Low Carb Cooking 101
This evening’s meal, Chicken Caesar Salad, is the ultimate make-ahead dinner or lunch. Everything is prepared ahead of time, so that when it comes time to serve your meal all you have to do is toss it all on the plate. It’s great for those evenings when everybody is going in different directions and no one is eating at the same time. With everything already prepared, everyone can fend for themselves. This is my kind of cooking!
Chicken Caesar Salad also travels well, and is a great lunch to take to work. If you broil and slice the chicken breasts over the weekend and chop up your vegetables, you can have quick lunches for the week in a snap.
Here’s this evening’s menu:
- Chicken Caesar Salad
- Sunshine Cantaloupe
Here’s the shopping list for the meal.
You may very well already have some of these things on hand:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 pound bacon
- 4 eggs
- 1 16-ounce package prewashed Romaine lettuce (or salad greens of your choice)
- 4 Roma tomatoes
- 4 green onions
- 1 cucumber (optional)
- 1/2 cantaloupe
- shredded Parmesan cheese
- shredded cheddar cheese
- bottled Caesar salad dressing
- 1 small package sugar free Jell-O in your favorite flavor
Here’s the game plan:
You can do all this up to three days ahead of time:
Prepare the Sunshine Cantaloupe, cover it tightly with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator to set up.
Marinate the chicken breasts. It doesn’t matter whether the chicken breasts are frozen or thawed. Simply place them in a large Zip Lock bag and pour 1 cup of the bottled Caesar salad dressing over them. Close the bag securely and turn it to make sure that the salad dressing is evenly distributed over the chicken breasts. Toss the bag in the refrigerator to marinate several hours or overnight.
Broil the chicken breasts until the juices run clear. Let them cool and then slice them into bite-sized pieces. Put the cutup chicken in a plastic container in the refrigerator. Discard the marinade.
Prepare the other vegetables for the salad. Seed and coarsely chop the tomatoes and dice the green onions. Quarter and slice the cucumbers if you choose to have them, but don’t peel them. The skin is an excellent source of both vitamins and fiber! Store all the vegetables separately in covered plastic containers in the refrigerator.
Hardboil the eggs, let them cool, and then peel them and chop them coarsely. Store them in covered plastic containers in the refrigerator.
Cook the bacon until it’s crisp, let it cool, and crumble it into a plastic container and put it in the refrigerator.
I like to put the cheeses in plastic containers, too, because no one in my family ever closes the plastic bags correctly and they’re always spilling shredded cheese all over the refrigerator.
To serve the meal, set the table. Don’t forget to put the rest of the Caesar salad dressing (or a salad dressing of your choice) on the table so people can serve themselves.
Slice the Sunshine Cantaloupe and place the slices on salad plates on the table.
Divide the salad greens evenly between four dinner plates. Take all the prepared items out of the refrigerator and set them up in a convenient place so that people can serve themselves, then call them to dinner.
And sit down to a well-deserved, relaxing meal.
And, finally, here’s the recipes:
Chicken Caesar Salad
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- 1 cup bottled Caesar salad dressing
- 1/2 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 4 hardboiled eggs, chopped
- 4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 cucumber, quartered and sliced (optional)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
- additional bottled Caesar salad dressing (or salad dressing of your choice)
Marinate the chicken breasts. It doesn’t matter whether the chicken breasts are frozen or thawed. Simply place them in a large Zip Lock bag and pour 1 cup of the bottled Caesar salad dressing over them. Close the bag securely and turn it to make sure that the salad dressing is evenly distributed over the chicken breasts. Toss the bag in the refrigerator to marinate several hours or overnight.
Broil the chicken breasts until the juices run clear. Let them cool and then slice them into bite-sized pieces. Put the cutup chicken in a plastic container in the refrigerator. Discard the marinade.
Prepare the other vegetables for the salad. Seed and coarsely chop the tomatoes and dice the green onions. Quarter and slice the cucumbers if you choose to have them, but don’t peel them. The skin is an excellent source of both vitamins and fiber! Store all the vegetables separately in covered plastic containers in the refrigerator.
To serve, divide the salad greens evenly between four dinner plates. Take all the prepared items out of the refrigerator – the cooked and crumbled bacon, the chopped hardboiled eggs, the chopped tomatoes, the diced green onions, the cucumbers (if you choose to have them), the shredded Cheddar cheese, and the shredded Parmesan cheese. Set them up in a convenient place so that people can serve themselves, then call them to dinner.
***Note: If you are feeding teenage boys, assume that they will want at least 2 chicken breasts for their salads and prepare an appropriate number of extras. Assume that they’ll want extra bacon and chopped hard-boiled eggs, too. Give them Thanksgiving turkey platters to construct their salads on.
Sunshine Cantaloupe
- 1/2 cantaloupe
- small package Jell-O (any flavor)
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup cold water
If the cantaloupe is not already seeded, remove the seeds but do not slice it.
Prepare the Jell-O according to the package directions. Place the prepared Jell-O in the refrigerator until cooled but not set, about 20 minutes.
Pour the cooled gelatin into the cavity of the cantaloupe, cover it tightly with plastic wrap, and place the filled cantaloupe into the refrigerator until the Jell-O is set.
(You most probably will have leftover Jell-O. Simply pour it into small custard cups to serve as a dessert or a snack at another time.)
To serve, slice the cantaloupe thinly with a sharp knife and place the slices on a salad plate.
Serves 4 to 6, depending upon how thinly you slice the cantaloupe.
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