Salads Archives - The Better Home Life

Secrets to Great Potato Salad

Use baked potatoes, boiled potatoes are too soft and wet. They will not hold their shape and tend to make the salad soggy.

Used seasoned rice vinegar. This vinegar is one of my favorites. It is a great vinegar for salads and more. Every time I use it, people always ask for my recipes.

Do not pre-mix your dressing. Add the dressing one ingredient at a time, starting with the vinegar. If you add the vinegar first and mix well, the egg yolks will start to break down a little and become incorporated as part of the dressing. Alternatively, you could blend the yolks into the dressing. Either way your dressing will be creamy and delicious.

Directions for Great Potato Salad

Wash the potatoes, prick with a fork, and bake at 400 degrees F for 1 hour or until softened. Cool the potatoes overnight. Peel and slice the potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. A paring knife is best for peeling baked potatoes. I like this ceramic one. Place in a bowl.

Peel and slice the hard boiled eggs. Add them to the potatoes. Add the chopped celery, minced onion and radish slices to the bowl.

Fold in the vinegar. Continue to stir in the vinegar until the egg yolks start to break down and become creamy.

Add the mustard and continue to mix, then mix in the mayonnaise. Finally, season with salt and pepper to taste. For the best flavor, chill a couple of hours before serving.

Printable potato salad recipe

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Recipe By kristin

Course: salad Cusine:American Difficulty:Easy

Servings

8 minutes

Preparing Time

15 minutes

Cooking Time

60 minutes

Calories

kcal

INGREDIENTS

6 potatoes
5 hard boiled eggs
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 onion, minced
5 radishes, sliced
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3/4 cup mayonnaise
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

DIRECTION

Wash the potatoes, prick with a fork, and bake at 400 degrees F for 1 hour or until softened. Cool the potatoes overnight. Peel and slice the potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. Place in a bowl.
Peel and slice the hard boiled eggs. Add them to the potatoes.
Add the chopped celery, minced onion and radish slices to the bowl.
Fold in the vinegar. Continue to stir in the vinegar until the egg yolks start to break down and become creamy.
Add the mustard and continue to mix, then mix in the mayonnaise.
Finally, season with salt and pepper to taste. For the best flavor, chill a couple of hours before serving.

NOTES

Salads for packed Lunches – Save Time and Money

Salads are healthy

It’s that time of year again. Time to start packing some lunches. Are your kids getting tired of sandwiches? Maybe it’s time to switch things up and try something new. How about a packing a nice healthy and delicious salads for lunch? It’s good to get kids started early with a nice variety of veggies in their diet. Try these tasty salads for packed lunches.

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Use your leftovers and save money

These tasty salads are also a really good way to use some of your meal leftovers. I love finding creative ways to use my leftovers. Approximately 30-40 percent of the American food supply is wasted.¹ We should all do our part to use our leftovers. Teaching the next generation not to waste food is a huge part of that. Teach your kids to eat the leftover food! Eating your leftovers is also a huge cost savings, it’s estimated that on average, each American household wastes over $1800 of food each year!² Using up your leftover food leads to having more money for other things and a happier less stressful life.³ Here are some salads my family enjoys:

Tasty Salads for packed Lunches

Caesar Salad

Caesar salad for packed lunch

What can be easier than Caesar salad? Traditionally romaine lettuce is the base, although you could also add some baby spinach or other greens for variety. Croutons, Parmesan cheese and a good Caesar dressing is really all you need. I prefer to buy my Caesar dressing in the refrigerated section of the produce department. My favorite is Marzetti Supreme Caesar dressing. If you would prefer a heartier option add some sliced grilled chicken or fresh bacon bits. This salad is an excellent choice when you have some left over grilled chicken. I used a 2 compartment container, but a 3 compartment container would be ideal for packing because you could keep the dressing and croutons separated until you are read to eat lunch.

Waldorf Salad

This simple salad is made with leftover chicken, apples, celery, grapes and pecans. It’s so delicious! Sometimes I even eat it for breakfast. It can be served alone or on a bed of mixed greens or spinach. You can also serve it on a croissant.

Chicken Fajita Salad

For this salad I used leftover Chicken form my sheet pan chicken fajita recipe, find that recipe here.

Chicken fajita salad packed for lunch

Pasta Salads

Pasta salad is another family favorite. I usually use Organic Garofalo Tricolor Rotini as the base, but any leftover pasta will do. Just add your favorite veggies. I like to make this one after family pizza night. I add the unused pizza toppings like chopped red onion, black olives, salami strips and mini pepperonis. Other excellent options to mix in are sliced cucumber, mini baby mozzarella balls, and cherry tomatoes. I dress my pasta salad with Kraft Zesty Italian and McCormick Perfect Pinch Salad Supreme Seasoning . Once again I used a 2 compartment container for this salad. It works great this way because I can add some fruit on the side. A single compartment container would work well for this salad. I love Fit and Fresh Containers because the lids stay on well and the have an optional freezer pack you can use with them.

Pasta Salad packed for lunch.

Taco Salad

Taco salad is the perfect salad to pack for lunch on Wednesday, following Taco Tuesday. I usually just pack up all of the leftover toppings I sliced for Tacos. Chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Top with cheese and some leftover taco meat. I mix up sour cream with salsa for the dressing and put it on the side to mix in when ready to eat. I used a two compartment container to pack this one, but once again a three compartment container would be better because you could add a side of tortilla chips!

Super-food Salad

I call this super food salad because it is dressed with poppy seed dressing which works well with so many super healthy foods. I used mixed greens with romaine, dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds on my salad. This salad also loves all types of nuts, seeds, berries, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, and Swiss cheese. Get creative with it. I buy my poppy seed dressing in the refrigerated section of produce. Marzetti has a great one. This salad works well, packed for lunch in a 2 compartment container but would also work well in a three compartment container if you want to keep your nuts or seeds crunchier you could separate them when packing and mix them in when ready to eat lunch.

Find the vanilla paste here.

Potato Salad

Potato salad is a great way to use up leftover baked potatoes. It is filled with inexpensive ingredients that together make a tasty lunch. Try this amazing recipe.

Fruit Salad

Fruit salad is not really a main course, but it sure makes an excellent side or snack for packed lunches. This easy Fall fruit salad is the perfect combination of sweet and tart. The oranges keep the apples from browning so it will last a few days in the refrigerator making it an easy go to for busy mornings.

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