Garlic Vinaigrette

I use this dressing mainly on pasta salad. It still has that same tried and true italian-ness to it that I normally associate with pasta salad but with a little something extra. And it's incredibly easy. It does have one weird ingredient but I promise totally worth it!

Garlic Vinaigrette

3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup rice vinegar
4 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Direction:
Add all ingredients in to a container that can be tightly sealed. Shake until well blended. Pour over salad.

Now that was totally painless right??

In case you wondered what we typically put in our pasta salad...

pasta
tomatoes
broccoli (fresh never frozen! The frozen stuff goes limp and nasty)
peas
cucumber
bell pepper
carrots
olives
Feta cheese (it is very important that you put the feta in very last right before serving. This way the feta retains its own flavor and doesn't absorb the dressing)

Honey Lime Fruit Salad

I made this fruit salad for the first time at the beginning of the summer. Since then I've made it at least 5 times. Each time I've tried a new fruit in it and each time I've gotten compliments on this yummy salad! I love how fresh and light it is! I got the original recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It originally called for some canned fruits but I modified the recipe to use all fresh fruits. So much better!






Honey Lime Fruit Salad
adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberries, quartered
1 cup grapes
2-3 kiwis peeled and sliced in to half moons
4 clementines peeled and sectioned
2 cups fresh pineapple chunks
zest from 1 lime
2 tbs honey

Directions:
Combine fruit in medium sized bowl. Add lime zest and drizzle honey over the fruit. Gently mix until evenly coated. Serve.

Serves 4

Notes: This salad is works best if you add the lime and honey right before serving. Otherwise the strawberries turn everything pink. It still tastes great it just doesn't look as pretty!