Gabby’s Eats: Winter Powerhouse Salad With Citrus Honey Mustard Dressing

As you may have witnessed, through her creation of multiple recipes of this category, Gabby likes salads!  With our Winter garden in full bloom, Gabby was inspired to create a salad using seasonal ingredients from this time of year. A garden has been a great learning tool for both of us, not just in terms of discovering how to actually plant, grow and harvest the vegetables, but also to understand exactly what particular fruits and vegetables go with the season.  I often find Gabby asking about what produce is in season when we are at the grocery store or starting to develop a recipe. It makes me glad that she is grasping this concept which goes hand in hand with the locally grown, farm to table movement.  

One of her favorite winter veggies is kale, which just happened to be ripe for the pickin’ in our garden so she decided it would make a good base for the salad.  We took to the internet to research what other winter fruits and veggies were in their prime and she chose romaine, pomegranates, dates, sweet potato and clementines, which I thought was a fabulous mix in terms of both color and flavor.  

We decided to use clementines for the dressing instead of in the actual salad. Their fresh and tangy juice worked well with the vinegar, oil and honey mustard. Almonds were thrown in as a finishing touch and the whole salad came together beautifully!

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped kale or spinach

2 cups chopped romaine or butter lettuce

½ cup cooked, cooled and cubed sweet potato

1/3 cup pomegranate seeds

1/3 cup chopped dates

¼ cup slivered almonds

¼ cup fresh squeezed Clementine or mandarin orange juice

2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

1 tablespoon honey mustard

2 teaspoons olive oil

Directions:

Add all the veggies and fruits to a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the clementine juice, vinegar, honey mustard and olive oil.  Pour the dressing over the salad, sprinkle the almonds over the top and mix well.  Chill if not serving immediately.  The dressing can served on the side and stored separately for the salad to keep longer.

Makes 5 servings

Serving size:  1/5 of recipe Calories 110 Protein  3 g Carb 17 g Fiber 3 g Sugars 10 g Fat 4 g Saturated fat 0 g Sodium 115  mg

Gabby's Shot:

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In The News: Awesome Oat Info From Quaker!

Now that the New Year is in full swing and many the goal of many is to make healthier eating choices, I thought this was a perfect time to introduce a new infographic that I just I learned about from Quaker Oats.  I was very excited when one of their representatives contacted me to share this awesome tool.  It provides excellent information about the varieties of oats available, lists some fun facts about oats, and summarizes a variety of key research about how oats are beneficial to health and the environment. Plus it includes a bonus recipe too!

I am a HUGE fan of oats and I have countless recipes on my blog which incorporate them- my protein bars, pancakes, snack cakes, baked oatmeal and other desserts to name a few!!  Oats are a power food, a whole grain full of soluble fiber that has shown to lower cholesterol, increase satiety to promote weight loss and act as a prebiotic which may help with digestive health.  Oats contain carbs, protein and a bit of healthy fat along with important micronutrients like B vitamins, iron and magnesium as well.  In addition there are many promising studies that suggest oats may help decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, overall mortality and help with digestive conditions such as IBS and ulcerative colitis.  Another positive is that oats can be gluten free (GF) if you buy brands that are certified GF, meaning they are grown, processed and packaged in a way that prevents cross contamination. And, not only are oats good for us, they are good for the environment too! They require less fertilizer, irrigation and energy to grow, a big plus!

So check out this tool below and I hope you will be including oats in your daily diet  if you are not already doing so!!

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