Pear & Arugula Salad with Candied Walnuts & Cheese Croutons

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Pear and Arugula Salad with Candied Walnuts and Cheese CroutonsIt may look like a salad but really it’s my thinly veiled attempt at dressing a grilled cheese sandwich in healthy attire.  And what could be wrong with that?  Make it, taste it, and agree with me: absolutely nothing.

This salad began as a late-night, got-to-use-up-this-and-that kind of dinner.  This and that that night was a handful of lettuce, a nub of cheese, and a stump of baguette that added up to a really good dinner that I was more than happy have an excuse to grocery shop for a few days later and share with you.

And I’ve got to say, this salad has got it going on!  We have greens and pears for our health, candied walnuts for crunch and pizzazz, and melted cheese for creamy decadence.

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Grilled Peaches with Chèvre & Prosciutto

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Grilled Peaches with Chevre, Mixed Greens & ProsciuttoNormally, I’m pretty worthless when I’m super hungry.  I get irritable and irrational.  I’ll yell, I’ll whine, I’ll pout, I may even cry.  Yes, toddler-style.  What can I say?  It’s not my best trait.

Once in a while, though, I’ll surprise myself (and my boyfriend) by behaving like a big girl long enough to push past the hunger and throw something together that makes everything okay.  I’ll see the one last peach perched on the counter, the nub of goat cheese in the fridge, and remember the garden full of lettuce and herbs.  Suddenly, I realize the crisis can be averted–I can make something out of this!  15 minutes later, I’ll be backing myself out of the crazy-losing-my-mind-from-hunger zone, and congratulating myself on turning a bad situation into a delicious one.  Then I’ll get so excited over how yummy it was that I’ll make it all over again the next day so I can take pictures and talk about it here.

Okay…now that you decided I’ve totally lost it, allow me to share my latest effort.  It’s a grilled or roasted peach stuffed with goat cheese, paired up with lettuce and herbs from the garden and a few slices of prosciutto.  It’s awfully good and can be assembled in minutes.   It’s the kind of thing that’s always a winner, on occasion, a savior, and just what I feel like eating all summer long.

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Couscous Salad with Roasted Carrots, Mint & Olives

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Couscous Salad with Carrots, Mint & OlivesExcuse me for a moment while I shamelessly toot my own horn.

I’ve shared some pretty good food with you all in the last few months.  We’ve seen elaborate dishes like a caramelized fennel pork roulade, decadent gingersnap bread pudding, and painstakingly filled cauliflower ravioli.  You must think I always eat like a queen.

Well, I kind of do, but for every over-the-top concoction I share on the website, I make twice as many really easy, simple, big batch meals.  As much as I love to cook, I also love not having to cook.  When I work late and come home famished, sometimes all I want to do is walk through the front door, straight into the kitchen, and grab a bowl of something that’s all ready to go.

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you feel this way plenty of the time, too.  You want to eat well, you just don’t want to spend a lot of time working in the kitchen after you’ve already put in a full day elsewhere.  You don’t want to fuss, you just want to fill your belly, then kick your feet up and relax.

Making a big salad that will hold up well for a few days will let you do all that.  This couscous salad is packed with roasted carrots and onions, loaded with fresh mint, and jazzed up with olives and orange zest.  It’s supremely satisfying eaten straight out of the fridge on a giant serving spoon at midnight or beneath grilled lamb and eaten at a table like a civilized human.

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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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Chèvre Chaud Salad with Roasted Asparagus

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Chèvre Chaud Salad with Roasted Asparagus 2
When you get home from a vacation, you inevitably think about everything you should have done differently.  You should have stayed in a more charming part of town, found a cheaper hotel, taken more hikes, bought a couple of souvenirs, splurged on better restaurants.  You should have made more of an attempt to learn the local history or speak the language.  You should have branched out, tried new things, eaten more adventurously.  Like maybe, when I went to France for the first time, I should have eaten something other than a warm chèvre salad for lunch every day.

Or maybe not.

Of the many traveling regrets I’ve had, my week of eating chèvre chaud salads is not one of them.  Warm, creamy goat cheese smeared on assaultingly crunchy baguette croutons and a pile of lightly dressed greens; could there be a more perfect lunch or a more satisfying salad?  I think not.

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