Two Spring Salads and a New Salmon Recipe

With the twins home from college and interested in choosing a few new seasonal recipes, our spring Pin It and Do It Challenge moved into high gear this week. I even created a new Pinterest board, Super Salads and Sandwiches, to aid in planning lighter summer meals.

Early in the week, with warm weather and an especially hectic day, we opted for a quick, cold supper. Apple Pecan Chicken Salad from Smells Like Home appealed to all of us. Picking up a rotisserie chicken and fresh croissants on the way home made things even easier. The sandwiches were delicious - a definite "keeper" recipe that would be perfect for a summer luncheon, too. The above photo is from Pinterest; my original pin is here.

Encouraged by success, we tried the Southwest Black Bean Salad from skinnytaste.com - another winner! It is excellent as a side salad, but could also be used as an appetizer or salad topping. We needed to plan ahead and allow the avocado time to ripen to perfection, but I'm sure that won't be an issue as the season progresses. Here is my original pin.

Next up was Baked Dijon Salmon, adapted from allrecipes.com and found on What's Cookin' Chicago? blog. This is my new favorite salmon dish and it has definitely earned a spot in the regular dinner rotation. In addition to trying the recipe, we also ran a taste test between fresh and frozen salmon. For months I have been maintaining that Wegmans club pack frozen salmon fillets are just as good as fresh, but this side-by-side testing proved me wrong. I baked one frozen fillet along with the fresh and, of course, we could all tell the difference. Frozen salmon is still a freezer staple, but now I'll use it only when I can't get to the store for fresh. The photo of the cooked salmon is from Pinterest (I forgot to take one), but below is the salmon brushed with honey-dijon glaze and then sprinkled with the panko-pecan topping before baking. My original pin is here.

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