I’ve been cooking from the July/August issue of Martha Stewart’s Body and Soul Magazine. Next up – Chicken Salad with Grapes, Avocado, and Almonds Over Spinach. This salad has several of my favorite things – avocado, almonds, spinach and chicken. Obviously, I had to make it!

This was very simple. I cooked the chicken, cut up grapes, toasted some sliced almonds, cut some corn off the cob and washed my spinach.  I did not make my dressing in the bottom of the bowl (I like to control how much I use) and as always, Martha’s dressing needed sweetening, so I added some honey to it.

This was a truly fab salad. I loved it! We had it for dinner with yesterday’s Strawberry Muffin recipe. It was perfect for dinner – very filling and you didn’t feel like you were just grazing on a pile of greens. It had substance and flavor and I loved it.  I did not think I was going to like grapes in a salad, but they fit in quite nicely with the other ingredients. The recipe says this feeds 4, but 2 of us ate this and we had tons and tons left.  Mr. MarthaandMe, who is not a big fan of spinach, ate this without complaint. There was so much in it, I don’t even know if he noticed it was a spinach base.

I’ve been cooking from the July/August issue of Martha Stewart’s Body and Soul Magazine. Next up – Chicken Salad with Grapes, Avocado, and Almonds Over Spinach. This salad has several of my favorite things – avocado, almonds, spinach and chicken. Obviously, I had to make it! This was very simple. I cooked the chicken, cut … Read more →

I haven’t cooked anything from Martha Stewart’s Body and Soul magazine to date, so it was time. The July/August issue has a recipe for strawberry muffins (no link on Martha’s site).

I often make blueberry muffins in the summer, usually with a streusel topping. I have tried to make strawberry muffins by substituting strawberries for blueberries, but somehow the muffins always turned out soggy and not so good. I was ready to see if Martha had a solution.

The recipe was a basic muffin recipe, but it uses some whole wheat flour, which got points from me. The key to this recipe is to cut up the strawberries, sprinkle the sugar on them and then mash them, before adding them to the batter. I never would have thought to do that. You don’t get big hunks of pulpy berry this way and it fills the muffin with the fruit flavor.

As always, mine took longer to bake than they should have, but I was really pleased with the results.  The muffins were very moist and not dry at all. They were sweet but not too sweet. We ate them with salad for dinner and they didn’t need any butter. Overall, they were very good. I’m definitely going to make these again and remember the technique of mashing the berries.

I haven’t cooked anything from Martha Stewart’s Body and Soul magazine to date, so it was time. The July/August issue has a recipe for strawberry muffins (no link on Martha’s site). I often make blueberry muffins in the summer, usually with a streusel topping. I have tried to make strawberry muffins by substituting strawberries for … Read more →