Making Friends In the Salad Bowl

No matter if it's in the sandbox, at the workplace or in the salad bowl, people and ingredients need to make friends with each other and sometimes it's the unlikely combinations that can get along best. Who knew that it would be the parmesan cheese and cumin who were responsible for pumping this salad bowl party into gear? And that when avocados and almonds get together and chit chat that you lose inches from your waist line? Like any good hostess knows, mixing makes for interesting, so I send out the invites to a few different bins in the fridge and the guests turned out to be perfectly matched.

Waist Slimmer Fall Party Salad

Slice in half 1 butternut squash - dribble with olive oil, dash of salt, chopped basil and a healthy dusting of nutmeg - bake in the oven until soft. When finished chop half into bite size cubes.

Add it to the mix:

Chopped romaine lettuce, a handful of rocket lettuce, 1/2 avocado diced, parmesan chunks and about a handful of chopped almonds.

Dressing

Olive oil, lemon, splash of soy sauce and a generous sprinkling of cumin powder.

Aspara-chard-agus

O.K - well this salad might not be the most innovative but it sure is yummy and it's incredibly good for you to boot.

Aspara-chard-agus salad

2 cups cooked quinoa, 5-7 asparagus spears lightly steamed, handful of swiss chard lightly steamed.

Dressing

You guessed it! Olive Oil, Lemon, Salt.

The Great Butternut Taste Test

Ahhh...working from home. Working from home sometimes means organizing lunch into an event, which is really just a very clever cover for severe procrastination. And sometimes my dreamy boyfriend works from home too, which means that he involuntarily becomes my culinary guinea pig. On one of these fine afternoons I decided to conduct a butternut squash taste off - one with a summery feel and one more focused on fall.

When the big taste test was going down I asked my subject, "Which one do you like better Mr. Fraser?" to which he dutifully replied while engrossed in his rugby game, "Oh, there is a difference?" - He liked the fall squash salad and I chose summer but in the end they just got mixed together on the plate anyway and we concluded that that was actually our favorite. It was paired with a rotisserie chicken and in the end it afforded me nearly an hour of work avoidance - Bellissimo!

Preparation of butternut squash -

Sliced and sprinkled with some olive oil, a dash of butter, a dusting of allspice and some basil leaves - place in the oven for about 45 minutes or until soft-ish (think of all that procrastination time!)

Summer Squash Salad

Half the baked squash chopped into cubes, 1 can cannelli beans, a handful of Kalamata olives, a sprinkling of feta cheese and chopped basil leaves.

Dressing -

Olive oil, lemon, salt

Fall Squash Salad

Chop into small pieces about alf a leek and 4-6 mushroom caps - then saute in a little itsy bitsy dollop of butter, a dash of soy and a pinch of salt. Cover for about five minutes to let the leek and mushrooms get nice and soft.

Chop into cubes half the baked squash, 1 can cannelli beans then add in the leek and mushroom.

Dressing -

Lemon, salt and some Truffle infused Olive Oil - this one is a new addition in our cupboard after the tip off from the lovely Miss Andrea Fraser and honestly, it is deeeelish!

Keep it Simple Silly

My absolute favorite salad as a kid was always the classic house salad served in American-Italian restaurants. There was always a handful of iceburg lettuce, a few thinly cut cucumber slices, tomato wedges, strings of red onion, some carrot shavings, a sprinkle of parmesan and a really tangy olive oil/red wine vinegar dressing. Now that i'm grown up and can make my own salads, I created my own version of this simple classic - removing the ingredients I didn't love (tomato) and replacing them with ones that I did (heart of palm). This can be whipped up in literally two minutes, goes with most everything and always tastes just as good as the salads in my childhood memories.

Simple Salad

Chopped romaine, handful of chopped red onion, 1 can of heart of palm - chopped, shavings of 1 carrot and grated parmesan.

Dressing

Olive oil, lemon, red wine vinegar, salt , pepper and lots of dried oregano

Greek Salad + Kitchen SInk

This tasty and super nutritious salad started with a greek base and ended up with me getting carried away after a big shop at the farmer market. Packed with mouthfuls of vitamins and protein, this baby can keep you nice and full for the entire day.

Greek + Kitchen Sink

Chopped romaine lettuce, handful of chopped red onion, 1 tomato, 1 cucumber, 1 avocado, 2 hard boiled eggs, 2 cups quinoa and a handful of kalamata/green olive mix

Dressing

Olive Oil, lemon, dash of red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and dried oregano.