Honey Sesame Dressing on Pecan Craisin Salad

The idea for this salad dressing recipe came to me yesterday, when I was sitting at my island with my friend, BJ.  She had brought a salad we could eat together while our kids, along with my uncle's 15 grandkids, were downstairs watching a movie. The salad was dressed with a sweet vinaigrette and it was delicious. I decided that I had to make this today, but never did get around to calling her for the recipe until it was almost time for the kids to come home for lunch. So, I threw some stuff in the blender, and what resulted was really quite good. The kids liked it, too, especially the 15-year-old girl, who had to ask me three times what was in it because we kept getting interrupted by the 4-year-old boy's attempts at disciplining his 2-year-old twin brothers.

Hope you love this like we do....

For the dressing:
2 cups olive oil.
2 cups balsamic vinegar
1 cup honey
1/2 cup nama shoyu
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup sesame seeds
(Makes about 1 1/2 quarts)

For the salad:
Greens
Pecans
Craisins
Croutons

1. To make the dressing, add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

2. To make the salad, toss the greens, pecans and craisins. Add croutons and dressing.

Black Bean and Green Chili Salad

I didn't feel like going to the store for groceries today, so the 15-year-old girl and I scrounged through my mother's kitchen cabinets and came up with this dinner...

The strawberry preparation is simple. Just wash well, and remove the greens...

The asparagus preparation is simple as well. Just wash asparagus and saute in butter, then add salt...

Just make sure your brother doesn't eat half of them before they are served...

To make the salad, round up the following ingredients...

6 cups of spring greens
15 oz can of black beans (about 2 cups)
1 small can of chopped green chili (about 1/2 cups)
1 cup of cubed gouda cheese
6 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Ranch dressing (for an awesome homemade recipe from an amazing lady, go HERE)
Flax seeds

Toss first five ingredients...

...then serve with dressing and sprinkle on flax seeds...

...and if you're really lucky, you'll be having a good hair day when you serve this. This is a rare occurrence, so I am sharing, and this is the best shot I could get...

Thanks for listening.