Shredded Veggie Rainbow Salad

I recently returned from a week-long trip to Israel with some family members. One of my key takeaways was to never visit Israel in August. It was blazing hot! We kept hearing "heat wave, heat wave, blah blah", but man we roasted. Second, and far more exciting to me, Israel has AMAZING produce. I'd heard that Israeli farmers do some impressive things, but it wasn't until I visited that I realized how impressive it is. We saw all different types of farms and orchards and fields and the produce in the markets was always fresh and gorgeous.


One of my favorite meals we had (and we had some really great meals) was at a lovely restaurant in a small town in upper Galilee. We sat, sweating, on a lovely veranda overlooking the valley and gushed over the amazing food. I absolutely flipped over one of the salads we were served. It was a combination of simply-dressed shredded raw vegetables topped with candied walnuts and Parmesan cheese. The light flavors of the raw vegetables balanced out the rich nuts and cheese and dressing just perfectly and it was so lovely in the heat. (Technically it wasn't actually my salad, but I'm confident the rightful owner didn't mind that I ate most of it.)

In all of of its grainy glory, here is The Salad. So delicious we're making it a proper non.  

My sister and I went back and forth trying to break down the ingredients. She was convinced it was dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, but I just couldn't believe it was that simple. We finally asked the waiter in what turned into an embarrassingly long ramble about "how much we loved the salad and how we wanted to make at home and could he please oh please tell us what was in it because we couldn't quite figure it out, and would he be so kind as to tell us, please and thank you." He stared at us for what seemed like way too long and then, with what I'm sure was a heroic effort at suppressing an eye roll, confirmed that the salad was dressed simply with lemon juice and local olive oil. Bam.

Of course, I knew immediately I had to recreate this salad. Dear readers, these are the lengths we go to for this blog: embarrassing ourselves in front of Israeli waiters and a healthy lack of self respect. Dedication, folks. Dedication.

Veggie Lasagna Roll-ups

We love lasagna over at our house, especially since we can fill it with delicious veggies and it is always a hit. I tried numerous recipes for lasagna and lasagna roll-ups over the years and through trial and error this recipe was born. The beauty of this recipe is how completely versatile it is, you can add meat or leave it out. You can use an mix of vegetables that fits your fancy, or what you have in your fridge. I happened to use a mix of things that I had on hand from the garden for this batch.

Chipotle Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie

For a few weeks this summer my husband went to Rhode Island for his Navy Officer school. While he was gone I ventured out on some trips and ended up in Las Vegas with my parents for the last few weeks. My mom is gluten free and has a wonderful America’s Test Kitchen Gluten Free cookbook, which I frequently used. One night I was flipping through the book and saw a shepherd’s pie that looked absolutely delicious. It was a success, but as I was eating it I instantly came up with ideas to lighten and spruce it up a bit!