Cilantro Lime Southwest Salad

A few nights ago, it just felt like a grill night. On my lunch break I headed to Primal to splurge on some marinated steak tips. With such a rich main dish I decided I wanted to make something lighter and more refreshing as a side.

I had pinned this recipe at one point and decided with some tweaking it was just what I was looking for. 

Leftovers (with more avocado added!) doubled as my lunch today.

Cilantro Lime Southwest Salad

Ingredients

1 cup black beans

1 cup corn (fresh or frozen/thawed)

1 medium tomato, chopped

1/2 cucumber, diced

1/2 red onion diced

1 avocado diced

Juice of 2 limes

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

pinch of sea salt

pinch of cane sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1. Mix the first set of ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Mix the lime juice, garlic, vinegar, salt, and sugar in a blender or mini food processor. Slowly add the oil, pulsing in between additions. (You can add more than the 1/2 cup of oil if you want a thicker emulsion, but I like my dressings more vinegary.) Finally, add the cilantro and blend until it is finely chopped. 

3. Add 1/2 of the dressing to the salad and mix until well incorporated. Add more dressing, if desired, or reserve the remainder for another use (marinade or dressing for another salad).

Raw Kale, Carrot, and Cabbage Salad

Trying new foods sometimes feels like a lot of work in the kitchen with disappointing results on the dinner plate. "Under-spiced", "odd texture", and "it would have been better with X ingredient" are the complaints I commonly get when I take a gamble on a new recipe. I love to cook, but I find these situations so discouraging. Sometimes it makes me just want to throw my hands up in the air and tell my husband, "You're right! Ordering a pizza would have been a better idea!"

Luckily, the salad recipe I'm sharing today is neither time consuming to make nor disappointing in the taste department. Bonus points: it contains kale - a super healthy, hearty green that helps this salad hold up for lunch leftovers for the next two days.

You could make this salad more complicated (although fresher and probably even tastier) if you start with all local produce, but I kept it quick and started with some bagged organic kale and shredded carrots from Trader Joe's. You could also cheat and use red cabbage that's already been shredded. Whatever you do, don't cheat with the dressing. A bottled dressing will not have the fresh, acidic, tangy flavor you need for this salad to reach perfection.

Raw Kale, Cabbage, and Carrot Salad with Tangy Lime Dressing 

Ingredients

Salad

1/2 bag (or 6 oz) chopped kale

2 cups (or 4 oz) shredded carrots

1/2 head (or 5 oz) shredded red cabbage

1 apple, peeled and cut into sticks

2 scallions, chopped

1/4 cup raw slivered almonds (optional)

Dressing

Juice from 2 limes

1 tbsp spicy brown mustard

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp cold pressed olive oil

salt & pepper, to taste

1. Mix all of the salad ingredients together keeping the nuts separate.

2. Place all dressing ingredients in a small mason jar and shake well until blended. 

3. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well to incorporate.

4. If you are using the almonds, sprinkle them over the salad just before serving.

Cooking the FM

It's been a week and I never checked in about what I was cooking with all the products I scooped up from the Farmer's Market last week. Where have I been? Why haven't I posted anything? Kids and exhaustion are my answers.

Life is just really crazy (I'm extrememly overdue for a "mommy" post...) and I can't seem to find the time to share on here as much as I'd like to. I know I don't really have all that many readers, but I like to think of this as my creative outlet and posting makes me happy. 

So, I am stealing 15 minutes this morning and sharing my meals from last week. Between shrieks of, "Mommy! I need - insert ridiculous demand - NOW!", cleaning/cooking non-stop, and dealing with an infant who has discovered the best way to make her needs known is through loud, disgruntled squealing I didn't remember to snap photos of everything, but I'll share the ones I did take. 

Happy reading and menu planning!

Saturday - Get together at my in-laws house and swimming for the first time this season. We ordered sandwiches, but I made the salad pictured in the upper left with organic green leaf lettuce, fresh radishes, cucumbers, shallots, homemade salt and pepper whole wheat croutons, and fresh dill dressing.

Sunday - Marinated cube steak and sauteed mushrooms/onions with organic (frozen) green beans and pasta pictured middle right. We also finished the leftover salad from the previous night.

Monday - Scrambled farm fresh eggs with dill, feta, and mushrooms on homemade pita bread (upper right) for breakfast. Dinner was fajitas made from leftover cube steak with red peppers, onions, and mushrooms, shredded cheddar, sliced avocado, and sour cream served on homemade tortilla wraps. 

Tuesday - For breakfast all week my kids ate whole wheat pancakes that I made over the weekend and froze. I had a conference in the evening so my husband just did take-out for himself and leftovers for the bug.

Wednesday - Before heading to work, I threw some yogurt into the oven to culture. For dinner, chicken thighs and pasta salad with the Rasta Pasta blend, pearls of fresh mozzarella, and organic grape tomatoes. Both were marinated in a homemade Italian dressing. I also threw together a quick dill cucumber salad in a red wine/mustard dressing that wasn't great. I'll tweak the recipe before I post anything about it. 

Thursday - Beet yogurt dip pictured on the middle left for lunch on leftover pitas. For dinner, mild pork sausage sandwiches with the rest of the mushrooms, red peppers, and onions on rolls from a local bakery (with regular refined flour I am sure...) and a tabbouleh like salad made with fresh herbs, quick cooking barley (I was thinking barley instead of bulgar - it turned out pretty yummy despite my mistake!), cucumbers, and feta.

Friday - Pizza was the plan! Dough and shredded mozzarella from Roma's Imports in Latham. The bug topped hers with pieces of baked ham, we made ours half and half. The first was a local red sauce topped with the leftover sausage/onions/peppers. The other half was spread with the homemade garlic scape pesto pictured on the bottom right and topped with some sundried tomatoes and cheese.