Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

Wednesday was Secretary's Day, so I took a salad plate lunch to the secretaries at my girls' school.  In my haste to get the lunch to school after the building OAA testing time and before lunch started, I forgot to take a picture.  Hopefully you'll be able to envision it with my descriptive writing skills!

Atop a bed of torn salad greens, I placed sliced cucumber, halved red grapes, chunks of Gala apple, pieces of rotisserie chicken breast, and roasted almonds.  I also included a small container of my lemon poppy seed dressing to pour over the salad.  On the side of the plate, I had 2 slices of my homemade artisan bread topped with a pat of real butter, and two large strawberries dipped in milk chocolate (I used a melted Hershey bar from our leftover Halloween candy).  A light lunch filled with some of my favorite things for two of my favorite people at my girls' school.

This lemon poppy seed dressing recipe is one of my favorite salad dressings in my recipe file.  I've had it a long time and adapted it from one of the recipes from a Pampered Chef party years and years ago.  I often serve it over salads that combine fruit and vegetables, and I love this light lemon dressing paired with chicken on top of the salad.  The poppy seeds give it a bit of flair, but I have also made the dressing without the poppy seeds and it still tastes very good.  You can use fresh squeezed or from concentrate lemon juice.  You can use fresh lemon zest or the dried kind, or none if you don't have any on hand.  You can whip up a small jar of this dressing and keep it in your frig for a couple of weeks.  It doesn't take much dressing on top of a salad to give your greens a delicate burst of flavor.

Here's the recipe:

Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp poppy seeds
few shakes of salt
1/2 tsp lemon zest

In a small jar, whisk together all the ingredients.  Store in frig up to 2 weeks.  Serve over favorite fruited mixed greens.

What are your favorite salad lunch toppings?

Orange French Toast Bake

One of my favorite things about January (besides the fresh start of a new year) is the abundance of deliciously sweet and tart citrus fruits widely available at low prices.  Clementines, navel oranges, ruby red grapefruit, tangerines. . . .I love them all.

This is a recipe I created combining a few other recipes that are family favorites.  The result was a hit on our family Sunday Brunch table.  Orange French Toast Bake is light, refreshing, and full of sweet, citrus flavor.  The key ingredients are the fresh grated orange zest and fresh squeezed orange juice.  Because it can be made ahead and then baked at a later time, it's easy to fix.  As a bonus, I made this recipe using a 1/2 loaf of Italian bread leftover from Thursday night's dinner and one of the oranges I bought on sale, so it was budget friendly too. 


Here's the recipe:

Orange French Toast Bake
1/2 loaf of Italian bread, cubed
3 eggs
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup orange juice (from concentrate is fine for this part of the recipe)
1/2 tsp orange peel (save the remainder of the orange for the syrup)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp sugar

1.  Place the cubed bread in a greased casserole dish
2.  Whisk together the eggs, half and half, OJ, orange peel, vanilla, and sugar.
3.  Pour over the cubed bread.
4.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 350.  While the oven is preheating, make the syrup to pour over the top.

Orange Syrup
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 cup juice from one orange (it's okay if it's a little more or a little less; the pulpy stuff makes it good!)


1.  Combine ingredients in a small saucepan.
2.  Cook and stir over medium heat until bubbly.
3.  Pour about half of the syrup over the top of the cubed bread.  (It will look runny, but it won't make your bread soggy.)

Now it's time to bake. . . .

Place the casserole in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 45 minutes.

Serve the casserole with additional orange syrup.  We had our Orange French Toast Bake with ham slices and fresh fruit.  Enjoy!

Orange French Toast Bake

I'm sharing my recipe over at Jessica's Ultimate Recipe Swap on Life As Mom.  Come on over and see what other citrus based recipes we can drool over!  I've also shared on the Ingredient Spotlight: Oranges and Orange Juice over at Eat at Home.

                                         
                                                   


What's your favorite citrus recipe?