I consider myself a pretty good cook. I love being in the kitchen and experimenting, exercising the creative side of my mind, but tonight dinner was a bit of a failure. I think I mentioned that Great Harvest of Wayne sent me a nice box of goodies to try (which by the way ENTER THE GIVEAWAY BY MIDNIGHT!) and a bag of croutons was included.
So I thought to myself, what can I do with these croutons? I mean, I guess I could just eat them plain…but then I remembered a childhood favorite, and major fear food of mine, CAESAR SALAD.
My family jokes I ordered Chicken Caesar salad at literally every restaurant until I was about 7. It was my “big girl” meal that I was so proud to say to the waiter and obviously enjoyed eating. And one of my absolutely favorite parts was the croutons! You all know I love crunch and that is exactly what they provide, so this morning I planned to make a nice, fresh Salmon Caesar Salad.
I started with making Rocco Dispirato’s “healthy” dressing…(You can check it out in his book, Eat This Now)
Then I found a recipe for salmon that was Dijon mustard encrusted. I figured this might go nicely with the salad base so I kind of followed the directions, adding things here and there and then threw the filets in the oven.
This is what we got…
Hers….
His…
They didn’t look terrible, except for the salmon that kinda broke when I put it on the plate, but after a few bites we both agreed, definitely not a good dinner. I couldn’t tell if the fish was bad, or if it was a bad recipe, or if I just totally messed up as a chef, but regardless it was not appetizing.
So what do you do when you have like, three bites of dinner, but know you need more.
SMOOTHIE TIME!
I just got this in the mail today from amazon…
And I thought it would be awesome to enhance a chocolate, banana smoothie!
So I got some Arctic Zero Chocolate (awesome product if you have never tried it!) out of the freezer, and the banana I conveniently froze last night to try that delectable banana soft-serve I keep hearing about, and threw them in the blender with some PB2, almond milk and ice.
BLEND, BLEND, BLEND, CRUSH, CRUSH, CRUSH…
And unfortunately I do not have a photo of the finished product, but Ryan and I both put some in a bowl and topped it with Kashi Go Lean Crunch and some strawberries.
I’m not going to lie, it might have been the best dinner I have had in a while! 🙂
Have you ever had any failures in the kitchen that you turned into heaven???
Healthy, Happy, Whole 
Have you made peanut butter out of your PB2 yet? I bought some a while back and could never get the consistency right. I have no idea if I added too much water, not enough water, but nothing I tried worked! I ended up giving the stuff to my mom.*
I’ll let you know how it works out for me! This was the first time I tried it and i really liked it in a smoothie!
Awesome! I love me some peanut powder! 🙂 I like adding it to oats!
Omg awesome idea! Breakfast is covered for tomorrow! do you do the OIAJ or just regular oatmeal??
So glad your dinner ended up working out in the end. I definitely have my fair share of food failures! My failures are usually with baked goods…I should stick to following recipes for now : )
So, Caesar Salad was always my “grown up” meal too, I definitely think it made me feel grown up. Haha. I loved it. It sounds awesome with salmon. This is my first time here and I can’t wait to look around, love what I see so far!
Smoothies are always my back up.. they never let you down. Nutritious and filling!! How is the flavor and consistency of the PB2? I have always wanted to try it, but its kinda strange being in powder form and all.
I’ve only used it in a smoothie so far but I was thinking it’d make a good addition to oatmeal or something as a thickener! I’ll let u know if I run into any weird consistency problems but so far so good 🙂
Mmmmm….I LOVE PB2. And putting it in smoothies with bananas might just be my favourite use. Last week I tried to make zucchini pancakes: FAIL…but turned it into a delicious “zucchini hash.”
Haha my stomach doesn’t seem to care what things look like as long as they taste good! Zucchini hash sounds awesome to me!