Fall salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Feta, Dried Cranberries and other goodies of the fall

Fall Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Feta, Dried Cranberries, Pumpkin seeds, Yellow Tomatoes and Cucumbers. 

There. I think those are all the ingredients! 

A little tip for those people who are always in a rush and can't cook two days in a row: if you're making one salad, it takes very little effort to make two of them. Leave the cheese and the seeds out or put them in a separate container, and put the salad dressing on right before you eat it. You can put it in tupperware and leave it in the fridge for about a day and a half. 

I do this all the time, the vegetables won't spoil and it will make you so happy to see that you have a nice healthy meal waiting for you in the fridge! 

 Ingredients*: 

For two salads:
Half a butternut squash**.
10 yellow cherry tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
a handful of colorful dried cranberries
a generous block of your favorite feta cheese
seasonal organically grown greens
pumpkin seeds, toasted, unsalted

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE: Oil and lemon. No salt. The feta is usually salty enough, but if yours is not feel free to add some sea salt.

STEP BY STEP: 

1. Cut the butternut squash as best as you can leaving the skin on. You can even just cut it in half. If you're lazy you can buy the pre-cut one. 

2. Turn the oven on 375 F or 200 C and bake the squash till you can squish down the pulp with a fork (about 20 minutes)

3. Now the skin will peal right off! 

4. While the squash cooks prepare the rest. Put the salad (washed and dried) at the bottom of the bowl, cut the yellow cherry tomatoes in half, slice the cucumber in thin slices. Cut the butternut squash in cubes and add it to the salad. 

5. Crumble the feta cheese with your hands (which we have throughly washed, right?), and add the dried fruit and seeds. 

6. Prepare the vinaigrette in a separate small bowl with 1 and 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and a tsp of lemon juice per salad. Whisk the two together with a fork and pour on top of the salad. 

7. Stir the salad before eating. 

Enjoy!!! 

Valentina

RealItalianKitchen

*About the ingredients: these are all things that are still in season in the area I live in. Feel free to substitute any of these for whatever is in season in your area.  

**About the butternut squash: I usually bake the whole thing, and then keep it in the fridge for all my squash needs of the week. When I made my salad the squash was cold and it was very firm and easy to cut. Perfect and delicious for the fall salad. When is still warm I usually make soup with it.  Clic here to learn how to make home made Ravioli with squash from scratch! 

Clic here to learn how to make a beautiful Quiche! 

Meal Substitution: Fruit Salad Smoothie - Real Italian Kitchen

Sometimes I make too much fruit salad and although it's still good to eat it just gets that brown look and it makes it not wanna eat it.
BUT I'm Italian and I hate seeing food thrown away, it's a waste of money and it's an insult to those who don't have any. So what to do with left over fruit salad?

MAKE A SMOOTHIE! I just add some orange juice, it doesn't have to be freshly squeezed, I like "Simply Orange" for example. I blend it well in the blender and it's ready to drink!

In a hot summer day this is one of my favorite kind of lunch!

To see how I make my fruit salad watch the tutorial right here :-)

Enjoy!
Valentina
Real Italian Kitchen

Italian fast food: Fried Turkey Cutlets with Fresh Tomatoes on top.

When I think of fast food I think fried, comfort food. And fast please.

My favorite dish in this case is Breaded Turkey Cutlets with Tomatoes. Today I added some sauteed spinach to the dish. But let's start from the fried turkey.

COOKING TIME (including prep time): 10 minutes 

Ingredients

For the turkey
Turkey cutlets, one per person (the kind of cut you want it's actually called italian cut... pretty funny uh?!)
1 egg
bread crumbs
vegetable oil

For the tomatoes
fresh tomatoes
oregano
salt
extra virgin olive oil

For the spinach
cooked spinach
extra virgin olive oil
hot red dried peppers
garlic

Put the vegetable oil in a large flat pan and set the fire on high. Beat the egg in a plate, dip the turkey cutlet in it then bread it in the bread crumbs. Throw (gently, don't burn yourself!) the breaded cutlet in the pan and fry it. Once is cooked set it on a plate over a paper towel, to dry off some of the oil.

While the turkey is frying prepare the tomatoes. Just cut them in little cubes, put them in a bowl, season with salt, oregano and extra virgin olive oil.

Saute' the spinach in a pan were you had previously heated up the oil with the garlic and the hot peppers.

DONE! Serve the turkey with the tomatoes on top, the spinach on the side, a good slice of bread.

Pictures coming soon... today I was so hungry I didn't even think about taking pictures! Oh well, it just means I'll have to do it again soon...!

Enjoy!
Valentina
RealItalianKitchen