Roasted Delicata Squash & Wheat Berry Salad with Feta

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Delicata Squash and Wheat Berry Salad with FetaYes, another salad.  I’m still coming down from all the rich eating I did while traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday (I promise we’ll talk about that food one of these days).

But this is not a salad to dread, it’s a salad to celebrate!  It’s hearty with chewy, nutty wheat berries and plenty of roasted squash.  Spicy toasted squash seeds counter a lightly sweet lemon-honey vinaigrette and creamy feta cheese adds just the right tangy punch.  Layer all that with the fact that eating healthfully this week will help you feel great about diving headfirst into holiday baking next.  Perfect.

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Escarole & Anchovy Soup with Garlic Crostini

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Escarole & Anchovy Soup with Garlic CrostiniI’ve been trying to take it fairly easy on myself in the kitchen lately.  You see, I have this dream of one day carving out time to finish painting my cupboard doors, getting them rehung, and putting an end to my drawn-out painting project.  I thought I was being clever and made this super quick, super tasty soup for dinner, thinking I’d free up my evening to deal with doors.  But, in typical Sarah-fashion, I opted out of the tedious housework and into making an apple cake instead.  Yeah…

We’ll cover the apple cake later in the week.  For now, I’ll show you my easy escarole and anchovy soup so you can get yourself fed quickly and spend the rest of your day being productive.  Or baking.  Your choice.

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Farro Salad with Tuna, Cannellini Beans & Watercress

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Farro Salad with Tuna, Cannellini Beans & Watercress
I was in the kitchen, patting myself on the back for being such a kind, thoughtful girlfriend as I put this salad together.  The boyfriend has been making an effort to stop buying so many lunches during the workweek and pack something healthy to eat mid-day and there I was, wonderful me, supporting his cause and making a salad to help out.

Then, as I smashed a couple cloves of garlic with a few anchovy fillets to mix with tuna salad, I saw the bigger picture: I’m turning my boyfriend into that guy that brings the world’s stinkiest lunch to the office.  You know the one.  It’s the guy who brings the lunch that funks up the shared refrigerator, the guy you want to avoid after lunch with the garlicky-fish breath, the dude that…

…doesn’t care at all because he’s got a satisfied belly.

This is the type salad that you’ll be dying to dip into come lunch time.  The farro, cannellini beans, and tuna are going to fill you up for the rest of the afternoon and the zesty watercress is bound to brighten even the drabbest workday.  Just bring a tin of altoids or enough salad to share with the person in the next cube over and you’re golden.

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Spinach & Dill Soup with Pumpernickel Croutons

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Spinach & Dill Soup with Pumpernickel Croutons

When you blog about what you’ve been cooking, it’s tempting to just put the splashy dishes out there, the crowd pleasers: Gingersnap & Bourbon Bread Pudding, Squash & Brie Galette, Pumpkin Streusel Coffeecake.  It’s much easier to invite strangers into your life and offer them something warm from the oven than it is to, say, offer a ladle full of spinach soup.

But my blog is my real life eating and girl cannot live on flour and butter alone.  Real life calls for some healthy weekday lunches between weekends of Croque Monsieur Buns.  Real life calls for vegetables and greenery.  Bright green helps even things out.

If bright green is good, then it can’t get much better than this spinach soup.  And despite it’s somewhat terrifying shade of swamp-monster green, it’s actually really tasty and a cinch to make.  The spinach is complemented by fresh dill and plenty of lemon juice.  Potatoes thicken the soup up and make it substantial enough to stick with you through the afternoon.  Add a dollop of Greek yogurt for creamy tang and pumpernickel croutons for crunch.

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Radicchio, Avocado & Hearts of Palm Salad

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Radicchio, Hearts of Palm & Avocado Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

You’ve heard the old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail”, right?  Gosh, feels like the story of my life.

I’ve been in this rut lately of going to the gym in the middle of the day, about the time normal people with well-planned, put-together lives would be eating lunch.  I run a few miles, fueled only on coffee and maybe a cookie or 2,  and then return home, a ravenous beast.  Watch out, I’m going elbow deep in the granola, almonds are consumed by the handful, and my daily cookie count triples.

Hey, wait!  I just did something good for my body.  Why am I un-doing it as soon as I get home?

Because I fail to plan.  Regularly.

No more!  If I plan just a teeny-tiny bit, I can make a killer salad in 5 minutes, stuff my face with that and go about the rest of my day feeling proud instead of remorseful.

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