Simple Carrot Salad

This is my entire carrot harvest of summer 2012.

Looks kind of sad when you think of it like that, but I prefer to appreciate the fact that I got one big bowl of sweet crunchy fresh carrots rather than none at all. The glass has been pretty well half full around these parts lately, thanks to this little beauty:

With him strapped to my chest or asleep on Daddy, I've finally been able to venture back into our overgrown forgotten garden and harvest some goodies, rip out some oldies, and plant some newbies.

The bebe has also been such a great reminder to slow down and stop and smell the roses. Life takes on such a different pace with him around and everything holds such a different meaning.

Which is why I just devoured and enjoyed this little carrot salad for what it was in the moment, and nothing more.

The recipe is from Everybody Likes Sandwiches, check it out here.

Green Bean Hazelnut Salad

This summer has been just fantastic so far. Despite the fact that the high temperatures don't agree with my pregnant body, my feet are constantly swollen and I'm getting a wee bit crankier...I am actually having a really great summer.
Yesterday was a perfect day filled with two trips to the lake, a great burger from my favourite new burger joint, a long nap, a delicious quickly-thrown-together summer meal, refreshing mocktails, and board games in the yard at dusk. What more could I want?

This salad comes from (you guessed it) Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks. She comments on the surprisingly pleasant pairing of the tomatoes and the hazelnuts but I really think it's the green bean and hazelnut combo that wowed me. Either way, you must add this into your summer salad repertoire.

Asparagus Salad

Do you ever have those moments when you have an idea for a dish or meal that slowly evolves into merely a shell of it's former self? Well that happens to me sometimes, like when I wanted to make a spring Panzanella salad and wound up with this.
Baked croutons, asparagus, dill, bitter greens, and some green onions are dressed in olive oil, lemon juice, a little garlic and lots of shaved extra old gouda.
The end result really reminded me of the flavours of my favourite Kale Salad but with more texture and diversity. This one's a keeper for sure!

Wilted Swiss Chard Potato Salad

Everyone keeps asking me if I've been having any strange cravings while pregnant. I feel like I'm almost disappointing people when I say no, not really. I remember asking pregnant friends the same thing, so curious of the weird and wacky food combinations they were eating. But most of them, like myself had nothing interesting to share.
I do feel like I'm eating a little differently but not all that "weird". There were a few weeks there when I could eat a bowl of cherry tomatoes simply dressed a few times a day, yet now it just doesn't appeal to me in the same way.
Around the same time I'd also slather a piece of toast with an inch thick layer of herb goat cheese and savour every tangy bite.
Lately I'd be pretty happy to eat some sort of grilled sausage on a bun smothered in mustard at any point in the day, but that's about it for real "cravings".

For the rest of the time I'm still trying to just enjoy all that spring has to offer. This salad is a perfect example of such. Asparagus, swiss chard and quinoa make this potato salad feel like a much healthier version of it's usual self.

Mango, Cucumber and Radish Salad

I think all of us who try to eat locally can admit that there are times we're weak and break down and buy produce "from away". My toughest time (as I've mentioned before) is usually towards the end of winter when I just can't eat another root vegetable and all I want are greens. Thankfully there are a few great sources for early spring greens here in Halifax to quench the craving.
However this spring my pregnancy has really thrown me for a loop. I've been craving fruit like nobody's business and can't get it off my mind. Apples aren't really cutting it anymore and lately I've been trying to satisfy myself with oodles of cherry tomatoes. Strawberries and peaches are what I'm really after but I still have so long to wait! I recently felt it was time to make the executive decision to just buy some imported fruit and let my body be happy.

So I've been scarfing down navel oranges and enjoying every single sweet, sticky bite. There truthfully wasn't much else in the grocery store that appealed to me...except for mangoes. Juicy, glorious mangoes.
Funny enough it was while looking for new recipe ideas for radishes that I found this mango salad recipe. It was so fresh, bright, juicy and fantastic. I might just have to make it one more time...

Simple Tomato Salad

I know this looks a little too simple...but trust me; if you love tomatoes, you will love the simplicity. 

The other night I made another simple salad (greens + tomatoes + balsamic + olive oil) to accompany some grilled burgers and although the salad was good, I just couldn't keep from eating all the tomatoes first. They were just so ripe and perfect! I'm sure it's also due to the fact that these are still some of the first tomatoes of the season (thank you hothouses!) and my taste buds just can't get enough, but I knew then that I really should just take a direct approach and simply eat a bowl of cherry tomatoes. Because clearly that's what I really want. 

For this salad make sure your tomatoes are perfectly ripe (red, not pale at all) and fragrant. Do NOT store your tomatoes in the fridge (I don't know what the science is behind this but the fridge just ruins fresh ripe tomatoes), instead just leave them on the counter to ripen. Once summer hits and the fruit flies are rampant I usually keep them in a clear sealed bag (or bowl covered with plastic wrap) and often even store them in a cupboard so they're a little more hidden from those pesky flies.

Today I doused my tomatoes in a splash of red wine vinegar, a heavy glug of olive oil and a liberal seasoning of salt and pepper. 

Green Potato Salad

Well my least favourite time of year is upon us: the end of winter. You're probably thinking "The end of winter? That sounds like a great time of year! Spring is around the corner, change is in the air..." but those few weeks make me restless and irritable. I'm sick of winter foods and all I crave are fresh tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, lettuce, berries, peaches, peas, zucchini...ugh it's torture just thinking about all that scrumptious produce that is just out of my reach.

And to add to that annoying nagging feeling of wanting time to fast forward, this is also the time of year when I begin to become OBSESSED with gardening again. I have literally been having dreams about transplants, I kid you not. And just like the produce I long for, waiting for the rare sunny days to help my seedlings grow feels rather agonizing. 

So what's a housewife to do? Well the other day I decided to try to brighten up my day with this summery potato salad. With bright lemon, spicy arugula and creamy avocado, it totally hit the spot and helped make the long grey day feel a little more tolerable. 

Marinated Beet Salad

This salad just made my day.
Maybe I was a little too hungry and waited a little too long for lunch. But this salad has somehow made me feel so good, better than I thought a salad could. Actually thats not true, I know the power of salads (don't laugh!) but I feel like I haven't been eating the healthiest food lately and I think my body was just SO ready for some vegetables that it jumped for joy as I ate this simple salad.
Good thing I made enough for two...because I'm definitely having seconds.

Winter Panzanella Salad

The last few days have felt like a bit of a whirlwind, but I'd like to think that this salad has helped keep me grounded. Maybe that sounds silly but I really think comfort food has the ability to soothe the mind as well as nourish the body. 

We started looking at houses this week, with no expectations to actually find one we liked. But of course we DID find one we love, very very much. So now my husband and I have been full of anxious nervous energy for the last few days and I'm using food as a way to try to bring us back down to earth. 

All the nerve-wracking waiting feels slightly less obvious while I'm chopping apples for applesauce, or stirring a hot pot of soup. 

After falling in love with Feisty Chef's Panzanella Salad this summer I couldn't help but let my mind wander into other seasons full of other produce that might be adaptable to this delicious bread salad. I remembered seeing a winter panzanella salad on Smitten Kitchen years ago and decided to just google it and see how the world out there is interpreting it. Well it turned out that Michael Chiarello made a pretty damn good salad that caused a flurry of bloggers to follow suit, including SK and now of course myself.   

Raw Kale Salad

I never imagined I'd love raw kale so much. This salad is bursting with bright and bold flavours that make it a rather addictive dish. After eating it (and learning how to make it!) in a recent Feisty Chef cooking class, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I made it for Thanksgiving dinner a few days later and despite how "un-thanksgiving" it seems it really fit in well amongst mashed potatoes, turkey and stuffing. But it's also quite deserving of a plate of its own for an afternoon snack, just like I'm eating it now.

Beet & Green Bean Salad with Goat Cheese

There's nothing like an early fall salad of beets and green beans. 

I am really going to miss green beans once they disappear from the markets. Thankfully we'll probably have another few weeks (right? right?) before they disappear until next summer. This was also a lovely use for all the tiny little basil leaves left on my sad looking basil plant. 

Blue Cheese Caesar Salad

So...I'm kind of on a blue cheese kick lately. Mostly because I have way too much of it in my fridge so I can't help but find ways to sneak it into everyday life. This has to be one of my favourite examples of such sneaking. If you don't (think you) like blue cheese but want to learn to love it, I really suggest making this salad. You can easily put less blue cheese in if you're really freaked out, but I say just go for it!

Peanut Soba Noodle Salad

For about the last two weeks I've been eating and drinking with dear friends to my heart's content and have loved every minute of it. But as we all know that lifestyle can only last for so long. A few nights ago while indulging at one of our favourite bars with a friend visiting from away, my husband and I quietly made a pact that as soon as our visiting friends leave we're going to get back into our usual rhythm of eating healthy mostly home cooked food and exercising. 

This cold soba noodle salad is the perfect first healthy meal to kickstart our little detox. Fresh raw veggies, a light and zingy peanut dressing and of course buckwheat soba noodles. Yum!

Panzanella salad

This salad has become my new summer staple, especially now that we're fully into tomato season.
It's so easy and quick and uses up things in my kitchen that I've perhaps been ignoring for too long.
Stale bread, overripe tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt and basil are all you need for this satisfying summer snack.


My friend Renee (aka Feisty Chef) made this in a cooking class a few weeks ago. I was so excited to taste her take on panzanella which, like most of her cooking is just simple enough to let the food speak for itself.

Creamy Vegan Potato Salad

My parsley plants are overflowing and despite efforts to use it often (and freeze some of it) I just can't seem to keep up. So the other day I made a real effort to find more uses for parsley. I found a recipe for Green Tahini Dressing in my copy of "Get It Ripe" by Jae Steele, that looked perfect. Steele describes the dressing as going well with "everything!" so I decided to take her up on the challenge.
I had a plate full of leftover roasted new potatoes in the fridge and a few green beans that have escaped my pickling rampage, that both seemed like the perfect contenders to try out this dressing.

Cantaloupe & Cucumber Salad

This salad is a very welcome sign that my creativity in the kitchen (that has been sorely lacking lately) has returned!
I had some cooked quinoa and pearl barley in the fridge leftover from making tabbouleh, some juicy ripe cantaloupe that was begging to be eaten and just had this feeling that they could make up a great salad somehow.
I added some chopped cucumber, cilantro, sea salt, pepper, lime juice and a little olive oil and the result was the most refreshing summer salad.

Bean & Corn Salad

I know you probably won't believe me when I say I've been lacking some serious kitchen inspiration lately, but it's true!
Despite the stack of cookbooks on my dining table, hoards of bookmarked recipes on my computer, and a fridge full of local produce just begging to be eaten, I just can't seem to get excited about cooking lately.
Actually I should rephrase that. I haven't been excited about "everyday" cooking (such as making myself and my husband healthy and delicious lunches everyday). Planning meals for dinner has been less of a problem, thanks to cooking classes I've been taking with the Feisty Chef. But for the food we eat during the hours of 11am - 4pm, I've been drawing a blank.

Last night I finally mustered up the motivation to inspire myself and I weeded through recipes I've bookmarked for the last few years and found some new ones I haven't tried, namely this one.

Watermelon Salad

This refreshing and beautiful salad was another winner plucked from the pages of Super Natural Everyday (what do you mean you still haven't checked out that book?).

Juicy watermelon, salty feta and olives have a party in your mouth with the help of mint, basil, and splash of lemon juice. 

I know what I'm having for a post-swim snack...

Cherry Tomato & Green Bean Salad

So simple yet so good. This is one of my favourite summer staple salads.

You really just can't go wrong with a recipe from Alice Waters.

Herbed Pasta Salad

This year on Canada day my husband and I did what we've done for the last few years; watch a lamb roast on a spit for hours in our friends backyard, and then eventually eat it. I brought a few dishes of yummy summer outdoor food with us to share and this salad was one of the stars of the show (next to the lamb of course) and I've been craving it ever since.