When I was a little girl, my family and I would take summer vacations in this small town in Baja California called San Quentin. How they ever found this little town about 5 hours south of San Diego is beyond me, but we loved it.  We would fish, eat amazing lobster burritos, go to (endless)... Read More The post End Of Summer Salad With Fig Balsamic Vinaigrette appeared first on A Sweet Pea Chef ..read more

So I love figs. Like LOOOOOOOOOOVE figs. Growing up, we had these two giant fig trees that produced the most perfect, purple, strange, little globes of sweet [...] The post Fig, Pistachio & Goat Cheese Salad appeared first on A Sweet Pea Chef ..read more

Wanting to eat healthier and enjoy more salads?  Try these 5 easy and heathy salad dressing recipes plus get tips for how to make homemade salad dressing!  You'll never buy the store-bought stuff again! I'm such a fan of homemade salads -- they're easy to make, great for meal prep (looking at you, Mason Jar Salads!), filling, and super tasty! When it comes to salad dressings, there are so many different options and flavors, sometimes, I even find it difficult to pick one to put on my salad. So, I’m sharing with you not just one, not two, but 5 of my current faves! One of the biggest ..read more

This savory and sweet salad makes a perfect lunch on the go or a light dinner. The Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with White Wine Vinegar Dressing is packed with vitamins, fiber, and protein that will keep you full and happy! Raise your hand if you like cheese! I’m a huge fan of cheese! Soft cheese, hard cheese, all the cheese! Ever since I made the decision to eat more healthy, nutritious foods and prepare my own meals, I’ve been so happy I get to still enjoy cheese as part of a well-balanced diet. While most cheese is usually pretty high in calories and often has a high fat, cholesterol, and so ..read more

This delicious and fresh Leftover Turkey Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette is the perfect healthy recipe for what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers! Thanksgiving is over.  For many of us, this means we have a ton of leftovers in our fridge. So the question is what kind of Thanksgiving leftovers person are you?  Are you the kind who recreates the exact same meal as the big day?  Or do you like to change things up? If you like to change things up, I've got a great salad for you. This salad is kinda like a Thanksgiving explosion of delicious, fresh, and vibrant ..read more

Looking for a great way to use those delicious cherry tomatoes on your counter? This Cherry Tomato and Cucumber Salad is a great quick addition to any meal. I used to be all alone in my household of four. In the early stages of this blog, I made this recipe, and no one ate it with me ? Now, I have a household of 6, and everyone ate it and loved it lol. It's funny how time can change things. I will never get over all the growing up everyone has done, whether it's the family liking tomato basil bruschetta or a pesto goat cheese pizza, but I'm all for it. Ok, so this recipe is pretty basic, but ..read more

With just a little bit of prep work, you can enjoy these 4 easy mason jar salad recipes throughout the week as a lunch or dinner, maintain your healthy eating, and have a great grab-and-go meal ready to go. If I am hungry and I have to make myself something from scratch - even if I have ALL the ingredients -- I rarely do it.  One of the biggest barriers for me to eat healthy is having yummy food ready to eat when I want it. There's something that goes off in my head when it's time to eat that I want it to be easy.  Duh, right? Given this, I've found meal prep to be so important to s ..read more

This post was last updated on February 7, 2015 to include new images and a recipe video. For four weeks straight, our CSA included a (deceptively) small brown bag full of baby beets.  Did I mention this was for four weeks straight? Now, ordinarily, I would be excited at the opportunity to eat beets to my heart's content.  But, this was a lot of beets. Jordan and I can only eat so many.  Trust me, we've tried. This leads me to my dilemma: Dustin and my mother-in-law, AKA "The Beet Haters." Not sure why exactly, but they both extremely dislike beets.  But, after the fourth ..read more

Don’t you just love salads that taste as delightful as they look? In this post, I’m sharing how to make a bright and happy Spring Greens Salad that’s guaranteed to light up your clean-eating life. If you’re looking for a vibrant salad mix to spruce up your clean, green recipes, I suggest leveling up your salad game with this one.  The Spring Greens Salad is amazing y’all. It’s nutrient-dense, perfect for mixing with a variety of textures and colors, and insanely easy to whip up. Plus, this salad is so pretty to look at. Sooo pretty. Which equals = The perfect side for special meals (even ..read more

A fresh and flavorful Asian Cucumber Salad is perfect to bring to the next neighborhood potluck…or to have in your own fridge as a healthy addition to a meal. This post will show you how to – quickly and easily – make it! Cucumbers are a late spring to mid summer “fresh out of the garden veggie” that I can’t get enough of.  I love the crunch and the mild flavor that cucumbers have. They are great in sandwiches, on a salad, and sliced into infused water (think cucumber and mint – ah-mazing!).  Cool and refreshing, cucumbers are 90% water. They’ve got calcium, iron and phosphorus, and ..read more