I’m going to go out on a limb and say that kale has been the new “it” vegetable from this past year. Everywhere I look I see recipes using kale. In almost every recipe, the kale is steamed/sauteed/baked…basically cooked. When I came across a recipe using raw kale, I was interested. How could you turn such a sturdy green into something that tasted great raw?

The trick, I learned, was to use an avocado and a bit of oil. By massaging it into the kale, it helps to soften the greens, all while infusing flavor. I was sold. 

It’s creamy from the avocado, tangy from the lime juice and has a nice fresh crunch from the green onions. Definitely a different combination of flavors. This would be great served with grilled chicken or fish for a delicious light meal!

Kale and Avocado Salad

{ Serves 2-3 }

1 bunch of curly kale, de-stemmed and torn into pieces

1 avocado, scooped and diced

1 TBS olive oil

3 tablespoons chopped green onions

2 Roma tomatoes

1/2 tsp. salt

1 lime (start with juice from 1/2 then add more to taste)

Add pieces of kale to a large bowl. Add in the diced avocado and olive oil. Using your hands, massage the avocado and oil into the kale until each leaf is well coated.

Add remaining ingredients, except for the lime juice, to the bowl and toss to combine. Start by adding juice from 1/2 of the lime then add more to taste. Toss well and serve.

This will keep in an air-tight container in the fridge for 2 days.

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite new salads. The best part of this recipe is that there is no recipe! It’s a throw-together-what-you-have kinda dish that I’ve been craving over and over again. Have a favorite vegetable? Add it to the bowl. Don’t like tomatoes, keep them out. I love “recipes” that I can easily adapt to my taste.

The other great thing about this salad is that everything can be chopped ahead of time and stored in the fridge. When you want to eat, pull everything out and everyone can make their own salad with exactly what they like. When I first made this salad a couple weeks ago, I ate the leftovers nearly every day for lunch for a week. It made a quick, easy meal that I felt good about eating.

To make this salad a lot healthier than traditional taco salads, I skipped the high calorie taco shell bowl it normally comes in and instead added cooked brown rice. I also left all the veggies raw for maximum nutritional value and left out any salad dressing. It tasted great without any dressing, but if you’d like some, try my { creamy cilantro dressing }. It would be delicious with that!

Here’s what I had in my salad…

- Romaine lettuce

- Ground Beef (I used one pound of 90/10 which is leaner and cooked it with 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. garlic powder, salt and pepper.)

- Brown Rice

- Orange pepper, diced

- Roma Tomato, diced

- Avocado, diced (Which I accidentally left out of the picture above.)

- Cilantro, chopped

- Shredded cheese

This salad would also be delicious with…

- Corn kernels

- Red peppers

- Jicama

- Black beans

- Salsa

Justin and I really enjoyed this salad. I love finding new ways to make salad a main course meal. With this dinner, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything from a great Mexican meal other than extra calories and fat!

Tell me, what would your perfect taco salad have in it?

For some reason, October is always our busiest time of the year. I blame it on the fact that football kicks into overdrive and our birthdays book-end the month. This year we’ve decided to take it from simply busy, to insane.  I’m excited to share that we are starting the house hunting process! I can’t wait to finally have our own home to decorate. And grill out. And host lots of family holidays and dinner parties. We are SO ready for the phase in our life.

We are also currently in the process of trying to buy a new (used) car, host/attend several baby/bridal showers in the next month and a million other small things that add up to one crazy busy month. I think the paperwork alone from trying to get pre-approved for a mortgage is going to do me in!

With all that said, I’ve been too busy to cook more than a couple nights a week. Enter, this salad. Not only is it incredibly delicious, but I can have all the ingredients ready in the fridge and throw it together at the last minute. It combines juicy chicken, crisp apples and salty bacon with a quick and easy toasted pecan vinaigrette for a great quick meal. Don’t have apples, use pears. Don’t like Gorgonzola, try feta. The beauty of this salad is that it’s easy to adapt to your specific tastes.

I served this salad to my mom a few weeks ago for lunch and she raved about it. It was nice to be able to sit with my mom over a great meal and talk about our lives and the future. To take a break from all the craziness and simply connect over a leisurely lunch. Now every time I make this salad, I think of her. Ladies, invite your moms to lunch and make them this salad. And talk about all your dreams for the future. Life is all about making delicious memories together.

Chicken, Bacon and Apple Salad

{ Serves 2 }

2 hearts of romaine, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 slice of bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 chicken breast, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1 small apple, chopped

1/3 cup Gorgonzola

Mix all ingredients and toss to combine. Add a few tablespoons of dressing (recipe below) and lightly toss to dress salad.

Pecan Vinaigrette

Adapted from Tupelo Honey Cafe

{ Makes 1 cup }

1/4 cup pecans

1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 1/4 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 1/4 tsp. whole-grain mustard

1 TBS honey

1 tsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt

few cracks fresh black pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Set oven to 350 degrees. Place the pecans on a small baking sheet and roast in the oven for 15 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Once cool, coarsely chop pecans.

In a blender or food processor, blend together vinegar, garlic, both mustards, honey, sugar, salt and pepper. While the machine is still running, slowly add in the olive oil. Blend until combined. Stir chopped pecans into mixture.

Remove mixture and pour into an airtight container. Keep dressing in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

I used to despise cilantro. I refused to eat even the tiniest leaf. And forget salsa. It ruined it.

And then, one day I woke up and cilantro wasn’t so bad.

In fact, I started to like it. And then love it. And now, I’m obsessed.

Isn’t it weird how that can happen?

I’ve heard it takes children at least a dozen times of trying a new food before they will like it. So often, we give up if we try something once and don’t care for it. I say, try and try again. If you don’t like boiled carrots (who does??), try roasting them. Not a fan of brussell sprouts? Try shredding them with bacon and onions. I challenge you to take a food that you don’t normally like, and try preparing it in a way that you’ve never tasted before.

Every single one of us is going to have foods that we genuinely don’t like, but we also all have foods that we simply don’t like prepared certain ways. Take one food this week and try to figure out which category it falls into: wrong food or wrong preparation.

This cilantro dressing is sweet, tart and oh so delicious on salads. In the pictures, I paired it with a salad of strawberries and sliced almonds which was inspired bythis { Cheeky Lady }. I’ve also tried it with diced tomatoes, peaches and red onion on a bed of lettuce, which I have to say was my favorite variation. It’s ridiculous, in the best way possible.

Creamy Cilantro Dressing

{serves 4-6 }

- 1 large clove garlic

- 2 TBS plain low-fat yogurt

- ½ cup cilantro, not packed

- ¼ cup rice wine vinegar

- ½ cup olive oil

- juice of 1 lime

- 1 TBS sugar

- 1 tsp salt

Blend together and serve.

What foods have you disliked but are now among your favorite foods?