Cinnamon Fruit Salad

Happy first day of July (WHAT)! It’s really feeling like summer lately (although it was 55 here at my house in Minnesota this morning, brrr), so it’s salads of all kinds with grilling and more grilling.

A couple weeks ago my mom and dad were here for the night before we all headed to a weekend at the lake for Summer Solstice. Seth and I cooked up a fabulous dinner for the four of us, grilled steaks, grilled hash browns with peppers/onions and cheese, grilled eggplant and cinnamon fruit salad.

I had three very ripe mangoes that needed to be used before we left for the weekend, so I cut them up into pieces and tossed them in a bowl with fresh blueberries and cantaloupe. I then squeezed the juice of two limes over the fruit, a shake of raw coconut sugar (maybe 1/8 cup?) and a sprinkle of cinnamon (roughly 1 tsp). It really doesn’t take much cinnamon to flavor the salad – I went light because my dad isn’t a huge fan of cinnamon, and I was surprised at how cinnamon-y it still was. There was a small serving leftover, and it kept great in the fridge until it was finished with breakfast the next morning.

You could easily change up the fruits, but it was a nice flavor change from regular fruit salad!

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Broccoli Salad – a summer favorite!

Broccoli salad has been a staple in my family for as long as I can remember. We’d have it on holiday occasions and periodically in between, but makes a cool summer salad for when things start to heat up. It’d been sounding good to me for a while so I decided to re-create the traditional recipe to make it a little healthier. Rather than commercial shredded cheese, miracle whip, sugar and bacon bits, it’s no sugar added, uncured smoked bacon and Sir Kensingtons original mayo.

Re-vamped Broccoli Salad

  • 1 12 – 16 oz bag frozen broccoli (ran under cold water to thaw, and dry a bit)
  • 2 fresh ripe mangoes diced
  • 1/2 diced large red onion
  • Cut up beef (we had some leftover from our smoker, so I used kitchen shears and cut it up!)
  • Cut up cooked bacon
  • 1 cup Sir Kensginton’s original mayo
  • White vinegar (enough to get mayo to dressing consistency you prefer)
  • Salt/pepper

Toss everything in a large bowl and let refrigerate overnight. The mango adds the perfect touch of sweetness instead of a cup of refined white sugar, and the recipe remains dairy free! I really did not miss the cheese at all, and it’s full of healthy colors!

Enjoy (I apologize, I only took one photo, which is a pretty crappy photo)!

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Mango Summer Salad

It’s 93 in Minnesota right now with a lot more humidity than my San Diego bones are used to, therefore, cool light salads it is! Kind of a random concoction of things we had on hand and needed to be used (you know how all your mangoes and avocados ripen at the exact same time), crossing fingers it’d be tasty. Seth and I both LOVED it. Very easy. This version served 2, but could easily be doubled, etc.

Mango Summer Salad

  • 1 ripe mango, cut
  • 2 ripe avocados, diced
  • 1/4 cup white onion, chopped
  • 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
  • Himalayan pink salt
  • Black pepper
  • Light drizzle of olive oil
  • Decent shake of balsamic vinegar

Mix everything in a bowl, and serve!

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