Two Summer Salads

The last two nights we have opted for summer salads, with the main portion made on the grill, to avoid cooking in the present heat wave.   Both recipes originated with Fine Cooking magazine and were only sightly modified to fit our heart healthy goals.

Last night's Southwestern Grilled Chicken Salad with Tomato and Black Bean Salsa was a good start but needed some zing.  The chili powder, cumin, coriander and brown sugar rub seemed to lack something.  The overall recipe had great potential and we think it may be helped by using a jerk seasoning rub and some fresh peppers from the garden.  Cowhorn or poblano peppers would have really raised the ante for that Southwestern flavor.  This recipe is going back for modifications before we post it at frogsncats.com.

Tonight's dinner was a surprising combination of tomatoes, watermelon, feta cheese and shrimp. The shrimp were marinated in smoked paprika and lemon/lime juice for a great flavor that still let the shrimp taste come through.  The unexpected combination of tomatoes and watermelon was  tastier than we thought it would be.  The only thing I modified in this recipe was cutting way back on the olive oil and salt and using seasoned pepper for more flavor.

The recipes both called for frisee, which I assume is overpriced lettuce, so we used Romaine.  The slightly modified recipe will be posted at http://www.frogsncats.com/.