Fun Mommy Lunches: Part 3 Strawberry Salad

   This is our final day of Fun Mommy Lunches. Hopefully you have been inspired to change things up at bit a lunch time, rather than eating off your kids plates as you clean up….

  Today, I am sharing Strawberry Salad.  It uses a bottled dressing that I found accidentally one time when I had a coupon off of Marzetti’s dressing.  {Its found in the produce refrigerated section, close to veggie dip.}  Its called Strawberry Poppyseed Vinaigrette.  I know there are lots of homemade versions of this online, but I need lunch to be fast.  I think this already made version tastes AMAZING!

  Oh, and if you don’t like Feta cheese, just use a goat cheese.  It has less flavor, but will still add the element you are wanting from these cheese crumbles.

Strawberry Salad

{click title to print}

Ingredients

• 3 cups Leaf Lettuce, Romaine Or Combo, Ripped Into Small Pieces
• 3 Tablespoons Feta Cheese, Or Goat Cheese, Crumbled
• 5 strips Grilled Chicken Or Steak {its Good Meatless, Too}
• 2 Tablespoons Each Cucumber, Carrot Shreds And Red Pepper
• 4 whole Strawberries, Sliced
• Marzetti’s Strawberry Poppyseed Vinaigrette

Preparation Instructions

Wash, dry and rip lettuce into bite sized pieces. Wash and cube cucumber, red pepper and strawberries. {I try to get these all done ahead of time, so that each day for lunch, they are already ready to go.}
On a bed of lettuce, sprinkle veggies of your choice. Next, lay slices of cold grilled meat, if using, and strawberry slices. Then, sprinkle with feta cheese crumbles.
Drizzle with Strawberry Poppyseed Vinaigrette and enjoy your easy and tasty lunch!

~T

Yoder Heritage Days & Club House Chicken Squares

  This weekend was Yoder Heritage Days….a wholesome and fun way to spend a Saturday, at a little Amish town about 20 minutes from us.  The population, at the time of the 2000 census, was 742.  “Quaint” is the best way to describe it!

Saturday dawned sunny and beautiful, but boy, was it sticky! 

  We arrived around 9, but it didn’t take long before everyone was sweaty and flush cheeked.  Here was the schedule for the day:

6 am Pancake and Sausage Feed

8 am Draft Horse Plowing

8 am Vendor Village Opens

8:30-9:30 Darrel Grudbf (Gospel/Bluegrass Band)

9 am Children Games

9:45 – 10:30 Jake Schmidt (Country Gospel)

10:30 am Parade (9 am Parade Entry Check-in Begins)

11:30 – 12:30 Jake Schmidt (Country Gospel)

12:00 Buggy Races

12:00 Kid’s Peddle Pull (State Qualifier)

12:30 – 3:30 Draft Horse Events

1:00 Quilt and Craft Auction

1:00 Antique Tractor Pull

2:30 – 3:30 Nyle Henderson (Cowboy Poetry)

3:30 – 4:30 Arlene Barb (Gospel)

3:30 Horseback Football

4:30 Cattle Sorting

5:00 pm Drawing for Quilt

5:00 – 7:00 Miller’s Mule (Bluegrass band)

5:30 Horse Fun Show

7:30 – throughout the evening Aaron Yoder (Country Gospel)

Dusk – Fireworks!!!

Fun, right?!  We have never gotten there much before 9:30 am and we’ve never stayed through fireworks.  We keep saying “Someday” when the kids are older we’ll stay all day, or at least go back for the evening festivities, but at this age? We usually do 1 walk through, the parade, and eat lunch before calling it quits.

  Here are some photos of our day:

Look at all those tractors, a lot of Amish families choose to leave their horse and buggies at home and drive these instead. See the trailer in back?

That’s for the family to ride in!

There was lots to see!

 

  The kids were invited to be in the parade this year: Destiny and Avery in Uncle Dan’s ‘64 Impala, and Tylan on his Great, great Grandpa Schrock’s tractor that he bought brand new way back in the day.  He rode with Great Uncle Larry who comes from Georgia just about every year for this event!  How special!

Pax spotted them right away!

“Hey you, way up there, lets go eat!”

  As soon as the parade was through, it was time to feed the kiddies.  Dale’s Aunt Lucy and Uncle Phil had a stand there featuring their free range chickens.  Freshly butchered of course.  It was DELICIOUS! And no, once again I did not remember to snap a shot before partaking of my meal.  Hey, I had hungry little ones to deal with!!! 🙂  It was a grilled BBQ chicken quarter, awesome secret recipe baked beans, homemade potato salad and a Strawberry lemonade.  The kids had BBQ chicken sliders or Pronto pups.  YUM-O!  The line to their food tent was LOOONG, we are hoping it was a blessed day for them!

  We quick grabbed snow cones and got out of there before we started losing kids.  Losing as in, getting grumpy, not losing as in “Where is Avery?” although with these crowds it was possible! 

    It was such a great day, and a fun tradition we look forward to continuing each year! (We missed last year due to Paxton just being born, but we’d gone the 8 years before that.)

  Before I go, I have a summer recipe to share with you. Gotta get these to you quick before September.  I usually transition to more casserole type dishes then, followed by soups and comfort food in October! YUMMMMMMM! 

We make this EVERY summer……simple, fresh and easy!

Club House Chicken Squares

• 2 packages (8 Oz. Each) Refrigerated Crescent Rolls
• 8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, softened
• 2 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
• 1 whole Small Garlic Clove, Pressed
• 1 teaspoon Dill Weed
• 1 can (10 Oz) Chunk White Chicken, Drained And Flaked (I Just Cooked And Cubed 2 Chicken Breasts)
• ½ whole Cucumber
• 2 whole Plum Tomatoes
• 1 cup Shredded Cheese
• 1 package (4 oz ) Bacon Bits

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Unroll one package of crescent rolls across one end of a Pampered Chef bar pan or sprayed jelly roll pan, with longest sides of dough across the width of the pan. Repeat with other package. Seal the perforations and press up the sides to form a crust.

Bake 12-15 minutes, till golden, then remove to stackable cooling rack and cool completely.

Mix mayonnaise, cream cheese, dill and pepper until smooth. Spread over crust. Sprinkle remaining ingredients over cream cheese. Cut and serve.

  We usually eat this for supper with corn on the cob, but it’d be a really great appetizer for a party, too!

Happy Monday to you!

~T

This post linked to Wonka Wednesday!