pomegranate seeds

Spinach Salad with Turkey and Spiralized Apples and Butternut Squash

Leftover turkey breast shines in this spinach salad with spiralized butternut squash and apple in a sesame-tinged dressing for a full meal dinner or super easy and delicious lunch with mega crunch.

There’s nothing better than helping someone in need, and if you’ve ever had a newborn, you know you need all the help you can get. So when Ali of the food blog Inspiralized asked me if I’d be interested in sharing a recipe on her site while she was on maternity leave, I said yes in a heartbeat, because sharing recipes is a whole lot more fun than changing diapers.

The Inspiralizer has become one of my all-time favorite kitchen gadgets because it inspires healthful eating and makes regular old veggies and fruits look totally unique. Plus, it’s really kind of fun to use. If you don’t have one yet, you really should add it to your wish list.

It’s no secret that Ali is an Inspiralizer genius and her two cookbooks are proof in the curly-cued veggie pudding and they’ve inspired me to share this Thai Zucchini Noodle and Quinoa Salad recipe as well as this Caprese Zucchini Salad recipe from her first cookbook.

Now, from her second cookbook, Inspiralize Everything, I’m sharing this totally unique spin (literally) on what to make with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Because you can only eat so many turkey and stuffing sandwiches before the scale totally tips in the wrong direction.

About This Spinach Salad

This salad is the epitome of fall salads and is totally filling all on its own. It’s fresh flavors and veggie crunch will absolutely pull you out of your post-Thanksgiving Day rut, but because I love baking a turkey breast for my daughter’s weekly school lunches (this is my favorite way to bake an always juicy turkey breast) I can make this salad any old time I want.

Spiralized vegetables and fruit are an easy and healthful way to get in your daily 5-a-day in and with this salad, you’ll only have one left to add in.continue to the recipe… about Spinach Salad with Turkey and Spiralized Apples and Butternut Squash

Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken

When I received an S.O.S. comment on Facebook from one of my favorite readers, Maribel, I put on my thinking cap and went straight into action.

With Christmas Eve approaching in just a wink of an eye, Maribel commented that she was in need of a recipe that had enough style to impress at the holiday dinner table.

But there was one condition. The main dish had to be cooked in a slow cooker.

See Maribel doesn’t have an oven. No, I don’t know why—I’m fantasizing it’s because she’s either in the midst of an amazing kitchen remodel or lives in a teepee fashioned with an es long extension chord to a chugging generator or possibly just doesn’t believe in the clutter an oven adds to her kitchen?

continue to the recipe… about Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken

Beet, Carrot and Pomegranate Salad

Winter brings with it a lot of amazing things. Snowflakes and holiday parties with sparkly shoes are some of the best. Puffy coats that make me feel like Randy in A Christmas Story thanks to ridiculously cold sub-zero temps, not so much. Those freezing temps? They can go find somewhere else to invade while I go shopping for something basic to go with my gold flecked shoes. Or maybe I’ll just wear this Beet, Carrot and Pomegranate Salad. I mean, it’s prettier and more jeweled up than anything I have in my closet.

While I’m snacking a nibble or 83 of cookies, fudge and a waffle here and there, I’m still craving salads in this frigid cold to bring me out of my sugar coma. I crave lettuce-ed leafed salads all summer long but when winter nips the freshness off the local lettuce buds, veggies with girth are what I look for now.

At a recent foray to our winter farmer’s market, I saw these beet beauties carats of carrots and scooped them straight up. Candy striped beets, carrots of red, yellow and purple’d pinks. These things needed a stage, and I knew exactly what to do with them.