Chicken and cheese are a delightful combination. So here’s a different spin on the classic Caesar: Switch out the Parmesan for another flavorful cheese.

The idea comes from Landana, which makes a delicious Olives & Tomatoes Gouda cheese. The Gouda is flecked with sun-ripened tomatoes and mild olives, Mediterranean flavors that are delicious with chicken.

You can also use blue cheese, pepper jack, and flavored Cheddars like those from Cabot Cheese (Chipotle, Garlic Herb, Hand Rubbed Tuscan, Horseradish, Hot Buffalo Wing, Hot Habanero, Smoky Bacon and Tomato Basil, plus Jalapeño Light and Pepper Jack Light).

These days, kale has become a popular substitute for romaine in a classic Caesar Salad. We’ve included it as an option in the ingredients.

> National Caesar Salad Day is July 4th.
 
 
RECIPE: CHICKEN & CHEESE SALAD

In addition to changing cheeses, this recipe adds grapes and nuts/seeds.

The preparation time is 20 minutes.

 
For The Dressing

 
Preparation

1. GRILL. Cut the chicken breasts into strips and grill in a grill pan.

2. TOAST. Toast the nut mixture briefly (how to toast nuts).

3. MIX. Mix the dressing ingredients.

4. COMBINE. Combine the lettuce, chicken, cheese, grapes, and nuts into a serving bowl. Toss with the dressing.

Serving Suggestions

BREAD. This salad is delicious with fresh Italian ciabatta bread and (homemade) tapenade.

WINE. Serve this salad with a refreshing rosé or a crisp white wine.
 
 
CAESAR SALAD HISTORY

Here’s the true story about the origin of the Caesar Salad, and the original Caesar Salad recipe.

Caesar Salad was named after the restaurateur who created it. What would you call this variation of a Caesar Salad?

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Kids will discover that healthful foods are exciting. Image courtesy Kids Food Festival.

It’s tough to get kids to establish healthful eating habits. Aside from all the media messages, there’s peer pressure and the ubiquity of not-good-for-you food and beverage choices.

But what if good eating could be presented as a fun activity? That’s what Cricket Azima, kids food expert and founder of The Creative Kitchen, thought when she designed the Kids Food Festival.

Now in its second year, in partnership with Cooking Light, the festival is a weekend full of flavorful fun held in Manhattan’s Bryant Park (42nd Street and Avenue Of The Americas) on November 3rd and 4th, 2012.

WHAT IS THE KIDS FOOD FESTIVAL?

The Kids Food Festival is a celebration to educate families about making balanced food choices. This helps to create wholesome lifelong eating habits for both kids and parents.

The weekend-long event offers a host of family-friendly activities including cooking classes, food demonstrations, live entertainment, the Balanced Plate Scavenger Hunt for kids, food sampling, giveaways and more. General admission to the event is free and open to the public.

Cooking Classes For Kids

Some of New York’s top chefs will provide hands-on cooking classes for kids at The James Beard Foundation Future Foodies Pavilion, including Ellie Krieger, Jehangir Mehta, Sam Talbot, Patricio Sandoval and Katie Workman. Classes are $25 per child with a portion of the proceeds benefiting FoodCorps, a nationwide team of leaders who connect kids to real food and help them grow up healthy. Tickets can be purchased here.

WANT A KIDS FOOD FESTIVAL IN YOUR AREA?

If you’re not in the New York Area, the Kids Food Festival can come to you. Contact @CricketAzima on Twitter or use the Contact Us form on the Festival website for information.

You can follow the festival on Twitter @KidsFoodFestNYC and on Facebook and the Festival’s website.

Next time you bake a potato, zig-zag the cut edges. We baked the potato, then sliced it across the top and used a kitchen scissors to create the zigzag effect.

There’s no wasted food: We added the cut-out portion, along with onions and bell pepper, to the following morning’s omelet.

Wild potatoes are indigenous to the Andes Mountains in Peru. They were first domesticated more than 6,000 years ago. Here’s the history of potatoes.

How many different types of potatoes have you tried? Check out our Potato Glossary.

Don’t like baked potatoes? Here are other potato recipes.
  

For yoga fans, cookie cutters that can
transform many foods—including this piece
of cornbread—into yoga poses. Photo
courtesy YummyYogi.com.

Our fast-paced society is stressful. Work pressures, managing family and household and inescapable digital demands don’t leave us with much quiet time.

Some 15.8 million Americans—6.9% of the adult population—practice yoga to de-stress. Yoga quiets the mind and strengthens and rejuvenates the body.

If you’ve been thinking about studying yoga—or have friends and family who do—here’s some inspiration as well as a possible holiday gift.

The Yummy Yogi Cookie Cutter Collection Includes five stainless steel cutters in these poses:

Individual cutters are $8.50; the collection is $40.00. The cutters are individually packaged so you can divide the collection among five friends and save $2.50 over the single-piece cost.

BEYOND COOKIES

We’ve used the cookie cutters to create tasty yoga poses in:

 
What would you make with them?

Get your your cutters at YummyYogi.com.

What better gift for the yogi who bakes? Shown: tree pose. Photo courtesy YummyYogi.com.

A Halloween Treat Box from See’s Candies!

This spooktacular gift box has a bright orange lid (not shown) adorned with a black organza bow, but the real fun is inside:

In total, there’s 1 pound, 15 ounces of Halloween treats ($34.30). It’s large enough for a family gift. Order yours today.

For those who deserve something better than drugstore chocolate, See’s is a treat year-round.

Not a chocolate lover? Consider the Pumpkin Spice Lollypops, gently flavored with pumpkin pie spices (a box of eight lollypops, $5.55).

We don’t know what we like better about Halloween: the opportunity to dress up in costume or the mandate to eat candy!