Watermelon Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

Hi Everyone and Happy Friday!

So glad it’s finally Friday!  Woohoo!  Big plans for the weekend?  Not sure what I’m doing yet, but I know it will involve enjoying the outside.  Remember last Saturday when I went to Napa Valley and had that wonderful Watermelon Salad?  Well I just had to re-create it Peanut Butter and Peppers style!

This salad was just amazing, so refreshing and simply light and delish.  You could eat it as a meal or serve it as a side salad.  I changed mine up a little bit by adding an orange heirloom tomato to it.  The tomato and watermelon are a great compliment to each other.  I used an heirloom tomato because the lady at the Farmers Market didn’t want to sell me hers.  So I bought mine at Trader Joe’s!!  So there Farmer’s Market lady, take that!!  lol

So you could do a little comparison in looks here is the salad I got in Napa.

They used a yellow and pink watermelon.  I couldn’t find yellow, normally I find it at the stores in July and August.  Have you ever had a yellow watermelon?  They taste pretty much the same, but tend to scare people who don’t like different.  I used a personal size watermelon, that’s why the slices are smaller, which is ok for me,  It made it easier to cut.  I bought a large watermelon a week ago and it went to waste.  My Husband and I could only eat so much watermelon in a couple of days.  I should have froze it, but I didn’t.  The personal size watermelon was so sweet!  Just perfect!  I bought it, where else?  Trader Joe’s for $1.99!  They never disappoint me!!

For the cheese I decided to use a soft goat cheese that I could crumble over the top.  I like softer cheeses rather than harder ones.  To me it added more lightness to the dish and it went really well with the dressing and fruit.

The dressing was the hardest part for me to figure out.  I don’t recall that the dressings tasted the same, but I’m happy with mine.  I used Trader Joe’s Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar with some olive oil, salt, pepper and ancho chili powder.  The dressing to was very light.  I decided to just add the dressing to the arugula.  I didn’t want to saturate the salad.  I also let it sit for about 5 minutes before I ate it, that way the flavors soaked in.  Plus to take pictures the salad ended up sitting.  I really love this salad!  I wanted to make it again, but oddly enough all the watermelon got eaten before I could.  But for sure it’s going to be on my menu this weekend!!

I served this salad with a little bit of homemade seed oat bread, which really filled me up.  This salad may seem small, but watermelon, even though it’s mostly water really fills you up and keeps you full.  Plus this salad is completely guilt free!!  The calories were only 180, not to shabby.  I am sure it was less than the restaurants.

I don’t eat out too much, but I love when I do.  Not because I don’t have to cook, but it gives me wonderful ideas for meals I can create at home.   I look forward to my next outing because your never going to know what new foods or recipes you will discover.

Speaking of food, ok what else do I talk about?  :)  Time for me to make dinner this evening. Not sure what it will be yet, but maybe I’ll let my artistic juices flow and come up with another fun meal.  I’m thinking something grilled?!

Have a great weekend!!!

Toodles,

Jen