beef steak. As a cheap but still tasty compromise coated some pork cube steak with Shake 'N Bake and popped it in the oven.

For a full, exciting meal we hard boiled an egg and chopped up tomatoes, avocados, green onion, and poblano peppers.

To compose the meal we set down some romaine lettuce and add on a layer of sliced egg rings.

Then we toss on the diced avocado and tomatoes...

...followed by some shredded cheese and any remaining veggies you want to add color and texture.

Cut the Shake N Bake pork into strips and layer them over the top of the salad. Here's Megan's salad:

And below you can seen mine. Top with something savory like ranch or thousand island dressing.

Finally we did a Mexican taco style salad, but with beans instead of ground beef. To get your beans going, soak the pinto beans overnight, then chop up some onion and throw it in the pan.

Boil the beans and onions together with a variety of seasonings, such as cumin, pepper, and any spicy bits you'd like such as chili pepper, cayenne, or seasoning mixes. Cook until it's reduced down quite a bit.

For this salad meal we're using baked flour tortilla shells, which you can break off and dip into the salad for a fun twist.

Add a scoop of the pinto beans into your tortilla shell bowl.

Throw in a bed of whatever lettuce you fancy, such as shredded iceberg or a bagged romaine blend.

The always-awesome diced tomatoes go on top next.

Here we're also used diced baby carrots and some poblanos for a little heat and flavor.

Of course we add avocado, along with a dollop of sour cream and salsa on the side for dipping.

Top your salad with something like southwest ranch or a homemade dressing like our spicy buffalo sauce.