Several years ago, when it was just Kiera and me, I remember how much the gift basket stuffed with food that was gifted to us meant. In a season that is meant for joy and happiness, it was a blessing to have some of the financial stress lifted for such a basic need so that we could focus on other things like holiday parades and snowball fights, hot chocolate and decorating a Christmas tree. I hope you’ll consider giving that gift to a child this holiday season.

The dressing for the salad comes together quickly. Homemade mayonnaise and Greek yogurt meet apple cider vinegar and a bit of orange blossom honey. Of course, there are also poppy seeds.

Mix it all together.

We use all romaine for this. It provides the right amount of crunch to contrast the chewy cranberries.

Top the romaine with toasted pecans, cranberries, scallions and blue cheese, and then wait until you’re ready to serve to add the dressing and toss.

This cranberry salad with poppy seed dressing is one both kids and adults appreciate. Something about the little bursts of cranberries paired with salty cheese bits and crunchy pecans keeps us coming back year after year for more.

This is a post about bean salad. A Mediterranean bean salad I made back in June. It has taken me this long to share it, but that’s because I had some other sharing I was obligated to do. It’s a post about Greek seasoning on chicken. It’s a post about stuffing it all together in a pita, serving it with tzatziki to make a chicken gyro and having a wonderful meal with your family and your friends and your neighbors. It’s a post about food.

This is a post about the food I feed to my family.

I made bean salad. I’d had some at Costco, of all places, and I was instantly drawn in. Beans, barley, peppers, sauce. Simple, understated and bursting with flavor. Ole was not convinced as I cooked and drained beans and barley and stashed them away in the fridge to cool. Note: I had originally planned to use three bell peppers in this recipe. That is, of course, until Ole used one of them for something else. Flexibility is key to a happy marriage.

I then made a pretty simple sun-dried tomato pesto using sun-dried tomatoes, basil and parsley from our garden, garlic cloves and oil.

Mix the pesto, the beans and barley, the peppers, a bit of vinegar to pull it all together and a Mediterranean bean salad you shall have to be eaten on pitas or with pita chips or scooped up with a spoon and a fork. And I was happy with it. I packed it up, placed it in the fridge and told Ole to make it a meal with some cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden while I was gone, but he was skeptical. He did not trust me. Turns out, I was right, but he made the chicken anyway.

A Greek-seasoned, dry-rubbed chicken, grilled and thinly sliced. This is what happens when you stock your pantry, meals become feasts in a matter of minutes. In fact, I shared that same sentiment just today how making impromptu meals from your pantry is so much easier when you stock that pantry.

He also paired it with homemade tzatziki, which is easy to make and is so much better when you make it fresh. It’s bright and lively, and it pairs nicely with said Greek-seasoned chicken.

And he put the salad on the side (except the kids and I still put it inside) and made a gyro. I do have to say it looks like a meal I’d love to eat. Ole even called to let me know the bean salad was a new favorite with the kids, and they’d begged to eat it for lunch the next day too.

The moral of the story is that my husband knows not how barley and beans can be mind-blowing. In fact, our dinner guests last month asked specifically for the recipe. My kids cheered when it showed up on the table for a third time this summer. I cried inside when everyone ate it all because it meant I couldn’t eat it for lunch the next day.

And the chicken gyro? Well, it’s pretty fantastic, and so is the man who made it.

Ole is gone, gone gone this week(end) motorcycling in the UP, and I am attempting to remain sane by taking the kids on short jaunts around the neighborhood. We already hit Conny’s Creamy Cone, and I think we’re going to attempt the beach sometime this weekend too. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Maple and blue cheese meet in a perfect pair, on a bed of greens and a sweet, maple-glazed steak. This happens to be my favorite “meal” salad, and it needs nothing else. It’s sugaring season, when the sap in the maple trees is running, and while we do notice our maples in the backyard running, we don’t actually tap our own. However, down on the reservation where Ole works, they most definitely are participating in the sugaring off: taping and boiling, which inevitably leads to baking. But this time I’m not baking. I’ve done plenty of that too, and I plan to do more. But this is about maple’s savory side, in a salad. A salad that my “no sweets or nuts in my salad” husband ate and admitted to liking.

It starts with apple cider vinegar. This happens to be the regular variety because we bought it at Target, but I’m going to recommend you use raw, unfiltered cider vinegar. Our bottle exploded in the garage this winter when the temperature hit -14, much like our back patio door, and I had yet to replace it.

Mix the vinegar with the same amount of pure maple syrup.

Pour it over your steak and let it sit and marinade for at least 30 minutes.

Add just enough maple syrup to cover a small amount of walnuts. Who needs croutons when you have glazed nuts on your salad?

Spread the coated nuts on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. The parchment will keep them from sticking.

After about 7 minutes, when the maple is brittle, remove them from the oven and allow to cool.

For the vinaigrette, mix together apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, a bit of minced garlic, some fresh herbs, salt and pepper.

Whisk in some extra virgin olive oil and it’s ready to go.

Pull the steak out of the marinade and toss it on a preheated grill, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper. Flip and rotate the steaks three times for 2-4 minutes a side.

Let the steak rest for five minutes while you assemble the salad.

Start by halving a few tomatoes and dicing a small bunch of scallions.

Layer, starting with the spring mix.

Diced scallions.

Tomatoes.

Blue cheese.

Roasted walnuts.

Then slice the steak thinly.


And add the steak strips to the salad.

Drizzle on the vinaigrette. Be sure to shake or whisk first.

And enjoy. What I love about this salad is how well the maple complements the saltiness of the blue cheese and the tang of the apple cider vinegar. I’ve made this for the kids before while Ole was teaching, and I am always amazed at their willingness to eat all of it without complaint. This time was no different, and Ole even managed to set aside his salad biases and was pleasantly surprised.

I suppose I could think of and share a reason why it would be called Texas caviar, but the point is that there are no fish eggs in it. I like to think of it as salsa that has been kicked up a notch or two. In fact, it’s been changed so drastically, I dare call it a salsa.

My sister’s friend brought this to a birthday dinner a few years ago. I was instantly hooked. It’s tasty, interesting, flavorful and packed full of protein. There are beans. There are enough beans for this to be a meal, says my former vegetarian self. Beans and vegetables I grew in my backyard, which makes for a very cheap meal or snack or side. Note: You could cook your own beans for this recipe, but if you’re like me and running short on time, use the canned variety and let someone else cook them for you.


Hominy is like the Americas’ lutefisk, corn soaked in lye. Tasty white nuggets. If you haven’t tried them, you should. You don’t know what you’re missing. I won’t hold it against you if you pass on the lutefisk, though.


Give canned black beans a good rinse before dumping them in to remove the cloudy murk they are packaged in.


Same with pintos. I’ve used garbanzos in place of the pintos to change things up before. Also a winning combination.


Then the red onions join the mix.


My tomato plants are out of control. I’m not quite sure what to make of it.


Luckily, the pepper plants fought back and rose above the fray that is a yellow pear tomato plant on steroids.


Lime, check. Red wine vinegar, check. Olive oil, check. Spices = oregano, salt, pepper, garlic. Garlic can be a spice…


Cilantro last. Fresh. Fabulous. If you hate it, leave it out. I’ll judge you, but I’ll do it silently.


Now, just let it sit in the fridge and mix all the delicious flavors together and you’re ready to go. Unless…


You decide to add an avocado or two just before serving. I only do this if it’s for a meal. It adds a bit more substance to fill you up and keep you full. Besides, I use it as a vehicle to increase my avocado intake.


And it’s a delicious one at that.

Serving suggestion: With chips, on a tostada or in a burrito.

While this lemon chicken pasta salad could function as a side dish or a potluck item, we eat it on top of a bed of organic spring mix greens as a meal. It’s fantastic paired with garlic bread or pesto cheese bread as well or even just a few raw vegetables for dipping. It’s easy to make ahead, and it stores well in the fridge. As with any creamy pasta salad, it absorbs the moisture the longer it sits. If this bothers you, simple stir in a tablespoon of milk or two tablespoons of ranch dressing for every three or so cups of salad to restore the creamier texture.

This recipe was requested by Adrianne when she saw it on our weekly menu. I can’t blame her. Lemon, chicken, pasta. I’d be intrigued too. While I wasn’t planning on posting it originally, I decided it was a fantastic time to share a new upgrade to the site. We started making the recipe card at the bottom of the post printable!

Click the lemon chicken pasta salad recipe cardto see what it will look like printed out for your recipe box, folder or whatever you store recipes in. If you subscribe, you may have already seen them as a few of them accidentally came through over the weekend while we were setting them up. We are really excited to offer this feature, and we hope you find the printable view useful!