Springtime Cucumber Noodle Salad

Crunchy, fresh, lightly sweet and flavorful. This salad was such a refreshing late afternoon snack after spending the day in the sun gardening.

If you do not own a spiralizer, I urge you to get one! They are so easy to use and turn your everyday vegetables into fun culinary experiences. Chopping up cucumbers to make this salad, would absolutely work, but I have to say that eating it with chopsticks because of the noodle like consistency, added to my enjoyment and therefor my appreciation for what I was eating.

Ingredients:

• 1 large cucumber
• 2TBS fresh orange juice
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 TBS fresh basil, chopped
• 1 handful snap peas
• salt
• 1 tsp orange zest(optional)
• basil leaves for garnish

Steps:

• either spiralize your cucumber or shred it using a vegetable peeler
• put it in a plate and toss it with all other ingredients
• enjoy and feel refreshingly nourished!

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Fall Salad

After having a high raw diet for the past several months, I am slowly transitioning to more cooked foods. A really nice way to do that is to mix some sweet fall vegetables into my salads. I had leftover acorn squash so I went off of that. This salad was beautiful, nutritious, and delicious. I loved the combination of the tangy cranberries, with the sweet tangerine and earthy kale. The addition of the dip came as I was plating it and am very happy to have added the protein to this salad. It made it a complete meal.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped lacinato kale
• 1/4 of a cooked acorn squash cut into slices
• 1 tangerine, sliced
• 2 TBS dried cranberries
• 2 TBS toasted pumkin seeds (raw seeds are great too, I just happened to have just made some that worked perfect for this salad)
• a dollop of protein, anything you have on hand. Here I used white bean dip. But hummus could work great too.

Steps:

• gently massage your kale with olive oil and salt to wilt it a little bit
• put it on a plate and add all the other ingredients on top
• drizzle a little bit of lemon juice and more oil if you like
• enjoy!

Dijon Balsamic Dressing

I asked one of my friends if there was a recipe of mine she would like to see on my blog, and, unexpectedly, she said my salad dressing! It’s true I often have compliments on my dressing. To me it’s nothing much more than a bunch of ingredients thrown in to a bottle to drizzle over my salad. But it’s true that it tastes great. And I’ve had many people compliment me on my salads over the years. And this dressing here, is a staple in my house. I use it for most of my salads. I’ve never measured the ingredients. As I mentioned, I just throw everything in a bottle, shake it up and pour it on my veggies. So for my dear friend, I measured the ingredients this time, snapped a picture and am now sharing it with you.

Ingredients:

• 1 TBS dijon mustard
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 TBS red wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp salt

Steps:

• put everything in a screw top jar
• shake it shake it shake it shake it!!!!!!!
• and you have yourself a nice thick dressing to use with your salads or even to dip artichokes in!!