Apple-Cranberry-Pecan Salad
I wonder if lettuce and spinach sales go up in January. After all the decadence of Christmas everyone is busy trying to get back on track and eating healthy again. So here’s a nice salad combination I put together inspired by Costco. Over the holidays we visited Costco and they had a ready-made salad very similar to this. It was very tasty and definitely worth re-creating. I used pretty much the same ingredients but I left out the gouda cheese.
I suggest serving it with my honey-lime dressing or with simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Spring mix
Dried cranberries
Apple
Pecans
Orange juice to dip the apples in
Combine all ingredients except the apple in a bowl.
Cut the apple in small pieces. Dip it in orange juice to prevent it from turning brown.
Serve in your favorite bowl!
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Nacho Dip
This is a trusty favorite recipe that we have been making in our family for many years. In fact this is our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. My Dad used to be surprised every year that all we were having for dinner was nachos, but they are so filling and delicious they are really all you need!
The great thing about this recipe is that you can literally mix it up with whatever you have on hand, and put it together in whatever order you wish. I think it would also be great with avocado instead of the cream cheese. So if you don’t eat cheese simply leave out the cream cheese and shredded cheese and use avocado instead. Either mix it up as guacamole or include it plain or mixed with the taco seasoning. Any of these methods would be equally delicious.
Another favorite tip of mine is to make your own nacho chips by cutting tortillas in to chip-size pieces and baking them. This is a great alternative to salty, high-fat nacho chips and they are really easy to make!
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 package of low-fat cream cheese
1/2 package (or to taste) of taco seasoning mix
1/2 can of black beans ground up in the food processor
1/2 jar of salsa
Low fat or no fat sour cream (optional)
4-5 chopped green onions
1/2 diced red bell pepper
Shredded cheese
Shredded Lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Mix together cream cheese and taco seasoning. Spread in bottom of bowl, then add black beans.
Add salsa, green onions, red peppers.
Then add lettuce and tomatoes. Serve with nacho chips!
To make your own nacho chips, cut your tortillas (I like to use whole wheat tortillas) into chip-size pieces and bake them at 300 degrees until they are crispy.
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Curry-Pumpkin Lentils & Chickpeas
This is the perfect recipe for a winter day! I invented it on New Year’s Eve morning when the weather forecast was calling for heavy snow all day. I figured it was the perfect day to hunker down and throw a bunch of stuff in the crockpot to cook.
I knew I wanted pumpkin in it, so then the only question was what else did I have in my cupboard so I wouldn’t have to go to the grocery store. The last time I tried this I had to throw the whole thing away because it really wasn’t very good. But this actually turned out to be a very tasty dish! My husband had it for dinner two nights in a row. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t like it!
I recommend serving it the way my Cajun Mother-in-law serves her seafood gumbo–in a bowl with as much rice as you like and the gumbo poured in on top of it! So perhaps this is more of a Curry-Pumpkin Vegetarian Gumbo!
This is my contribution for Souper (Soup, Salad and Sammie) Sundays, a weekly foodblogging event organized and hosted by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 cup diced onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1-2 cloves garlic
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup dried lentils
2 – 15 oz cans chick peas
1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
Sprinkle of hot pepper flakes
4 cups unsalted vegetable broth
Place all ingredients in crockpot and cook on high for approx 6 hours.
Serve in a bowl over as much or as little rice as you like. I like to use brown basmati rice.
Veggie Yogi 