Edamame Orange Salad with Miso Dressing

Ingredients:

Spinach

Edamame

Orange, peeled and chopped into large pieces

Broccoli slaw

Red bell pepper, thinly sliced

Cashews

green onion

For the dressing:

Miso (I used Hikari Minute Miso)

Soy Sauce

Garlic Chili Paste

Rice wine vinegar

Mirin

Toasted sesame seed oil

Grape and Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients:

Spinach

Red or Black Seedless Grapes (halved)

Chopped Onion

Toasted Walnuts

Goat Cheese

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Strawberry Cocoa Salad

For the last couple of months when I get home I've just relied on the same old things to make. I've been getting very bored, so I've tried a few things lately.

The first thing I tried was Strawberry Cocoa Spinach Salad. Sounds disgusting right?

A couple of years ago my parents went to Hershey, PA, and ate at the restaurant. They put chocolate in everything, in every course. My mom was raving about this salad with Cocoa Balsamic Dressing and dried cherries on micro greens. She tried to duplicate it when she got home, and although I can't say how it compared to restaurant's, I thought it was pretty good.

The other day I was at the store, and the strawberries were beautiful, and cheap! So I picked some up and thought I'd make a strawberry spinach salad (because I saw a pre-packaged one at Whole Foods and it inspired me). So I thought I'd try the Cocoa Balsamic dressing.

Strawberry Cocoa Salad
serves 2 (amounts are approximate - just do what looks right to you)

3 handfuls baby spinach or mixed greens
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/4 cup chopped or slivered almonds, toasted
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup feta cheese
Cocoa Balsamic Dressing
Salt and pepper to taste

Toss spinach and onion with dressing. Fold in strawberries and almonds. Top with feta.

Cocoa Balsamic Dressing

(amounts are approximate - taste and adjust)

3 TBSPs Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp unsweetened Cocoa (I used Ghirardelli Natural Unsweetened Cocoa)
1/8 tsp garlic powder
2 TBSPs Olive oil, or more

Mix vinegar, cocoa and garlic powder. While stirring, drizzle in olive oil until emulsified.

Apple Panini

A while back, we had a Christmas party with friends. One girl brought these little ham sandwiches (which were the same recipe as these Ham and Cheese Sandwiches (but she used Hawaiian rolls). They were so popular at the Christmas party, she was asked to keep bringing them to everything. Two of us decided to make them for a baby shower, but neither of us really liked ham, so we tried to think of a way to make them ham-less. We went with Granny Smith Apple and the result was incredible. I've translated this idea into an Apple Panini. Here I lowered the amount of butter and increased the amount of onion, even while adjusting the servings to 2.

Apple Panini

2 TBSP really soft, almost melted butter
4 TBSP Grated Onion
2 tsp grainy or dijon mustard
2 tsp poppy seeds
dash or two of Worcestershire sauce
4 slices of bread (great with sourdough, french boule, wheat, rye, or pumpernickel).
1 granny smith apple
1 1/2 cups grated cheese (Swiss, emmental, Jarlsberg, provolone, or Havarti work best)

Prepare spread by combining butter, onion, mustard, poppy seeds, and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Whisk until well blended. Spread onto all four slices of bread. Take two slices and place on hot panini grill, spread side up. Add a pile of cheese to each then top with apple slices, another pile of cheese, and the other pieces of bread, spread side down. Close panini grill cover and cook until bread is browned and cheese is melted. Remove from grill. Allow to cool a few minutes (apple retains heat!!), and slice at a diagonal.

This panini is great with a hard cider (like Woodchuck Granny Smith!).

If you don't want to make the spread, an alternative is to saute onion in a little bit of butter. Mix some dried dill in with the cheese mixture for a little extra umph.