Summer Fruit Salad

Oh my word where have I been? Whatever, this salad is so delish you'll forgive and forget my absence!!

I'm forgiven already, aren't I??

Okay so I was wandering around Wegmans, which is oh so dangerous...I usually make my list in the app and it tells me exactly where to go and I (usually) don't allow myself to get anything that's not on the list. And I usually go on Sunday. But I skipped yesterday and was just going to wing it this week, but I decided I really wanted a salad with fruit in it. So here we are! I found this gem of a dressing: 

Then I picked up my favorite berry trio - straw, blue, and rasp. They went on the bottom of the pile, atop of the dressing of course. Next I packed in the spring mix, then some goat cheese and topped it all off with some candied pecans! Simple right?

I candied the pecans myself, but you can buy them already done if ya like. I just liked controlling what went in them. Mmmmmmmm :)

Enjoyyyy!

Chopped Chickpea Salad

I am pretty excited about this week's lunches! I had a request to do something vegetarian - that's right, I take requests AND someone requested something. Pretty cool, eh? I mean, it was my cousin but I'm still putting a check in the cool column. Thanks Rach!

So, I don't really have a recipe, but I can tell you what I put in this jar! It all starts with my friend Annie:

 ^Seriously one of the best salad dressings I've ever tasted. But I can only find it at Wegmans. I've looked for it at Target, Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter...but Weggies never lets me down. I made 5 salads, so after the dressing, the layers go like this in each jar:

1/2 cup chickpeas

1/8 cup dried cranberries

1.5 chopped peppers divided

1 chopped cucumber divided

2 oz goat cheese

Go crazy and swap out whatever you don't like with something you do! Some sort of nut would probably have been nice. Or maybe some sunflower seeds???? That could have been fun. Next time!

“Isn’t that seaweed?”

…”no, that’s kelp. This is kale.”

“Oh. Okay, I’ll try it.”

That was the theme of today’s Roasted Kale Salad with Goat Cheese and Lemon Dressing. But let’s go back to the beginning…

It all started at Wegmans (shocker). I was browsing the greens and I saw this big bag of kale and immediately thought of The Bachelor. If you watch, you know why. So, I was like okay I can do something with kale, right? And today, I found out that I totally can! I can do something amazing with kale. Which means I get to share it with YOU so you can do it too! Yayyyyy!

So when I got home, I divided it up into 2 baking dishes just so I could do it all at once:

Then, I drizzled about 1 tablespoon of EVOO over each pan and sprinkled some pepper and minced garlic:

I popped them into the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes (18 if you really want specifics). When I took them out, I combined them into one pan and sprinkled some goat cheese over the top:

Seriously...could this look any more delicious?

Then I opened the fridge, saw a lemon, and had a glorious idea (don't be so surprised). I juiced half a lemon and sprinkled? Can you sprinkle a liquid? Whatever, I need a thesaurus. Anyway, I sprinkled the lemon juice over the salad. 

It was amazing! This is my new favorite salad. It was so, so good. My grandfather even ate some. He didn't want to, like at all, but I made him and he said it "wasn't that bad." So he basically loved it. And you will too, so go make it!