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Browsing Tag: Pears

Prosciutto, Pear, and Fontina Arugula Salad with Roasted Squash and Spicy Pecans

Prosciutto, Pear, and Fontina Arugula Salad with Spicy Toasted Pecans 1

Prosciutto, Pear, and Fontina Arugula Salad with Roasted Squash and Spicy Pecans is LIFE, people!

This is one of those recipes where I had to include pretty much every ingredient in the title because I liked them all so much. I’m OBSESSED with this salad with its chunks of ripe, juicy pear, savory acorn squash, salty prosciutto, creamy fontina, cayenne-kissed toasted pecans, and sweet maple vinaigrette dressing. And arugula! Arugula is my soulmate, true-love green. I’m enamored with its peppery, delicate fronds and how it seems to go well with everything.

This rich, flavorful, filling, very fall-ish salad was inspired by a dish that has lingered in my memory since I had it earlier this year at a Detroit restaurant called Dime Store (I did a post on my brunch visit to that establishment on my other blog, 100 Places in the D).

Arugula Quinoa Salad with Baked Pears and Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette

Arugula Quinoa Salad with Baked Pears and Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette 1

OK, can you BELIEVE that we are already into the THIRD week of the new year? Craziness!

What’s not craziness: this Arugula Quinoa Salad with Baked Pears and Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette! It is just plain lovely. But first, I can’t help but muse about the passage of time, and habits, and goals, because they are on my mind a lot lately during this quickly-ensuing January. Maybe they’ve been on your mind, too.

Time really does fly so quickly. The freshness of a new year eventually wears off. New year’s resolutions become less shiny and exciting – and consequently, less enticing to follow. The daily grind wears us down, tempts us to flake out on our goals.

We are all human, and we all slip up on our goals sometimes. I’ve realized that it’s important to remind myself that this is normal. As a recovering perfectionist who was once flat-out rigid in her self-discipline, I have learned the beauty of self-compassion, of giving myself grace when I slip up with habits and goals. The key to overall maintaining challenging endeavors, I have learned, is to remember: