Summer salad

As you already know, I love salads. I love entree salads, not as much as salad bars, so I guess I should say I like entree salads. After not cooking for two days I was really looking forward to making dinner tonight. I found a new recipe in a magazine last week (which is where I get a ton of my recipes, but more on that in a future post) and made sure to add it to our menu for this week. (I'll be blogging about my menu planning in the future as well.)

Here's a link to the original recipe. I did made a few changes, see my version below. I cooked the steak indoors, in our largest cast iron pan. (We don't a very functional BBQ right now, which makes me very sad, otherwise I would have thrown the meat on the grill.) I cooked the steak a few minutes longer per side as well. I'm not fond of rare meat. Medium well is where I like my steak. I also didn't precoat the salad with dressing. I never know when I'll actually get to sit down and eat and I've been burnt by a soggy salad one too many times. Lastly, we just had tortilla chips on the side.

Fajita Chop-Chop Salad
recipe adapted from Family Fun magazine
Hands-on Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes (includes marinating time)
Serves: 4

Ingredients
FOR THE STEAK
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 (8-ounce) skirt steaks

FOR THE SALAD
1 large head Romaine lettuce, finely shredded
1 medium red pepper, chopped
1 cup frozen corn, cooked and cooled
1 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack

FOR THE DRESSING
1/2 cup prepared salsa
1/4 cup sour cream

Instructions
In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. Add the steaks and toss well to coat. Marinate the steaks in the refrigerator for one hour. In another large bowl, toss all the ingredients for the salad except for the chips. Refrigerate this mixture until you're ready to use it.

Heat a large cast iron pan until very hot. Cook the meat about 4-5 minutes per side. Let the meat rest for 5 minutes, then slice it into 1/2-inch-thick strips.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. To serve, fill each bowl with salad, then top it with several strips of steak and the salad dressing.

Here's a picture before I put the dressing on. The dressing would have ruined the beautifulness!

The salad was pretty good. Next time I will make some changes to the marinade. The first time I try a new recipe I typically follow the directions exactly. I've become more confident in my cooking and when making a dish a second time, I often adjust the recipe based on our taste. To this recipe I will use more chili powder, add a little cayenne pepper and lime juice to the marinade.

I have a three ring binder I keep most of my recipes in. (Once again, more on that in the future.) Below is a picture of how I'll file this recipe. The original, plus a little post it note with the changes I'll make next time. If those changes work, the post it will stay, if not it will be replaced with a new post it of notes until I fine tune the recipe.

One the menu for tomorrow, Hawaiian Meatballs!