Salad Goodies

Last night I came down from work to a kitchen filled with the aroma of stuffed peppers, courtesy of Matt.

These were the perfect dinner on such a rainy, chilly evening. He stuffed them with a mixture of quinoa, carrots, zucchini, onions and soy crumbles, then topped them with a wedge of Laughing Cow when they were almost finished baking. They were awesome. Protein-packed veggies!

After dinner I still had a good amount of energy for a Thursday night so asked Matt if he'd be into getting our grocery shopping out of the way. One less thing for the weekend, right? He was game, so off we went. We powered through and came home with a bunch of fresh produce - the fruit right now is so ripe and delicious - some old standbys and some new goodies as well.

I picked up a few new oils to add to the pantry, which I'm pretty excited about. We're trying to stay away from canola oil since it's a polyunsaturated fat, but I don't like to cook with olive oil often since it oxidizes when heated and you lose the nutrients. Grapeseed oil is supposed to be a better fat than canola, has no flavor, and has a high smoking point, so will be good for sautéing veggies and fish. We'll give it a try! I also picked up some walnut oil for salads.

We've been really into fun new cheeses lately, so while I still buy the standard cheddar to keep on hand, I always try to pick up a few different flavored cheeses for salads and snacking. Ricotta salata is one of my all time faves from my childhood - we used to grate it on top of pasta instead of parmesan - so I was excited to see it on the shelf, and I really couldn't pass up the blueberry gorgonzola. I'm like a little kid when it comes to new ingredients, so I had to use them all today.

All my new finds go perfectly in salads, so you can guess what I had for both lunch and dinner today. In the lunch salad bowl:

- Mixed greens
- Carrots
- Cucumbers
- A dollop of wasabi edamame hummus (I'm officially obsessed - this stuff is so good!)
- A few slices of lox
- A handful of wasabi peas

I dressed the whole thing with walnut oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper. The lox and wasabi flavors were really good - salty and spicy at the same time.

The dinner salad was blueberry themed.

In the mix:

- Mesclun greens
- Red peppers
- Cucumbers
- Blueberries
- Toasted pecans
- Blueberry gorgonzola crumbles
- Seared salmon

I dressed this one with a hefty drizzle of blueberry balsamic vinegar. This salad was amaaaazing. Matt ate his in about 12 seconds flat.

Before dinner I ran out to grab a few last minute Fathers Day items and a 6 pack of Lagunitas IPA for a Friday night sitting in the backyard. I love our yard at night, it's so peaceful.

I'm looking forward to another nice weekend. Hope yours is off to a good start as well!