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.

Fried Rice and Tofu Egg Drop Soup

We're still a good looooong way from hitting Asia on our culinary world tour, but we also like to change up our weekly meal plans with cuisine from different parts of the world on a fairly regular basis. Recently we've been making Chinese classics or dishes inspired by Asian cooking, including an awesome meal consisting of egg drop soup and fried rice.

This one starts out by cooking up a few cups of white rice, which are allowed to cool and actually put into the fridge so they become more firm and dry, which helps while "frying" the rice later. Along with our cooked and cooling rice, we've got diced extra firm tofu, carrots, and green onions.

There will also be roma tomato in our soup, and this time we're going to actually peel it ahead of time, which is something we don't normally bother with. To easily peel a tomato, boil it in water for a few minutes and then remove from the pot with tongs. Slide your fingernail or the edge of a knife underneath the skin and it should slide right off.

After being peeled, the tomato is diced up along with the rest of the vegetables.

For our fried rice we weren't going to use any meat, so instead we added in eggs. Here Megan is gently folding eggs on a hot skillet to get what is essentially scrambled eggs without any of the milk or cheese. After the eggs are at the scrambled consistency they are removed from the heat and set with the other ingredients to be added to the rice later.

To get the fried rice started we begin cooking the carrots in a skillet coated with a few teaspoons of oil.

Next the cooled rice is thrown in with the carrots.

The rice and carrots are then joined by those beautiful green onions and stirred up.

Finally the scrambled eggs are tossed in as well.

The rice is nearing completion after sprinkling in some chives and seasonings. Meanwhile though, we've been starting the soup...

...here we're boiling the base, which was water with Swanson chicken flavor boost and green onions. You could also do your own homemade stock however if you have some handy (check out our guide to making stock right here). To thicken this up, throw in a bit of corn starch, and we recommend seasoning with ginger.

For the "egg drop" part of the soup, whisk together a few eggs in a bowl. Dredge a fork into the eggs and then twirl the fork over the boiling stock so that long, thin strings of egg flow down.

The egg will begin to solidify quickly in the boiling stock and create that iconic consistency of egg drop soup.

To make our soup more exciting, we're throwing in diced tomato and tofu to compliment the eggs.

Here's our soup nearing completion with all the ingredients added in.

The delicious fried rice is spooned out first on a plate...

...and then we ladle the egg drop soup into a bowl.

Have some spicy scriracha sauce on hand and you've got an excellent, filling meal that also happens to be meatless (you could of course also do beef, pork, or shrimp in either the rice or soup).

Thanks for checking in, and see you again soon as we return to our culinary world tour, create more interesting meals with beans and pasta, and continue our obsession with one-pot dinners!

Huevos Rancheros

Somehow, despite our undying love for both breakfast foods and Mexican meals, Megan and I had never made huevos rancheros. We finally rectified that unfortunate oversight a few weeks back, and the results were predictably amazing since it combines one of our favorite ways to cook - throwing in every pepper we can find - and our newfound love of poached eggs.

In case you've missed our previous love letters to the most important meal of the day, you can check out some of our breakfast greatest hits:

Breakfast Skillet
Breakfast Burritos
Breakfast Sandwiches
Breakfast Revisited
Breakfast Revisited Again!

Our heuvos rancheros breakfast starts by dicing up red bell pepper, poblanos, anaheims, jalapenos, onions, and garlic. Instead of fresh tomatoes, we decided to go with canned, since they have more liquid and are much easier to use in a dish like this without sacrificing flavor.

All the main ingredients - minus the tomatoes - are first heated up in a skillet to soften and let the flavors develop a bit.

Next goes in the canned tomatoes once the peppers have softened.

Mix it through and allow to cook for a few minutes so the peppers soak up the liquid.

In addition to the canned tomatoes, we're also going to use thick slices of fresh roma tomatoes.

The tomatoes are set down on the top layer, and then we push aside part of the pepper filling mixture to create small wells. Crack a few eggs and drop them into the wells so they'll heat up in the liquid at the bottom of the skillet - sort of halfway between poached eggs and fried eggs.

Throw a cover over the skillet so the eggs cook through properly and are flavored by all the wonderful spicy ingredients.

Like a breakfast burrito, this "filling" of vegetables and eggs goes into a flour tortilla. You may want to coat your tortilla with sour cream, but honestly this is moist enough that it isn't necessary with all the tomatoes.

Be sure to get at least one egg in each tortilla, along with a generous helping of tomatoes and peppers, and then top with some shredded cheese. Wrap it up and dig in!

Novel Noodles: Pesto Chicken And Lemon Spinach Skillets

While Six-Seven-Eight covers a wide range of cooking styles for just about any meal of the day, pasta has been a part of our regular cuisine since I made fettuccine alfredo for Megan when we first started dating and couldn't afford to go out.

There's a whole world beyond spaghetti with tomato sauce, however, which is why we've been running our "Novel Noodles" series exploring interesting and unique takes on pasta meals. To get caught up, check out the previous noodle excursions with our awesome bean-based "Rustica Sausage and Fusilli" or the impromptu "Cheeseball Bake."

Today we'll look at two twists on pasta dinners that are not only a little different form the norm, they are also very easy and won't leave you with quite as many dishes after the meal. First up is our pesto chicken pasta, which we make with store bought ingredients (a departure from the norm for us, as we generally make our own sauces).

To get this started, you just need a small jar of basil pesto and some chili pepper blend - you can usually find a tube of this stuff near the fresh herbs at the supermarket.

Heat both in a skillet, while simultaneously cooking your pasta in boiling water in another pan. This particular dish works best with shorter, fatter pastas like bowties, rotini, or penne.

If you like meat in your pasta, cook a chicken breast underneath the broiler until it's just cooked through and turning golden brown on the outside. Season with standard Italian favorites like oregano, basil, and pepper.

After your pasta is al dente, throw it into the skillet with the basil and chile pepper blend and mix thoroughly, adding more pesto as needed to coat.

Cut the chicken into thin strips and toss them in with the pasta. If chicken isn't your thing, this would be great with slices of sausage or even shrimp.

Keep mixing until everything is coated in delicious flavor and heated through.

Scoop up the pasta and sliced chicken and serve in a bowl for a one-stop meal (you'll probably want some shredded Parmesan on top) or on a plate with a side salad.

Another fairly quick and easy meal we like to make with a store bought sauce is our lemon-spinach pasta. This one uses a lot more veggies, however. For both color, flavor, and texture we're slicing up red and orange bell pepper, mushrooms, and fresh spinach.

Toss it all in a skillet along with two or three large Italian sausages. We recommend the kind served up at the butcher block rather than pre-packaged or frozen, and you can frequently find these on manager's special for  a dollar or even 50 cents a piece if you go on the weekend or just before they get in a new shipment of meat.

To make this incredibly easy our sauce is just going to be the "Savory Lemon and Herb" flavored Philadelphia cooking creme. If you want to make your own sauce, a simple Alfredo with heavy cream, Parmesan, and fresh squeezed lemon would do nicely.

Slice up the sausage after it's heated through, and then return it to the skillet and mix together so everything is coated in sauce. Once again, serve this one in a bowl for a one-stop meal or on a plate with a side salad. Top with ground pepper and some shredded cheese.