Mix It Up

Raspberry Cherry Salad
Cook's notes: Dinner preparations started out with a recipe called 'Michigan Cherry Salad'  from Taste of Home but soon transformed to 'Raspberry Cherry Salad'. I had every intention to follow the recipe but before I knew it I had veered off course adapting the dressing and salad ingredients. Anybody else ever have this happen? Then my husband got into the salad creation by adding his touch of red onion slices. 

Let's start with the best part of this salad-the dressing. I was slurping it up by the spoonfuls while taste testing. Essentially the dressing is a creamy homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette which is a lot healthier than store brands. The dressing can be made in 5 minutes and stored in refrigerator up to 4 days. The salad stands alone for a main meal but adding grilled chicken works too.  The recipe serves 4.
Raspberry Cherry Dressing Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup fresh raspberries
• 2 TB. good quality balsamic vinegar or Black Cherry Balsamic
• 1 TB. cider vinegar
• 3 TB. cherry preserves
• 1 TB. sugar
• 2 TB. extra light olive oil or Lemon Olive Oil

Dressing Directions:

• Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. 
• Make an hour before serving and refrigerate.

Ever Ready Salad Ingredients:

• one small bag salad greens (half spinach and spring mix)
• 1 large apple diced
• raspberries
• 1 package of glazed walnuts or pecans( found in produce section) 
• red onion slices 

Salad ingredients based on Taste of Home recipe

• mixed greens (spring mix and baby spinach)
• 1 large apple
• toasted pecans
• dried cherries
• crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

Check out Bella's recent blog on her 1,700 mile journey to AZ 
 https://bellasworldblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/a-1-700-mile-tale/