cooking light cookbook giveaway......grilled romaine with blue cheese dressing......and the 1 year aniversary of the cooking light virtual supper club

THE COOKING LIGHT COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED AS OF JULY 14TH, 2010.  CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER, NICOLE R.

Welcome to July's Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club.  It's an exciting month for us 5 bloggers (Jamie, Shelby, Val, Patsy and Sandi) as we celebrate our 1st year anniversary of the Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club.  This group started a year ago to share recipes from Cooking Light on a monthly basis with a specific menu theme.  Our group has changed some over the last few months with Aggie and Helene leaving and Patsy and Sandi joining.  We are still very excited to continue sharing this with our readers every month.  

We're also very excited that Cooking Light has generously provided their newest cookbook, Cooking Light, Cooking through the Seasons, for a giveaway to celebrate the 1st year of the Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club.  Thank you Cooking Light.  Before I get to the details of the giveaway, I want to share our July Menu.....Barbecue/Picnics.

Summertime is here which means it's time for all your favorite barbecue and picnic foods.  So, get out the grill and the cooler/picnic basket to enjoy the flavors of summer.

For our July gathering, I made Grilled Romaine with Blue Cheese Dressing. (click here for recipe)  When I told my family I was going to grill lettuce, they all looked at me like I had 2 heads.  I've never grilled lettuce before.  This recipe was super easy.  You can make the blue cheese dressing ahead of time and the lettuce only takes a couple of minutes on the grill.  The lettuce gets slightly wilted and it has that smokey grilled flavor.  It is a really good change to your "normal" salad and will go perfectly with any of your grilled foods.  My girls don't like Blue Cheese dressing so they used Ranch dressing instead.  The blue cheese dressing is chunky and thick.  If you like it thinner, you could add more water. 

Now, come take a look at the rest of the menu.  Click on each recipe to go to the other members site.    

Jamie (me) brought Grilled Romaine with Blue Cheese Dressing

Sandi from Whistlestop Cafe Cooking brought Herbed Potato Salad

Shelby from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch made Honey Chipotle Baked Beans

Patsy from Family, Friends and Food made Pesto Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Val from More Than Burnt Toast brought Rum Spiked Grilled Pineapple with Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Hope you all enjoyed the Barbecue/Picnic Menu.  See information below on how to enter the Cooking Light Cookbook giveaway.

To earn an entry in the Cooking Light cookbook giveaway, you must visit the Cookinglight.com website, find a recipe that fits our theme of Barbecue/Picnic and leave a comment with the link or name of recipe. 

To earn up to 4 more entries, visit each of the other Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club members blogs and leave a comment on their blog with the same or different Cooking Light recipe.

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010.  We will compile all the comments and randomly pick one winner.  We will notify the winner by email.  Giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only. 

Disclosure:  Cooking Light is providing the cookbook, Cooking Light, Cooking through the Seasons, but they are not a sponsor of the Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club.  This is something that 5 bloggers enjoy doing together and sharing with our readers on a monthly basis.  It's simply about adding more healthier, lower-fat and tasty meals for our families and for all of you. 

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson:  When cutting the Romaine lettuce in half lengthwise, I kept the stem end on to help the lettuce stay together on the grill.  Before serving, I just cut the end pieces off.