Simple Arugula Garden Salad
Serves 6
3 cups baby arugula or torn arugula if larger leaves
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 small zucchini, trimmed, cut in half lenthwise and thinly sliced
1 small cucumber, seeded and diced
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
simple dressing:
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijion mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
In a bowl, place all of the veggies (arugula, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber). In a small jar, place all of the dressing ingredients, cap jar. Shake jar well to mix dressing. pour 2/3 of dressing on salad and toss. Top with walnuts and serve the rest of the dressing on the side for those who would like a bit more.
sides
Lemon Garlic Mushrooms
A tasty way to prepare all the spring mushrooms available now. Great other times of the year also as a side dish with a different twist.
Lemon Garlic Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1 lemon
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley or 4 tablespoons fresh
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 3 green onions chopped
- 1 1/2 pounds mushrooms cleaned
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat broil setting in oven. Clean mushrooms. Slice if needed to make each mushroom about the same size. Place mushrooms on parchment lined jelly roll pan. Grate rind from lemon on top of mushrooms. Squeeze juice from lemon and sprinkle over the mushrooms. Add remaining ingredients and toss. Broil until tender, 6-8 minutes, keeping an eye on them.
- These can also be baked in oven or grilled in a pan on a hot grill until tender or cooked in a skillet on top of stove.
Cilantro Cashew Salad

Cilantro Cashew Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves and soft stems
- 3 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 3 tablespoon rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 6 tablespoon olive oil
- Coarse salt and ground pepper to taste
- 1/3 medium red cabbage 12 ounces, cored and thinly sliced crosswise
- 1 1/2 red bell pepper ribs and seeds removed, thinly sliced
- 3 scallions thinly sliced
- 1 medium head romaine lettuce torn into bite-size pieces
- 3/4 cup roasted cashews coarsely chopped
Instructions
- In a blender, combine cilantro, lime juice, and oil; season with salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
- In a large bowl combine, cabbage, bell pepper, and scallions; season with salt and pepper. In another large bowl, toss lettuce with 3/4 cup dressing. Top with cabbage mix.
- Drizzle all with remaining dressing, and sprinkle with cashews.
Napa Cabbage Slaw
I have taken this to several potluck BBQ’s. It is a little different than the usually salad and everyone always seems to love it. I usually put the dressing on when I arrive and toss the salad right before serving. It pulls together really fast and is super tasty. That works for me!
Serves 8
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 limes, zest and juice
4 tablespoons rice-wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons low sodium, gluten free soy sauce
1/4 cup chile oil (I use Amy’s brand)
Salt
5 cups (1 small head) Napa cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 orange bell pepper, stem and seeds removed, very thinly sliced
6 scallions, thinly sliced
2 radish, peeled, very thinly sliced into 1/2-by-2-inch pieces, optional
1/2 cup (about 3 ounces) snow peas, trimmed and very thinly sliced
¼ cup chives, cut into 2-inch lengths
In a small bowl, whisk together garlic, zest and juice of lime, vinegar, soy sauce, and chili oil. Season with salt; set aside.
Ah, January…
How was Christmas and New Year’s for you all? Ours was nice. I love hanging out with the cute monkeys I call my kids. Their vacation was much too short this year, but it was great to have them home. We spent all day Christmas in our jammies (even when we went to look at Christmas lights), drank cocoa, napped, played Christmas music, snuggled up, and rang the New Year in with great friends.
Sometime before Christmas hit, we did get some gluten cross-contamination somewhere. I am sure it was just a bit of cross-contamination as the effects were not as bad as they could be, however it was still not pleasant. We are coming around the corner on that note. That is all you want to know about that. Trust me. Yuck!
It is the start of a new year and (as my daughter constantly reminds me) we have a birthday coming up in the family. My oldest daughter will be 9 years-old soon! I can’t believe it! She is planning a tropical birthday party to warm us up. I don’t know if I should be glad or not that my kids think I can make any shaped cake (all gluten and dairy free) without any trouble. Somehow her cake needs to include a hula dancer (girl) and 3 ukulele playing boys and 3 boys playing drums. Um, okaaaaaay………I’ll get back to you on that one…. This is my daughter who one year wanted a GREEN Clifford the Big RED Dog cake. (I made a big white dog bone shaped cake that year with Clifford napkins and coloring pages she could color green.) She is a creative one and oh so very specific.
I looked in the freezer earlier and realized I have been slacking in the stocking up department. Too many cookies and not enough meals lately, I guess.
Tonight for dinner we are having barbecue pork sandwiches and and rainbow coleslaw. We have some left over pork roast from the other day’s crock pot meal. I am just shredding the pork and adding enough barbecue sauce until saucy enough for us. A quick BBQ sauce I mix up is: 3/4 cup gluten free (preferably fruit juice sweetened) ketchup, 2 T dark brown sugar, 1 T apple cider or white-wine vinegar, 1 T gluten-free Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 t cayenne pepper, 1/2 t dried thyme and black pepper to taste. Just mix up and you are done. I can make up a batch of quick Noah’s rolls while the pork and sauce is heating up.
For the rainbow slaw, I have some left over rainbow slaw ( a shredded mix of carrots, broc. stalks, and red cabbage you can find in the salad section of the supermarket.) For 5 cup of shredded veggies, I mix: 3 T gluten-and dairy free mayo, 2 T apple or white-wine vinegar, 1 T gluten free honey mustard, 2 t sugar. Mix that up and toss with the veggies.

Quick BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup gluten free preferably fruit juice sweetened ketchup
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon apple cider or white-wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon gluten-free Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Just mix up and you are done. Mix with enough shredded pork, chicken or beef to make as saucy as your family likes, and heat through.

Rainbow Slaw
Ingredients
- 5 cups of shredded veggies you can get a mix of shredded mix of carrots, broccoli stalks, and red cabbage in the salad section of the supermarket, or shred your own mix
- 3 tablespoon gluten-and dairy free mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoon apple or white-wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon gluten free honey mustard
- 2 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Mix mayo, apple or white-wine vinegar, honey mustard, and sugar. Toss mayo mixture with shredded mixed veggies until well incorporated.
I decided to go ahead and just do the newsletter to finish out Spa this year. But I will NOT be volunteering for it again. So anyhow, could you do that Crock Pot cooking article?
Also, let’s set some deadlines for your book. First should be the outline. Can you have that by the end of January???