Cajun Pollo alla Oregano

DAY 9: VENICE CAFE

So Friday was my off day. I had a lunch meeting and ate what was served to the group, which was a turkey sandwich. Good thing I stuck to salads Monday through Friday.


Venice Cafe's Cajun Pollo alla Oregano

Today I was in the mood for something other than a green salad. I wanted to switch it up a bit. I ended up at Venice Cafe, which is an independent fast-casual lunch spot known for fresh pasta and other traditional Italian dishes. It's the kind of place where the menu lists the pastas and sauce separately. Pick one of each, and you have lunch.

When you walk into Venice Cafe, you get in line at the counter to order. Most dishes are not preassembled, but the line moves fast. My favorite pasta dish is angel hair with bolognese sauce, but there's no way I can talk myself or anyone else into believing that could count as salad. So I chose the Cajun Pollo alla Oregano, which is a fancy way of saying Cajun Chicken Pasta Salad.

Realistically speaking, this probably doesn't count as salad either. It's light on veggies and heavy on carbs. But it's tr-color rotini, which includes spinach rotini. That counts as a green, right? And the menu says that organic and local produce is used when possible, so it's health conscious. Obviously I didn't have too much trouble rationalizing myself into thinking this was ok.

The salads here are premade and displayed behind the counter in giant bowls. You pick the one you want and someone will scoop out a portion for you.

They're available in two sizes, medium and large, and come with a wonderfully big, delicious, homemade herb garlic roll. Especially with the roll, the medium-sized portion is generous enough for me.

As the name suggests, this salad is heavy on pasta. It's cooked al dente, which is what I prefer. Mixed in with the rotini are small cubes of tasty Cajun spiced chicken along with diced red pepper and thinly sliced celery. The vegetables are crunchy and compliment the noodles. A creamy Cajun dressing is premixed into the salad. It's tangy with a hint of spice and doesn't overpower—nor does it drip off the rotini, which is great because it's probably not low-cal. Just enough is used to flavor every bite.

The medium salad along with the roll was more than I needed. I ate a little over half the salad and took the rest home to eat with dinner: grilled pork chops with homemade spicy barbecue sauce and some veggies.

It was a super affordable lunch, totaling under $5.00 with tax.

Calories aren't posted online or in the restaurant, but I could guesstimate my caloric intake. I ate about a cup or less of pasta plus the roll. With the veggies of little significance, I'm fairly confident that I stayed under the 500 calorie limit.

This salad delivered a lot of flavor and satisfaction. At under $5.00 and under 500 calories, I'd say my week is off to a great start.

EATERY
Venice Cafe, 500 West Monroe Street, Chicago, IL 60661

ITEM
Cajun Pollo alla Oregano

MENU DESCRIPTION
Colored pasta Rotini, fresh Cajun-style chicken breast, celery and red peppers in a creamy cajun dressing .

CALORIES
Guessing <500

COST
$4.25 before sales tax

RECOMMEND
Definitely

Samantha Salad

DAY 5: SOPRAFFINA MARKETCAFFÉ

Sopraffina Marketcaffé (or simply Sopraffina) is a small Chicago chain serving fast-casual Italian food. The menu is diverse, including quite a few salads, and everything is made to order. I haven't been here in a couple of years, but I was in the mood to venture off the beaten path today. So to Sopraffina I went.

I didn't look at the nutrition information online before I left the office, which was a bad move because the menu board at the café doesn't include calorie counts. I crossed my fingers and hoped that I could choose a salad that fell within my 500-calorie limit. Luckily, I was on target with my selection, the Samantha Salad, which has 485 calories, including the low-fat honey mustard dressing.


Sopraffina's Samantha Salad

The Samantha is very simple, with a mix of romaine lettuce, antibiotic-free chicken breast, sliced roma tomatoes, fresh parmesan, strips of red, yellow and green bell pepper, and croutons. Dressing is measured and tossed into the salad, but you can request it on the side if you'd like. I had mine tossed.

This is a wonderfully bright salad that will probably please vegetable lovers who appreciate bell peppers. The lettuce, which is practically all romaine, is plentiful and super crisp, as are the peppers, which are slightly sweet and very crunchy. The thinly sliced roma tomatoes are deep red and juicy.



The chicken, which is rather sparse but cut into good-sized chunks, adds substance to the veggies. Unlike some salad chicken that seems processed and blah, this chicken is fresh from the bone, very nicely seasoned and tastes like it's been rotisserie roasted. It's delicious.

The shredded parmesan compliments the vegetables with a nutty, salty flavor, and the dense homemade croutons add a substantial crunch.

The menu pairs this salad with low-fat honey mustard dressing. Although I don't usually choose honey-mustard, I decided to go with it here since it was recommended and low in fat. I was glad that I did. The mustard has a little kick along with sweetness that adds some excitement to an otherwise mild salad.

I wouldn't put this on my list of OMG salads, but I'd definitely order it again if dining at Sopraffina in the summer. It's filling and fresh but won't weigh you down. If you aren't looking for something complex or unique—and if you like peppers—give it a try.

ITEM

Samantha Salad

EATERY

Sopraffina Marketcaffé, 222 W. Adams St., Chicago, IL  60606

MENU DESCRIPTION

Mixed greens with sliced chicken breast, roma tomatoes, vegetables, fresh parmesan, croutons, fat free honey mustard dressing.

CALORIES

485

COST

$8.72 with tax

RECOMMEND?

Definitely, unless you don't like bell peppers

Chicken RCO Salad with Arugula

Luncheon starter salad

DAY 3: HOMEMADE

I’m glad my rules give me the flexibility to eat something other than salad for lunch one day per week because I attended a luncheon for work today and entrée salads were not on offer.

There was a starter salad, but it was insignificant. There were just a few dried cranberries, a couple of fresh blackberries and three roasted cashews over a little pile of spinach leaves dressed with light vinaigrette. Although it was fresh, it was neither exciting to look at nor exciting to taste.
To make up for lack of adventure at lunch, I made a salad for dinner.

Since tonight’s salad was spontaneous, I didn’t have a bounty of fresh produce. So I played a game of refrigerator clean-out. Hence the name of my salad: Chicken RCO (refrigerator clean-out) Salad with Arugula.

Arugula is one of my favorite greens. I love the peppery flavor it contributes to salads, sandwiches, chicken Milanese, pizza…the list goes on. It must be a favorite of many others, too, because it’s been really hard to find lately. I can usually get it at Whole Foods or Dominick’s, but I’ve seen barren shelves nearly every time I shopped this past month. Luckily I found some Earthbound Farm organic baby arugula at Whole Foods last weekend, so I had it on hand tonight.


Prepped RCO ingredients

We’re avid grillers in my house. Consequently, there’s usually some sort of grilled leftover in the fridge. Tonight, I found some chicken and asparagus courtesy of Monday’s dinner.

Then I went through the jars that are usually pushed towards the back of the fridge and dug out some Cucina Viva roasted red peppers from Greece and a jar of Pagliacci Greek peperoncini. Opa!

In the produce bin, there was leftover diced onion from the brats we grilled last night along with a fresh orange pepper from last weekend’s farmers’ market.

I chopped the chicken, asparagus, orange pepper, roasted red pepper and peperoncini, then set those ingredients aside with the pre-chopped onion. I put a couple handfuls of arugula in a big bowl and dressed it with Garlic Expressions Classic Vinaigrette from Whole Foods, which is really healthy and flavorful. I plated the dressed arugula, then piled on the chopped chicken and veggies. I added a few cherry tomatoes from the produce bowl that I keep on the counter. And I topped it all off with a few O Organics Cheese & Garlic Croutons to add some extra crunch. (If you like your salad heavily flavored with dressing, you can drizzle some vinaigrette over the veggies and mix it in before you add them to the arugula. I don't mind a lighter flavor so I omitted this step.)

The end result, Chicken RCO Salad with Arugula

With a blend of cooked and raw ingredients, the flavor profile of this salad was fairly complex. The vinegary peperoncini hit me first, with the roasted red peppers following closely behind. These flavors were balanced by the sweetness of the orange pepper, cherry tomatoes and Vidalia onion. The grilled asparagus added an earthy quality, and the chicken provided girth and substance. The peppery arugula held its own against those flavors, as did the garlicky croutons.

Although I would never enter this salad in a contest, it was a success—especially considering it was unplanned and built on the fly.

If I make this again, I’ll probably swap out the the peperoncini and asparagus for avocado and hard-boiled egg, and maybe I’ll add some feta.

Have you ever built an RCO salad? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

ITEM
Homemade Chicken RCO Salad with Arugula

INGREDIENTS
Grilled chicken, chopped
Grilled asparagus, chopped
Roasted red peppers, chopped
Vidalia onion, diced
Orange pepper, diced
Greek peperoncini, sliced
Cherry tomatoes
Baby arugula
Garlic Expressions Classic Vinaigrette
O Organics Cheese & Garlic Croutons

DIRECTIONS
Assemble and chop, slice and dice all ingredients. Mix together. If desired, dress lightly. Set aside. Dress and plate the arugula. Layer all prepped ingredients on the greens. Top with cherry tomatoes and croutons.

PREP TIME
Under 10 minutues