It’s hot. Make a meal that’s light and cooling.

When temperatures rise and appetites fall, dinner salvation comes in plastic bags.

Bags of lettuce, that is.

In the decade since they were introduced, these nifty bags of iceberg, romaine, escarole, radicchio, spinach and baby greens have helped propel salads from a side dish to a main course. Last year, industry trackers reported that half of the $3 billion Americans spent on bagged salads was turned into entree salads.

Experts cite convenience and, to a lesser degree, a desire to eat more healthfully as the driving forces behind the bagged-salad revolution. Simply open the bag, wash, dry and toss in a smattering of ingredients, from leftover barbecued chicken to mangoes to grilled shrimp. Dress, and dinner’s ready.

“We’ve come to see salad as a complete meal, something that fills you up without weighing you down. And the fact that you don’t have to cut all the lettuce only increases their appeal,” says Patrick Boll, chef at Geisha a Go Go in Scottsdale, Ariz., and one of three chefs we asked to doctor a bag of lettuce into a summer meal.

Their salad creations outshine the all-too-common chef’s or chicken Caesar salads, and they reflect the diversity in America’s tastes. They also fit the bill for heat-weary appetites.

• Boll created an ethnic-inspired shrimp and mango salad over Asian mixed greens. His goal was to blend subtle flavors. “You don’t want too many robust flavors in any one salad. You do not want any one flavor to overpower the others,” he says. Along with fruit and seafood, his salad includes cucumbers, red onion, daikon radish sprouts and toasted sesame seeds in a sake-lime vinaigrette.

• Cullen Campbell of Fine’s Cellar in Scottsdale likes salad flavors to play off one another, like the sweetness of a grilled peach and the saltiness of prosciutto over a bed of peppery arugula. He added figs, almonds and goat cheese for even more contrast. “I love the way these competing flavors all mesh together in a light but filling salad,” he says.

• Joe Meyers of La Grande Orange in Phoenix shared a recipe for a chopped salad similar to one he makes at home. “I don’t have time to cook dinner every night, but I have the time to toss a salad.” His creation takes advantage of leftover barbecued chicken, which he pairs with crunchy bacon, hard-boiled eggs, diced avocados, onions, cheese and tomatoes. His smorgasbord of ingredients is tossed with bagged spinach and blue-cheese dressing.

Like all dinner salads, these concoctions are extremely forgiving. If a recipe calls for chicken but you’re hankering for beef, go ahead and substitute. The calorie-conscious can leave out rich cheeses or high-fat meats such as bacon.

Try these tasty recipes:

ARUGULA BASIL SALAD WITH SEARED PEACHES AND PROSCIUTTO

one-half cup fresh basil leaves

one-fourth cup fresh Italian parsley

one-fourth cup champagne vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

one-half teaspoon salt

three-fourths cup canola-olive oil blend

For salad:

3 peaches, cut in half and pitted

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Salt, to taste

2 bags baby arugula

3 packages sliced prosciutto

one-fourth cup almonds

one-fourth cup crumbled goat cheese

18 fresh figs, cut in half

Coarsely chop basil and parsley. Add to blender with vinegar, sugar and salt. Blend on high while slowly adding canola-olive oil blend, about 1 minute

Coat peaches with olive oil. Sprinkle with brown sugar and salt. Heat a pan over medium-high heat and sear peaches, pitted sides down, for 3-5 minutes, or until golden brown. Set aside.

In a large bowl, toss arugula with dressing. Place prosciutto slices on a large salad plate. Top with arugula, almonds and goat cheese. Arrange peaches and figs around the edges of the plate. Makes 6 servings.

BBQ CHICKEN CHOPPED SALAD

6 cups (about 7 ounces) baby spinach

3 ounces blue cheese, ranch or vinaigrette dressing

2 barbecued chicken breasts, shredded

2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

one-third cup shredded cheese (any kind)

one-half cup yellow corn

one-half of a medium California avocado, diced

10 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

one-half cup thinly sliced red onion

one-half cup chopped bacon (optional)

Cracked pepper, to taste

Toss spinach with salad dressing. Place spinach on a plate and then line up each ingredient, side by side, across the spinach. Finish with fresh cracked pepper. Makes 2 servings.

GREEN MANGO AND GRILLED SHRIMP SALAD WITH SAKE-LIME VINAIGRETTE

For the sake-lime vinaigrette:

1 cup sake

4 tablespoons brown sugar

Juice of 4 limes

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard

1 teaspoon garlic-chili paste

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

one-half cup rice vinegar

1 and one-fourth cups rice-bran oil (available at Asian markets)

For the grilled shrimp:

12 large shrimp, peeled

Salt and pepper, to taste

For the salad:

12 ounces of bagged Asian-blend mixed greens

1 green mango, peeled and sliced into julienne strips

one-fourth cup thinly sliced red onion

one-fourth cup cucumber slices

three-fourths cup cilantro leaves

one-half of a package of daikon radish sprouts

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

For the vinaigrette, mix sake, brown sugar and lime juice in a small saucepan. Cook on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about one-third cup.

Pour in a mixing bowl to cool. Add garlic, ginger, red-pepper flakes, mustard, garlic-chili paste, sesame oil and cilantro. Gradually whisk in rice-bran oil.

Pour one-fourth cup of the vinaigrette over shrimp and marinate for 20 to 30 minutes. Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Heat a grill to medium-high and cook the shrimp about 2 minutes per side.

Combine the greens, mango, onion, cucumber, cilantro and radish sprouts in a large bowl. Toss with remaining vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper. Place salad on a chilled plate and top with shrimp. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds. Makes 4 servings.

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How to toss up a delicious dinner salad

• Pay attention to “use by” dates on lettuce bags. Only the freshest will do.

• Look for vibrant color. Pass on packages with brown-edged or wilted lettuce.

• Bagged greens have been washed, but wash them yourself for extra insurance against food-borne illnesses. Dry well or your dressing will slide off.

• For maximum nutrition, make sure your salads have lots of color. Build the salad around what is in season.

• Main-dish salads can be packed with vitamins, cancer-fighting chemicals, protein and “good” carbohydrates. But don’t assume all salads are diet foods. Dressings, meats and cheeses can be loaded with fat and calories.

• To cut calories, use lean grilled meats and cut back on the oil in the dressing. A squeeze of lemon adds lots of taste. The more you toss the salad, the more you’ll distribute the dressing and you’ll use less.

• Keep your pantry stocked with salad-friendly ingredients such as olives, canned beans, hot Italian peppers, capers, whole-wheat croutons, nuts and dried fruit.

• Think leftovers. Build a salad around last night’s grilled steak.

Chef Michael Stebner subscribes to a no-nonsense food philosophy: A carrot should taste like a carrot.

“I don’t try to change a food but rather bring out its natural flavor,” says the new chef at Fox Restaurant Concept’s The Greene House in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Easier done with carrots than chicken. Anyone who has ever grilled, baked or sautéed chicken knows how easy it is to turn out a bird that tastes as dry as a breakfast cereal.

Stebner’s solution: Cook with a brick.

This centuries-old Italian cooking method – pollo al mattone – produces a chicken with crisp, crackling skin and juicy breast and thigh meat. Chicken – like other dense proteins – gets its moisture from natural juices, not fat. And juice disappears more quickly than animal fat.

But when you cook with a brick, its weight holds in the natural juices by cutting cooking time in half, trapping moisture before it has time to evaporate. It also flattens the chicken, which shortens the cooking time as well.

“There’s nothing worse than dry chicken, and nothing better than moist chicken. A brick is your insurance against dry chicken,” Stebner says.

Simply cover a brick – about 60 cents at home-improvement stores – with foil and preheat in oven or on the grill. The easiest way to cook chicken with bricks is on an outdoor grill, but an old-fashioned cast-iron pan also works. The grill or pan and bricks must be hot before cooking the chicken. You also can put the brick on top of any sauce that you typically would use.

Brick cooking also works well with sandwiches and other dense, sturdy proteins like swordfish. On the other hand, brick cooking does not work for beef or delicate seafood. The fat in beef keeps it from drying out, and seafood would crumble under the weight of the brick.

Although far from new, brick cooking is being rediscovered by chefs and cooks looking for a foolproof and simple way to bake or grill chicken.

Swordfish with Polenta and Pepper Salad

6 ounces polenta

salt and pepper, to taste

4 pieces of swordfish (6 ounces each), cut thick

1 pasilla chile, seeded and sliced thin

1 Anaheim chile, seeded and sliced thin

1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin

1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 bunch fresh basil, torn

1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, torn

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling on the fish

4 half-size (half-thickness) bricks wrapped in foil

Prepare polenta according to package directions and season with salt and pepper. Reserve hot while you cook the fish.

Preheat grill with bricks inside. Season steaks with salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Place steaks on grill and cover each with a brick. Cook for approximately five minutes for medium-well fish. To check for doneness, look for small white bubbles of moisture that will be pressed out of the sides of the steaks. Bubbles should be opaque and firm.

For the salad, combine peppers, and tomatoes. Combine oil and vinegar with herbs to make the salad dressing. To serve, pour polenta onto the plate and place swordfish on top. Spoon salad and vinaigrette over fish and polenta.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: The Greene House, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Chicken with Asparagus and Potatoes

1 brick wrapped in foil

1 pound baby potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1/2 pound large asparagus

1 lemon, sliced thin, seeds removed

8 sage leaves

1 garlic clove, crushed

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided use

sea salt and pepper, to taste

1 natural chicken breast, split, skin on

1/2 cup nicoise and picholine olives

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with a brick inside a heavy pan.

In a bowl, mix potatoes, asparagus, 4 lemon slices, sage leaves, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, until everything is coated with oil and seasonings.

Pour vegetables onto a roasting pan or baking sheet and cook in preheated oven for 12 minutes or until potatoes are easily pierced with a knife.

Meanwhile, preheat a heavy, ovenproof sauté pan on the stovetop on medium-high heat.

Season chicken liberally on both sides with salt and pepper.

Once the sauté pan is very hot, add 2 teaspoons olive oil and carefully place the chicken, skin side down, in the pan.

Remove the hot pan, with the brick inside, from the oven. Place the brick on top of the chicken

Place the pan, with chicken and brick, into the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven and place it back on the stovetop over high heat until chicken skin is brown. Remove the brick from the chicken and check for doneness.

Serve the chicken over the vegetables and drizzle with sherry vinegar and olive oil.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: The Greene House, Scottsdale Ariz.

Eat Tucson: Our blog chews over the local dining scene. NEW: A frothy glass of Moose Drool, please. AND:The latest Bon Appetit

Every family has a food history, and most are worth preserving.

The best way to make certain future generations enjoy Aunt Betty’s meatloaf and Mom’s German chocolate cake is with a family cookbook. For many families, a cookbook also doubles as a way to preserve their ethnic heritage. Grandmother’s recipe for red chili beef will not disappear with her death.

Begin now and there’s still time to give a cookbook as a heartfelt holiday gift to all family members. The book might take hours to complete, but the trade-off is that you can avoid holiday shopping.

Tips for creating a cookbook:

> Have a plan and scope. Decide what you realistically can accomplish. Should the cookbook be handwritten or compiled on the computer? How many recipes can you realistically include? Will there be pictures? How will the recipes be organized?

> Ask relatives for family favorites. Ask them to include a story that relates to the photo and any old family photos that include the food. The history of the recipe can be as important as the recipe.

> Don’t sweat the writing. The stories are more important than the form.

> Include a fill-in-the-blank recipe format, from ingredient lists, cooking time, number of people served and any special cooking tips or advice.

> Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Do you use a particular brand of butter or flour? If you want the exact taste, sometimes brand matters.

> In many families, recipes are not written down, but stored in the cook’s memory. Ask the cook to re-create the dish, recording the amounts of ingredients and cooking steps. It helps to have one family member cook and the second record.

We are becoming a nation of mealtime assemblers.

Instead of cooking dinner, we are turning to pre-cooked pot roasts, sliced mushrooms, fajita meal kits and a host of other ready-to-eat foods.

They make it a snap to get a meal on the table 20 minutes after pulling into the garage from work, soccer practice or yoga.

Consumers want to replicate the home-cooked meal but without the work, says Todd Hultquist, spokesman for the Food Marketing Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research group.

More than half of Americans want to eat meals that require little planning or effort to make, according to a recent survey of 53,000 people by NPD, a national research firm.

“Everyone is so time crunched that making a meal by scratch seems too overwhelming. We are happy to let the food manufacturers do the prep for us,” Hultquist says.

Grocers, in turn, are responding to our desire for a “home-cooked” meal without the “cooking” with a record inventory of foods.

The offerings include grilled chicken strips, frozen spinach tortellini, red chili beef and packages of stew vegetable essentials – diced onions, carrots, celery, cabbage and mini red potatoes.

Ready-to-eat foods can be found in almost all departments, from kosher soups in frozen foods to grilled salmon in the deli case.

For chef Rodney Jankowski, even food snobs such as himself are impressed by all the convenience foods.

Food manufacturers, faced with direct competition by restaurant takeout operations, have improved on the previous generation of prepared foods, most notably Chef Boyardee canned spaghetti.

“The meatloaf might be not just like Mom’s, but it’s still very good, and instead of cooking it for an hour, you can pop a prepared meatloaf in the microwave and serve dinner in minutes, just minutes,” says Jankowski, who teaches cooking classes in the Phoenix area.

The key, he says, is learning to use quick-fix foods creatively to avoid a steady diet of the same dinners.

Pair meatloaf with prepared coleslaw for sliders.

Combine green or red chili chicken or beef with Mexican cheese and prepared pizza crust for south-of-the-border dinner pies.

Along with speed, consumers are beginning to demand ready-to-eat foods that are healthful and that cater to our hankering for ethnic foods, Hultquist says.

Jankowski, who recently lost 90 pounds following a Weight Watchers diet, recommends reading labels of prepared foods carefully, avoiding those high in fat and calories. “When I was growing up, convenience foods came out of a can and tasted terrible, or frozen meals that tasted like mush,” Jankowski says.

Pesto Tortellini

2 cups frozen spinach and ricotta cheese tortellini

1/4 cup prepared pesto

1 Roma tomato, diced

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Cook tortellini according to package directions. Drain and mix with pesto. Top with tomato and cheese.

Makes 4 servings.

Chicken Enchilada Pizza

2 prepared pizza crusts or shells, 8 inches each

2 1/4 cups shredded chicken

2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

1 cup prepared pico de gallo

red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Divide chicken between 2 pizza shells, season with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Top with cheese and pico de gallo. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Speedy Meatloaf Sliders

1 precooked meatloaf with tomato sauce, at least 1 pound

1 cup prepared coleslaw

8 dinner rolls

salt and pepper to taste

Cook meatloaf according to package directions. Let cool slightly and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Slice dinner rolls in half, and place meatloaf on the bottom half of roll. Top with coleslaw and serve. Can be served hot or cold.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Chef Rodney Jankowski

Cinco de Mayo is a day for Mexicans to celebrate their victory over the French during the 1862 battle of Puebla.

For the rest of us, it’s a great excuse to throw a party. This can be bad news if you’re trying to watch what you eat. Parties that revolve around a Mexican theme tend to feature what we consider traditional Mexican fare – enchiladas, burritos, tacos – foods that rank pretty high on the artery-clogging scale. All that cheese and meat may be delicioso, but you’re not doing your waistline any favors by consuming multiple servings.

You don’t need to drop Mexican food from your Cinco de Mayo menu, though, even if you are feeling health-conscious. Instead, consider shifting your focus. Mexican seafood plays a large role in Mexican cuisine and is a healthful way to keep your menu south of the border.

“Seafood is traditionally Mexican, and it’s a refreshing way to enjoy Mexican cooking,” says chef Mel Mecinas, executive chef at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale.

One advantage to serving seafood at Cinco de Mayo, he says, is that that it’s not too heavy.

Mecinas recommends serving a dish such as ceviche, which is light but still packs a flavor punch. Or, he says, serve a hot dish with a cool accompaniment, such as chilled soup.

Cooking traditions change when you move from the north of Mexico to the south, Mecinas says, with southern food tending to adopt a more tropical flair. Occasionally, the diversity of the cuisine is reflected within the same dish. Mecinas points to his ceviche as an example. His shrimp ceviche is a typical one, using lime juice, onions and tomato. But his scallop ceviche, flavored with mango and papaya, showcases its tropical influences.

Also figuring predominantly in Mexican seafood are fish such as tilapia and red snapper. These fish make a great entree. They’re light, they’re mild in taste and they absorb other flavors well. They don’t need to be cooked in fat to taste good. Mecinas recommends using lemon, brushing the fish with honey and boosting the flavor with spices such as achiote powder.

Now if someone could just think of a way to make a healthful margarita.

Roasted red snapper

For grits
1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup grits

1 roasted poblano pepper, diced

1/2 cup grated queso fresco

4 ounces unsalted butter

salt and pepper to taste

For a pineapple salsa
1/2 medium fresh pineapple, diced

2 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons red bell pepper, diced

1 teaspoon cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup pineapple juice

2 tablespoons tequila

extra virgin olive oil

For the fish
olive oil

4 red snapper filets, 6 ounces each

8 peeled jumbo asparagus spears, steamed

8 peeled cherry tomato halves

For the grits, combine milk and water in a sauce pot. Bring to a boil and add grits. Simmer until cooked through, about 15 to 20 minutes (the grits should be creamy). Finish with diced roasted poblano pepper, queso fresco and butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the salsa, lightly sauté the pineapple over medium heat. Remove from heat and add the onions, red bell pepper, cilantro, pineapple juice and tequila. Season to taste with a touch of olive oil.

To make the snapper, coat an ovenproof skillet with olive oil and sear the fish over medium heat, skin side down, about three minutes. Place the pan in a 350-degree oven and cook fish for 4 minutes.

To serve, place the snapper over grits; garnish with jumbo asparagus, cherry tomatoes and drizzle with charred pineapple salsa.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Chef Mel Mecinas, Four Seasons Resort, Scottsdale

Duo of ceviches with avocado soup

For shrimp ceviche
1 pound (16 to 20) shrimp shelled and deveined

2 cups lime juice, divided use

1 red onion, diced, divided use

1 bunch cilantro, chopped, divided use

1 jalapeño, finely diced, divided use

2 Roma tomatoes, finely diced

Extra virgin olive oil to taste

For scallop ceviche
1 pound bay scallops

1 papaya, diced

1 mango, diced

For soup
3 ripe avocadoes, skins removed and coarsely chopped

chopped cilantro to taste

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

juice of 1 lime

2 tablespoons diced onion or to taste

salt and pepper

For the shrimp ceviche: Cut the shrimp in half and quickly blanch in boiling water for 2 seconds. Remove from boiling water and soak in 1 cup lime juice for 1 hour. Add half of the diced onions, half the cilantro and jalapeño to taste. Add tomatoes. Season to taste with a touch of olive oil.

For the scallop ceviche: Soak the scallops in the remainder of the lime juice for approximately 2 hours. Mix with diced papaya and mango and remainder of red onions and cilantro to taste. Season with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

For the soup: In a blender, add the avocado, chopped cilantro, garlic cloves, jalapeno, lime juice, water as needed and onions. Blend to a soup consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Serve avocado soup in a small cup, with cups of the ceviche on either side.

Makes 6 servings.

Source: Chef Mel Mecinas, Four Seasons Resort, Scottsdale

Annatto-marinated seared baja scallops with white bean ravioli

16 jumbo scallops

2 tablespoons annatto paste (also known as achiote paste); See note

4 ears fresh corn

1 cup canned white beans

1/2 cup each diced celery, carrot and onion

2 to 3 jalapeños, diced, divided use

1 pinch fresh cilantro

1/4 cup grated asadero cheese (can substitute a semi-soft mild white cow’s cheese)

32 wonton skins

6 cups freshly squeezed orange juice

3 shallots, diced

1/4 cup sugar

2 ounces micro greens, optional

salt and pepper

For scallops, rub paste over scallops and sear on medium heat for 2 minutes on each side. Set aside and keep warm.

For ravioli, cook the white beans, celery, carrot and onions over low heat until cooked through, and purée in blender. In a mixing bowl, combine the purée, 1 diced jalapeño, cilantro and cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put about 1 tablespoon filling on a wonton sheet, and top with a second sheet. Seal the ravioli by pressing a fork around the edges. Place the ravioli in boiling water and cook for 2 minutes.

Serve with jalapeño jam and corn sauce.

For the jalapeño jam, sauté shallots, remaining jalapenos and sugar. Add orange juice and reduce over medium heat to a jam consistency (about 30 minutes).

For corn sauce, clean corn kernels from the cob and blend with a touch of water for about 2 minutes. Pass through a fine strainer. Cook the mixture in a sauce pan on medium heat and stir constantly with a whisk until it reaches a sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, place 4 raviolis and 4 scallops on each plate. Drizzle with corn sauce, jam and garnish with micro greens.

Makes 4 servings.

Note: Annatto paste is available in many Latin specialty markets. It is a ground mixture of annatto seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, allspice berries, cloves, habanero peppers, orange juice, vinegar, garlic blended with juiced lemon. (For a recipe, consult allrecipes.com.)

Source: Chef Mel Mecinas, Four Seasons Resort, Scottsdale