Lettuce

This burger and the side that follows are fancy enough to entertain with and much more affordable than steaks and lobster for your crew!

There are many flavors of sharp Cheddar out in today’s markets to choose from, so go plain or go wild! Among the choices out there in sharp Cheddars: five-peppercorn, smoked, dill, garlic and herb, roasted garlic, horseradish, chipotle, habanero, jalapeño—on and on!

This recipe requires no cooking and is served cold, so it makes a perfect low-carb on-the-go lunch, or a picnic for the park as well! Pack the dressing with an ice pack to keep it chilled out. If you think you don’t like anchovies, try them in this dressing. They just taste salty and yummy!

Better than burritos and tacos, these wraps have crunch and the lettuce lets the flavors of the fillings shine through.

Better than burritos and tacos, these wraps have crunch and the lettuce lets the flavors of the fillings shine through.

Hey, why should tuna have all the fun? Try this even-heartier rendition.

East Coast meets West Coast in this dish. Chowder plus Tex-Mex equals a really good idea in any direction!

I really love grilled chicken salad as a go-to, no-brainer supper solution, but the Chicken Caesar is so over for me—I need a few years off! So here’s another fresh chicken salad idea; eat your heart out, Caesar!

This is my latest version of what has become one of my classic 30-Minute-Meals, Beefy Brutus Salad, a Caesar-style salad with Italian thin-cut steak! Why should chicken have all the fun?

This dish is preventative medicine; it prevents one from ordering and pigging out on bad Mexican-style take-out food. If you make this instead you won’t end up feeling too fat or too full.

Wade, my good friend and coworker for many years, joined me at a fancy restaurant in Las Vegas in honor of our friend Lucky’s birthday. He saw me cringe as he politely asked our server to request that the chef prepare a “Chicken Caesar” for him. The broad menu of culinary creations just struck him as too complicated for a late-night-following-a-long-workday meal. I rolled my eyes and the server gave a bit of a twitch. In hindsight, I have rarely been so ashamed of my own behavior: me, an Upstate New York blue-collar girl, suddenly acting too haughty to even sit with someone who would request a Chicken Caesar outside of a highway pit stop. Chef Eric Klein at SW at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel made Wade a fabulous free-range roast chicken Caesar salad. Eric was neither shocked nor insulted by the simple request. Instead, he made a humble visit to the table to remind us all of the Golden Rule of food: the customer is always right. Wade, this burger is for you. Viva Chicken Caesar!

Wild Alaskan canned salmon is a great staple to keep on hand—it’s packed with good nutrition and calcium. This is my favorite way to use it, but also try it scrambled up with eggs and sweet peas, or tossed with some cream, pasta, and fresh dill or tarragon. It’s so versatile!