Spinach, Walnut, Apple Salad

This is one of my favorite fall salads. It’s super convenient to make now that I have an apple tree in the backyard. It’s sweet, salty, tangy, and just a little bit smoky.

This salad is great if you’re not super hungry. It’s more of a side salad or pre-dinner salad. To make it a complete meal, it would need a protein and my fav is falafel patties!

Serving it with warm falafel patties also transforms this salad into something that’s almost warming.

I really don’t like cold food (as I’m sure you’ve noticed me say countless times), and often shy away from salads because they’re so cold.

If you’re like me, this is a really good salad for you because most of the ingredients in this salad are warm.

The walnuts, apples and avocados are all stored at room temperature. Then I like to drizzle the spinach with a warm balsamic vinaigrette. This brings the whole salad to a nice room temperature making it ideal for fall!

Cause who wants to eat cold food when it’s cold outside!?

As a reminder, always remember to salt your salad leaves before dressing them. I find that this really elevates a salad and makes it super tasty. So, just a pinch of salt on the leaves goes a long way.

spinach, walnut, apple salad:

• 1 bunch of spinach washed and dried about 2.5 cups

• 1/4 cup of walnuts chopped

• 1/2 a cup of diced green apples

• 1/4 cup of red onions

• 1/4 cup of cashew cheese

• 1/2 and avocado

• balsamic vinaigrette

• 2 tablespoons of chia seeds

• pinch of salt

Toss all of the ingredients together, and dig in!

What are some of your favorite recipes? I’m thinking about making a dairy free cheddar and apple tart. It just sounds so delicious!

DIY, Zero Waste Granola with Dried Blueberries

One of my favorite zero waste breakfasts is yogurt topped with crunchy granola. I'm still working on perfecting my coconut yogurt recipe, but it's close.

I promise, I will share when it's ready! 

I would also love to know, what are some of your favorite zero waste breakfast ideas? 

Granola is crunchy, sweet, and a perfect substitute for all of the packaged cereals you no longer buy. While eating Captain Crunch is not the healthiest breakfast option it's still full of so many childhood memories. 

I used to love eating cereal for breakfast every morning. It was super quick and easy. I also would binge an entire box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch while studying for finals in college. 

Cereal is also just easy.  I loved not having to hassle with a huge breakfast ordeal while heading to school.

I still try to keep my breakfast super simple when heading to work. 

Granola fits the bill for me. It's super tasty, easy to make, and a really quick breakfast. It's a fairly common item in bulk bins, but I find that it's typically loaded with sugar. 

I have become really sensitive to sugar. I don't like to start my day by eating it because I get kinda jittery and can have headaches or inflammation in my joints.

I feel too young to be dealing with inflammation, but I try to limit my sugar. I save it all for the good stuff like decadent cups of hot cocoa and brownies! 

Which reminds me, I bet this granola would be insanely tasty with a sprinkling of cocoa powder and some chocolate chips! 

MMmmmm, dessert granola. It could be sprinkled on some homemade coconut ice cream! I'm so ready for it to be summer. 

Honestly, granola is really easy to customize based on what you have on hand. It's typically made up of nuts, oats, honey, and dried fruit. You can really wing it with whatever is in your cupboards! 

Other great add-ins would be coconut-shreds, chocolate chips, seeds, the combinations are endless. 

easy granola: 

Makes Roughly 2 Cups, 350 degrees

• 1 Cup of Old-Fashioned Oats from bulk bins at Raley's
• 1 Cup of Slivered Almonds from bulk bins at Rainbow Gocery
• 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil from bulk at Amphora Nueva
• 2 Tablespoons of Honey* from farmers market stall can bring the honey jar back
• 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon from Oaktown Spice
• Pinch of Salt from Berkeley Bown
• 1/3 Cup of Dried Fruit (I used blueberries) from Rainbow Groceries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. In a mixing bowl add the oats, almonds, cinnamon, and salt
3. Stir until they're all combined
4. Add in the olive oil and the honey and mix
5. Spread out on a rimmed cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes stirring half way through
6. Once golden brown, remove from the oven and add in the dried fruit

*for a vegan option, try 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and 1 tablespoon of molasses 

How to Dry Your Own Spices

Herbs and Spices are magical. They’re like fairy dust for your food. They have medicinal properties, add depths of flavor, contain loads of vitamins, and can invoke memories of time or place.

Nutmeg smells like Christmas, basil smells like Italy, and parsley reminds me of my Austrian house mom.  

I have tried to plant an herb garden several times. I'm determined to succeed, but so far I've killed it twice! I prefer to pick mine on walks around the neighborhood or get them package free at the farmers market or the supermarket.

 Occasionally they'll come with twist ties. I used four twist ties from my trash jar to "string" up the herbs. 

I tied them to the handles of my cabinet. The sun hits that spot indirectly in the afternoon.  

I dried lemon verbena which can be used to repel mosquitoes or brewed in a tea can help with indigestion, any type of stomach troubles, joint pain, insomnia, colds, fever, and asthma.

I also dried parsley. Parsley is rich in many vital vitamins such as A, C and K.

I let them hang for about two weeks. A couple of leaves fell off and I could tell they were sufficiently dry.

I pulled my blender under them and plucked the leaves. This helped keep the mess to a minimum.

I pulsed the leaves in the blender till they turned into small familiar looking pieces. Their color and aroma is so much more potent than what I've bought in store.

Organic parsley is selling at $3.63 for .26 oz and just made almost 3oz for $1.00. 

I grinded them almost a week ago. Look at that color.  

This has been so easy! And, I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!? Nothing but positives here.

 It’s way cheaper than store bought, better quality, better for you, and so easy. I highly encourage you to try it.

 Have you tried it? What herbs have you used?

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