Marvelous!

I eat a lot of salad. Since I'm on my own for all three meals most days, salads are good, fast, easy grown-up food for me. I have learned you can put pretty much anything in a salad, so there's no reason for it to be boring, eating it day after day! Here's how I like to do it: Lettuce is a given and I also sometimes add pasta if I have some cooked. Next, meat--ground beef with kidney beans, bacon or already marinated and grilled chicken left over from Sunday night, as pictured here :) Next, I always pick a fruit or veggie--tomatoes, broccoli, dried fruit, strawberries, nectarines--anything goes, really. Then, I like to add some crunch to my salad. Here I have sunflower seeds, but I also like to use soy nuts, walnuts, Chinese noodles or crunched up tortilla chips. All good! And, last but not least, the dressing. I have grown very accustomed to making my own dressings ever since last summer when I first became so addicted to salads. I now prefer homemade over store-bought. They almost always use ingredients I have on hand and just flat taste soooo much better. Plus, I know exactly what's in them, unlike dressing off the shelf! Here are a couple of my favorite go-to dressing recipes:

Marietta's Marvelous Dressing

1/4 cup honey
3 Tbl white or cider vinegar
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil (I normally use olive)

Place all ingredients in a jar and shake it up, baby! ;)

Honey-Lime Dressing

1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 Tbl sugar
1 Tbl sesame oil
1 1/2 Tbl Apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp lime juice

Mix and enjoy!