salad recipe Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

It seems we’re starting off this week with a bit of a strawberry theme. This Strawberry Spinach Salad is a little bit different than the Strawberry Blueberry Parfaits – so feel free to eat them during the same meal.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

I’m typically a pretty boring salad maker – as if adding fruit and nuts to salad is difficult (which, of course, it is not). I blame it on the fact that I am a meat-and-potato-farm-girl at heart. I grew up eating the basics. The only way we ate pecans was in pies. Strawberries were made into jelly. And spinach? The only kind I’d heard of was the slimy canned variety – and I didn’t touch it.

Now that I’ve branched out into loving all kinds of different foods (like actual strawberries – you should try them), I figure it might be time for me to try a few different salads beyond the basic kind with mixed greens and ranch dressing. Last week, I was out of mixed greens, but had a big container of spinach and several containers of strawberries. I did a little searching and came across this, which I tweaked and made for our lunch.

It was surprisingly very tasty. (Why was I surprised? I don’t know. Because it wasn’t basic mixed greens with ranch?) The combination of roasted pecans with the strawberries with the easy-to-make dressing packs a great punch of flavor.

Look at me. I’m such a big girl now – eating salads with fruit and nuts and vinaigrette.

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Vinaigrette DressingYum

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing

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Author: Laura

Ingredients

6 cups fresh spinach (give or take)
1 pound fresh strawberries, sliced into fourths
¾ cup pecans
⅓ cup olive oil
¼ cup balsamic or red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon ground mustard
2 shakes of sea salt

Instructions

In a small saucepan, roast pecans by warming them over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Stir them frequently to keep them from scorching. (I didn't find it necessary to add any oil to the pan.)
Toss the roasted pecans into a large bowl with spinach and strawberries
In a jar, mix the oil, vinegar, mustard, and salt.
Drizzle dressing over salad just before serving.

Isn’t it pretty?

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing

Are you brave with your salads or do you typically stick with the basics?

We can actually make Pineapple Fluff with real food!

Pineapple Fluff

While we were out at church camp this summer, one of the cooks made a huge bowl of “Green Fluff Salad.” Malachi, our 10 year old, helped himself to seconds and thirds – absolutely loving this salad.

Now I personally think that calling this a salad is kind of like calling margarine butter which no one should ever, ever do in my hearing because I will gag and then I will do the ugly cry on the spot. (Do not picture this.) A dish which contains green jello, cool whip, cream cheese, pineapple (yay fruit!), and mini-marshmallows is…I’m going to say…a dessert? Now if you like that variety of “salad,” more power to you. I understand these types of cravings because I still want an occasional Dorito even though I know better. But I just question the use of the word “salad” here and now back to the story.

Malachi loved the Green Fluff Salad. This is why, when I asked him a week later at home for a side dish suggestion to go with grilled steaks we’d be making, he perked up and said, “Oh Mom! We should make that Green Fluff stuff we had at camp!”

Before I go on, you need to know this: It was my birthday. We were talking about side dishes for my birthday dinner. Mine. Does my child not know me the way I thought my child knew me? Was he also going to buy me some margarine as a gift? I felt an ugly cry coming on.

Catching myself before an outburst because I am always so graceful in my parenting, I gently said, “Buddy, I don’t use those kind of ingredients. I’d rather make something with food we have on hand already.”

To which Malachi said calmly, “I know. I mean we can try to figure out how to make that salad the healthy way. Like you always do.”

Squeeze him. Now that’s a boy who knows how his mama thinks. I mean, I knew all along that’s what he meant. I never doubted for a minute. I knew he didn’t mean for me to go buy cool whip and marshmallows. C’mon now.

Pineapple Fluff Salad (I guess I’m still calling this a salad. I don’t know why.)Yum

Pineapple Fluff Salad (All Real Food Ingredients!)

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Author: Laura

Ingredients

8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons lime juice
¼ cup sugar or 3 Tablespoons real maple syrup or liquid stevia to taste
14-ounce can of pineapple, drained (chunks, tidbits, or crushed works fine)

Instructions

Open pineapple, drain, and save juice for drinking another time.
Set pineapple aside.
In a high-power blender mix cream cheese, whipping cream, vanilla, lime juice, and sweetener of choice until well combined and smooth.
In a bowl, fold pineapple into the whipped mixture.
Chill for at least one hour before serving.

If you want this salad to be green, I’m sorry. Real food is only green if it comes out of the ground that way. Jello doesn’t grow in a garden. It’s okay though. I put this salad in a clear dish on top of a green plate and that kind of gives it the greenish look. I do what I can.

Pineapple Fluff Salad with Real Food Ingredients

Did Malachi like the results? Yes. He absolutely loved it. No jello needed. Lime juice did the trick, as did a tiny bit of sugar. I didn’t take the time to figure out a marshmallow substitute for this because I am not crazy, and whipping cream was an obvious real food substitute for cool whip. This kid received the “favorite kid in my kitchen” award (because none of my other kids were home) and I received the “nailed it” award on this recipe challenge. Fist bump, high five, happy dance.

pineapple fluff malachi
One might wonder, “Why is there a toilet paper tube behind Malachi?” What? Don’t you keep those on your countertop beside your fruit bowls? It’s soooo Heavenly Homemakerish. But for real, we are working on some projects for a great big new book coming out soon for you and your kids. It’s super exciting and on this very Pineapple Fluff making day, the project involved an empty tp tube. Nothing should surprise you about me anymore. (Update: Here’s the book!)

Are you familiar with Green Fluff Salad? Or other colors of fluff salad? Drop-kick those (but not literally because, eww) and make this amazing real food version.