25 Favorite Amazing Salads with Feta Cheese

For all the other people who love Feta like I do, here are my 25 favorite amazing salads with Feta cheese.

For more than nine years I've been posting new recipes several times a week on Kalyn's Kitchen, as well as regularly updating older ones that aren't up to current standards.  And no doubt about it, doing that regularly plus the social-media related tasks that go along with blogging is very much a full-time job.  Not that I am complaining; I love doing it, but sometimes even bloggers  need a vacation, and in the next couple of weeks I'm going to be taking two of them!  

For the rest of this week I'm going to BlogHer14 in San Jose and spending a couple of extra days hanging out with my friend Stephanie.  Then I'll be home for a few days, just long enough to get ready to go on a cruise to Alaska!   I don't want to spend all my vacation updating the blog, so I"m leaving you with a nice round-up of tasty dishes to explore while I'm off having fun.  This post has 25 Amazing Salads with Feta Cheese, all my favorites from those nine years of blogging!   (I'll be back with a new recipe early next week.  I'll make an effort to keep up with comments, questions, and social media, but if you don't get a reply as quickly as usual, you'll know why.)

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Cucumber, Avocado, and Garbanzo Salad with Feta, Lemon, and Mint (Gluten-Free)

Loved the fresh garden mint in this Cucumber, Avocado, and Garbanzo Salad with Feta, Lemon, and Mint.

A few weeks ago I had a couple of avocados on my counter that were crying out to be used, so I started thinking about how to use them.  I improvised with inspiration from this salad and the lemon-Feta vinaigrette from this salad, and the resulting combination of flavors in this Cucumber, Avocado, and Garbanzo Salad with Feta, Lemon, and Mint was really a wow for me. The first time I made the salad I didn't take photos, so the next time my nephew Jake came to cook we made the salad again, and this time we marinated the garbanzo beans in the dressing for a couple of hours before we tossed the salad together, which probably doubled the wow factor!  Jake loved the salad as much as I did; in fact it was his favorite dish in a long day of trying out new recipes.  If you're lucky enough to have some cucumbers from the garden, this salad will be even better; hope you enjoy!

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Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Grilled zucchini replaces the cucumbers in this delicious Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad!

 
(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  For four weeks in a row now I've gotten zucchini at the farmers market, so I think zucchini season is officially here and it's time to make this Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad!  This is a simple idea, but it's something I've made over and over since I came up with it years ago.)

When I visited Athens in 1998, I ate salads with cucumbers, tomatoes, green bell pepper, cucumbers, onions, and Feta cheese, always served with a dressing that combined red wine vinegar, olive oil, and dried Greek Oregano. In Greece this combination was usually called Village Salad, but in the U.S., any salad with those ingredients would be called Greek Salad. This grilled zucchini version of an American-Style Greek salad is something I came up with years ago when my garden had lots of zucchini and tomatoes, and not many cucumbers. Grilling the zucchini with olive oil and Greek Seasoning, and then brushing on some vinaigrette dressing as it cooks adds wonderful flavor to the salad, even if it's not authentically Greek. If you have surplus zucchini in your own garden, give this idea a try.

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Grilled Fusion Chicken (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

This Grilled Fusion Chicken has a great combination of flavors.

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, July 2014.)  Back in the early days of my blog I wrote about how to make juicy grilled chicken breasts that are perfect every time and I followed it up with some grilled chicken recipes.  Here's a recipe from back then that I adapted from Sunset Magazine, and really enjoyed the result.  I made this again recently with my niece Kara so we could take some new photos, and we changed the ingredients just slightly to give it even more flavor.  In the new photos I'm pairing it with a simple salad of cucumber noodles I made with my Spiralizer.

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Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Make "noodles" from zucchini and use them for this Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad; so delish!

When I posted Three Ways to Make Noodles from Zucchini and Other Vegetables, I promised to share some new recipes using the noodles, and I've made this Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad several times now, and gobbled it up every time.  This recipe is a low-carb and gluten-free offspring of my Pasta Salad with Italian Sausage, Zucchini, Red Pepper, and Olives, a recipe I've been making for years and years for family parties.  This mock pasta salad could be served as a side dish, but since it has turkey Italian Sausage included, I'd be happy with a big bowl of this for a delicious low-carb dinner.

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Three Ways to Make Noodles from Zucchini and Other Vegetables (and Recipes with Vegetable Noodles)

Low-Carb Zucchini "Noodles" are delicious and easy to make.

Have you noticed how many cooks are suddenly making "noodles" from zucchini and other types of vegetables?  I think the abundance of vegetable noodles popping up everywhere is mostly due to an amazing machine called the Spiralizer.  I'm a little obsessed with my Spiralizer lately, so watch for a few dishes with vegetable noodles coming up soon on the blog. But for those who don't want to spend nearly $35.00 for a machine to make noodles, there are actually several less expensive noodle-making gadgets that work pretty well.  I have three different cooking tools that make noodles from vegetables, so I thought it would be a fun Meatless Monday post to compare them for anyone who's curious about vegetable noodles.

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Pan-Grilled Chicken with Green Olive, Caper, and Lemon Relish (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

Easy pan-grilled chicken with a flavorful green olive relish and Mediterranean Salad with Hummus Dressing on the side.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this easy Pan-Grilled Chicken with Green Olive, Caper, and Lemon Relish is delicious and quick to make on a stove-top grill pan, or grill it on an outdoor grill if you prefer.  It's really the green olive, caper, and lemon relish that makes this special for me and I think the relish would be great on pork chops or fish as well.)

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Fish Taco Cabbage Bowl (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

Jake and I loved everything about these Fish Taco Cabbage Bowls!

I have high standards about what recipes actually end up making an appearance on Kalyn's Kitchen, so if you see a recipe here you know I really enjoyed the dish.  And then in that growing collection of recipes I enjoyed, occasionally something pops up that's a complete wow!  These Fish Taco Cabbage Bowls were so delicious that when my nephew Jake and I tested the recipe, we both kept saying over and over how good they were.  The Fish Taco Cabbage Bowls are definitely an offspring of the Sriracha Beef Cabbage Bowls I made last year, also a wow for me.  Obviously I love cabbage, so if you're not a cabbage fan this may not be for you. However, if you like fish tacos with slaw and spicy mayo dressing give this a try and I bet you'll love it just like I did for a quick and healthy dinner!

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Summer Means Salads with Fresh Herbs, and Things I'm Thinking About on Tuesday (7-8-14)

This Middle Eastern Tomato Salad is a sure sign it's summer!

It's definitely summer weather at my house, and I couldn't be happier about it.  And although I'm still trying to figure out how to create a garden like I had at my old house, I do have an abundance of fresh herbs growing in those pots along the sidewalk that I mentioned about a month ago.  I started with six pots, but quickly decided I needed more basil, so now I have 4 pots of basil, and one each of mint, parsley, rosemary, and dill all thriving in the sun.  (They're in one of the few places here that gets bright sun all day long, so I need to remember to go out at dusk and take some photos!) There's also sage, French tarragon, thyme, Greek oregano, and more parsley growing in a little strip of dirt on other edge of the sidewalk, so I'm doing pretty well in the fresh herb department.

I've also been been to the farmers market three times, which is helping a little with the garden envy.  (If you want to see what I'm buying there you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram.)  And when I couldn't wait any longer for tomato salads, I bought some tomatoes from Costco and made a salad with sliced tomatoes, Buffalo mozzarella, and basil vinaigrette that I served at a family dinner party.  And there were just enough tomatoes left to make my all-time favorite Middle Eastern Tomato Salad for lunch, so life is good.

Now here are a few more things I've been thinking about . . .

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Baked Eggs Skillet with Avocado and Spicy Tomatoes (Paleo, Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

This Baked Eggs Skillet with Avocado and Spicy Tomatoes only needs a few minutes in the oven.

I'm always looking for new low-carb breakfast ideas, and recently when I had avocados in the fridge that needed to get used I came up with this Baked Eggs Skillet with Avocado and Spicy Tomatoes.  If you're wondering why my avocados were in the fridge, back in 2009 I shared a life-changing discovery that ripe avocados will stop ripening and last for several days longer if you store them in the fridge.  (Please tell me I'm not the only one who can't resist those bags of avocados at Costco and then has a hard time remembering to use them?  If you have the same problem, this trick of putting avocados in the fridge will really help!) I'm totally in favor of avocado for breakfast, and this was a quick and delicious breakfast for two that only needs about 10 minutes in the oven.

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Black Bean and Pepper Salad with Cilantro and Lime (Gluten-Free, Vegan)

I love this salad with lots of red and yellow peppers, red onion, and cilantro and just a few black beans!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this Black Bean and Pepper Salad with Cilantro and Lime is something I could eat every day all summer long.  There's a generous amount of chopped red and yellow peppers, red onion, and cilantro and only one can of beans, making this a great Phase One choice.  Today's the 4th of July celebration in the U.S., and this would be easy to throw together for a holiday pot-luck.)

Black beans are such a great pantry ingredient, and this simple salad with black beans, red and yellow bell pepper, red onion, lime, and cilantro has all the flavors that make me happy. I love the colors in this salad too. For best flavor, mix the dressing and let the beans marinate for a while (or at least while you chop the other ingredients) but even if you're in a rush like I was and forget to marinate the beans, it will still taste pretty great!

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Chicken Salad with Basil and Parmesan (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

If you have basil in your garden, don't miss out on making this Chicken Salad with Basil and Parmesan!

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, July 2014.)  This Chicken Salad with Basil and Parmesan is something you should make when you have lots of basil in your garden, because through the years I've learned you just can't put too much chopped basil in this salad.  I finally found a good sunny spot to relocate the herb pots I used on the deck last summer, and I'm happy to say I have lots of fresh basil this year, so when I cooked with my niece Kara recently we made this favorite basil-loaded chicken salad recipe to update the photos.

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25 Deliciously Healthy Low-Carb Recipes from June 2014 (Gluten-Free, South Beach, Paleo, Whole 30)

Twenty-five deliciously healthy low-carb recipes from June 2014, from Kalyn's Kitchen and my favorite blogs.

It's the first day of a brand new month, and since March 2008 I've been starting each month with a round-up of South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes found on Kalyn's Kitchen or spotted on other blogs.  It's been a fun way to feature healthy recipes from my favorite blogs, but six years later I now have readers who follow many different types of low-carb eating plans and the South-Beach only focus was feeling restrictive. That's why I announced last month that I'd decided to change it up a bit.  So what has changed, and what's staying the same?

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Power Greens Breakfast Casserole with Feta and Mozzarella (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Power Greens Breakfast Casserole with Feta and Mozzarella has a whole pound of greens!

When I shared the recipe for Power Greens Salad with Blueberries and Almonds, I raved about how much I love the Power Greens mix of chard, kale, and Spinach I've been getting at Costco.  And if you know my food preferences at all, you might have guessed I'd be making some kind of breakfast casserole with this delicious mix of greens.  In the last couple of weeks I've made this Power Greens Breakfast Casserole with Feta and Mozzarella four times, so that's a sign of how much I like it!  And last weekend my friend Sean from Punk Domestics stayed at my house when he was in town for the Alt Conference, and when I fed him some of the leftovers for breakfast, he gave the recipe a thumbs up.  I actually used a full pound of the greens mix in this, which helped balance out the generous amount of cheese!  I think the combination of cheeses here went really well with the variety of greens, so if you like the idea of starting out the day with a healthy dose of greens, give this a try!

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Raw Zucchini Salad (Zucchini Carpaccio) with Lemon, Herbs, and Goat Cheese (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Use small fresh-from the garden zucchini to make Raw Zucchini Salad with Lemon, Herbs, and Goat Cheese.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  I've been seeing small perfect zucchini at the farmer's market for the last two weeks now, so it seems like a perfect time to make this Raw Zucchini Salad with Lemon, Herbs, and Goat Cheese.)

Zucchini Carpaccio is a dish I've been intrigued by since I first heard about the idea of thinly slicing zucchini and then marinating it in a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice, so I have no idea why it's taken me so long to try it. It was the Carpaccio of Raw Zucchini from Sidewalk Shoes that finally pushed this dish to the top of my list. Pam used a recipe from Tyler Florence, but I ended up making my own version, heavy on lemon and herbs, and with the addition of a little goat cheese, since I'm always in favor of goat cheese in a salad!

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Leftover Chicken Salad with Mustard, Hearts of Palm, and Olives (Paleo, Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Use leftover grilled or rotisserie chicken to make this Leftover Chicken Salad with Mustard, Hearts of Palm, and Olives.

When it's summer, grilled chicken breasts are always on the menu at my house.  And if I'm going to take the time to prep the chicken, marinate it, and then grill it, I'm probably going to make extra grilled chicken for leftovers.  I already have 20 Summers Salads to Make with Leftover Chicken, but that doesn't stop my brain from coming up with more ideas.  Not long ago I made Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken for a big family party, and with some of the leftover chicken I made this Leftover Chicken Salad with Mustard, Hearts of Palm, and Olives.  Not only was this a delicious low-carb salad, but if you choose ingredients carefully it's Paleo, Whole 30 approved, and gluten-free.  If grilled chicken isn't on the menu at your house, this would also be delicious with leftover rotisserie chicken, the ones that jump into your basket when you're at Costco.  Enjoy!

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25 Favorite Healthy Cucumber Salads to Keep You Cool

Summer means cucumbers, and here are 25 Cucumber Salads to eat all summer long!

How do you feel about cucumbers?  I'm always kind of shocked when someone tells me they don't like them, but then I realize maybe those cucumber-adverse people have only had grocery store cucumbers.  Those overly large waxy creatures are a poor substitute for fresh garden cucumbers, which are loaded with a delicate flavor that I just love.  If I don't have cucumbers from the garden I love the mini Persian cucumbers that you can buy at Costco, or the European cucumbers that are available all year.  As soon the weather gets hot I start craving cucumber salads.  Back in 2011 I posted ten favorite cucumber salads, but four years later I have a lot more favorites, so I'm updating this post to share 25 Favorite Healthy Cucumbers Salads to Keep You Cool.  Hope you enjoy trying some of them!

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Slow Cooker Brown Rice Veggie Bowl with Asparagus, Red Bell Pepper, Zucchini, and Feta (Gluten-Free)

This Meatless Monday Slow Cooker Brown Rice Veggie Bowl has asparagus, red bell pepper, zucchini, and Feta

Summer means garden-fresh vegetables, and this Slow Cooker Brown Rice Veggie Bowl is a simple way to cook them without heating up the house.  I made this with my nephew Jake and even though we ended up tasting it at the end of a long cooking day when we had sampled lots of other things, we gobbled this up and I was excited to have the leftovers another day.  The recipe couldn't be simpler.  Start by cooking brown rice in the slow cooker with vegetable stock, spices, and a chopped onion until the rice is nearly done.  While the rice cooks, chop up vegetables of your choice; we used asparagus, red bell pepper, and zucchini, but you could also substitute other vegetables that taste good with Feta such as yellow summer squash or green beans.  Add the vegetables and cook until they're tender, then stir in some crumbled Feta and serve, topped with a little more feta sprinkled on top.

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Recipe for Grilled Sriracha-Sesame Turkey Meatballs

Yes, these Sriracha-Sesame Meatballs really were cooked on the grill!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and these Grilled Sriracha-Sesame Turkey Meatballs are something I've been making for a few years now.  You could also cook the meatballs on top of the stove, or right on the grill grates as well if you don't have a grill pan like mine.  This recipe was not originally Phase One, but I discovered you could make the meatballs with almond meal for a phase one version.)

I'm known as the queen of cooking gadgets among my friends, and a few years ago I got a new stainless steel grill grid pan from Sur La Table that really got me excited.  It's flatter than the grill pan I use to cook vegetables, with holes that are small enough to make it perfect for cooking lots of interesting things on top of the grill.  It was definitely this pan that got me thinking about cooking these Sriracha-Sesame Turkey Meatballs on the grill.  I'm always looking for interesting ways to cook ground turkey, and these Sriracha-sesame flavored meatballs were a big hit with several people I tried the recipe on.

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Green Chile Turkey Taco Salad with Peppers and Avocado (Paleo, Low-Carb, Gluten Free)

This Green Chile Turkey Taco Salad with Peppers and Avocado has a dressing that's seasoned with green chile salsa.

I'm a big fan of taco salad, so recently when my niece and cooking assistant Kara was doing the Whole 30 challenge, I thought it would be fun to come up with a taco salad that's Whole 30 approved.  I also wanted a taco salad that didn't have beef, and this delicious Green Chile Turkey Taco Salad with Peppers and Avocado is the combination we came up with.   Simmering the meat with green chile salsa and other seasonings, using a little of the same salsa to add flavor to the dressing, plus adding green and red bell peppers and finely chopped fresh Poblano chiles to the salad greens gives this salad a lot of savory chile flavor with just a little heat.  Kara and I both loved the flavor of this turkey taco meat mixture; if you have family members who don't want salad it would be delicious inside tortillas for regular tacos as well.

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Summer Means Grilled Vegetable Salads, and Things I'm Thinking About on Tuesday (6-17-2014)

Whole Wheat Orzo and Grilled Vegetable Salad with Feta, Olives, and Herbs

Even though the official first day of summer is a few days away, lately I've been thinking of those things I love to cook in the summer but never make any other time of year, and grilled vegetables that get turned into salad are at the top of that list.  I love grilled vegetable salads, and there are a couple on the blog that are my all time favorites, starting with the Whole Wheat Orzo and Grilled Vegetable Salad with Feta, Olives, and Herbs shown above.  I could eat this all summer long!  Two more grilled summer salads I'm equally crazy over are Grilled Sweet Potato Salad with Basil, Thyme, and Feta and Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad.  Did you notice the common ingredient in these three favorite grilled salads?  Yes, I do love Feta cheese and recently my favorite Feta cheese showed up again at Costco after I hadn't been able to find it for a couple of years.  It doesn't take much to make me happy; finding that Feta at Costco again totally made my day, and the summer has gotten off to a good start.

Now, here are a few more things I've been thinking about . . .

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Power Greens Salad with Blueberries and Almonds (Paleo, Gluten-Free, Vegan)

This delicious healthy salad has power greens, blueberries, and almonds to help you eat your SuperFoods.

It's Father's Day in the U.S., and all day today I'll be thinking about my amazing father, and wishing I could spend a few hours with him.  My dad was a loving and intelligent guy who liked music, reading, Kentucky Fried Chicken, tartar sauce, and any dish that had shrimp in it, and if he was still here there's no doubt I'd be making his favorite Shrimp and Macaroni Salad today.  I don't think anything can prepare you for the loss you feel when both your parents are gone, but I'm still grateful for holidays like today and how they remind me of what amazing parents I had.  If you're lucky enough to be spending the day with your dad, I hope you have a wonderful time.

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Cuban Flank Steak Recipe (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

Flank steak is delicious when it's marinated in Cuban flavors and grilled.

 (For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites,  and this Cuban Flank Steak is one of my most-used ways to cook beef on the grill.   If you're grilling for a beef-loving Dad this weekend, I can promise this will be a hit!)

In one of my previous lives, before I became a food blogger and a South Beach Dieter, I used to be president of my local teacher's association, aka the teacher's union. This was a demanding high-pressure job that I sometimes loved, sometimes hated, but one thing I did enjoy about the job was the chance to travel. I went all over the U.S., and it was in Miami Beach that I had my first experience with Cuban food. I loved the way beef and pork were marinated in lime juice in the Cuban cuisine, so a few years ago I tried to re-create that flavor in this flank steak. If you like flank steak, give this flavorful Cuban-style marinade a try!

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Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Italian Sausage, Tomatoes, Kale, and Basil Vinaigrette (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

You won't miss the pasta in this Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Turkey Italian Sausage, Tomatoes, Kale, and Basil Vinaigrette.

I guess I'm having a little fling with cauliflower because this Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Turkey Italian Sausage, Tomatoes, Kale, and Basil Vinaigrette is the latest in a string of fun cauliflower experiments.  In the last few months I've shared Cheesy Baked Cauliflower Tots, Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Feta, and Fried Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp, and all of them had that special something that means the recipe is going to be a repeater in my kitchen.  That's also true for this latest cauliflower experiment where I used roasted cauliflower as the base of the salad and combined it with browned turkey Italian Sausage, cherry tomatoes, and barely wilted kale.  If it's a bit hot to use the oven where you are, use a toaster oven to roast the cauliflower.  (And I should probably be sharing something like this pasta salad the week of Father's Day, but unless dad is a cauliflower-avoider, I promise this salad is so delicious you won't even miss the pasta!)

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Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Prepworks Progressive Fresh Herb Keeper (and Ten Favorite Recipes with Fresh Herbs)

Keep your fresh herbs much longer in the fridge with this Progressive Fresh Herb Keeper.

Are you a fan of using fresh herbs in cooking?  I love all types of fresh herbs, and for years I've been growing basil, parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme, dill, French tarragon, and sage.  But one herb I've never had any luck growing (either outside or in my kitchen window herb garden) is cilantro.  And if you're a cilantro fan you know that fresh cilantro doesn't keep well in the fridge, which is why I was so excited to discover this Prepworks Progressive Fresh Herb Keeper.  This plastic herb keeper will keep cilantro good in the fridge about 10 days, (and maybe longer but my cilantro doesn't stay around longer than that!)  You fill the bottom of the herb keeper with water up to the line, snip off the ends off the bunches of cilantro, and push them down into the tube so the ends are in the water.  Of course you can use this for other types of herbs too if you're not a cilantro fan!

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Slow Cooker Spicy Brown Rice and Black Bean Cheesy Bowl (Vegetarian, Gluten-Free)

Use the CrockPot to cook this Spicy Brown Rice and Black Bean Cheesy Bowl and keep the kitchen cool.

When you live where it's hot in the summer, using the slow cooker to cook amazing food without heating up the house is one of the best tricks I know.  In fact, on my slow cooker site I feature Slow Cooker Summer Dinners each year, and this Slow Cooker Spicy Brown Rice and Black Bean Bowl would make a perfect summer dinner cooked in the CrockPot.  It took me a couple of tries to get this recipe just right, and for the final version I had the wild idea of cutting up some cubes of string cheese and stirring them into the rice and beans mixture for the last 30 minutes of cooking time, so this is a spicy brown rice and black bean cheesy bowl.  Everyone likes cheesy don't they?  I tested several versions of this out on my niece Kara and her family, and they gave the thumbs up to the version with cheese, but it's definitely optional if you prefer it without the cheese.

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Recipe for Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

It only takes the tiniest bit of bacon to add great flavor to this Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this flavorful salad dressing with a little chopped bacon is something I've been making for years.  The recipe has been hanging out way back in the archives on the blog since 2005 without a single photo, and I finally remembered to take some pictures to update the post!)   

Spinach salad with bacon is a culinary classic, and in the very early days of my blog I came up with this spinach salad that features a slightly creamy dressing with chopped bacon.   It only takes the tiniest amount of bacon to make this Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing really taste amazing, and I use pre-cooked bacon and then crisp it in the microwave and blot away as much fat as possible, so if you're someone who normally avoids bacon because of the saturated fat, please do not call the bacon police!  There are endless combinations of ingredients you can add to the salad besides the bacon dressing, but sliced mini-peppers, olives, sunflower seeds, and Feta like you see in this photo is probably my favorite.  And if you're not adverse to a little bacon once in a while, this bacon dressing is also fantastic drizzled over sliced tomatoes!

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Roasted Barramundi with Tomato and Olive Relish (Low-Carb, Paleo, Gluten-Free)

My niece Kara and I both loved this Roasted Barramundi with Tomato and Olive Relish.

A few weeks ago I had a fun cooking day with my gorgeous niece Kara, and we came up with this recipe for Roasted Barramundi with Olive Relish.  The recipe was so good that Kara has already made it at home (and sent me the photo) before I managed to get it up on the blog!  We tried this out when Kara was doing the Whole 30 eating plan, and for people who care about such things this recipe is completely in line with Whole 30 or Paleo eating, and it's also South Beach Diet Phase One.  But even if you don't care the tiniest little bit about any of that, you should make this because it's amazingly delicious, and easy to make after a long day at work.  If it's getting warm where you live, I recommend roasting the fish in a toaster oven to keep the kitchen cool.

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Summer Means Basil Vinaigrette, and Things I'm Thinking About on Tuesday (6-3-14)

Grilled Halibut with Basil Vinaigrette, and it must be summer because I already have Basil Vinaigrette in the fridge!

It's feeling like summer, and recently I wanted to make some Basil Vinaigrette, which made me realize how much I'm seriously missing the garden from my old house.  Last year I tried growing a few vegetables and herbs on the deck and in the kitchen window, but even though they started out well, the plants on the deck didn't produce much and keeping herbs watered in a sunny kitchen window turned out to be a challenge.  So last week I decided that while I plan for my future greenhouse (hopefully next year!) I just had to plant some things outside.  I do have parsley, several types of sage, French tarragon, thyme, and Greek Oregano by the front walk, but I was missing a few of my favorite herbs, so I got some visiting nephews to carry up the containers I'd used on the deck and planted a row of big pots by the front porch.  Now I have pots filled with basil (x2), rosemary, flat parsley, dill, and mint, and can happily cook with herbs all summer long!  And I've already got Basil Vinaigrette in the fridge, so life is good at Chez Kalyn.

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South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes Round-up for May 2014 (and an announcement)

Kalyn's Phase One Recipe Picks for May 2014 were Baked White Fish with Onions, Peppers, Olives, and Feta, Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce, Fried Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp, Sugar Snap Peas, and Red Pepper, Shrimp and Black Bean Salad with Cilantro, Cumin, and Lime, and Baked Eggs and Asparagus with Parmesan.

It's summer, and if I needed a reminder I got a good one when I looked at the bookmarks where I save recipe links to feature here every month and realized I didn't have one single soup, stew, or chili recipe this time.  I like a good bowl of soup as well as the next person, but I couldn't be happier to say bring on the salads! But before we get to the food, I want to talk a little about these round-ups.

This post makes 74 months of writing monthly South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes Round-Ups for the blog, and times have changed.  I still love the South Beach Diet, but now a lot of people reading my blog follow other types of low-carb or grain-free eating plans.  (That was the reason I gave the blog a makeover last year, adding new tabs so recipes could be sorted by diet type.)  After asking for opinions on Facebook and giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to make the monthly round-ups more broadly focused, hopefully making them more useful for people who aren't strictly following South Beach. I'll still include recipes that are South Beach Diet Phase One of course, but I also want to spotlight interesting recipes that are Low-Carb in general, Paleo, Whole 30, and possibly others. As always, all the recipes in the round-up will be grain-free, making them Gluten-Free as well, and there will be some type of labeling system to make it easy to see which recipes are Phase One or another plan. That new format will be coming next month; hope you like it. And if you have any thoughts about this, please share them in the comments!

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World's Easiest Grilled Zucchini and Sausage Kabobs

It just doesn't get much easier than these Grilled Zucchini and Sausage Kabobs!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this recipe for World's Easiest Grilled Zucchini and Sausage Kabobs is something I've made over and over with beef, chicken, or turkey sausage.)

It's time to be breaking out the grill, and unless you're brand new to my blog, it's probably pretty obvious that I love grilling.  But some nights you just want an easy dinner, so I hope you enjoy this updated recipe for kabobs that I've used many times with different types of sausage, and truly, these have to be the easiest kabobs in the world. There are a few ways you can do the kabobs, depending on how much time you want to invest, but even if you just stick the sausage and veggies on skewers, brush with Italian salad dressing, and grill, this is a pretty good tasting easy dinner.

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Easy Recipe for Red, White, and Blueberry Salad

Red White and Blueberry Salad is deliciously easy and perfect for summer parties!

I definitely had good intentions of posting this Red White and Blueberry Salad (with strawberries, banana, and blueberries) before Memorial Day, since it's such a perfectly colored salad for a patriotic holiday.  But instead I spent the weekend going with my friend Susan and her kids to a soccer game, hosting a family party, and having overnight guests who went with me to visit graves on Monday.  Luckily the Fourth of July is just around the corner, another perfect occasion for red, white, and blue food!

Some people may be surprised to see a fruit salad on my blog, and it's true fruit has much more sugar than vegetables.  But lately I've been hearing a lot about the health benefits of berries, and luckily they're some of my favorite fruits.  I did use a lot of blueberries and strawberries and very little banana in the salad (since bananas are much higher in sugar.)  I also use low-carb vanilla yogurt for the dressing, or if you don't want artificial sweetener, you can make your own dressing with plain fat-free Greek yogurt with a touch of vanilla and agave nectar.  (I tried both, and I think I prefer the homemade dressing.)  This is probably Phase 3 for South Beach Dieters, but it's a wonderful treat for a holiday meal.

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Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Tru Roots Organic Quinoa from Costco (and 25 Healthy Recipes Using Quinoa)

This 4-pound bag of quinoa is a real bargain at my Costco, and I've become a quinoa fan!

How do you feel about Quinoa?  First of all, it's pronounced keen-wah, just in case you're not that familiar with this little seed that's cooked like rice and eaten as a grain.  Quinoa has become increasingly popular over the last few years, partly because it's high in protein and gluten-free and partly because it's tasty and can be used in a variety of ways.

I confess, I was a little slow to embrace Quinoa, and it was only when my Costco started carrying this huge bag of True Roots Organic Quinoa and I suddenly had 4 pounds of quinoa in the freezer that I started experimenting with it regularly.  Since then I've come to love quinoa as a side dish or the base for a salad, and I've gone through several of these big bags since I first bought one.  When I bought another one recently (for $9.99; what a bargain!) I decided it was time to add this product to my list of Kalyn's Kitchen Picks, where I spotlight things I love and happily buy over and over.  If I've convinced you to try quinoa, or just to eat it more often, keep reading to see some of my personal favorite recipes using it, plus more quinoa recipes from my food blogging friends.

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25 Favorite Healthy Grilling Recipes for Chicken, Fish, Pork, Beef, and Vegetables

I love grilling, and here are 25 of my favorite recipes for healthy grilling!

It's Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S. and and I'm looking forward to a busy weekend of holiday activities with family and friends, visiting graves, and maybe even a little gardening, so I don't think there'll be much blogging going on here the next few days.  But since Memorial Day is the unofficial start of grilling season, before I get busy going to Real Salt Lake games and having my family over for the first barbecue of the summer, I want to leave you with some recipe ideas for the holiday weekend. 

There are a lot of tasty options in the Grilling section of the recipe archives, but I've picked my very favorites and updated this old Memorial Day Grilling post with 25 Favorite Healthy Grilling Recipes for Chicken, Fish, Pork, Beef, and Vegetables.  These are all things I've made many times; hope you enjoy!  And if you're in the U.S. I hope you take a moment to reflect on the real meaning of the day and give thanks for all those who lost their lives defending the freedoms we enjoy.   Happy Memorial Day everyone.

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Shrimp and Black Bean Salad with Cilantro, Cumin, and Lime (Gluten-Free)

I love the combination of flavors in this Shrimp and Black Bean Salad with Cilantro, Cumin, and Lime

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and I love this Shrimp and Black Bean Salad with Cilantro, Cumin, and Lime.  Photos for this recipe were updated May 2014 and I'm so happy to have better photos for this favorite salad!)

Shrimp, black beans, cilantro, and lime. It's a combination that goes together so well that you could easily come up with hundreds of recipes featuring this quartet. I bought a big bag of cooked frozen shrimp from Costco, and this was a salad I made for lunch after thinking to myself, hmmm, what else can I make with shrimp? The ingredients were determined by what I had in the fridge and pantry, as well as a well-documented love for cilantro, and this recipe has cilantro in the dressing and more cilantro in the salad, which is just fine with me.  If you're not a cilantro fan I think you could still get a pretty good result with thinly sliced green onion replacing the cilantro in the dressing and just using a little more green onion in the salad, but I wouldn't use parsley in place of cilantro here.

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Fried Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp, Sugar Snap Peas, and Red Pepper (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

I'm pretty excited about this recipe for Fried Cauiflower "Rice" with Shrimp, Sugar Snap Peas, and Red Pepper!

More than four years ago I first made Cauliflower Rice, a dish of finely chopped cauliflower that's sauteed and eaten as rice, and I liked it but for some reason I didn't get inspired to experiment with it much more.  Then the Pinterest exploded with ideas for cauliflower rice, and I got intrigued with the idea again.  Recently I found myself with cauliflower, sugar snap peas, red bell peppers, and cooked shrimp all in the fridge on a day my nephew Jake was coming to cook, and we experimented a bit and came up with this recipe for Fried Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp, Sugar Snap Peas, and Red Pepper.  Not only did we absolutely love this (even Jake, who is definitely not a cauliflower fan) but it was so good that I quickly ate my leftovers for breakfast the next day, wishing I had more.

If you absolutely hate cauliflower, this is probably not for you.  But if you like cauliflower, even just a little, I promise you will be totally surprised at how delicious grain-free cauliflower fried rice can be.  I was trying to make a dish that's as close as possible to authentic fried rice, which I think is partly what made it so good, and it may be helpful to read about The Principles of Chinese Cooking before trying this if you haven't done much stir-frying.  But as long as you have all your ingredients prepped before you start to cook, and remember to keep stirring when the heat is high, this is actually not that hard to make. And if you're someone who loves fried rice but is trying to avoid carbs, this might become your new favorite recipe!

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Thoughts on the Documentary Fed Up, and Things I'm Thinking About on Tuesday (5-20-24)

I thought I knew a lot about sugar and the obesity epidemic, but this movie was a real eye-opener.

I'm going to start things out on a serious note this week.  Over the weekend I saw the documentary Fed Up, and even though I've been on the anti-sugar bandwagon for many years, I was still stunned by the degree to which over-consumption of sugar is making Americans sick, and even more bothered by the claims of political maneuvering that's gone on to prevent the government from making people aware the dangers of too much sugar.  And I'm not the only one thinking about this; cookbook author and food expert Mark Bittman talks about Fed Up in the New York Times, calling it An Inconvenient Truth About Our Food, and well-known chef and blogger Michael Ruhlman writes On Seeing Fed Up (and you can watch the trailer there.) Also the blog U.S. Food Policy has a piece with links to facts about the diagnosis and potential solutions, and this opinion piece from The New York Times on Why We're Always Hungry supports many of the points in the movie.  Whether you're a parent, someone who has struggled to lose weight, or just someone trying be as healthy as possible, I highly recommend seeing this movie.

Now, on to a few more things I've been thinking about . . .
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Baked Eggs and Asparagus with Parmesan (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

If you like baked eggs and asparagus, you'll love this combination for an easy breakfast.

This recipe for Baked Eggs and Asparagus with Parmesan is a quick-and-easy breakfast idea that can be on the table in about twenty-five minutes, and this will be a hit with anyone who likes runny egg yolks and asparagus.  Timing is everything for this recipe, and there are a few tricks to make sure the egg whites cook quickly enough so the yolks are still runny, but if you follow my tips in the recipe your eggs should come out perfectly.  I made this one morning when the asparagus in the fridge was calling my name and I was waiting for my nephew Jake to come for a cooking day, (probably unconsciously inspired by my favorite Baked Eggs with Mushrooms and Parmesan.)  Then I made it again the next day to write down the exact times to I could share it here.  Jake and I both loved this; hope you enjoy!

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Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce (Low-Carb)

Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce is a delicious way to cook this fun vegetable.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This recipe for Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce was updated with new photos and step-by-step instructions, May 2014.)

The Japanese vegetable called Broccolini is something I discovered by accident in 2006 when I become obsessed with broccoli rabe and tried for weeks to get my local store to order it. One of the produce managers sold me broccolini instead, and when I tried it in this Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce I discovered I love broccolini, and have been cooking it ever since. Broccolini is a natural hybrid between broccoli and Gai Lan or Chinese Kale and since I first found it this Asian vegetable has become more common in U.S. stores.  You may also find it called Baby Broccoli, and regular broccoli can also be used in this recipe as well.  (I also think you could substitute something like Hoisin Sauce for the Oyster Sauce and use vegetable stock, which would make this a vegan dish.)

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Baby Arugula Salad with Turkey Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Strips (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Baby Arugula Salad with Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Strips reminds me of one of my favorite pasta dishes.

I'm trying to get better about using up little bits of things that are in the fridge, and a few weeks ago I found myself with just two links of spicy turkey Italian Sausage and no idea how to use it.  I sat down in my office chair and paged through a few cookbooks and quickly spotted a recipe for Spinach Salad with Italian Sausage in Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh.  I didn't have spinach, but I had one of those little tubs of baby arugula, and since I love Spaghetti with Italian Sausage and Arugula, I thought maybe a salad with baby arugula and Italian sausage might be a winner as well.  If you're a fan of arugula, I promise this Baby Arugula Salad with Turkey Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Strips is really wonderful; I thought all the flavors here were perfect together.

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