A miracle has happened people…Husband just said these exact words “It’s like the best salad i’ve had since I can remember”.  We were sitting at dinner and he seriously uttered those words.  I wrote them down immediately so I wouldn’t forget and vowed to blog about it.  I almost fell off my chair!!

I love salads, I could eat them at least 4 meals a week.  There are so many things you can add to them, the dressing possibilities are endless, they are portable for lunches and they work for all seasons.  I heart salad. Husband on the other hand…not so much.  Every time I make a meal type salad, I can see his face scrunch up, his upper lip curl and I anticipate a long drawn out sigh and then Homer Simpson breaking out in to song : “You can’t make friends with Salad, You can’t make friends with Salad”.  Tonight I had my heart set on a salad with Autumn type flavours as it’s the last day of summer and I wanted to have a transition meal.  Plus I have eaten pretty awful for most of the weekend so it was time to lighten things up.  (Also, I had left over pizza in the fridge if Husband was going to stick his nose up so there was a back up plan for him if he just couldn’t do it after a long shift at work).

Earlier in the morning, I made the dressing…a really simple celery seed vinaigrette (see previous blog post: Mood: Independent-Celery Seed Salad Dressing and Woodstock Salad Dressing)

So light and fresh and it will be perfect for this salad. Celery Seed Vinaigrette

Next it was time to get some simple ingredients together to make this salad feel like I was on a visit to an orchard and I was eating an amazing salad while overlooking some lovely trees.

You want to get flavours like honey crisp apples, dried cherries or cranberries, crunchy romaine lettuce, slivers of onion, celery chopped small, chopped pecans and pumpkin seeds.

Throw it all in a bowl

Next add some of your delicious home made dressing and toss together.

YUM

If you want to add meat, this pairs really well with chicken.  I have to say, this salad is delicious enough all on it’s own and doesn’t really need anything else…totally your call.

Autumn Orchard Chopped Salad

Ingredients

• 1 Chopped Romaine Lettuce
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 apple chopped and cubed, leave the skin on
• 1 cup of pepitas/pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup dried cherries or cranberries (I used Cherries cuz I always have them on hand, gotta love costco)
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• Quarter of a small white onion sliced really thin, almost slivers
• 2 Tablespoons of celery seed vinaigrette (or dress to your liking)

Directions

• Mix everything together except for dressing
• Add dressing and toss
• Serve immediately

Hope you enjoy this moody little salad.  I am super proud that husband really enjoyed it and gobbled it up!!

Much love!!

xo