Italian Pizza Salad and Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We started our morning off with our usual tradition of going out to breakfast! We gave up on a romantic dinner out on this day years ago. It isn't romantic to worry about making reservations for Valentine's Day in January and then be in a very crowded restaurant where you feel very rushed to finish so someone else can have your table. We've made this more of a day to remember our love for each other as a family and the one and only true love we receive from above, the love of Jesus Christ! I am going to make a fun dinner at home for all of us though! Maybe I will even light some candles.

So on to salad. If you ever wanted to get a man to like a salad then this is the one you must feed him! I have been meaning to pick up the ingredients for this for quite some time and somehow kept forgetting the essential ingredients. Yesterday Miles and I ate this for lunch and Miles was very excited about it. Then several hours later on the drive home from the dentist in Marshall he commented again on how much he liked it and how it really hit the spot. When you eat as much salad as we do you really need to change it up everyday! This is one of our favorites and I can't believe it has taken me this long to share it with you really!

This is why he likes it so much! Turkey pepperoni is an awesome substitute for the real thing and makes an excellent salad topping. You can have 17 slices for only 70 calories and chopped up into fourths makes it feel like you get even more on your salad.

The rest of the ingredients include green onion, chopped tomato and sun-dried tomato, Greek peperoncinis, and lettuce of course. I always like to mix my lettuce so it was spinach and romaine yesterday.

For the dressing I would suggest this Light Sun Dried Tomato by Newmans or to make your own Italian with these 4 simple ingredients. I start with about 1/3 cup olive oil and added some of the brine from the peperoncinis. I am guessing it to be about 1/4 cup but you know by now I never measure this kind of stuff. Then I add some of this Italian Pesto seasoning but any Italian seasoning will work or use some oregano, basil, and thyme or parsley. I think I added about 1 tablespoon and about 1 teaspoon of garlic powder. I would normally just use fresh garlic but I was in a hurry.

It ended up making this much dressing and Miles and I each had plenty on our salads and I have leftover in the fridge for today!

So if you are tired of the same old salad with ranch dressing and you need to change it up or be motivated to eat more salad then try this. I promise you or any man in your life will not be disappointed!

Even though we have technically already celebrated Valentine's Day I will still make something fun for us tonight. Yesterday on the drive to the dentist I finally took the time to look more thoroughly through my new Clean Eating Magazine and found this...

Hmmm.....I think everyone would love this I thought to myself. Now let me see how they cleaned up ravioli????? I think I can make that work! Plus it is served with red marinara sauce which will be great for Valentine's Day.

Doesn't it look delicious?

Plus check this out! Only 135 calories for 4 ravioli with 2 tbsp. sauce and only 3 grams of sugar that comes from the tomatoes, which is the right kind of sugar to have! That is incredible! Now I will be off to hunt down whole wheat ravioli so wish me luck!

I will serve it with a Ceasar salad tonight and I will be working on a homemade Ceasar dressing that is a bit more healthy and something else red.....

We picked up a big container of these at Sam's on Friday evening so they will be perfect for tonight! Yum!

Happy Valentines' Day! I hope you have a great day celebrating the ones you love!