Here is my weekend in pictures:

(Me laying down after doing tricep dips on the steps while taking Ali outside)

Speaking of salads, you guys know that I've been obsessed with eating them lately. Ever since I had the Stetson Chopped Salad at Cowboy Ciao, I have been making various ones with some of the same ingredients, and some different. I'm going to tell you guys the ingredients of the Stetson, and also some of the other things I have been using to shake things up a bit.

According to the recipe from Cowboy Ciao, here is what you need:

2 oz pearl couscous (cooked and chilled)

2 oz chopped arugula

2 oz diced Roma tomatoes

1.5 oz diced smoked salmon

0.5 oz crumbled or finely chopped asiago cheese

0.5 oz toasted pepitas

0.5 oz dried black currants

1 oz air dried sweet corn

Mix the pepitas, currants and asiago cheese together in a separate bowl. This “trail mix” is one of the six components of the salad. On a large plate, line all six components in rows to look like this:

If you care to make the dressing, it's really good. You can stick to the original recipe (which I will put a picture of below) or you can modify it with nonfat Greek yogurt or fat free sour cream and almond milk. I have been using this dressing on almost all of my salads:

Here's that recipe:

Once you have the ingredients lined up, drizzle on the dressing and toss. SO SO good!!!

Some of the things I've been doing to add variety are using different greens besides lettuce. In fact, I haven't bought lettuce for a long time! I've been using baby kale, baby arugula, and baby spinach. I put equal amounts of all three in my salad spinner, rinse them off, then chop it up well and make it the base of the salad. Other things I've added are:

• Quinoa – cooked and chilled – instead of pearl couscous (it's gluten free, couscous is not)
• Sun dried tomatoes
• Dried cranberries
• Almonds
• Pecans
• Walnuts
• Fat free feta cheese
• Beets

I have to say that the smoked salmon is an absolute necessity for an amazing salad. It makes all the difference for me. You could add any other protein such as grilled chicken, grilled flank steak (very good), grilled shrimp or canned tuna/chicken if you want. Be creative!! I'd love to hear what you guys come up with! I'm always looking for new ideas :-).

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend! I'll be back with some more recipes this week and hopefully an update on my injury. I'm getting an ultrasound tomorrow, so please say a prayer that it will actually show what's really wrong. Have a great week!!

Happy Trails,

Stacey

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