Kale, Strawberry and Avocado Salad with Light Poppy Seed Dressing

 I really liked this salad.  Like, really liked it.  Tyler, on the other hand, wasn't as in love as I was. He has a block when it comes to fruit in a savory (at all) salad or dish.  The bacon and strawberries together totally threw him off.  And he didn't think strawberries belonged in a salad with lettuce.  I don't know, man.  I"m slowly breaking him down but we're just not to the strawberry/bacon/lettuce point yet.  He ate it though.  I took his strawberries and he seemed to be content with the remainder of the ingredients together.  I didn't complain.  This salad had a bit of everything to tantalize taste buds and it was pretty healthy.  I will make it again (because I loved it and every once in a while I make something I love and tell the rest of them to deal with it) and just leave the strawberries off his salad.  This was a perfect light evening meal but I wouldn't say no to it at lunch.  I can see us making many more salads like this for summer.  And I'm hoping to have avocados coming out of my ears because we have a lot of trees in our yard.  I'm getting excited!

Broccoli Salad

I realized the other day that I warned everyone on Facebook that I was most likely done posting until after Christmas, but I failed to mention it on my blog.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.   We changed plans at the last minute (which I should have expected) and ended up doing massive amounts of driving.  I think it was all worth it in the end.  Everyone had a great time together and there weren't any massive catastrophes.  I just wish we could come up with a way to teleport places.  The 14 hours of driving home with our 2 kids about killed us all.  They were actually really good considering they were in such a confined space for practically the whole day, and I was too.  I didn't tantrum once.  I was really trying to be adult about it.  

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I have been wanting to make a potato soup for a couple weeks.  It's been rolling around in my mind and today when I was at the grocery store, they had 10 lb bags of potatoes on sale.  I think it was a sign that tonight was the night.  I went into my kitchen, annoyed by the thought of trying to find a recipe, and decided to just go for it.  I wanted a potato soup that was good and cheesy and comforting.  Some days, when I go into my kitchen without a plan, it can end up being disastrous, but today, luckily, was not one of those days. I asked Tyler after we ate if he thought the soup was blog-worthy and he didn't hesitate at all before saying, "Yes!"  (I thought it was, I just wanted a second opinion.)

Fried Rice

I love Chinese food.  Well, probably not real Chinese food, more like the fake-American-kind-of-Chinese food.  I bought a Chinese cookbook once and was a bit disappointed.  Um where were the recipes for all my favorite dishes?  The book was filled with more authentic recipes that called for things I had never heard of and had no idea how to get.  This recipe is really easy with simple to find ingredients and it's the best fried rice I have been able to make at home.