Whats On Your Salad #4

Have you had your salad today?
Salads are cool. Salads are crunchy. Salads are fun.

They're the perfect way to be sure of healthy eating. Salads are an option at practically every restaurant, as cheap as one buck-a-roo at the drive thru, and take less than 5 minutes to throw together in your own kitchen. They offer a bang of fiber and can satisfy one serving of fruits and veggies, add nuts, meats, or seafood for a boost of protein then pick the right dressing to pull it all together.

In last week's salad post I promised to share with you some easy home made dressing recipes.
Here's what you may have missed up to this point...

Thai Peanut Dressing - paired with slaw mix, every veggie in the fridge, and nuts
Sweet Asian Dressing - paired with Napa Cabbage, ramon, and almonds
Citrus Dressing - paired with spring lettuce, asparagus, red onion, and mandarins

Tahini Dressing - paired with spinach and chickpea

1/4 c. lemon juice
2 tbs red vinegar
pinch cayenne & salt
1 clove garlic
let sit 5-10 minutes then whisk in...
1/4 c. tahini
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 shallot, thinly sliced

Orange Zest Dressing - paired with scallops and oranges on arugula

3 1/2 tbs sherry vinegar
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 shallot, thinly sliced
pinch of salt
let sit 5 - 10 minutes then whisk in....
1/2 c. olive oil

I recommend trying any one of these 5 dressings. It's too hard to pick a favorite, they are all seriously that good. Each one is healthy...a little olive oil does the body good. Home made dressings are easy to make and more tasty than store bought, since you can alter the ingredients to your own liking. You could even take the simple route of filling a jar with vinegar and infusing it with your favorite herbs like dill or cilantro or peppers and Italian seasonings. get creative!

Here's my favorite salad of the week....can't wait to see what you've been chomping on!!!

Mix chopped Romaine lettuce with grilled chicken breast slices. Add almond slivers and wonton crumbles. Sprinkle sesame seeds and cilantro on top! Brace yourself for a yum, yum salad, the cilantro adds a punch!

Asian Sesame Dressing - Panera Bread Knock Off

1/4 c. vinegar

1/4 c. toasted sesame oil

2 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp sesame seed

whisk and let sit then add 3/4 c. canola oil

straight off the Panera site!

Whats On Your Salad #3

Emerald, Tender Shoots, Jade, Sunflower, and Poppy Red too!
Beautiful, fun colors breaking out this year into all realms of fashion and home design. Have you purchased a few pieces of these colors? Seen the latest trends flying off the shelves of Target's home section? I was just there hoping to score a few good finds. Thankfully, the section was sparse, keeping my wallet happy and full.
I walked on, sad face and all. Until I hit the grocery section. There I found the colors I was after.

I know, I know....weird twist but I couldn't resist. Work with me. Think about it. These bright, vibrant hues are found all through nature. And they should be showing up on your plate too.

All of our "stay fit" & "get fit" efforts will be washed away if we're eating wrong. If you're taking the time to eat properly, then in essence, you're rewarding yourself for all the hard work you've put in. Salads are, seriously, an easy choice in making sure to fill up on nutrition and healthy bites! When you take the time to fill your bowl with shades of green from lettuces, bright orange from carrots or tangerines, poppy reds of apples, and yellows of seeds and nuts...you've rewarded your body for all the *hell you put it through during your workouts.

What I learned this week....raisins on salads are like candy. scallops make anything fancy. there is a difference between sherry and red vinegar. tahini is expensive, I must make hummus asap. arugula is super rich in nutrients and a little zesty. #whatsonyoursalad is working, it even inspired the cashier. salads make me smile.

My week of salads.

Seared scallops?! uh, yes please! Hubs said it was like dining out. I highly, highly recommend trying this! You know I'm craving sweets when I toss apples and raisins into my salad, I'm always relieved at how this hits the spot. And, hello, new way to use chickpea's. Yum!

*I know some of you are concerned with the calorie count of store bought dressings. I try to stick with the 2 tbs rule but sometimes you just can't help it! One way to curve this is by creating your own dressing. I'm really impressed with the dressings from this month and look forward to sharing them all with you next week!

In the meanwhile, back to last week's Thai Peanut Slaw Salad...

Grab a bag of slaw and thawed frozen peas, plus handfuls of chopped cilantro, green onion, and peanuts. The original recipe also calls for chopped red peppers and mint. Mix all of these in a large bowl and toss with dressing. This is an excellent side dish or stand alone salad. It is amazing with chicken rolled up as a wrap.

Thai Peanut Dressing 

1 granny smith apple chopped

1 1/2 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs seaseme oil

1 tbs white rice vinegar

2 tbs peanut butter (make your own like me!)

1 tbs water

pinches of garlic and paparika

Dump in blender then toss with slaw mix!

I've linked this with Work It Wednesdays and Wonderful Food Wednesday (archive linky below the break)

Whats On Your Salad #2

Feeling fabulous can be as easy as adding a new scarf to your outfit, ordering a spiced latte, or knocking out a killer workout. The thing about feeling good is it varies for each one us. There's so much in each of my days that makes me happy and one of them is eating smart. It's hard to make the right choices all the time. One way I know that I've made a good, healthy choice with my eating patterns is to have a salad each day, typically for lunch.

Salads are incredibly versatile and packed with uber amounts of nutrition. Last week's post showed 5 very different salad creations and lots more thanks to all of those who shared and linked up! Keeping nutritional choices in the house will make eating healthy, loosing/maintaining weight, and feeling good -easy.
Creating a grocery list and meal plan is the first step. I hope to inspire some salad ideas in these link ups and to those who have joined in...you have absolutely inspired me to venture out and try new things!

What I learned this week...you can't have too much lettuce in your bowl - you just need a bigger bowl. Walnuts might be better than sunflower seeds as a crunchy topping choice. My taste buds do not like eggplant. Peanut butter and apples blend nicely into a delish salad dressing. Some days you gotta cheat and add some sugar to your salad. Lentils are odd but packed with fiber, protein and antioxidants that the body needs. An egg as dressing for your salad taste much better than you'd imagine. Quinoa loaded with veggies is amazing. Cabbage deserves attention too. And I missed my edamames.

My week of salads.

The Thai Peanut Slaw Salad was de-O-licious! I'm saving that recipe for next week. Hubs and I had it twice in one day...as a side salad and with chicken as a sandwich wrap! I made a huge batch of the veggie quinoa, we ate it as a side with some meals and spread with hummus on pita as well as dumped on top romaine lettuce!


And for the "sweet" cheat of the week....

Chop two heads of Napa Cabbage, couple tablespoons of chopped green onions, add handfuls of almond slivers and broken pieces of ramon noodles. Those ramon noodles should first be browned in a skillet with butter. I died over this salad. It taste even better the next day. The recipe was given to me by a friend...

Sweet Asian Dressing 

1/2 c. oil
1 Tbs soy sauce
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. distilled vinegar
boil for one minute, let cool and chill before tossing with salad

What's On Your Salad #1

It's been a fun and creative week with salad's!

Huge THANK YOU to all that showed support when I presented the idea last week.

Lins was more than excited to participate, as well as Kim, Tyah, and Ashlyn! Of course, Laura, one of my bloggy besties, a nutrition guru, jumped on it too! So many others dropped comments here and there telling how they loved the idea and were looking forward to this weeks post. Lindsay and Esther tweeted with me during the week about their support and salad inspirations. Obvs, I was feelin' the love (so grateful) and having fun with this! Hope the rest of you are too!

Why #whatsonyoursalad ???

People for one, it's accountability. When we are working together towards the same goal of healthy eating we can find encouragement, motivation and accountability through each other...a recipe for success.

Secondly, salads are boring & repetitive, if our creations are limited. Salads are powerful and nutritious for our systems, they can be loaded high in fiber with veggies or high in protein with quinoa, meats or eggs, plus all varieties of lettuce contain crazy amounts of water...good hydration, not vibrations, good hydrations.

Thirdly, bloggy friends! How fun is it to blog? Fun. but when you start to network and connect with other bloggers....blogging becomes FUN, bold//caps//turn up the volume type fun.

Here's what I learned....I can eat/enjoy red onions. Mix iceberg with spinach to stretch out a bag of spinach. Orange Juice can be part of salad dressing. Combining salad dressings is a good way to change it up. Fruits on salads are just as yummy and nutritious as any vegetable. Leftovers aren't just for soups. Sunflower seeds help me miss bacon less. And, I'm less messy eating from a bowl than a plate.

My week of salads.

I posted almost daily on Twitter and just uploaded them to Instagram.
I loved the chicken and craisin salad with walnuts, mixing honey mustard with raspberry vinaigrette for the dressing was super yummy (hit the sweet tooth) and easy to carry to work. Another time, I used left over London Broil from a weeknight dinner and sprinkled Swiss cheese and edamames, added some well needed protein to that days lunch. The Cafe chef salad had some protein too with eggs and seeds.


And for my favorite salad with quick homemade dressing recipe....

Gather up handfuls of baby spring lettuce, mandarin oranges, and cooked but chilled asparagus twigs add red onion. The dressing for this was found here, it was the perfect complement for this salad, sweet but tangy.

Citrus Dressing 

1/2 c. mayo (could omit by increasing next item)
1/4 c. plain yogurt
1/3 c. orange juice
1/8 tsp. lemon-pepper
mix it all together, chill first if desired!

High Five For Friday!

I support these short workweeks. Why not have them every week?
Isn't it the best feeling EVER to think it's Tuesday when really it's already Thursday?!
Sure makes for a happier work place. WooHoo to short work weeks!

And Happy New Year to you!

If you're feeling like me...you're ready to kick back and own a weekend again...doing exactly, whatever it is YOU want to do.

Linking up with Lauren, giving a big High Five to the week

H54F

1// Like last week...I couldn't resist the sales! I scored the perfect NYE dress and other great steals. Love me some annual sales and gift cards from Santa. BTW, I think that's the perfect mom outfit. haha :)

2// Football!!! The "we interupt this marriage for football season" is sadly coming to an end. I love that the hubs loves football (huge college fan) but I'm looking forward to not hearing some half dumb, obnoxious commentator on every TV in the house. (almost every night of the week)

3// Basically the best way to eat yogurt.

4// Did CXWORX again this week! Loved the burn. Loved the new routine. Def keeping this as part of my fitness routine.

5// introduced my #whatsonyoursalad idea this week. Here's the recap. Check it out and join us in helping too motivate and inspire healthy eating!



Take a moment to reflect on the big and small things that make your week more beautiful.

#WhatsOnYourSalad

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#whatsonyoursalad

weeks:
 1// featured Chilled Asparagus Salad w/ Citrus Dressing + 4 other salads
 2// featured Napa Cabbage Salad w/ Sweet Asian Dressing + 4 other salads
3// featured Thai Peanut Slaw Salad w/ Peanut Homemade Dressing + 4 other salads
4// featured Panera Bread knock-off Asian Sesame Chicken Salad w/ homemade dressing +2 recipes

I'm hoping that you'll join me. It's simple.

Each Thursday, I'll post a collage of my salads/recipes of the week and create a Link Up.
Take a picture of your salad creations and share it via twitter or Instagram.

Be sure to hashtag it - so we can all search through and find some inspiration!
Each Thursday you're welcome to link up your post to help others find new ways of eating healthy!

We've definitely been through different problems like fears of the gym, setbacks, and how to be a runner
but we haven't really talked much on food, well, except for healthy snack ideas!

And, hello !!! Food is a major part of healthy living!
Some of you have said (and I can agree) healthy eating gets boring...my go to choice is salads!
Wouldn't it be great to have some fresh and new ideas to pick from?

If you want to join me in creating a post of your #whatsonyoursalad creations I would love to see it!
Be sure to comment, email me, tweet or insta it, so I can check it out and spread the word on your creations!

With or without you...I'm doing it :)

Desire to Inspire - & Whatsonyoursalad

Desire to Inspire.
Being an inspiration and motivation is the best gift you can give to each other.
It is the primary focus of my blog.

I always hope for my post to flow effortlessly in a tone that inspires and motivates all of you.
I am the same way in real life. I treat everyone with the respect that all is possible because where there's a will, there's a way. And I never count anyone short on their capabilities. I believe this to be the best of me. And being this way makes me believe in the best of you.

I teach my oldest to befriend everyone at his school. I tell him stories of when I was school age and noticed certain people being rejected...those were the people I made a point to talk with, to smile at, to wave to. He has witnessed many a time that an outcast was entertained by me or comforted by me. I try my hardest to always be open minded and always remember that I know no ones true struggles. My senior quote was 'never take shortcuts, transgressing the rights of others, for personal gain'. I still do my best to live by that some 15 years later.

This past week I have felt a need to organize my thoughts and funnel them into a direction that would better serve my blog (you), better present myself to my readers and centralize my inspiration behind blogging.

Organizing these thoughts has been uber hard. In the quiet moments I get to sit at the screen and type, I am often times distracted by Google reader, or text, or my twitter pop ups. Tonight, I was grateful for one of those interruptions. It helped me reel it all in. It helped me present one idea and lead to a pretty cool linky. The purpose of it is way cool and the projection expands into a focus I share. It's simple name is Desire to Inspire. Created by Amanda at A Royal Daughter. It's background info is here. And it's current link up is here.

When I choose to sponsor blogs...it's been by long thought and/or sheer impulse from being enlightened by a specific post. Upon choosing to click on that little Passionfruit buy now link....I then fill out a generic form asking what the purpose is behind my blog....every.single.time....I write to motivate and inspire.

I thought I'd post within Friday's H54F a suggestion to help me with #whatsonyoursalad. I think it's cool. We could all use a little motivation and inspiration in the healthy eating area of life. This one idea could go in so many different directions or could be short lived?! I love salads but bore with them quickly if my toppings are limited. I get insanely distracted on Pinterest and veer far away from salads, practically forgetting why I opened the app in the first place. Originally, I thought show on H54F, Start on Monday but after reading Desire to Inspire, I figure why wait?

So...I motivate you to to get creative with your healthy eating. 
And...I hope all my posts and this first salad pic inspire you!

We all know salads are a go-to meal for lunch or dinner. Shoooot, some Paleo chompers eat salad for breakfast. Today I'll post my picture of my lunch salad with quick 'script and next week around this time I will post a collection of all the past days salad creations. If you follow me on twitter you'll see what salad I create each day with the hashtag #whatsonyoursalad.

Join me?

Snap a picture of your salad creations and share them with us next week! You don't have to eat a salad everyday, but girls it wouldn't hurt. Your pictures don't have to be fancy. In fact, the post itself should serve as the main inspiration for us to have more healthy options//creative salads!

Life's a lot easier when we have choices....diets and healthy living styles are no different.
You seriously can't fail at this #whatsonmysalad idea :)

So get your salad spinning on and your thinking caps pulled tight. Show us your collage of salads next week!

Here's Wednesdays salad, I mentioned. It was yummy. I wanted seconds.

Crab Cake and Sunflower Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing.
(crabcake pre-made at local grocery store and Poppy Seed Dressing from Costco)

Who gets this excited about salads? Obv's...I do! And, I hope you will too!!!

Comment away! 
Tell me what you think?!!

P.S. I'm not creating a linky within a linky. Please, no confusion here. I truly hope to inspire you to join me in this idea of creative healthy eating. I welcome any other ideas you may have to help this grow. Again, the biggest fulfillment and reason behind blogging is...growing together!

Also linked with Favorite Things at Katherine's Corner