How to diet fast 1 week

Doesnt this salad just scream, "Spring!" 

Mmm, makes me want to rush out to the local farmers market (which opens this weekend, thankyougod!) and snatch up some fresh-picked cucs and carrots.

Speecy spicy sauce? Bring it on! I looooooove me some Thai food.

Feast your eyes on this Veganlicious dish and other sexy recipes prepared by the lovely Selene, just another girl obsessed with yummy,  healthy food.

Sometimes I think outside the box a little when I'm staring into the fridge wondering what to make with what I have on hand, and that's what happened with this Green Bean Summer Salad with Italian Sausage, Olives, and Basil Vinaigrette.  I don't really know what made me combine these flavors, except I had fresh green beans and turkey Italian sausage that needed to be used, and I think olives and basil vinaigrette would taste good with just about anything.  All I can say is, it worked.  I'm calling this a "summer" salad because I wouldn't make this unless I had fresh green beans, but if you like all these flavors, be open minded and give this a try!

(I had to miss Phase One Fridays yesterday so I could post my tribute to Lis, but there are so many Thanksgiving recipes I want to share before the big day that I decided just this once we could have Phase One Saturday; this recipe is something I think everyone would love for Thanksgiving!)

Even though there's a great list of Low-Glycemic Thanksgiving Recipes in the recipe index, every year I have fun testing new ideas that might make it onto the Thanksgiving table.  Last year my favorite new Thanksgiving recipe was probably 100% Whole Wheat Stuffing "Muffins" with Sausage and Parmesan, a dish I worked on for several tries until I got it just right.  It's too early to tell what's  going to be my favorite from Thanksgiving 2011, but I know that this Blanched Broccoli Salad with Feta and Fried Almonds is something I'll be making over and over.  If you like broccoli, Feta, and almonds, be sure to try this dish even if you don't make it for Thanksgiving.

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.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this simple Summer Tomato Salad with Avocado, Tuna, Cilantro, and Lime tastes amazing when it's made with ripe garden tomatoes.)

When it's truly hot outside, nothing tastes better to me than a salad like this one with juicy tomatoes, avocado, Italian tuna, cilantro, and a dressing with lime juice and olive oil. The salad started as a lunch inspired by the need to use up some cilantro, but it turned out to be a salad recipe I'm sure I'll be making over and over.

When he was staying at my house, my brother Rand came home one day with a garbanzo salad from the market.  The salad was okay but not anything that was especially memorable, but doctoring up that salad to give it a bit more wow was what inspired this Roasted Garbanzo and Vegetable Salad with Garlic, Feta, Olives, and Basil.  And everything about the salad I came up with was perfect (if I do say so myself), including the way I roasted the garbanzos, red bell peppers, and red onions with garlic to add more flavor, the savory saltiness from the Feta and olives, and extra punch from sliced fresh basil added at the end.  I'm growing basil in the window of that new kitchen I keep promising to show you, but if you don't have basil I think chopped parsley would be delicious as well.

There's a lot to love about this Chicken, Broccoli, and Red Bell Pepper Salad with Peanut Butter Dressing made from chunks of shredded chicken, small bites of crunchy broccoli, and finely diced red bell pepper tossed with a flavorful slightly sweet dressing made of peanut butter, soy sauce, lime, ginger and garlic.  As soon as I spotted the original version of the salad in Sunset Magazine, I started thinking about how I could adapt it for A Month of Daily Phase One Recipes.   I switched green peas for diced red bell pepper, used natural peanut butter, sweetened the dressing with Stevia In the Raw Granulated Sweetener, and upped the ginger for a more highly-flavored dressing, and the result was an amazingly good combination that I'm sure I'll make over and over again.  

(This favorite White Bean Salad with Tuna and Parsley is today's pick for the month of Daily Phase One Recipes. If you've never thought of combining these ingredients, you might be surprised what a delicious lunch salad this is, but be sure to use the tuna packed in olive oil for best flavor. You can see all the recipes from the month by clicking Daily Phase One Recipes.  Check after the recipe for Phase One Flashbacks from this day in 2012 and 2013.)

In the early days of my blog I discovered a delicious and affordable brand of Tuna Packed in Olive Oil, which changed my way of thinking about canned tuna forever.   That tuna plus my love of parsley and lemon inspired my version of this classic tuna and white bean salad and it's turned into a favorite lunch that I've made over and over.   I updated the photo for this recipe in the summer of 2011, when I had plenty of fresh parsley from the garden, but parsley is an herb that's available and inexpensive all year from the grocery store, and I love that this salad uses ingredients I always have on hand.

This Tuna and Macaroni Salad Recipe with Dill Pickles, Capers, and Green Onions is something I came up with one day when I was hungry and wanted to cook with pantry ingredients.  I usually take photos and write down the recipe when I'm experimenting in the kitchen, but even though I did that, I wasn't sure I would post this recipe, because after all, does the world really need another recipe for Tuna and Macaroni Salad?  Then I noticed that all day after I made this I kept going back to the fridge to get a little more of the salad, and the next day when my nephew Jake came over he ate a big bowl full, and I decided this tuna and macaroni salad was really pretty fabulous.  Flavor additions here include a generous amount of chopped dill pickles, capers, and green onions, but I think it's the dressing that's a mixture of mayo, olive oil drained from the tuna, lemon juice, dill pickle juice, and Spike Seasoning that makes this salad so spectacular.

Maybe everyone but me knows about the idea of cooking ground beef in the slow cooker without pre-browning the meat, but when I saw this idea popping up on various blogs, I was intrigued.  I don't use a lot of ground beef, but I do love Taco Salad, and the idea of having Spicy Ground Beef for Tacos, Burritos, or Taco Salad in the freezer was enough to get me to try this method.  I love the ground beef tacos you get at a Mexican restaurant, where the meat is highly seasoned and very finely broken apart, so that's what I was going for.  I was fully prepared to try this several times to perfect the recipe, but my first try was a winner!  I did use a very generous amount of Cholula Hot Sauce to season the meat, so if you're making this for kids (or adults who don't like much heat) you probably want to use the smaller amount listed in the recipe.

I guess I'm officially settled into the new house, because I had my first cooking session with my nephew/cooking assistant Jake, and we loved having the the new bigger kitchen so both of us have plenty of room to work.  The new house also has big windows and great light for photos, but I found there's almost too much light, and I'm going to have to do some experimenting to get the light filtered just right for food shots.  All those big windows are also going to make taking photos of the kitchen a bit of a challenge, but I promise some kitchen photos will be coming soon!  The house still has quite a few boxes to get unpacked, but on Saturday my brother Rand and I hung pictures and arranged my collection of African art, so the house is starting to look like it's mine.

This tasty, vegetarian friendly salad takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and will have you feeling full till dinner time.

Makes 4 servings – Cal per serve – 193