Grilled Vegetable Salad + Semi Homemade Croutons

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With everything that has happened this last week, between my friend’s accident and many other ‘bumps’ in the road I haven’t had much time nor energy to cook many meals. Even with a scheduled monthly meal plan in place I just haven’t been able to follow it or frankly, even care about it.

I stayed at the hospital Monday night and my family came in and brought some take out so we could still have our family meal together. I left the hospital yesterday afternoon and stopped by Fred Meyer on the way home to grab a few things for dinner that the kids could help prepare. They always want to help out in the kitchen and I thought now would be the perfect time to let them.

Italian food has always been my favorite cuisine to eat, so I picked up a couple of Bertolli meals in the freezer section for some quick dinner options as well as some fresh produce for a salad, and artisan garlic bread that I found in the bakery section.

I picked the kids up from school and laid everything out on the kitchen table. I decided that the kids could help prepare the salad, so I had them help slice, dice, and chop – starting with the bread. Instead of just a plain traditional salad, I decided to have Wayne help the kids grill the vegetables in a cast iron pan. The beautiful thing with creating a salad is that the ingredients don’t have to be concrete or exact. If you like a little bit more of one thing you can change the amounts.

What you need:

• 4 slices of garlic bread
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 1 head of leafy green lettuce
• ½ red onion
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• ½ cup petite carrots
• 4 mini sweet peppers
• Balsamic or Italian dressing

Remove the crust off of the garlic bread. Dice the slices and spread onto a cookie sheet. Drizzle with melted butter and place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until browned. Set aside to cool.

1. Place the petite carrots in a cast-iron skillet. Slice the sweet peppers and onions and add with carrots. Cook on the grill until the carrots are slightly tender. Slice grape tomatoes in half and add to the skillet, cooking for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Tear the lettuce and place into a bowl.  Prepare each salad individually, topping with the grilled vegetables and croutons. Drizzle with dressing.

We served ours in small cast-iron dishes for a little extra fun setting, but it’s totally unnecessary.  🙂

The Bertolli meals go wonderfully with the fresh salad and some Italian Gelato as a treat. The Italian Sausage & Rigatoni meal is made with sliced Italian Sausage, red bell peppers, and the sauce is made from scratch with crushed tomatoes and white wine.

Sometimes preparing meals doesn’t have to be time-consuming or a lot of work. Sometimes all it takes is a little help from everyone and a few minutes to sit down and spend time together. In Italy the word “Mangia” means “to eat”, and in our house, we love to eat together. 

Find Bertolli items at some of the lowest prices of the year in a Kroger or Kroger banner store near you. Kroger banners include Fred Meyer, Smiths, Frys, Dillions, King Soopers, City Market, and QFC. Find a store near you: http://cbi.as/22eph

 

 ~Melissa