Avocado BLT Spinach Salad

There’s something about bacon and avocado together that I love. The other week a friend brought us some fresh cherry tomatoes from her garden and I thought they’d be the perfect complement in this salad. Here are the ingredients, which I just eyeball:

• Spinach
• Cherry tomatoes, chopped
• Tomatoes off the vine, chopped
• Red onions, diced or sliced in thin strips
• Diced avocadoes Cooked bacon (I usually make a couple slices for each person eating—click here to see how I cook my bacon in the oven. It’s so much easier, cleaner, and healthier than on the stovetop!)
• Splash of olive oil and vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste

I actually don’t put a dressing on this salad, just a splash of olive oil & vinegar with a little salt & pepper. The avocadoes get so creamy when the salad is mixed up that you don’t need the dressing. But if you do prefer dressing Caesar tastes great!

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Thai Chicken Salad

I found the original recipe for this salad here and altered it slightly based on what I had at home, and based on the fact that we can’t have peanut products in our house because of my son’s allergy. Here is what I used for my adapted recipe.

• 2 cups sliced matchstick carrots
• 1 yellow bell pepper sliced thin
• 1 small bag baby spinach
• 1 cup sliced cucumber
• 2 chopped green onions
• 4 cooked chicken breasts, shredded or cut in small pieces (I cooked these in the crock pot with soy sauce, honey, and red pepper flakes)
• cilantro for topping of salad
• limes for juice & garnish For chicken coating:
  
• juice from 2 limes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1-2 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp almond butter 
• a pinch of red pepper flakes

Instead of dressing the salad with the thick almond butter dressing, I removed the chicken from the Crock Pot, sliced it up, and mixed it with the dressing. Then I mixed up the veggies in the salad bowl and topped it with the chicken. The dressing is so delicious! I think I added a bit more red pepper flakes than I’d intended because the chicken was pretty spicy!! But we liked the spicy taste with the sweet honey. Taste as you’re making it to see how spicy/sweet you want it to be. And surprisingly the almond butter worked as a great substitute. I’ve made this kind of chicken before with peanut butter before we had kids and this tasted almost exactly the same.
Also, dress with lots of lime juice! It helped really add freshness to the salad.

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Chopped Veggie Slaw with Feta Cheese

I love finding salads that find a way to make tons of veggies delicious together. Especially raw veggies that you’d probably never eat alone (i.e. yellow squash—can’t imagine eating that raw as a snack!)… however chopped thin and mixed together with other veggies it is delicious!
I found this recipe from Proud Italian Cook and she makes it look amazing! Loving her photos of tons of veggies piled high! Check out the original recipe here.
Ingredients for salad (slightly different from the original recipe based on what I had on hand), all diced into matchstick strips:

• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/2 bag matchstick carrots
• 1/2 red onion
• fresh cilantro
• 1/2 c. feta cheese

Ingredients for dressing (also slightly altered):

• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 1/3. c. apple cider vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 3-4 tbsp. agave nectar (or sugar, or any sweetener)
• salt and pepper to taste  

Dress and chill slightly before serving.

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Simple Apple Walnut Salad

Every fall I get the itch to start cooking (and baking of course) with apple and pumpkin… which doesn’t make much since seeing as it’s still about 90 degrees out. I’m just willing fall to come faster!
This is one of our favorite salads—so simple and we always have the ingredients on hand. Enjoy!
Ingredients (makes 2 large plate salads or 4 side salads):

• Spinach (1/2 bag)
• Romaine lettuce, chopped (1/2 head)
• 1/2 c. feta cheese (gorgonzola works great too)
• 2 apples thinly sliced
• 1 c. candied walnuts (tutorial here)
• Poppy seed dressing, to taste

Mix lettuces first, then add apples, chilled walnuts, and feta. Dress when ready to eat. This salad is great leftover too so only dress what you’re going to eat at that meal! We love this as a main salad or as a side.

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Strawberry Maple-Walnut Salad

Made this for a BBQ last weekend. So simple and fresh! I just love salads with fruit in them. Ingredients: spinach, strawberries, walnuts (or any kind of nut you’d like), maple syrup, feta cheese, poppy seed dressing & a pat of butter (not shown).
I love carmalized nuts. Maybe a little too much! When putting them in a salad I always make them first and then let them chill in the fridge before topping the salad. In a skillet warmed to medium heat, place a large pat of butter and let it melt. Throw the nuts in (un-chopped) and make sure there is enough melted butter to coat them. The butter helps the maple syrup from burning and sticking to the pan (and it tastes good too ;).
Once the butter is melted, then pour some syrup in, enough to coat. Real maple syrup tastes so good when it caramelizes down.
It should look a little bubbly like this:

Let it bubble for a couple minutes until all the nuts are well coated. Then turn the pan over onto a cutting board, spread the nuts out and chop them. I like them chopped small but you can do whatever you like best.
Next grab your strawberries and wash them with cold water. I like to quarter them.      
This meal is great for family dinners too because our little kids just eat the strawberries separately. Mmmm.

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Cranberry Apple Salad

Ingredients: lettuce, spinach, dried cranberries, apples, roasted chicken (salt, pepper, olive oil), maple glazed almonds (maple syrup, butter, almonds), and poppyseed dressing.

With a good drink and book, it is a nice lunch when the husband is out for meetings.

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