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…) 

Sun-dried Tomato, Spinach & Bacon Chicken

With all the wedding planning I’d been slacking on making us home-cooked meals (Lance actually did more of the cooking this past year than I did since I was always so busy…) Well, this week I’ve tried making up for it – I’ll post a couple really great recipes we tried out the last few days!

Chicken can sometimes be a boring dinner but this was far from that – loaded with all sorts of exciting toppings.  Plus, I made Caesar salad from scratch which was easier than I thought.  Adding these to my go-to recipes.

Sun-dried Tomato, Spinach & Bacon Chicken: (adapted from Julia’s Album)

Ingredients:

• 6 small chicken breasts
• 1 T butter
• Italian Dressing powdered mix packet
• 1 T olive oil
• 10 oz fresh baby spinach
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2/3 cup half and half
• 2/3 cup pepperjack cheese, shredded, plus 6 slices
• 1/8 t salt
• ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, drained of oil & chopped into pieces
• 6 slices bacon, cooked

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2. Butter the bottom of a baking dish.  Season the chicken breasts on both sides with the Italian seasoning mix.  Place chicken into the baking dish and cook for 15 – 20 minutes.

3. In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat.  Add spinach and cook for about 2 minutes until it begins to wilt. 

4. Remove from heat and add the garlic & half and half.  Return to the heat, bring to a boil, then add the shredded cheese.  Keep stirring on high heat until the cheese starts to melt.  Reduce heat and continue to simmer & stir until you have thick creamed spinach.  Season with salt and remove from the heat.   

5. Remove the chicken from the oven after baking 15-20 minutes.  Top with creamed spinach, then sun-dried tomatoes, chopped cooked bacon, and broken slices of pepperjack cheese.

6. Bake in the oven uncovered for 15-20 more minutes until the chicken is completely cooked through.

Homemade Caesar Salad:

Dressing Ingredients:

• ½ cup Greek yogurt (the original recipe used mayonnaise and sour cream but this is healthier and I think tastes better)
• 1-1/2 t anchovy paste
• 1-1/2 T olive oil
• 3 T lemon juice
• 1-1/2 t whole grain mustard
• 1 T Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 t black pepper
• Salt to taste
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

Croutons:

• Old loaf of bread
• 3 T olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ t salt
• ¼ t pepper

Salad:

• 1 large head Romaine lettuce, chopped
• ½ cup fresh parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Whisk together all the dressing ingredients (you can also add whole anchovies if you want)

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Slice bread into cubes and bake 5 minutes.  While they are baking, mix together olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper.  Take the bread out of the oven, toss in the olive oil mixture, then bake 5 more minutes.  Toss again and continue baking until golden brown and crisp. 

3. Toss the Romaine, croutons, cheese, and drizzle with dressing. 

Berry Avocado Quinoa & Spinach Salad with Honey-Lime Poppy Seed Dressing

 

We had dinner at our friends Tony & Katie’s house the other night and I brought a salad.  This is now one of my favorite recipes – it’s really healthy and the homemade dressing was sweet & tangy.  It only took a minute to toss together. 

The next day I had leftover and added grilled salmon - it could easily serve as a meal instead of just a side! 

Berry Avocado Quinoa & Spinach Salad with Honey-Lime Poppy Seed Dressing

 (adapted from Cooking Classy)

Dressing:

·        ½ cup olive oil

·        Zest of 1 lime

·        Juice of 1 lime

·        2 T honey

·        1 T Dijon mustard

·        ¼ t salt

·        2 t poppy seeds

Salad:

·        2 cups cooked quinoa (about 2/3 cup dry)

·        1 cup sliced almonds, toasted

·        9 oz. baby spinach

·        1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

·        1 ½ cups fresh raspberries

·        2 medium avocados, peeled, cored, and diced

·        5 oz feta cheese, crumbled

 

Directions:

1.  Toast the almonds & cook the quinoa.  Mix all the dressing ingredients minus the poppy seeds in a bottle or jar until well combined.  Stir in the poppy seeds.  

 

2. Toss all the salad ingredients together.  Enjoy! 

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.