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Beet + Goat Cheese Green Salad

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Beet and goat cheese salad with salmon

Is there anything better than a green salad done well?

I really don’t think there is.

My heart “beets” for the crunch and flavor of this particular beet and goat cheese green salad. Deep colored lettuce and earthy purple beets combined with crispy salmon, goat cheese, marinated onions, and perfectly creamy balsamic dressing. It truly can’t be beet (I can’t help it).

This IS, without a doubt, the dreamiest summer green salad combination!

Roasted Beets

These beets are delicious when roasted. My opinion is that they taste great, but I especially appreciate how they make this salad look so pretty, too!

Try roasting these beets with a little, olive oil, salt, and pepper. They add a great flavor component to this salad and I really love how the flavor of the beets complements the goat cheese.

How to Marinate Onions

For the marinated onions, I’d like to direct you to a delicious recipe over on the blog, No Crumbs Left. I used her recipe for Marinated Onions but I switched it up a little by using ACV and lemon juice concentrate instead of red wine vinegar. The results are great; a little more lemony and pickled tasting. Such a burst of flavor!

How to Cook Salmon in a Pan

If you want a good punch of protein and omegas with your salad, salmon is a great option. Also, this would be delicious with grilled or roasted chicken thighs/breast/etc.

To sear your salmon on the stovetop, I suggest using an iron skillet but anything will do. Here’s how it works:

  1. Season your salmon a few minutes before placing in the skillet. Trader Joe’s Lemmon pepper seasoning is my favorite for salmon.
  2. Add fat (oil, ghee, butter) and set heat on high.
  3. When your pan is hot, throw your salmon, skin side down, on the fat and turn to low. I like to cover mine at this point and let it set for about 4 minutes.
  4. After 4 minutes, flip, and let it set another 4 minutes. You may need to bump the temperature up to medium.
  5. When the salmon is no longer pink in the middle, you are ready to serve! This is usually about 1-2 minutes after the white bubbles show up on the meat.

That’s it!! It’s pretty much a “recipe-less” green salad but I’ll add all the details below!

Healthy Tip: Benefits of Beets

Did you know that beets can help lower your blood pressure, improve your athletic performance, and and reduce inflammation? Beets have so many health benefits. Here are some interesting facts about the benefits of eating beets.

To summarize, beets are especially nutrient dense with amazing vitamin content including: folate, manganese, and copper. They also contain nutrients called nitrates. To put it simply, these nutrients have the potential to open up the blood vessels in your body which can help lower blood pressure but also help boost your stamina and performance during exercise. That sounds pretty awesome to me!

Get all the details on building this salad in the recipe card below. Although, it’s a meal in and of itself, you could skip the meat and side this with one of the other meals from the blog like Healthy Chicken Pasta Dinner in 30 Minutes or Sweet Apple and Pork Dish. It would also be great as a make ahead salad for lunches. See my tips here.

Enjoy!

Suzi

Beet and goat cheese salad with salmon
Beet and goat cheese salad with salmon
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Beets and Goat Cheese + Greens Salad

This earthy, refreshing, and flavor filled salad is light, delicious, and full of nutritious goodness!
Course Salad
Cuisine American
Prep Time 6 hours
Total Time 6 hours 15 minutes
Servings 1 person
Calories 461kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 cup arugula
  • 1 cup baby spinach
  • 2 Tbsp crumbled goat cheese
  • 1 raw beet
  • 4 oz salmon

Creamy Balsamic Dressing

  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tbsp mayo made with avocado oil is preferred/best
  • 1 tbsp avocado or olive oil
  • 1 tsp maple syrup

Marinated Onions

  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice concentrate
  • salt and pepper

Instructions

Lemony Marinated Red Onions

  • Simply slice a red onion into thin rings and combine ingredients in a mason jar.
  • Ideally, you will wait at least 6 hours before serving on a salad.

Creamy Balsamic Dressing

  • Combine all ingredients in a jar with lid, shake vigorously. Ready to serve.

Salad

  • Begin by peeling your beet(s) and slicing thin. I use a potato peeler.
  • Drizzle with olive oil and salt and roast at 400 degrees F for about 10 minutes or until soft and crispy.
  • While the beets are roasting, combine your salad greens and top with onions and goat cheese.
  • Top the salad with your amazing toppings and drizzle with dressing.
    Enjoy!

Notes

If you are out of time or unable to marinate onions, I would try raw red onions.
 
This meal would also be great without meat or a variety of other protein options (shrimp, tuna, chicken, leftover pork chop, etc.)
Beet and goat cheese green salad with salmon

Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins

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These Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins were inspired by the delicious, convenient, microwavable muffins from the freezer section at Costco. I didn’t hate the ingredients but didn’t love them and had hopes of creating something similar with even cleaner ingredients.

I had three goals in mind when creating this Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins recipe:

  • Use less sugar and better quality,
  • Add protein content,
  • Use a better quality fat than canola oil.

So, here you have it, my Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins. Just in time for those zucchini season!

The ingredients for these muffins are gluten-free, and can be whipped together in less than 30 minutes. This is a healthy and tasty kid-approved snack.

Less Sugar

For this muffin recipe, I used honey and a ripe banana to sweeten the batter. I often use raw honey which is less processed and full of all the good probiotics. I will admit the sugar content is still pretty high, yet, but it makes me feel better knowing that the sugar used has beneficial components and is in its natural state.

Protein Content

If you follow my other recipes or follow me on Instagram or Pinterest, you’ll notice that I love collagen peptides. And, yes, I added them to this recipe and I LOVE how that reflected in my nutrition label (at the end of this post). Over 4 grams of protein feels pretty high for a muffin. I’m happy to feed this to my kids as a “treat” that will fill them up.

Better Quality Fat

My goal in creating recipes is to use healthier options. When it comes to oils or healthy fats, I will always try to use the very best which, in my book, includes: avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, (grass-fed) butter, and ghee. In this recipe I use avocado oil but you can really substitute any of these. I think ghee will change the flavor a little, though.

Veggies Made Easy

The whole marketing focus of the store-bought version of these muffins is to make you believe you can eat your veggies, have your cake, and eat it too….together.

In truth, there isn’t a great amount of veggies in each store-bought muffin and I won’t claim to have boosted the veggie content in my Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins version by much. But, here is a great way to use up some of those abundant zucchini veggies from your garden; they add some fiber and vitamins to the mix for a bonus.

The ingredients for these muffins are gluten-free, and can be whipped together in less than 30 minutes. This is a healthy and tasty kid-approved snack.

Oat Flour

This recipe uses oat flour. I have yet to buy oat flour and if you’re like me, you might not have it readily available in your pantry either. Here is how I make my oat flour.

You Will Need:

  1. Old fashioned rolled oats (determine if you will need certified gluten-free or not)
  2. A blender or food processor.
  3. A few extra minutes (maybe 5).

How To Make Oat Flour:

  1. Put the desired amount of oats in the blender and use the “chop,: or “blend” setting.
  2. Let the the oats blend until they form a flour and begin to funnel inward continuously.
  3. Check the consistency a couple of times until they have reached your desired texture.

*I make mine as close to a typical flour consistency as I can; however, I have made it with both gritty and fine oat flour and was happy with both results. The texture won’t be perfectly consistent and that is okay.

Blender Batter

After you have made the oat flour, you’ll want to empty the blender and store your flour away in a container.

Now, it’s time to get started on your muffin batter! It’s so easy!

  • Dump the wet ingredients into the blender
  • Blend for a few seconds.
  • Add the dry ingredients
  • Blend for 2 pulses (until just incorporated)
  • Pour directly from the blender into muffin inserts
  • Bake for 20 minutes.

So easy. So healthy. So delicious, nutritious, and kid-approved.

When to Enjoy Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins

I’ll be making these every week for the rest of my life, thank you. They are so good. This school year, you can bet they will be in everyone’s lunches along with one of the items from my recent post, How to Meal Prep Lunches | 6 Healthy Hacks. I’ll also be bringing them on camping trips, to school, brunches, and any party where I have the opportunity to share them!

You should make them too! Let me know if you like them and if you’d like more recipes like this!

And, don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest and pin the image at the bottom of this post (below the recipe).

Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins are made with oat flour, are gluten-free, and can be whipped together in less than 30 minutes. This is a healthy and tasty kid-approved snack.
Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins are made with oat flour, are gluten-free, and can be whipped together in less than 30 minutes. This is a healthy and tasty kid-approved snack.
Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins are made with oat flour, are gluten-free, and can be whipped together in less than 30 minutes. This is a healthy and tasty kid-approved snack.
Zucchini banana blender muffins, easy, nutritious
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Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins

Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins are easy to make with only a blender to clean when finished. They use oat flour and are healthy, gluten-free, nutritious, and kid-approved.
Course Snack
Cuisine American
Keyword Collagen Peptides, gluten-free, kid-approved, muffins, nut-free
Prep Time 7 minutes
Cook Time 18 minutes
Servings 12
Calories 126kcal

Equipment

  • blender

Ingredients

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 cup shredded zucchini
  • 1/4 cup raw honey
  • 1/2 cup ripe banana about 1 whole banana
  • 2 tbsp avocado oil substitute coconut oil ghee butter, or olive oil
  • 1 1/2 cups oat flour
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 cup tapioca starch substitute arrowroot or corn starch
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 serving collagen peptides usually two scoops but depends on your brand
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 425 degrees (be ready to turn this down to 350 degrees once you place the muffins into the oven).
  • Shred your zucchini using a cheese shredder and throw into the blender.
  • Dump all remaining wet ingredients into the blender and blend for a few seconds.
  • Add the remaining dry ingredients, push those ingredients down with a spoon so that they aren't sitting on top of the wet ingredients. Then, blend briefly (two quick pulses) until everything is JUST incorporated.
  • Pour into muffin inserts filling about 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
  • Makes 12 muffins.
  • Stir in the chocolate chips or sprinkle onto each individual muffin.
  • Pour directly into muffin liners.
  • Place in the oven and turn down to 350 degrees. Bake for 18-20 minutes until knife comes out pretty clean.

Notes

Be sure not to check the muffins for the first 10 minutes, this allows the best rising time so it’s important to keep the heat in the oven.
I have used spiraled zucchini noodles and this did not blend well with the circular motion of a blender. I would recommend chopping or cutting your zucchini noodles if this is what you have available.
For an even lighter texture, use 3/4 cup white rice flour and 3/4 cup oat flour.
These will disappear in no time, but if you would like them to last more than 4 days, I would recommend freezing.
Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins are made with oat flour, are gluten-free, and can be whipped together in less than 30 minutes. This is a healthy and tasty kid-approved snack.
Zucchini Banana Blender Muffins are made with oat flour, are gluten-free, and can be whipped together in less than 30 minutes. This is a healthy and tasty kid-approved snack.

Easy Goat Cheese Asparagus Appetizer (Dairy-Free)

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These Easy Goat Cheese Asparagus Appetizers are simple, healthy, and elegant to serve as an appetizer for your next party.

Michigan Asparagus Season

Friends, it is asparagus season in Michigan and I couldn’t be happier. Honestly, I only became aware of the local asparagus season in the last couple of years. I distinctly remember seeing my first asparagus plant in the fields of Newaygo County only 3 or 4 years ago when our friend pointed them out to Bob and I. It’s surprisingly different than you’d expect.

As if discovering what asparagus plants looked like wasn’t interesting enough, my coworker recently started sharing her abundant access to this lovely vegetable with me. Being that her family transports asparagus for a living, she had plenty to share. She’s given me some great material to work with for this blog post! Thanks, Lauren!

Blanched Asparagus (It’s Easy)

These Easy Goat Cheese Asparagus Appetizers are simple, healthy, and elegant to serve as an appetizer for your next party.

If you’ve never blanched asparagus, or anything, here is a quick explanation. Blanching is easy! It’s a process of cooking a vegetable in boiling water for a short amount of time and then transporting it to very cold ice-water to stop the cooking process.

Different vegetables need different amounts of cooking time. For asparagus, I boiled them for 2 minutes and immediately placed the spears in a bowl of ice water. I let them rest for at least 2 minutes (probably longer/until I was ready to dry them and use for my recipe).

*Little “hack” for boiling long stems like asparagus, use a large skillet instead of a pot.

Asparagus Appetizer

This could be a meal, it’s so delicious! Originally, my friend used ham and cream cheese to wrap her asparagus spears. Genius lunch idea! I wanted to add a twist to those snappy asparagus spears she had in her lunchbox. So, here is my fancy version; snappy blanched asparagus spears wrapped in honey goat cheese and prosciutto.

Enjoy this delicious appetizer with some cheese and crackers and fresh fruit! Or, throw this on your next charcuterie board…possibly, just the ingredients and let your guests build their asparagus wraps according to their tastes!

These Easy Goat Cheese Asparagus Appetizers are simple, healthy, and elegant to serve as an appetizer for your next party.
These Easy Goat Cheese Asparagus Appetizers are simple, healthy, and elegant to serve as an appetizer for your next party.
These Easy Goat Cheese Asparagus Appetizers are simple, healthy, and elegant to serve as an appetizer for your next party.

Dairy-Free

I wanted to note that this is nearly a dairy-free recipe, however, goat cheese is considered dairy. It seems, though, that many people with intolerances to dairy from a cow can tolerate dairy from a goat. I am labeling this dairy-free to make this recipe easier to find for people looking for goat dairy recipes that are cow “dairy-free.”

These Easy Goat Cheese Asparagus Appetizers are simple, healthy, and elegant to serve as an appetizer for your next party.
Easy Goat Cheese and Asparagus appetizer
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Dairy-Free Blanched Asparagus Appetizer

This Dairy-Free Blanched Asparagus Appetizer is the perfect blend of snappy blanched apsaragus and sweet honey goat cheese wrapped in dry-sliced prosciutto.
Course Appetizer
Cuisine American
Keyword Dairy-free
Prep Time 10 days
Cook Time 2 days
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 12 spears fresh picked asparagus
  • 4 oz honey goat cheese
  • 1 package dry-sliced prosciutto

Instructions

  • Remove the goat cheese from the fridge to bring closer to room temperature prior to starting the recipe.
  • Blanch the asparagus by boiling the spears for two minutes and then transferring to an ice water bath.
  • Once the asparagus has rested for at least two minutes in the cold water, remove and dry it off.
  • Slice the prosciutto slices in half and layer each half slice with about 1 tsp of goat cheese. Press it onto the prosciutto to spread it.
  • Place the asparagus in the center of the prosciutto and goat cheese slice. Wrap the slice around the asparagus.
  • Keeps in the fridge for a couple of days or serve and enjoy immediately!
These Easy Goat Cheese Asparagus Appetizers are simple, healthy, and elegant to serve as an appetizer for your next party.