Curried Millet and Veggie Salad

At the beginning of May, the health food store that I work for (Goodness Me!) ran a Community Cleanse Challenge, both for the community to join in, as well as staff. (my store won for best overall store participation...woot woot team Brantford!!!)

Anyhoo, both my husband and I jumped on the cleanse bandwagon, and for two weeks have been eating clean and healthy. Our diet is already pretty clean, but its sometimes good to check in on all the little habits that creep back into your diet and linger. A cleanse is a great reset...it gives your digestive system a great spring cleaning!! 

I was looking for something different to cook for dinner one night, and saw millet listed on the chart  of "ok" foods. So I cooked a big batch pot of this delicious little seed (yes, it is technically a seed, not a grain!) for dinner and then had to come up with a use for the rest. I had a fridge full of veggies for eating on the cleanse, so I started chopping and this salad was born!

It keeps really well in the fridge for 3-4 days, and is great warm or cold. We  topped it with both salmon and chicken to add some protein, and I think it would be great with chickpeas for a vegan version. It makes enough for a crowd, or for several meals during the week. Definitely a keeper recipe, cleansing or not!! If you don't have any millet, cooked quinoa would be a great alternative!! 

Curried Millet and Veggie Salad

3 cups cooked millet (I toasted mine first, follow this link for cooking instructions! )   

3/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds

4 cups chopped kale (green, red, black or a combo!)
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup diced red pepper (red, yellow, orange…mix it up!!)
1 cup diced zucchini ¼ - ½  cup cilantro, chopped (optional if you hate it!!)

Dressing:

1/4 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed if you can!)

4 Tbsp avocado or olive oil

1-2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp herbamare or sea salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix veggies, seeds and millet in a large mixing bowl.

Measure dressing ingredients into a mason jar, shake well and toss with other ingredients. 

Eat as is, or add your choice of protein (pre-cooked chicken, salmon, beans...the choice is yours!)

(Its also delicious heated!!!)

Store covered in the fridge for 3-4 days. 

All ready for lunch with some leftover salmon!

Creamy Broccoli Salad with Bacon

I had a craving for broccoli salad, and decided to make a batch for lunch one day last week. The particular salad I was hankering for uses mayonnaise. But being Thursday, I didn’t want to make a whole jar of mayo because of its short shelf life. (My recipe uses a whole raw egg, and it only lasts in the fridge for about 5 days. We don’t go thru enough mayonnaise to use it up quickly, especially on the weekends when we are not packing lunches for the household).  I did have a jar of cashew butter in the fridge though, so I came up with this scrumptious dressing to top the crunchy broccoli. I added some chopped carrots, leftover bacon (I know, leftover bacon???) and some dried cranberries, and this little bit of deliciousness was born. The sriracha in the sauce adds flavor, but not a lot of heat. Adjust if you want it more or less spicy.

Creamy Broccoli Salad with Bacon

Optional: lightly toast your cashews

Dressing:

½ cup cashew butter

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp avocado oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup water

½-1 tsp sriracha sauce (optional, increase or decrease for desired heat!)

Salad:

1 head broccoli, chopped (peel stems, chop and use too)

2 carrots, peeled and chopped small

1 cup chopped cooked bacon

1 cup chopped cashews (I toasted mine J )

½ cup dried cranberries (fruit juice sweetened)

----------

2 tbsp black sesame seeds (optional)

Handy chopper is great for
chopping the carrots

Measure dressing ingredients into a blender. Blend until well mixed and creamy.  Set aside.

(Alternatively, measure into a wide mouth mason jar, and blend with a stick blender)

Toss all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Top with dressing and mix well. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds if using and serve immediately. Store leftovers in fridge for 2-3 days.

Shown without black sesame  seeds,
I realized after I took the pictures
that I hadn't added them!

Kale and Quinoa Salad with Strawberries, Pecans and Avocado

When I plant my garden in the spring, I tend to be an over planter, which is all fine and dandy, until later in the season...when the plants go wild and you cannot even begin to wade thru the greenery without stepping on something. But, in the early summer, when everything is behaving well, my garden is a lovely calm place to while away the time pulling weeds,  and thinning the rows of beautiful greens. Which leads us to this salad. Instead of thinning and tossing, I like to use the thinning in salads like this, kind of a waste-not-want-not kind of thing. It makes me feel less guilty about pulling out perfectly good plants :)

Baby Kale against a backdrop
of carrots, that need to be thinned
as well!

Kale and Quinoa Salad with Strawberries, Pecans and Avocado

6 cups chopped baby Kale (packaged or picked from your garden!)

2 cups cooked quinoa, cooled

2 avocados, diced

2 cups strawberries, hulls removed and sliced

1 cup chopped toasted pecans

Dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar or white balsamic

Zest and juice of one organic lemon

1 tsp sea salt or herbamare

1 Tbsp honey

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

½ cup chopped garlic chives (optional, you can sub regular chives if desired)

Toss the salad ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine the dressing ingredients into a 2c mason jar. Place lid on snuggly and shake well to combine.

Toss together well and serve immediately, or chill in refrigerator for up to a day if desired.

Squeeze lemon into your jar

use rasp to grate the zest BEFORE
squeezing the lemons...much easier!

to cool your quinoa quickly,
spread on a large plate and
set in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Perfect side dish for BBQ Chicken 

Light and Lemony Poppy Seed Dressing

This simple dressing goes together in the blink of an eye, and is perfect for any light summer salad. It will keep in your fridge for up to a week with no problem. 

Light and Lemony Poppy Seed Dressing

½ cup olive oil

2 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar

Juice of 1 Lemon

2 Tbsp Maple syrup

1 tsp Herbamare or sea salt

2 Tbsp poppy seeds

Measure all ingredients into a 2 cup mason jar. Screw on Metal lid, shake well, and use on salad of choice. 

Pictured on fresh garden lettuce and baby
kale, avocado and tomato

Pictured on a quick salad of grapefruit, avocado
and chiffonade-ed basil. A quick and tasty lunch!

How to "chiffonade" basil: 

stack basil leaves in a pile...

roll them up like a cigar
as best you can...

thinly slice with knife, ta da! Basil Chiffonade!

Creamy Probiotic Rich Salad Dressing

This batch is made with garlic chives
and parsley

Gardening season is in full swing and our lettuce is growing like crazy…giving salads a starring role on our daily menus!  I love it when we can pick lettuce straight from the garden and have it in a salad within minutes. Although we never seem to get bored with salads, I do like to change up the dressings we use to keep it fresh and fun. This has become one of my favourite dressings lately to top these lovely fresh greens.  I like to use both kefir and yogurt in it. Kefir and yogurt, although both fermented milk products, vary in the bacterial cultures they contain. If you want to read more on the differences between the two, this article is great. Cultured/fermented food consumption dates back to ancient times. Great for immunity, gut health, digestion and more, I try and incorporate fermented foods in our diet on a regular basis. (Click here for a great article on fermented foods from Cheeseslave.)   Using kefir and yogurt gives this dressing a big Probiotic punch. Add some fresh herbs from the garden, and you have an awesome nutritional powerhouse to top your fresh greens.

This batch is made with fresh dill

Creamy Probiotic Rich Salad Dressing

¾ cup full fat dairy kefir

¾ cup full fat non-homogenized yogurt

1/3 cup avocado oil

1 tsp Herbamare, or other sea salt of choice

1 tsp coarsely ground fresh black pepper

1 clove minced garlic

½ cup chopped herbs: dill, basil, parsley, chives, cilantro, garlic chives, etc!(pick one or a combo of your choice!)

Measure all ingredients into a 2 cup mason jar. Screw on a metal lid, shake well. Serve on salad of choice. Store leftovers in fridge for 4-5 days.

My Garden :)

Creamy Vegetable Salad with Fresh Dill

The sense of smell is amazing. It can transport us back to another place and time with one small whiff of a certain scent or smell. Like the first time I smelled bottled white grape juice. All of a sudden I was standing (in my mind, no teleporting involved) in my grandparents’ back yard, under their grape arbor, surrounded by the tart green grapes that grew so heavy on those vines. One sniff and I was back in a childhood memory so vivid, I could picture every detail of their yard and garden, and taste the sweet tartness of those grapes.

This recipe has nothing to do with grapes, but it does involve another scent that brought back a memory, and made me create this recipe. We were shopping this week at Oakridge Acres in Ayr, Ontario and they had these little bags of fresh organic dill, the delicate feathery kind that is so aromatic. As I brought the bag up to my nose, I was suddenly transported (again, no teleporting!) to a vegetarian restaurant that we used to go to in Guelph years ago. The name escapes me, but on this particular visit, I ordered a crisp vegetable salad that was bursting with fresh dill. The tangy bright flavor of the dill was perfectly balanced by the crunch of the veggies and the creamy dressing; it lodged itself deeply in the flavor vaults of my brain. At that time of my life, not being the foodie I am now, I simply enjoyed the salad and moved on. The thought of getting the recipe never crossed my mind.  One whiff of this dill though, and I knew I had to recreate the salad that left such an impression on my taste buds all those years ago.

Although this dressing is very creamy, there is no dairy involved.  I have been using cashews a lot more in the kitchen lately, and they were the perfect base for this salad. They have the ability, when blended, to create a velvety thick dressing without the need for dairy. They also add protein (18 grams in a full cup), healthy fat and decent amounts of magnesium, iron and B-6, among other things!

This salad keeps well in the fridge for a few days; just give a stir if it has been sitting.

 Creamy Vegetable Salad with Dill

Dressing:

1 cup raw cashews

2 small cloves of garlic

½ tsp Herbamare or other sea salt

2/3 cup water

Veggies:

2 -3 carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

2-3 stalks celery, chopped

3 cups chopped cauliflower

2 small zucchini, chopped

½ of a red pepper, seeded and chopped

½ cup chopped fresh dill

Salt and pepper to taste

Dressing: 

Place dressing ingredients into a blender and whiz until creamy and smooth.  Set aside.

Veggies: 

Prepare all veggies and place in a large bowl. Add dressing and dill, toss to coat. Serve immediately or chill. Store leftovers in fridge for up to a few days.

Garden Vegetable and Quinoa Salad

I love summer. More to the point, I love my garden in the summer. Picking fresh veggies and using them right away for lunch, or dinner, or a salad, is definitely a highlight of the season for me. There is always the makings of a meal or a side dish just outside my back door, as fresh as fresh can be. I highly recommend gardening of some kind to everyone, even if it is just growing some herbs in pots on a sunny windowsill.

 The green and yellow beans, the spinach, the zucchini, and  the herbs in this salad all came from my garden. I created this salad  

for my last GBG gathering, (my grade school girlfriends group), the same one that I took the chocolate cake with this raspberry sauce to. I somehow neglected to take a picture of the salad though, and had to make another batch, just for the pictures, of course! (I missed taking pictures of the cake too…that one will have to be repeated soon too, just for pictures again, really!

Garden Vegetable and Quinoa Salad

3 cups chopped green and or yellow wax beans( 2 inch pieces ish)

1 ¾ cup cooked quinoa

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced into thin half moons

¼ cup fresh chopped basil

Zucchini in the garden

¼ cup fresh chopped parsley

1/3 cup chives, regular or garlic (garlic are my favourite!)

3 cups packed baby spinach

1 cup thinly sliced red onion (to remove the bite, after slicing, soak the onion in ice cold water for 10-15 minutes, drain well before using)

Dressing:

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp grainy mustard

1 tbsp maple syrup

Salt and pepper to taste

Green Beans :)

Bring 6 cups of water to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium, and drop in the chopped beans and cook for 4 minutes. Plunge into a bowl of ice cold water to stop the cooking process and chill the beans. Change the water if necessary to get them cold.

Toss into a large bowl with the quinoa and the rest of the chopped veggies, and herbs . Set aside.

Measure the dressing ingredients in a 2 cup mason jar. Put lid on and shake well. Combine with salad ingredients and mix well to combine. Serve immediately or refrigerate till needed. Keeps well in refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Zucchini And Snow Pea Salad With Fresh Apricots, (and a small garden tour!)

I love picking meals directly from our garden. We have been having salads from our lettuces for quite a while now, but other vegetables are just now becoming big enough to harvest. Maybe not cause for a big celebration to most, but in my world, it is kinda exciting. I guess I am a garden geek, but nothing tastes better than freshly picked produce, from seeds that you planted yourself. Pulling a pea off the vine and munching while I am weeding is one of life’s simple pleasures, and I am still sometimes surprised at how simple and rewarding gardening can be.

Tonight’s dinner contained a lot of first harvests. I thinned a few rows of beets (I always wait to thin my beets until they are of a usable size, see the picture below) and roasted the beets I pulled in a bit of coconut oil on the BBQ. We sautéed the beet tops in some butter and served them with a squeeze of lemon. The salad recipe included in this post  has our first zucchini, and our first big enough harvest of peas to do something with other than just snacking on. The salmon steaks were marinated in butter, lemon and fresh herbs picked from the herb garden.

Zucchini And Snow Pea Salad With Fresh Apricots

1 medium zucchini

¾ tsp Herbamare

1 pint snow peas (1 ½ cups ish), trimmed

4 fresh apricots

2 Tbsp black sesame seeds (I like the Organic Traditions ones)

1 cup pea sprouts

Dressing:

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

2 tsp honey

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Slice the zucchini into very thin round slices, a mandolin is very helpful for this! Toss it in a bowl with the Herbamare, and set aside for 20 minutes or so to “sweat”.

While the zucchini is sweating, blanch the snow peas. Drop them into a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, and immediately remove them into a bowl of very cold water to stop the cooking process. When they are cold to the touch, drain well. Set aside.

Mix together the dressing ingredients and set aside.

Toast your sesame seeds in a cast iron pan over medium heat until they just start to pop. Remove from hot pan to a plate to cool. Set aside.

Remove the pit from your apricots and cut up into pieces. Set aside.

Gently squeeze the zucchini to release any excess moisture and drain any liquid away.

To assemble the salad:

In a medium salad bowl, mix the zucchini, snow peas, and apricots together gently until well mixed. Add the dressing to the bowl and stir to distribute.

I always over-plant my beets, and start thinning
when they get about this big, they are amazing
when they are roasted!

Just before serving, toss in the pea sprouts and the black sesame seeds.  Gently toss and serve.

Main Vegetable Bed

Herb Garden
and Sunflowers

Tomatoes, Garlic
 and Rhubarb
(and Ryley the Poodle!)

Sweet and Sour Sloppy Slaw

I made this recipe from one of my Real Simple magazines a few weeks ago, and while it was good, it was needing some tweaking for our tastes.  We don’t eat wheat, so the buns had to go, and we found it really salty. So, I tweaked a bunch and this is what I came up with.  It morphed into a salad of sorts, and received great reviews from my teenage test kitchen.

If your ground beef is thawed, it can be on the table in about a half an hour. I recommend making the coleslaw part first so the flavours can combine while the beef cooks.  I added the Arame, a sea vegetable, for a nutrient boost. It can be left out if you are feeding less than adventurous eaters! (I have been adding sea vegetables to everything lately, they up the trace minerals and nutrients of any recipe without altering the taste.

Sweet And Sour Sloppy Slaw

Cole slaw:

4 cups shredded cabbage

3 carrots, grated

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Juice of one lime

1 ½ tbsp olive oil

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp sesame seeds

Ground beef:

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 lg onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup pre-soaked Arame, drained

1 inch knob of ginger, grated

1 lb grass fed ground beef

2 tbsp Bragg's Soy Seasoning

½ can of small can of tomato paste

2 tbsp coconut sugar

½ cup water

For Coleslaw:

Toss all ingredients in a large bowl, and mix well. Set aside at room temp to marinate while you make the ground beef part;

Ground beef:

Sauté onion in coconut oil for 2-3 minutes over medium high heat in a large cast iron pan. Add the ground beef, using wooden spoon to break it up as you stir. When it is almost cooked thru, 6-8 minutes or so, add the rest of the ingredients, stirring to combine. Let cook until the ground beef is completely cooked and the liquid is mostly absorbed, another 4-5 minutes.

Serve the hot beef on top of the coleslaw.

Warm Spinach Salad

I love the days when Jim plays hooky for the afternoon when I have a day off. That gives me time to put a bit of extra effort into lunch, instead of our typical salads and leftovers that we pack for lunch on a daily basis. This is still a salad, but with a bit of a fun twist. The sautéed vegetables are combined in the hot pan with vinegar to make up the dressing, which is then tossed with the cooked bacon and the cool greens. It all goes together in a flash as well, and would make an awesome side dish for a summer bbq!
We buy our beef bacon here. If you visit, be sure to tell Mark and Cindy we said "Hi!"!

Warm Spinach Salad

6 slices beef bacon, chopped into bite sized pieces (substitute nitrate free pork bacon if you wish)

½ cup organic shallots, coarsely chopped

1 cup of chopped fresh organic tomato

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

4 cups baby organic spinach

Salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup toasted organic walnuts (optional)

Place your spinach in a large bowl and set aside.

Sauté your bacon in a medium to large cast iron pan. When it is just starting to crisp up, remove from pan leaving the fat remaining in the pan. You will want about 2 tbsp, so if your bacon is really fatty, remove all but that amount.

Sauté the shallots in the bacon fat until they just start to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomato and sauté for a minute more, until it starts to soften and release the juices. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, and season with some fresh ground black pepper and sea salt to taste.

Add the bacon and toasted walnuts, if using, to the bowl of spinach, and then pour the contents of the hot pan, juices and all on top, and toss well to combine.

Serve immediately.

Maple Balsamic Dressing with Cracked Pepper

Salads are a staple in our house. But the bottled dressings that you find in most grocery stores are not. I am always baffled by the amount of ingredients that are listed on the labels, most of which are impossible to pronounce.  Fresh salad dressings are so easy to throw together, and you are guaranteed to be able to pronounce every ingredient. Using a mason jar eliminates the fuss of extra dishes, too. Measure everything into your jar, screw on the lid and shake. You can then serve and store from the same jar. I try and keep a variety of different oils and vinegar's on hand to change things up. This dressing is a favourite, and is made often! Most pepper grinders are adjustable, so you can create a coarser grind than you would generally use.

Maple Balsamic Dressing with Cracked Pepper

½ c organic Olive Oil

1/3 cup organic Balsamic Vinegar

Mixed greens, leftover chicken, sprouts
and a half of a granny smith apple +
this yummy dressing = one delicious lunch!

1 Tbsp organic Maple syrup

1 Tbsp organic Old Fashioned Grainy Mustard

½ tsp Herbamare or sea salt of choice

1 tsp coarsely ground organic black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a mason jar. Put the lid on and shake well.  Alternatively, use a small mixing bowl and mix all ingredients well to combine. Serve over organic salad greens of choice.

Zucchini Spinach Salad

I made this salad for my brothers birthday dinner on the weekend. There was an awesome picture of a similar salad on Pinterest, but when searching for the actual recipe, there were only links to the picture. So, me being me, I invented my own. I think it turned out pretty well. I had the leftovers for lunch the following day and it holds up well. I almost liked it better after it sat, so don’t be afraid to make it in advance!  Feel free to use any feta you like, but I highly recommend using the Raw Sheep's Milk Feta from Best Baa, it is my favourite feta EVER!!

Zucchini Spinach Salad

Salad:

6 cups organic baby spinach, lightly packed

1 medium organic zucchini, sliced thin

1/3 cup chopped fresh organic basil

½ cup toasted organic pumpkin seeds

½ cup dried organic, juice sweetened cranberries

2/3 cup Best Baa Raw Sheep Milk Feta, crumbled (or feta of choice)

Dressing:

1/3 cup organic olive oil

Juice of ½ an organic lemon

3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (or white balsamic)

½ tsp Herbamare or sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

I used my spirulizer to get
the zucchini nice and thin, you
could also use a mandolin or
a vegetable peeler to get
nice thin slices!

Toss the salad ingredients together in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, combine dressing ingredients, and toss well with combined salad ingredients.

Serve right away, or refrigerate till needed, up to 8 hrs.

Easy Avocado Lime Salad Dressing

Served here on a bed of lettuce, cucumbers,
leftover bbq chicken and sprouts :)

This is one of my favourite salad dressings. Tangy and creamy, perfect for any spring salad! If you need to keep it dairy free, you can add more water in place of the kefir or yogurt.  This makes enough to dress a large salad, and keeps well for a day or two in the fridge.

Easy Avocado Lime Salad Dressing

1 ripe avocado, halved, pit and skin removed,

1 lime, juiced (approx 2 tbsp juice)

1/3 cup plain kefir or yogurt

1 clove garlic

½ tsp Herbamare or other sea salt

¼ cup water or more

Optional:  few dashes of hot sauce

Place all ingredients in blender and blend till smooth.  (we have the Cuisinart Blender with the individual cups, they work well for this dressing) Add more water if needed to thin to desired consistency.

Serve over salad of choice!

Roasted Orange Walnut Salmon with Rosemary

This is a bonus two-recipes- in-one post. We very often cook with pre-planned leftovers, to be used either as is, or changed up somehow to be used in our lunches for the next day.  After dinner, while we are tiding up (Jim calls me “Hurricane Janine” in the kitchen) we get our lunches ready for the next day to keep our mornings less hectic. Freezing 1 cup portions of quinoa gives a great salad filler for the extra veggies or proteins from dinner. If you freeze it spread out and flat in baggies, it thaws in no time.

I threw together this tasty salmon topping, and the pan juices become the dressing for the salad. Easy and tasty!

We served our salmon with some organic baby spinach sauted in butter, and these potatoes from my old blog. (Gluten warning: the malt vinegar mentioned in the linked recipe does contain Gluten, substitute a raw apple cider vinegar or a nice organic balsamic)

Roasted Orange Walnut Salmon with Rosemary

5 Wild caught salmon pieces or one very large piece, thawed if frozen

1/3 cup organic walnuts, finely chopped

Zest of ½ an organic orange

Juice of whole organic orange (mine was not very large)

1 T coconut nectar

2 T melted coconut oil or olive oil

1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 tsp Herbamare (or sea salt of your choice)

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, woody stems removed, finely chopped (or sub 1 tsp dried)

Preheat oven to 450F. Place Salmon, skin side down,  in an oven safe dish. Set aside.

Mix all ingredients together and spread evenly on top of salmon pieces. Bake on middle rack in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the salmon flakes easily with fork and is opaque thru.

Serve hot!

Salmon Quinoa Salad:

1 piece of the above salmon, plus the extra pan juices,

1 cup of pre-cooked quinoa

 2-3 cups mixed organic baby greens

Flake the salmon in a medium mixing bowl. Add quinoa, salad greens and the pan juices from the salmon. Toss well, makes two servings.