Maple Glazed Almonds

Do you ever crave something?
I mean CRAVE something????

And then do you ever
panic when you go to make it
and you don't have what you need?

This happened to me today.
I wanted a salad with Glazed Cashews-
I toast them in a pan with a VERY small amount of butter,
when they are getting a pretty golden color,
I add in some agave nectar-
they get this yummy, crunchy, sweet flavor
and they taste AMAZING on any salad,

one of my favorites can be found here

I had no Agave,
and I only had salted cashews...

But I'd already made the salad
and I was hungry-

So I went made two substitutions
to a three ingredient recipe
(technically, is that even a recipe)
I used Slivered Almonds instead of Cashews
and Organic Pure Maple Syrup

I was NOT disappointed-
they were so Yummy!

I topped the salad with equal parts of
Grapeseed Oil and Cranberry Balsamic Vinegar

(I've mixed the Cranberry Balsamic with Black Currant
Balsamic and then used an equal portion of Olive Oil too)

Day 81- Quality Counts with Oils & Vinegars

My sixteen year old is our resident
salad dressing maker.
I am usually running around the kitchen
in the final minutes before dinner is served
and all of a sudden I realize I forgot to make
the dressing-
lucky for me, in walks Miss Kutie Pie
and she saves the day.

She makes some yummy ones,
and is a pro at deciding what flavors
will best compliment the fresh ingredients
we are using in the Salad de Jour!

With the exception of one dressing that
we use once in a rare while, we make
our own salad dressings- no matter what
type of salad we are eating. 
This is one of the things we did long ago
when I started eliminating processed foods
and I have loved it so much. No more drowning
our greens and toppings.

The secret to great tasting homemade dressings
is great tasting oils

Specialty and high quality oils are available at most fine grocery stores.

and vinegars.

There are specialty oil & vinegar shops in many areas or you can buy online

They may be a bit more pricey-
but ohhh, soooo worth it-

Miss Kutie just recently made us a dressing
that was out of this world,
It was made with
Grapeseed Oil
Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar
Sea Salt
Coconut Sugar
Lemon Extract

Nielsen-Massey has great ingredients and can be ordered online if you can't find them locally

We used small dashes on this Delicious Salad

It was truly a match made in Heaven!

Day 81 Stats & Facts
B: Greek yogurt with berries and granola
S: Whole Grain crackers with guacamole
L: Grilled Tuna Sandwich on Ezekial Bread, mango slices
S: 1/2 c. cottage cheese & grapes
D: Fruit salad & Luna protein bar
S: Whole Wheat Graham Crackers & Kettle Corn
Total Calories: 1214
No Exercise

Steak Fajita Salad

I started off with some
deliciously seasoned flank steak
and peppers & yellow squash that
had been roasted barely to al dente,

I made a bed of spring greens & spinach

topped that bed with a delightful
spread of the peppers and steak,
along with some thin slices of red onion
and zucchini 

and topped that with some fresh
bleu cheese.

I combined some
olive oil and some specialty Balsamic Vinegar-

-I used a Current Balsamic,
but any deep flavored Balsamic would work-
and mixed them together with a little sea salt
and shallots to make a deep & rich
dressing-

Add a homemade
Whole Wheat Crescent Roll

And Voila-
my new favorite salad-
at least until tomorrow

Roasted Veggie & Steak Salad

I love a Girl Lunch Date!
I love the chit chat,
I love the laughter,
I love the stories,
but most of all
I love the connection with a girlfriend
who knows you pretty darn well.
Oh, and I do love the food :)

A few months ago, I went to one of
my normal haunts for lunch with the gals.
I went to order my favorite salad, but to my surprise,
IT WAS OFF THE MENU!!
Upon inquiry, the waiter explained it had been replaced
with a different salad.
"WHAT..."
He assured me that the new salad was really good,
so I tried it, but I was pretty skeptical,
it had steak in it, and I am not to big on
beef in my salads

Well, I fell in love. Oh. My. Gosh!
This is good!

Where once this restaurant was only a
hop, skip and a jump away,
the closest one is now quite a jaunt!

So I have been trying to make a copy cat,
this is NOT the final product, but we all
really liked it and I wanted to share it.
The potatoes are a bit of a surprise for a cold salad

I don't think you can ever go wrong with
zucchini or red peppers on the grill!

We used fresh Parmesan cheese, but I
didn't like it as well as the Bleu Cheese

notice the drop of dressing heading to it's final resting place

My daughter made the vinegar dressing from
some new vinegars I had just bought and it was
so divine.

The restaurant version leaves the meat
pretty rare, but I was cooking with a different
grill and ended up cooking it all the way through.

The Salad

Mixed Greens
Red Peppers (lightly grilled)
Zuchini (lightly grilled)
Baby Yukon Gold & Red Potatoes (roasted)
Bleu Cheese
Sirloin Tip Steak Strips (grilled to a medium rare)
Balsamic Vinegar Dressing or Make your own

The Dressing

2 TBSP. Balsamic Vinegar
1 TBSP. olive oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper

Not Popeye's Spinach

I've recently been converted to spinach.

As I am trying to get more vegetables into my day, I have found that spinach is a really easy way to sneak in a serving at every meal.

I tasted this a Spinach Salad with Roasted Carrots at a church activity, and had to figure out a way to add it to our salad rotation. Thank goodness for my resident salad dressing extraordinaire! She created the perfect dressing for our salad.

sorry, one of these days my pictures will be worthy of the yummy food they represent

Spinach Salad with Roasted Carrots & Israeli Cous-Cous

Fresh Baby Spinach
a Bunch of large carrots (don't use the baby carrots for this dish)
1/4 c. sunflower oil
1 shallot
small bunch of fresh parsley
zest from one lemon
1/2- 1 cup Israeli Cous-Cous (depending on how much salad you are making)
1/4 c. pine nuts, roasted

Cook the cous-cous according to box directions.
Roast the pine nuts if needed.
Meanwhile, peel the carrots & wash. Cut them at an angle, in large bite size pieces. Toss carrots  in Sunflower oil (you can substitute olive oil if that is what you have). Finely mince the shallot and the parsley and sprinkle over carrots. Add the lemon zest. Spread on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes; to desired tenderness. I like to broil mine for just a few minutes to give them a bit of darkened edges.

On a serving platter, lay the spinach in a generous pile. Top with roasted carrots, cous-cous and pine nuts. Toss with any light salad dressing you like. We use this Lemon Dressing- which is absolutely perfect.

Light Lemon Salad Dressing

6 TBSP. Lemon olive oil
4 TBSP. white champagne vinegar
juice from 1/2 orange
1tsp. minced shallot
pinch of sea salt

This was such a light dressing, but complimented the salad absolutely perfectly.

Enjoy this one over and over again.

*** NOTE: I had a hard time finding Israeli Cous-Cous in Utah when I wanted to make this salad for my family. If you can't find it, use Orzo pasta. It'd be just as good.