Garden Variety. Healthy.

Garden Variety. Salad.

Here are two salads I’d eat [lets be realistic here] 2x a week. Like each one, one time. Other than that I’m an Alfredo eating, popcorn popping, banana and peanut butter, cottage cheese and blueberries kinda girl. I’m a grazer, if you will. Just munching through life. Also, hating salads cause in Michigan its 10 degrees for months & I just want to eat something hot. Here’s my favorite salads anyway.

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Garden Variety. Serves 1. 
1 Compari Tomato
1 Baby Cucumber [I only like these because the skin isn’t hard like normal sized ones]
1/4 Orange Pepper
4 Baby Carrots
1/2 head chopped romaine lettuce
1 large handful baby spinach/spring mix [comes in a box combined at my local grocery]
Feta Crumbles [optional]
Dressing of your choice. I prefer an Italian. I REALLY prefer Olive Garden Italian. Which I can find at my local grocery. [super tight]

— I’m not about to tell you how to make a salad, cause… you know. But I chop the lettuce up pretty good & any of the other baby spinach/spring mix greens that are large & I ditch all the stems.
— Cut your veggies however, but [pictured above] is how I prefer mine. I also will sea salt my tomatoes if I don’t care about my cholesterol that day.
— Sprinkle everything all pretty & cute on top of your lettuce/baby spinach/spring mix. If you can do dairy, aren’t vegan, or lactose I’ll add some feta if I have some as well.
— I measure my dressing out according to the label and only use one serving, it’s usually 2 tablespoons for a serving. If you don’t measure it out all that added sugar in the dressing will become your whole day’s allowance if you aren’t careful.

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Raspberry. Strawberry. Blueberry. Whatever I have in my fridge.

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In Michigan we can’t always get the BEST produce. BUT this is my favorite salad and the grocery occasionally has excellent strawberries in the middle of winter, if they have blueberries, I’ll also throw those in. This time, I was not so lucky.

Strawberry Pecan Salad. Serves 1.
4-5 Strawberries
Crush Pecans [heaping tablespoon or so]
Small handful of blueberries [if available]
Dried Cranberries [heaping tablespoon or so]
1/2 head chopped romaine lettuce
1 large handful baby spinach/spring mix [comes in a box combined at my local grocery]
Feta Crumbles [optional]
Dressing of your choice. I use [and will only use] Raspberry Vinaigrette from Kraft. Super fancy. I know. and I only use the 1 serving allowance because there’s a LOT of added sugar in the dressing, and this salad naturally has a lot of sugar from the fruits. I’ve heard some people use balsamic vinaigrette, but I tried it once and threw the whole thing out. But you do you.

Sorry this salad has no real measurements. It’s just how big the salad is, and how much fruit/ad ins you want.

I LOVE & live by these salads. They are actually salads I crave [which for me is absolutely wild] I hope you enjoy! Leave a comment about your favorite salad! I’d love to try some different ones & fall in love with others. Kisses.

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Homemade MAC & CHEESE

Homemade MAC & CHEESE

I’m sorry for what I said when I was hungry. This is THE BEST mac recipe, EVER. But, I’m biased cause I made it up. I make this for rainy days, potlucks, Thanksgiving & when I need the comfort of massive amounts of dairy filled carbs – & home. There’s nothing like homemade mac. NOTHING.

I start boiling the noodles – whatever shape you want really, but I use traditional elbows. & turn my oven on to 350 degrees.

While noodles boil I’ll grate my cheese. YEP. The old fashion way. I try to get most of my cheese in blocks if I can, because shredded cheese (like the parmesan shown) usually has cellulose in it, which is basically sawdust, & gives me a stomach ache & I (dramatically) say I want to die when this occurs.

— I’ll use 1/3 of the brick of Philadelphia 8oz package of cream cheese.
— SPLASH or 2 – of good ole 2% Milk
— The whole brick of aged white cheddar (7oz)
— I estimate the Velveta portions, but it’s about the size of half of the cream cheese block
(cube your cream cheese & Velveta)
— 2 TABLESPOONS of butter
— Handful (aka) 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese (more or less based on preferance)
— & the grand finaleeeeeeeee Extra sharp Cheddar, I use about 1/2 of this 16oz block.

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