Tag: nuts

Summer Salads…yum!

Oh boy do I LOVE salads! There is truly endless possibility here but I want to talk about “summer salads” which, in my mind, tend to be a little lighter and include some more exotic items and toppings. My mouth is watering just thinking about this post!! 🙂

One of my favorite things to add to summer salads is fruit! Certain fruits pair better with certain greens and dressings. You also really can’t go wrong pairing nuts and seeds with summer salads, either. I’m going to list for you some of my favorite ingredients by categories so you can reference this post to mix and match as your taste buds guide you! I’m also going to share with you some of my favorite combinations 🙂

Greens

Arugula is my personal go-to green. I LOVE arugula. It happens to be one of my favorite foods of all time…I know, I’m weird. 😉 Other bases can include spinach, baby mixed greens, iceburg lettuce, romaine, kale, mesclun, butter lettuce (also love this one!), red leaf, and redicchio.

Fruits

For summer salads, you can’t go wrong adding fruit! In fact, don’t forget the almighty but often overlooked fruit salad. Every now and then, you just need a cool, refreshing plate of fruit! Pears, strawberries, peaches, blueberries, and grapes are some of my favorites to add to salads with greens. As far as dried fruit, I also love adding raisins, dried cherries, coconut, cranberries, or dried cherries.

Seeds and Nuts

Sunflower seeds, pepitas, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans are my favorites but obviously there is a host of other options in this category. Others I can think of off the top of my head are flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, peanuts, and pistachios.

Cheeses

Ahhh….cheese. One of my main food groups 😉 If you are vegan, leave this one out. My favorites are cheddar, feta, provolone, smoked gouda, goat cheese, parmesan, romano, robusto, and fresh mozzarella. Of course the list of cheeses is endless so I’ll let you be adventurous and Google the heck out of this category for some new ideas!

Veggies

Avocado is great for summer salads. Same for tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, and pretty much anything else that is growing in your garden right now! I do love going out to the garden and just freshly picking whatever is there but if you aren’t growing a garden (you should try it!), then just pick up whatever veggies look yummy at the store. Carrots, radishes, mushrooms, and sweet peas are a few more favorites of mine!

Herbs

I L-O-V-E putting fresh herbs in my salads. I’m not sure if other people do this regularly, but everyone should! 😉 My favorites are chives, dill, parsley and basil but I also add cilantro, oregano, or mint when it’s called for!

Other toppings

Well you all know I’m into sprouts right now. Did you know there are LOTS of different sprouts? Broccoli and alfalfa are my favorite but there’s also sunflower, radish, chickpea, mung bean (and various other beans), lentil, buckwheat, and the list goes on and on. And of course nothing beats a little fresh ground black pepper on top of the salad 🙂 Yum!

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Dressings

I can’t even get into all the dressings out there. But I’m into low-sugar dressings for sure. And my favorite thing to do is make my own dressing. Usually with olive oil and balsamic but I’ve also looked up recipes for whatever mood I’m in when I’m ready for my salad 😉

Delicious! And here are a few of my favorite combinations (so far!).

Mix #1: Arugula, blueberries, gouda cheese, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, broccoli sprouts, dill, chives, parsley, and black pepper.

Mix #2: Mixed greens, pepitas, avocado, tomato, fresh mozzarella, onions, yellow bell peppers, fresh basil, black pepper.

Mix #3: Spinach, strawberries, cashews, feta cheese, fresh mint, black pepper.

I have so many others! But these will be a good starting point for you if you don’t have time to mix and match right off the bat because these are three very different “styles” of salads

. Just be creative and experiment. If it sounds like it’s going to be delicious…it probably will be 🙂

Short and Sweet…

So all this talk about reducing sugar and eating super foods and having a healthy lifestyle…it doesn’t mean you can’t indulge once in a while. The key word here is balance. One thing I love to make to satisfy my family’s sweet tooth is homemade whipped cream. It is super indulgent, I can control the amount of sugar I’m adding, and it goes perfectly with all kinds of fruits and berries (and as I’m sure you know, many berries are super foods!).

I like to add real vanilla bean paste to my homemade whipped cream to make it extra decadent. I do use white, refined sugar, but just a bit. We’re used to less sugar so a little bit goes a long way. That is one thing I’ve noticed with reducing or detoxing sugar–after your body adjusts, a tiny bit of sweetness goes a LONG way. Which is great! Because you can still indulge once in a while and not go overboard doing it.

We eat dairy in this house so if you are vegan, you’ll have to skip this one (sorry!). Maybe one day I will try one of these recipes for vegan whipped coconut cream, but for today I’m sharing my dairy whipped cream!

About those berries…ever hear of the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale? It’s a lab test that quantifies the capacity of antioxidants in a food. Why should you care? Because the better a food protects its “good stuff”, the more of that said “good stuff” your body will be able to absorb! Learn more here. I added blueberries (ORAC: 4,669), black berries (ORAC: 19,220), strawberries, and the next night, peaches to our whipped cream 🙂 What will you add? Pomegranate seeds, red raspberries, goji berries (ORAC: 3,290), oranges, bananas, some cinnamon (ORAC: 131,420) on top, some nuts for a little added protein? Endless possibilities, people! Which is why you can make this one a regular in your menu plans and just rotate the toppings 🙂 Kiddos love it! Want to know all the ORAC values of the above listed toppings? You can find that info here. Without further ado…

Homemade Whipped Cream

1 Pint Heavy Whipping Cream

Vanilla Bean Paste (one bean)

1-2 Tablespoons white sugar to taste

Berries, peaches, other fruits, nuts, coffee, black tea, whatever else you’d like to eat this with! 🙂

This makes a lot of whipped cream so you might want to half it if your family is less than four people 😉

You’ll need a whisk head like this for your mixer:

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If you’ve never worked with vanilla beans, you will want to cut the bean in half, then you slice the bean down the middle. Open it up so you can see the paste in the middle. And then scrape the paste out of the bean. You will add this directly to the bowl just like this. So, leave it on your knife and set it aside.

Ok…now…

Add the whipping cream, vanilla bean paste, and sugar to your mixing bowl. Mix on high (with your whisk head) until the cream starts to look fluffy and forms peaks. Scrape the sides of the bowl and put the cream in the fridge to set (about 20 minutes or so). Add your other goodies and enjoy! Keep the whipped cream in the fridge. For best storage, I like to keep it right in my stainless steel mixing bowl so it stays nice and evenly chilled!