Tasty Tuesday – Butternut Squash, Pomegranate and Goat Cheese Salad

I’M EATING SALAD AGAIN!

I’m happy do say that my nausea is MUCH better. I still have a little bit of it on and off, but 95% of the time I’m nausea free. A few weeks ago I couldn’t even imagine eating a salad again and here I am craving them and eating them whenever I can. To celebrate, I made my absolute favorite fall salad last week and enjoyed it twice. This salad can be vegetarian or not, depending on your preference. The recipe below makes enough for TWO salads – two for you or one for you and one for someone else. Or it would make enough for a side salad for about 4 people.

Before I get into the recipe, I wanted to invite you to my next 3 week accountability group starting Monday, November 13th! Yes, it goes through Thanksgiving but you CAN have your turkey, stuffing and pie – I’ll just be there to get you back on track the next day. Be sure to reach out as soon as you can either by emailing me at fitnessfataleblog@gmail.com or filling out this form. Don’t wait until the new year to work on your health and fitness goals (and of course by joining now you can continue with me through the new year as well). And runners, this is a great time to work on your strength during the off season if you just wrapped up a fall race. Also, Autumn Calabrese (trainer from 21 Day Fix/Extreme is coming out with a new program in January and I can’t wait for it!). It’s called the 80 Day Obsession and I’ll be using it postpartum for my comeback. I’ll be hosting a challenge group in January for those who want to try it as soon as it comes out! More on this later….

Back to the salad. This is 21 Day Fix and all Beachbody programs approved – it’s actually a GREAT salad for Shift Shop since it doesn’t include any of the yellow containers, which you don’t get many of in that program.

Butternut Squash, Pomegranate and Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients (2 servings) – Salad

• 2 cups butternut squash
• Cinnamon, to taste
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 cups spinach or mixed greens
• 2 cups arugula (or just use more spinach/mixed greens)
• Pomegranate seeds (I buy the pre-seeded ones at Trader Joes which is more than you need for this salad or you can de-seed your own)
• For an entree salad – 2 grilled chicken breasts (either make ahead or I buy precooked ones from Trader Joes) OR sub with 1/2 cup quinoa to make vegetarian. For a side salad, simply eliminate the chicken/quinoa.
• 2/3 cup goat cheese (you could halve this but I LOVE goat cheese)

Ingredients (2 servings) – Dressing

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 6 tbsp white vinegar
• Dash, to taste, of dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper

Recipe

1. Coat the butternut squash in olive oil and cinnamon and roast at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until soft. I usually do this in the evening or when I’m cooking dinner and not using the oven and then refrigerate for the salad the next day. Siena also loves butternut squash this way so it’s good toddler food too!
2. Mix the salad ingredients together.
3. Make the dressing by combining ingredients and mixing with a fork and pour over salad.
4. Enjoy!

21 Day Fix Containers (Per Serving)

• 3 green
• 1 red
• 1 blue
• 1 orange
• 1 tsp
• (I don’t count the pomegranate seeds since it’s so few of them but if you want to get picky you could count it as 1/2 purple)

What is your favorite fall food?