Northwest Salad

We just got back from our honeymoon in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver (ate so much great food – more on that soon!)

I also just started a new job this week doing marketing for an architecture firm which is super exciting.  Lots of big changes lately… 

I have to be up pretty early for work, so I’ve been packing my lunch the night ahead.  And after indulging ourselves on vacation, we’re trying to eat healthy and get back to a routine. 

It seems that every place we visited in the northwest had amazing salads – a lot of them including beets, sweet potatoes, avocado, and other ingredients I normally associate with fall.  I stocked up on tons of these ingredients at Trader Joe’s as soon as we got back from our trip, so we have plenty to keep us eating well. 

One of the non-traditional items we asked for on our wedding registry was gift cards to Joe & Son’s Olive Oils.  We already bought several varieties – including chipotle infused olive oil, Tuscan herb olive oil, and fig balsamic.  They are perfect for simple salad dressings (and we’ve used them to drizzle on popcorn as well). 

I’ve made a version of this salad 3 times this week already – it’s my new favorite lunch.  You can add or subtract ingredients as you like, but one of the things I like is that it has such a wide variety of ingredients.  You can include whatever veggies you like, or even add hard-boiled eggs, chicken, or other proteins. 

Northwest Salad

Ingredients:

• Baby spinach
• Sweet potato, peeled, cut into cubes, and roasted (follow this recipe to bake them…)
• Mushrooms, sliced
• Pomegranate seeds (removed from fruit – you can buy them pre-seeded or follow these instructions to do it yourself if you are patient)
• Steamed & peeled baby beets (Trader Joe’s sells these pre-packaged to avoid the mess and hassle…), sliced
• Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains blend, prepared according to package (it’s a mix of Israeli couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans, and red quinoa)
• Trader Joe’s Sweet & Spicy pecans (if you haven’t tried these already, do yourself a favor and buy multiple bags…), broken into pieces
• Marinated mozzarella, chopped (I got Trader Joe’s aka Trader Giotto’s which is in olive oil with spices already)
• ½ an avocado, diced
• Olive oil & vinegar dressing – we used Tuscan Herb Olive Oil and Fig Balsamic from Joe & Sons
• Freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients & enjoy!  If you are planning to bring this for lunch, wait to add the nuts and the dressing to keep it from getting soggy (although this does hold up pretty well even with dressing…) 

Spinach Meatball Sliders

This was a super easy meal – the crock pot did most of the work.  It makes more meatballs than will fit on the sliders, but the leftovers can be combined with pasta or eaten on their own. 

Spinach Meatball Sliders

Ingredients:

• 1-26 oz bag frozen pre-cooked meatballs
• 2 cups Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese (I actually used a mix of cheddar, fresh mozzarella, and shredded mozarella)
• Grated parmesan cheese
• 9 Hawaiian bread rolls
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

1. Combine the meatballs, pasta sauce, tomatoes, garlic, spinach, and dashes of salt and pepper in a crock pot and stir to combine.  Cook on high for 3 hours. 

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Slice Hawaiian rolls almost in half, leaving the top still attached.  Top with mozzarella, then with meatballs and sauce from crock pot. 

3. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bread becomes toasty. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and then put tops back on sandwiches. 

Shrimp & Salame Pizza

We bought Trader Giotto’s Garlic & Herb Pizza Dough, Italian Dry Salame, and Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce from Trader Joe’s yesterday, so tonight we made pizza for dinner.  I love making homemade pizzas – they always taste 100x better than the frozen kind, and you can make any kind you can dream up! 

The dough was fresh and very easy to work with.  It was available in regular, whole wheat, or garlic & herb.  I added artichoke and shrimp for a bit more variety and I loved the combination.  Here’s the recipe: 

Shrimp & Salame Pizza:

Ingredients:

• 1 (16 ounce) package Garlic & Herb pizza dough
• 10 – 12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 10 – 12 slices Italian dry salame
• 1 cup Creamy Tomato Basil pasta sauce
• ½ cup six-cheese Italian blend
• 4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
• 2 – 3 artichoke hearts, sliced
• Handful of spinach/spring mix, chopped
• 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1 fresh green onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T olive oil

Directions:

1. Let pizza dough sit out for at least 20 minutes to soften.

2. Preheat oven to 450°.

3. In a small saucepan, sauté minced garlic and olive oil.  Add shrimp and cook until almost pink (they will cook more in the oven).  I bought unpeeled shrimp, so I had to remove the legs and shell before adding to the pizza.     

4. On a greased baking sheet, spread out the pizza dough carefully.

5. Bake dough in oven for 5 minutes prior to adding ingredients (this helps keep it from getting soggy).

6. Spread the sauce over the dough, and then top with remaining ingredients.

7. Bake for another 15 – 20 minutes until crust it toasty.