This salad is super customizable, and is a staple in my weekly salad rotation. I like to make 4 salads at the beginning of the week and eat them daily for lunch–sometimes with some sliced protein or avocado/nuts. If you don’t have quinoa, use another high protein/fiber grain (or omit). Can’t find tart cherries? Grab some craisins or golden raisins. Hate goat cheese? Use feta….you see where I’m going. Anyways, stop being such a fatty in the drive through line and take an hour to assemble four lunches and feel way better all week!

Chopped arugula and butter lettuce salad with all the fixings

• 2 bags cauliflower florets
• 1 bag arugula
• 1 bag butter lettuce
• 1 cup dried tart cherries
• 1 container (or small block) crumbled goat cheese
• 1 ready to cook bag of quinoa (or make 2 cups, cooked)
• spicy olive oil (or good quality drizzling oil)
• balsamic glaze

1. Heat oven to 400 and break apart 2 bags of cauliflower into smaller florets. Drizzle with about 1 tbs olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook for 45 minutes, tossing once after 20 minutes. Set aside to cool
2. Cook quinoa according to package. If using H‑E‑B bag, 90 seconds. If cooking “conventional” quinoa, make 2 cups, cooked. Once cooked, cool and divide into 4 containers
3. Chop up one bag butter bliss and one bag baby arugula and set aside. 
4. Divide up tart cherries (1/4 cup per salad) and layer over cooked quinoa.
5. Add 1/4 container of the goat cheese over the cherries. 
6. Add greens over cherries 
7. Top with 1/4 serving of the roasted cauliflower. 
8. When ready to serve, drizzle with 1 tbs. spicy olive oil (or good quality drizzling olive oil) and 1 tbs balsamic glaze 
9. Optional: top with sliced grilled chicken, add nuts, or avocado for a heartier salad. ** I like to layer the salads in 32oz soup containers so that they are ready to go in a hurry 

Alternative dressing: mix 2 tbs lemon juice, 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 shallot (minced—ok to omit if you don’t have), 1 tbs honey, 1 tbs Dijon mustard with a little sat and pepper. Shake to combine. 

It’s taken me 34 years to accept that there isn’t an exception for mayonnaise. While it still sicks me out hardcore, I have learned that the squirt bottle version isn’t quite as offensive as scooping a glob of mayo-ey goop out of a jar for a recipe. Thanks to my MUCH older, oldest sister, I have an excellent, easy, chicken salad recipe to share. All the ingredients are linked for your H-E-B curbside order if you live in a town lucky enough to have one.

Chicken Salad–makes 4 servings

• 1 lb. shredded rotisserie chicken (chopped to your desired chicken size)
• 1/2 C. mayonnaise (whatever brand you like)
• 6 small celery stalks, diced finely
• 1 tbs. Jane’s Crazy Salt

Legit just combine all the ingredients together. I like to add craisins and almond slivers (and extra celery) to mine, but if I served that to Crawdad, he would serve me with divorce papers.

Mexican Chopped Salad with MOS Vinaigrette (makes 8 large servings, scale in half for less)

This salad is BOMB, just ask the gaggle of drunk housewives who scarfed it down last Friday. The dressing uses Midland’s most coveted salsa, Megan’s Orange Salsa, but if you can’t find any, use any red based salsa you have on hand. For those of you lucky enough to have H-E-B, I have tried to link the exact products so that you (lazyasses) can add them to your next curbside order.

• 2 packages romaine leaves, thinly chopped
• 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
• 1 small package of Cotija cheese, crumbled
• ½ C. dried corn (use fresh if unavailable)
• ½ package of crispy jalapeños
• 1 avocado, diced/sliced
• 2 Chick-fil-A spicy filets, sliced thinly ** You can also use rotisserie chicken, grilled nuggets, etc…but the spicy filet was pretty bomb

For the dressing:

• ½ C. Spicy MOS Dressing (If you don’t have MOS, use any salsa on hand)
• ¼ C. Rice Wine Vinegar
• 2 tbs. Dijon mustard
• 1 clove minced garlic
• ¼ C. water

Layer the salad ingredients in a fancy way in your bowl. Shake all the dressing ingredients together. Wait to toss the salad (hehe) until you are ready to eat, as the dressing isn’t the prettiest! Enjoy!