Cove Point-Lake Superior

Happy Monday! 

Where did the weekend go?  I felt like my body and my mind were a day ahead the entire weekend!  If you missed a few post from the weekend, here they all are!
Domestic Diva First Installment 

Shop Till You Drop... Literally
20 Questions-Tag Your It Featuring Amanda
Strawberry Spinach Salad

Yesterday (Sunday) my flight to Dayton was booked for the wedding that Mark is in!  11 days till I get to spend 2 weeks with Mark!  It seems like our time apart has flown by, and believe me I am not complaining about this at all.  I have a feeling that this week is going to go fast.  Not only am I getting ready to leave for Dayton, my family is also heading up to the North Shore on Lake Superior!

My family and I used to go up to Lake Superior every year for MEA (a 3 day weekend for Minnesota Public Schools).  My family would go with good family friends, I have some of the best memories from these trips.  Lake Superior is beautiful.  However at a young age I am not sure I really appreciated the beauty or serenity of the lake.  I am looking forward to getting a bit of relaxing in before the whirlwind of traveling and weddings!

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Strawberry Spinach Salad is one of my all time favorite salads.  I love the light sweetness of the salad and the crunch provided by either almonds or granola!  Plus you get a little saltiness if you throw feta in the mix!  Mark and I used to make this in Indianapolis on nights when we wanted something on the lighter side.  Usually Mark and I would leave the almonds out (he doesn't like nuts) and simply stick to the granola for crunch.  Whats great about this salad is you can pretty much top it with things you like (nuts granola, cheese, cranberries)  Or jus keep it simple like I did today.  Just Spinach, Strawberries, and a Almond Vinaigrette (if there is someone allergic to almond sub in vanilla extract). 

What you will need:

6 Servings 

Salad:

1 Bag Spinach (Washed and Stems Removed)

1 Pint Strawberries (You will use half)

Sesame Seeds

Poppy Seeds

Dressing:

2 Tablespoons Vinegar

2 Tablespoons Honey 

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil 

1/4 Tsp Poppy Seeds  

1/2 Tsp Almond Extract

The original Recipe calls for 2 tablespoons sliced Almonds, and 1/2 Tsp Margarine.  We didn't have sliced almonds, so this time I left the toasted almonds out!  Results still fantastic!

Wash your spinach and place in serving bowl.  Cut up half your strawberries and place on top of spinach.  I then sprinkled the spinach and strawberries with a bit of sesame and poppy seeds.  Now for the dressing, combine all the dressing ingredients in a shaker, shake well to combine the olive oil, honey and vinegar.  However they will separate a few minutes later.  Dress the salad with your dressing and serve!  

Note if using the almonds the recipe said to microwave the margarine and almonds for 1 1/2-2 min.  Then you just toss the almonds into the salad!

Enjoy and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

I had to share this with you!  I found this on the website Liz's Kitchen:  This is a new take on the Strawberry Spinach Salad!

For Recipe click here!

The Domestic Diva First Installment!

I am so excited for today's post!  Today is the first ever tips from the Domestic Diva!  I was extremely excited when I brought up this idea to Sam, and even more excited when she said she would love to do Domestic Diva tips!  Pretty soon the Domestic Diva will be an up and running blog (very excited for this).  I am looking forward to learning new and exciting tips from Sam!  She has lots of great money saving Ideas, recipes and so much more!  So without further delay lets here from the Domestic Diva!

Fiesta Spud

I was severally lacking on brain power tonight when it came to thinking of supper.  I was in one of those moods where I had no idea what I wanted for dinner, and my parents were not being much help either!  I kept looking up recipes, but nothing stood out.  Finally baked potatoes were decided on.   Baked potatoes are versatile and basically a blank canvas.  I love that you can give each person a baked potato and then give everyone free reign to do whatever they want with their potato!  While the potatoes were cooking a made a quick salad and cut up toppings for the spuds!  I dressed my spud up fiesta style with beans, black bean and corn salsa hot sauce and some onions!  There was also a bit of cheese!  Delicious.

I think I had a veggie overload at dinner, is that possible?

Personal Chef For a Day

I feel as though I didn't leave the Kitchen all day.  But I loved every minute of it!  My mom and some of her friends rented out a house (just outside of Rochester) for a mini quilt retreat.  The house is unbelievable! Each room is decorated down to the last detail, I was shocked when I walked in.  Not to mention the kitchen is beautiful.  For the quilt retreat they have rented out the Heritage House in Stewartville Minnesota.

Defiantly check out the website to see the amazing rooms!

More Chickpeas Please

Remember in yesterdays post I mentioned I had a great chickpea salad for you?  Well I am hear to share it with you today.  I do not know why but the only thing that sounded good yesterday afternoon was a salad with lots and lots of chickpeas! 

Chickpeas are one of my favorite types of beans, so I guess I shouldn't be to surprised I was craving them!  I had looked up a few recipes but nothing was striking my fancy.  The major debate was do I want a creamy salad or a vinegar based type salad?  I almost had to do a coin toss to decided!

The Dinner That Didn't Happen

Good evening!  I am kind of wondering where the day went!  I got everything done on my to do list without running around like a crazy person, and even had a good relaxing afternoon of reading The Help!  Before I knew it, it was 5 pm!  I guess I was so absorb in my book I didn't even realize time was flying by!  By this point my dad was off of work, and it was time to think about dinner!   Neither my dad nor I wanted to go grocery shopping for the ingredients for fish tacos, clearly fish tacos were the dinner that didn't happen.  So I bet you are wondering what we had, right?  Dinner was something delicious I will tell you that!  It had my dad doing this after dinner!