I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I just have to say again how lucky I am to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where good food is plentiful and fresh food is easy to find.  I have 3 outstanding weekly Farmers Markets within a couple of minutes of my house, not to mention all the fabulous grocery and speciality food stores.  One of my favorite things is a little farm called  Capay Organic Farm, and the service they offer called Farm Fresh To You .  They are a completely organic farm that delivers fresh food straight to my door.  I subscribe to a once a month delivery, and I’m fully in love with the service!  In my delivery box each month are all the in-season vegetables , fruits, and even flowers.  It’s always such a treat to have the box arrive at my door.  I take it in the house, place it on the kitchen counter and tear into it to see what delicious fresh foods I’ll get to enjoy!  This month my box was full of pink lady apples, grapefruit, navel oranges, eureka lemons, mandarins, Haas avocados, strawberries, red leaf lettuce, cauliflower and carrots.  Can you imagine my delight?

Organic produce, on the whole, tends to go bad more quickly than say, produce you’d buy at a grocery store.  I’m not bashing grocery stores, they serve a purpose and most times the produce I buy there is really good, but getting this organic stuff make me feel like I’m doing something good, for the environment and for myself.  One of my favorite things to do is take the veggies, chop them up and crunch them down in a yummy BIG SALAD, like on Seinfeld, remember that?

There really nothing better than fresh lettuce, it’s just so sweet and light.  And farm fresh carrots?!?!  Carrots, like tomatoes, are one of those things that just taste entirely different when they are fresh.  They are earthy and crisp and so so yummy!  And this month I got cauliflower, which I prefer to eat raw, rather than cook all the flavor out of it, so of course that got chopped up and put in the BIG SALAD.

So, ok, this is more of a post than a recipe, but it’s just me, reminding you to eat fresh.  Eat organic.  Put good food in your body so good things can come out of you!  Food is the fuel for our productive days, so I say, eat the good stuff!  EAT A BIG SALAD!

Quinoa os all the rage right now, right?  It’s popping up in recipes all over the place.  So, what’s the big deal?  Well, from what I’ve learned it’s an amazing grain because it is the only grain that is also a protein.  It’s a “super food” that we should all be eating.  I tried it plain once, and didn’t care much for it that way, but incorporated into a lovely salad like this it is delicious!

Red Quinoa, Black Bean, Corn & Avocado Salad

• 1 cup red quinoa, cooked with broth
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1, 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups sweet white corn kernels, frozen or canned
• 1 avocado, cut into ½ inch pieces
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup red bell pepper, diced
• ½ cup red onion, finely diced
• ¾ cup Trader Joe’s Cilantro Salad dressing
• ½ bunch cilantro, chopped
• ¼ cup olive oil
• zest of 1 lime
• sea salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

Cook quinoa with broth according to package directions.  In a bowl, combine beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes, red bell pepper and onion.  Add salad dressing and toss to coat.  Add salt, pepper and lime zest.  Add ½ the cilantro and toss again.  Set aside.

When quinoa is cooked, toss with olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside to cool.  Once cooled, add to other ingredients and toss to combine.  Garnish salad with remaining cilantro.

*** I like to add 1 cup of the lemon pepper chicken to this salad to make it a meal for lunch!

Many years ago, my brother-in-law lived in Italy for a few years, and this is one of the many culinary delights he shared with me when he came back home.  He made a killer caprese before caprese was cool.  Seems like every upscale, casual restaurant now has a caprese salad or sandwich on the menu, and I think we all know why.  The flavors are seriously just so perfect together.  The acidity of the tomato, the creaminess of the fresh mozzarella finished off by the nuttiness of the olive oil and a zing of salt.  Add a drizzle of Balsamic vinegar and you’ve really got something!

Caprese salad is one of my favorite quick and easy lunchtime meals… don’t feel like salad?  Put it on some artisan bread and press it in a pannini press.  Delicious both ways!!!!  Yum.

Heirloom Tomato Caprese

• 3 cups small heirloom tomatoes, halved
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 Tablespoons high quality extra virgin olive oil
• 8 ounces fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced
• 20 micro-basil or small basil leaves (or 10 large sliced)
• Seas salt, to taste
• High quality balsamic vinegar

You may notice that this recipe calls for a “bag” of pre-washed spinach and a bottled salad dressing.  Some may say that this is cheating.  I say, work smarter, not harder.  Why hand wash your own spinach when you can buy it done for you?  And could I recreate the salad dressing on my own?  Of course I could, but why?  It’s delicious just as it is, and saves me an extra hour of prep time, not to mention the cost of the ingredients, that would, in the end, cost more than the bottle of dressing does.

So, as we go along, you’ll notice that some of my recipes are semi-homemade, meaning I use a store-bought item.  When I find an ingredient or component of a recipe that is just as good as something I could create on my own, and cuts down on time for me, I use it!  Yes I do!  Why fight it?  Good food is good food.  And I promise not to steer you wrong!

Apple Spinach Salad with Candied Spicy Walnuts

• 1 bag pre washed baby spinach
• 1/2 honey crisp apple, washed and thinly sliced
• 1 cup currants
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 1 cup candied spiced honey walnuts (see recipe below)
• Briana’s bottled salad dressing (the one with the strwaberry on the front), to taste