I believe that any good recipe takes a lot of experimenting. While some might fall right into place, generally there was experimenting behind it although sometimes we don’t realize it. After we’ve made something enough times, one day we tweak it or make some sort of change and there it is. Perfection.

The Chelle Salad was years of trying to make salads satisfying and enticing. It’s not the idea of lettuce, it’s just that eating vegetables only isn’t enough to leave me happy and satisfied when I’m gone from the table. About ten years ago, I began to make changes in how I ate and this salad was a big part of that change.

I began to add beans (either garbanzos or lentils), hard-boiled eggs, and then sometimes salami or salmon (smoked here in this photo). The olives fulfill any salad craving.

And I found out how much I love pickled beets.

There really isn’t a recipe but below I outline the layers of this salad that make it a staple at my house:

Start with some sort of greens– we prefer romaine. I usually use one head split in half our salads, slicing it. I also like to include other vegetables, usually raw bell pepper or maybe cherry tomatoes, but most often cucumbers.

Then comes the fun part– garbanzo beans or lentils, hard-boiled eggs (these and the beets are must-haves for the salad!), and green olives. I don’t always included salami slices or salmon, but if we have them on hand, I might.

I always cut the pickled beets last because they are the messiest and the knife and cutting board can go straight to the dishwasher from there.

Finally, I usually dress it with a balsamic glaze of some sort. I don’t mind balsamic straight, but there is also a good glaze offered in the stores, too.

And, remember, this is what we like, this is what makes us happy. But if you’ve got something you prefer, add it. Salads aren’t meant to all be the same!

I love soup and salad.

My challenge with soup is that buying it means it’s usually laden with sodium. Yet it can be hard to find recipes that don’t taste the same but also don’t use a long list of ingredients. And for salad, it’s achieving the right combo of ingredients in the salad with a dressing that isn’t too heavy (or calorie laden).

I think I tore out about half the April issue of Cooking Light magazine, finding a slew of recipes that looked good and would be easy to make. Recently we tried the roasted red pepper and ricotta soup (twice!) and the spinach and arugula salad with creamy parmesan dressing .

I used radishes in the soup instead of turnip, basically because of personal preference (and I’m on a bit of a radish kick lately) but pretty much followed the recipes otherwise. My first trip to Australia almost ten years ago introduced me to arugula– also known as rocket. I love the combo of putting it with another more mild green.

We’re trying to eat more simply at our house. I don’t need to cook big elaborate meals every night although I do enjoy it once or twice a week. And we’re trying to cut down on the calories we consume as we move closer to summer (pool weather has begun at our house!). Both of these recipes accomplish just that and work well together.