The Simple Foodie

I'm a lover of food, especially sugar. I'm a fitness fanatic, runner, Fitness/Bikini Competition competitor. I love welcoming friends and family into my home and entertaining. Obviously, I believe in balance and all good things in moderation! So, after compliments on my easy-elegance entertaining style and many questions along the lines of 'how did you make that?', I've decided to create a blog for my simple creations for snacks and appetizers (that's right, not giving away all of my baking recipes here). Yes, I'm a blogger now!

Any of my friends will tell you that I enjoy being 'hostess with the mostess.' My style of entertaining is that of simple elegance; meaning, few and simple ingredients and low-fuss preparation that results in an impressive presentation. Baking is my true love, but cooking, especially appetizers, is also a fun activity for me. Because I enjoy healthy food and tasting the actual ingredients, I prepare simple dishes with fewer ingredients and more importantly, fewer steps. The result: quick, yet impressive presentations and dishes that are seasonal, flavorful and easy.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The most unexpectedly pretty salad! 
This is a variation of an Italian Tri-colore salad, 
shall I call it, the 

New Italian salad




Just look at this beauty!  If you are like me, you love to admire your food before diving into it.  Let me tell you how this one came to be, since I didn't plan it!  I was actually planning the salad below, and then created this a couple of days later while combining some leftover ingredients.  So, you get two recipes in this single post (aren't you lucky).  Try them both and let me know which you like better.

Inspiration

Between my recent trip to Italy and the freshness of summer fruits that are abounding as we move closer to summer, I was inspired to bring the two together.  The tri-colore salad, traditionally made with arugula, radicchio, and endive, is so named for having the colors of the Italian flag. It's a dazzling presentation and has a complex palette of veggies.  To make it summer friendly and cool down the bitterness of the veggies, yet keep the color scheme (I'm am all about looks!), I swapped out the radicchio for a plum, as they are close in color.  The juiciness and sweetness of the plum delightfully balances out the bitterness and sharpness of the veggies.  Muah!  I topped it lightly with a swirl of all natural, fat free poppy seed dressing.  Try it and taste it for yourself! 





 Tri-colore Salad with Plum
Ingredients (makes 2 servings)
baby arugula
one endive, sliced and separated
one small plum, wedged then cut in half
Sprinkle fresh or dried Italian herbs over top (I used a premade blend by Pampered Chef)
poppy seed dressing (I like Maple Grove Farms of Vermont dressing, it's relatively low cal and low sodium)

Arrange desired amount of arugula on single serving size plates.  Sprinkle sliced endive evenly over each.  Arrange sliced plum in circular pattern.  Drizzle with desired amount of dressing.  It's that easy and it's super healthy too. Hint, hint to my fitness competition followers, you can eat this while training.  Just add 6-8 almonds to each for some protein if desired.


Then, a couple of days later, I combined some of the same ingredients with some fresh news ones from the Parker Farmers Market (mainly, the cute little grape tomatoes)

New Italian Salad
Ingredients (makes 2 servings)
baby arugula
shredded iceberg lettuce
shredded radicchio
grape tomatoes, halved
one endive, sliced and separated
Sprinkle fresh or dried Italian herbs over top (I used a premade blend by Pampered Chef)
poppy seed dressing (I like Maple Grove Farms of Vermont dressing, it's relatively low cal and low sodium)

Enjoy!  Please do let me know which you like better. I'd love to hear from you!

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