Foodie Friday: Caprese Salad with Roasted Beets

Welcome to our weekly Foodie Friday link up! I’m linking up with Montana from Pretty Lil Mudder, Annmarie from the Fit Foodie Mama, Emily from Whatever Floats Your Oats, and Esther from Chocolate Runner Girl to create awesome healthy recipes each week! Today’s theme is Perfect Picnic (since summer is great for enjoying picnics + the awesome weather :D ). Make sure you hop around to check out all the amazing recipes in this link up and feel free to add your recipes as well!

I’m generally not a fan of turning on my oven in the summer, but my spoils of war from my midnight raid were calling. I needed to find a use for the beets, beet greens, tomatoes, and fresh basil, so I decided to do a little twist on one of my favorite salads. However, it kinda sucks to turn on your oven just for the sake of roasting one beet, so you can either make them in bulk, or if you have any other veggies you’d like to roast, they might as well join in on the fun! (I roasted several eggplants + 2 beets. To save time while I was waiting for those to be done, I prepared the rest of the salad and also made a beet green + egg scramble.)

Caprese Salad with Roasted Beets

This (obviously) isn’t the whole recipe. I was trying to artfully arrange a small portion of it, but pretty much gave up. :x

Ingredients:
-2 large tomatoes, sliced
-1 large beet
-fresh mozzarella, shredded
-fresh basil, shredded
-generous drizzle of EVOO
-generous drizzle of red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
-freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 375.
2) Cover beets in aluminum foil and drizzle with red wine or balsamic vinegar and EVOO. Let it hang out in the oven for ~1 hour.
3) Slice tomatoes and shred mozzarella + basil into a bowl/plate.
4) When beets are done roasting, dice them and let cool, then add to the other ingredients and mix well.
5) Sprinkle with pepper and serve!

This is the rest of it (with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and…without the beet because I hadn’t diced it yet)!

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Interested in getting to know more about any of your super-awesome co-hosts? :]

• Farrah | blog | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
• Montana | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
• Annmarie | blog | facebook | twitter | instagram | pinterest | bloglovin’
• Emily | blog | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
• Esther | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’

Together, our first initials could spell out E-FAME. heh heh heh.

(…Alright, I’ll show myself the door. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Next week’s theme is smoothies! Hope you’ll join us!)

Sweet Kale Spinach Salad

This was actually an experiment in that I had some shredded coconut left in a tiny tupperware and decided to just throw it in along with everything else. I was pleasantly surprised! Somehow, everything blended together very nicely. :D The sesame ginger vinaigrette came from one of those chopped salad packs I got on manager’s special at Kroger. Since I use but a tiny fraction per salad (hell, I’ve been known to eat salad without any dressing), I used the remainder to portion into 6 additional containers of greens. I will make my own dressings from scratch again after I finish off all the ones I already have. (Those packets last me a long, long time…)

Sweet Kale Spinach Salad

 

Ingredients:
-1 cup kale, chopped
-1 cup baby spinach
-1 handful raw walnuts, chopped
-1 handful dried cranberries
-sprinkle of shredded coconut
-sesame ginger vinaigrette, to taste

Instructions:
1) Toss everything together and consume!

Kale Chicken Salad with Orange Cumin Vinaigrette

On my last-ish day of winter break, I went over to Jun’s to hang out and see everyone before I ran off back to the bitter, bitter cold. He’d made a bowl of guacamole that we (me, Jun, Steph) demolished (we rather guiltily hid all evidence of its existence) and a gargantuan bowl of salad (recipe from here!).

F: Thank you! :D :D :D
J: It’s my job to feed you. :]
F: Happy wife, happy life!

Kale Chicken Salad with Orange Cumin Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
(Salad)
-kale
-orange slices, quartered
-chicken, cooked + cut into bite-sized pieces
(Dressing)
-1 rounded tsp Dijon mustard
-1 rounded tsp orange zest
-1 tsp cumin, or to taste
-1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
-1 tbsp fresh orange juice
-1/4 cup rice vinegar
-1/3 cup EVOO, or to taste
-sea salt, to taste
-freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions:
1) Place all dressing ingredients into a mason jar, cover, and shake vigorously.
2) Add dressing into bowl with kale/chicken/oranges, to taste.

The dressing makes about 3/4 cup!

Autumn Arugula Salad

I know it’s actually winter, but the recipe we adapted this from was way too amazing (and super festive-lookin’!) to pass up. :O The pomegranates were obtained from Mekala’s garden because she’s super awesome, so I made the lemons I took from her garden into lemon bars for her and her family. :D We made this salad while Rey was visiting over winter break and pretty much just kept buying arugula and acorn squash/throwing in whatever fruit we had (e.g. strawberries) over the course of the week so we could use up the rest of the dressing. <3

Autumn Arugula Salad

Ingredients:
-1 1/2 tbsp EVOO
-1 acorn squash, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds w/ seeds removed
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
-2 tsp brown sugar
-1/2 cup whole pecans, chopped
-1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
-6 cups arugula
-5 clementines, peeled
-2 avocados, sliced
-1 1/2 pomegranates, arils removed

(Pomegranate Ginger Vinaigrette)
-1/3 cup pomegranate juice
-1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
-1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
-4 garlic cloves, minced
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1/3 cup EVOO

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350.
2) Sprinkle the squash slices w/ salt and pepper. If desired, add brown sugar to help it caramelize. Bake until tender.
3) Heat small saucepan over low heat + add the pecans. Toast until they’re slightly golden + fragrant, stirring + shaking the pan as they toast (~5 minutes). Toss w/ pumpkin pie spice.
4) Add arugula to a large bowl with a pinch of salt + pepper. Add avocado, pomegranate arils, pecans and squash pieces. Add pomegranate dressing, to taste.
5) (Pomegranate Ginger Vinaigrette) Combine pomegranate juice, apple cider vinegar, ginger, garlic, salt + pepper in a large bowl + whisk together. Stream in EVOO while constantly whisking until the dressing comes together. (It stores in the fridge for up to 1 week!)

With the pecans + before we added the fruit!

Strawberry Spinach Salad

I’m not all that big on measurements when I’m really hungry, so I’m sorry in advance. :x I tried to estimate what I threw in there, but this is really all up to personal preference. :O It was delicious and I’m really glad that I don’t regret the purchase of that block of goat cheese! :D!

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Ingredients:
-3 giant handfuls of spinach
-6 strawberries, sliced
-1 oz. goat cheese, crumbled to the best of your ability (unless it’s pre-crumbled in which case…good for you! :O )
-7 walnuts, chopped
-1 tsp hemp seeds

(Dressing)
-1 tsp red wine vinegar
-1 tsp balsamic vinegar
-1 tsp Dijon mustard
-1.5 tsp EVOO
-freshly ground black pepper
-thyme
-basil
-oregano

Instructions:
1) Combine all dressing ingredients and mix well.
2) Slice strawberries and combine all salad ingredients into a bowl.
3) Pour dressing over salad and toss a couple times.