Apple-Fennel Salad with Walnut Vinaigrette

It's spring!  Well, not really . . . it's still sort of winterish in Minnesota.  Truthfully, I feel like I need to qualify this time of year as "early spring" -- the days are getting longer and the weather is slightly warmer, but you still need to check the weather every single day to figure out how to dress.  Some days, you need your wool coat, some days you need a fleece, some days you need an umbrella, most days you still need a hat and mittens.  It snowed last week, today it's going to be 60 degrees outside.  You know . . . THAT time of year.  :)

Regardless of the weather, the increased sunlight makes me feel lighter -- and consequently, I want to eat a lot lighter, too!  Planning for big lunch-sized salads a few times per week helps ease the transition, and this week's salad was beautiful and light, but still hearty enough to get me through my afternoon.

Apple-Fennel Salad with Walnut Vinaigrette

Serves 1, with plenty of leftover dressing

For the Vinaigrette:
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic
1/2 small shallot
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 tbsp white-wine -or- champagne vinegar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c walnut oil
2-4 tbsp fennel fronds (optional)

For the Salad:
your favorite lettuces/salad greens (about 2 cups)
1/2 c thinly-sliced fennel
1/4 c sliced celery
1/2 an apple, chopped or sliced
1 oz walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 oz blue cheese, crumbled

Directions:
1. Make the vinaigrette: combine all of the vinaigrette ingredients in a wide-mouthed pint mason jar, (or really any wide-mouthed jar -- old salsa and peanut butter jars work fabulously for dressings,) and whiz with a stick blender until creamy.  Alternately, you could use a regular blender and transfer to a jar or bottle after blending, or finely mince the garlic and shallot by hand, then whisk the ingredients together in a bowl until emulsified.
2. Assemble the salad: layer your greens, fennel, celery, and apple on a plate or in a large salad bowl. Drizzle about 1 tbsp of the vinaigrette over your salad, or more or less to taste.  (I find that a little goes a long way with most dressings!)  Top with walnuts and blue cheese.

I love the crispy, crunchy, creamy, nutty, sweet, sour, and bitter balance happening in this salad -- there's a LOT of flavor going on, but the flavors all compliment each other beautifully.  This is also pretty filling, given the protein in the walnuts and cheese, all of the fiber-rich veggies, and the healthy fats in the walnuts and dressing.  Definitely a lunch to look forward to!

What is your favorite meal-sized salad flavor combination?

Ridiculous Eggs

I've been hinting at something . . . and here it is: I've found myself someone to cook breakfast for. :) Er, should I say, he cooks breakfast for me? John doesn't do much cooking to speak of these days, but he is a vegetarian, (which, oddly, is pleasantly refreshing -- I never thought it was a big deal, but it kind of is, I'm starting to realize), appreciates amazing and healthy food, and is awesome at making a few key things; eggs are one of his specialties. John makes what I have come to think of as "Ridiculous Eggs," not ridiculous in the "causing or worthy of ridicule" definition of the word, but rather, ridiculous in their absurd excess.

See?

Saturday morning's breakfast: Ridiculous Eggs with onion, garlic, shallot, spinach, feta, and tomato. Pumpernickel toast with homemade strawberry jam on the side.

And, Sunday morning's breakfast:

More Ridiculous Eggs, this time with onion, spinach, tomato, avocado, parsley, cream cheese, mozzarella, and cumin. Mmm. I am pro-cumin in eggs, let me tell you! More toast with homemade strawberry jam on the side, but this jam was made by John's three-year-old cousin. I think she might have something on me in the jam-making department!

Even though part of me would like to try to eat eggs three meals a day, I know it would be a bad idea, ultimately. :) Dinners from the weekend:

Masaman curry, with tofu, red bell pepper, sweet potato, broccoli, mushrooms, and onions, all over short-grain brown rice.

A simple, yet delicious, pasta and salad dinner:

I sauteed a bunch of garlic in a bunch of olive oil, added some dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and artichokes, and tossed the lot with hot pasta, parsley, parmesan, and goat cheese. This was kind of made up on the spot, and pretty damn awesome. Definitely worth repeating again in the future. :)

And, a giant salad for Sunday night:

Mixed greens topped with apples, fennel, walnuts, buttermilk blue cheese, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. A wedge of Wedge focaccia on the side. A delicious and reasonably healthy way to end the weekend!

And, don't forget dessert . . .

Lemon bars! We managed to take down the entire pan over the course of the weekend . . . ha!

Sunday food

After a LATE night last night, (Dan had a gig,) I woke up pleasantly late this morning, with an urge to bake! I hemmed and hawwed over exactly what to bake for quite a while, and finally settled on whole-wheat blueberry muffins:

I doubled my usual recipe, which yielded 18 standard muffins for breakfasts and snacks for Dan and I, and 24 mini-muffins for the kidlets at work. :) They'll be so happy with a Monday snack surprise! Plus, they'll never know that they are healthfully sweetened with agave nectar, and full of fiber and whole grains!

***** UPDATE: Here's the recipe, since a couple of folks asked for it! *****

Whole-Wheat Blueberry Muffins
(Based on "Blueberry Streusel Muffins" from The Betty Crocker Cookbook)
Yield: 24 standard muffins, or 18 standard and 24 mini-muffins

Whisk together wet ingredients:
2 cups milk (or a combination of milk and plain yogurt)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs (I've also used egg replacer and flax whip -- both work)
1/2 cup agave nectar

Combine dry ingredients:
4 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Fold into dry ingredients:
2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients, just until combined. I would recommend using liners, since these muffins qualify as a little lower in fat than usual. Bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes for standard muffins, 10 to 12 minutes for mini muffins.

While the muffins were in the oven, I whipped up a giant batch of beans and rice:

This dish will serve for lunches for both Dan and I nearly all week -- and beans and rice is one of the few things I can eat over and over without getting tired of it.

Next things next . . . lunch!

I had every intention of making breakfast burritos this morning, and chugged right along, prepping all of the individual components . . . until I opened blue, fuzzy tortillas and plans changed! (WAH! I hate wasting food.) So, we had "deconstructed breakfast burritos," with a side of homemade tortilla chips (made last weekend) to scoop up the cheesy beans. Although I really would have preferred chomping my way through an overstuffed tortilla, my plate full of goodies was an acceptable alternative. :)

After a leisurely afternoon enjoying modern art at the Walker and chai at the coffee shop with my "favorite Dan," (yes, one of the kids once described him as such,) I came home and started getting a few things done around the house, including fitting in twenty minutes of yoga. Tonight's yoga made me think I'd probably like to fit in some yoga on Tuesday night, too, so I decided to nearly completely prepare the evening's dinner, so I can come home, press some tofu, and hit my mat!

Bags of pre-chopped stir-fry veggies and pre-mixed sauce will make dinner ready in a snap! Let's hope I remember to start the rice as soon as I get home, too!!

Finally, while I had the knife and cutting board out, I made myself a gigantic salad for dinner:

Mixed baby greens topped with chopped apple, sliced fennel, walnuts, bleu cheese, fig balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. I love salty-sweet salads -- I find them incredibly satisfying.

Still have a few things to check off the list before starting the work week . . . hope you had a nice weekend!

eats and treats

Hope you have been having a wonderful weekend! Dan and I really took it easy this weekend -- mostly hung out at home, did a little laundry, had a picnic and a hike at Lake Maria state park, etc. I spent plenty of time in the kitchen, of course!

Dinner last night was both speedy and delightful:

"Black-Eyed Peas with Spinach," from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, over cheesy grits, with a few slices of heirloom tomato on the side. Simple, nourishing, and fantastic! I added a few dashes of smoked paprika to the beans, which I didn't really detect in the finished dish, but it couldn't have hurt, right? The cheese grits were easy and amazing, and the sliced tomato added a fresh, bright note to the meal. Best part? I think this entire meal was on the table in less than 30 minutes! Wahoo!

I've REALLY been loving my Moosewood cookbooks lately. Example #2:

"Banana Cupcakes," from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers, topped with chocolate cream cheese frosting. Oh yum! I had some leftover cream cheese frosting from the pumpkin muffins I made last weekend, and decided to melt a little semi-sweet chocolate and whip it into the leftovers -- ta-da! Amazing!!!!! Dan and I split one of these this afternoon, and they are GREAT. Dan mentioned the frosting tastes a little like chocolate pudding, and I loved the sweet, dense, comforting banana cupcake. I think the only thing that could possibly make this treat better would be the addition of peanut butter in some form . . . hmm . . . time to experiment! :)

Since you can't have cupcakes for breakfast, (well, technically you can, but you know,) I felt compelled to make a breakfast treat as well:

Now, we usually have granola, toast, or PBJ for breakfast, but every once in a while, it's lovely to look forward to a little pastry something first thing in the morning! AB in Five bake-a-long to the rescue! Crystal, Victoria, and I have been talking about starting the brioche dough, and I decided to take the plunge this weekend. Now, know this -- I will probably bake my way through the dough, and then wait a year while I work on losing all the weight that I will inevitably gain! (The dough recipe, which yields 4 to 5 pounds of dough, enough for 4 to 5 projects, calls for 3 sticks of butter and EIGHT eggs. Gasp!) Oh, but how delicious these "Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls" are! Buttery, soft, light, with a wonderful, crisp-chewy caramel topping. Jeff and Zoe, how dare you make caramel rolls so EASY!

Thankfully, the dough freezes well, so I have appropriately-portioned chunks waiting patiently for us to detox from all of the saturated fat. :)

Sunday night is a great time for pizza!

Artisan Bread "Olive Oil Dough," topped with organic pizza sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan cheeses. The front slice also has red onion, green pepper, mushroom, green olive, oregano, and chili flakes. The back slice has roasted red peppers, dried tomatoes, spinach, artichoke hearts, and oregano. Side of green salad with apple, fennel, walnuts, bleu cheese, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. A GREAT way to end the weekend, if you ask me!

The kitchen is still a mess, so I'm off. G'night!

800th post: a BIG SHOP, and salad ecstacy

I was hoping something awesome would come around for my 800th post -- grocery shopping is pretty awesome, eh? I'm sure glad I took the time to take a picture tonight!

Oddly, I kept thinking my grocery shopping would be a piece of cake tonight, since I "didn't need that much." I promise you everything I picked up was on my list:



This was, indeed, a BIG SHOP. And feel free to call me the cheese monster.

BULK:
organic raw almonds
local, raw slivered almonds
organic "gold & white" flour
localy-roasted, organic, fair-trade coffee
organic granulated sugar
organic golden flax seeds
organic dried apples
organic dried cranberries

CHEESE:
local Neufchatel
local pepper Jack
local "St. Pete's Blue"
"Treasure Cave" Feta

FROZEN:
organic blueberries
organic green peas

HERBS & SPICES:
local ground cumin
local, organic vanilla bean
kava kava

PACKAGED GROCERY:
Brianna's French Vinaigrette
quartered artichoke hearts
organic kamut puffs
organic light agave nectar
local, organic maple syrup
harissa
organic tomato sauce
organic, fire-roasted, crushed tomatoes
organic double-roasted salsa
organic chipotle lime salsa
two boxes "Dr. Kracker" flatbreads
Seventh Generation paper towels
Seventh Generation TP

PRODUCE:
local, hydroponic romaine
organic cucumber
organic bananas
organic champagne mangoes
organic lemons
organic blood oranges
organic (purple!) cauliflower
organic rainbow chard
organic fennel
organic white button mushrooms
organic red onion
organic yellow onions
local, organic red potato
organic gala apples
organic strawberries
local, hydroponic cherry tomatoes

REFRIGERATED GROCERY:
Earth Balance buttery sticks
local light sour cream
two Naked Juice protein smoothies
local, organic half-n-half
local, organic, free-range eggs

~~~~~~~~~~

I have three favorite salads of all time. All three salads begin with romaine and/or mixed baby greens, and then add either beets and goat cheese, a host of Greek-type veggies and feta, or . . .

sliced apples, sliced fennel, walnuts, and bleu cheese. Heaven in a bowl, in my opinion.

Lemon-Orange Fennel Salad

Oh, how I love fennel. Why did it take me 26 years to discover fennel?

Anyhow, this recipe is courtesy of Cooking Light. I cut the original recipe in half, (adjusted amounts are listed here,) because six servings of any salad (even a really fabulous one) is too much for me!

Toss together and chill 30 minutes before serving:
2 cups thinly sliced fennel
1 cup orange sections
1/2 cup lemon sections
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 tablespoon minced fresh mint
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fennel fronds
1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

This salad is awesome -- salty, sweet, and sour. Mmmm fennel! It's also very pretty -- white, orange, green, and purple. I thought the lemon sections would be weird, but they aren't -- sour, but appropriately so.