This December is gonna be crazy. It’s only a week in (ish!) and I’m already a little terrified/excited. Dave and I going on two trips together. We have very dear friends in town for almost a week. And among all of those things, Dave is going to be gone for 10 days (in two chunks!) on a big commercial shoot. Oh my.

And not to mention: in 2017 I already have trips booked in January, February and March. Woohoo!

I do love travel. As crazy as it all sounds, I’m totally looking forward to it. But I’m also really savoring the time we actually get to spend at home together.

Dave and I are both definitely creatures of routine. We love having a hot breakfast in the morning together every day, spending a little extra time in each other’s company before heading out the door. We both have our gym routines: he goes early Tuesdays and Thursdays; I go Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, yoga and HIIT. And every Saturday we work the same volunteer shift at the food bank.

The biggest part of our routine, though, is eating meals at home that we make from scratch (or close 🙂 ). We are kind of homebodies when it comes to that: we eat out only once or maaayyyyyyybe twice on a given week. Eating well – but healthily – is really important to us.

This salad, for example, we made the weekend after Thanksgiving. We had eaten a lot of pie – no regrets – but we were both craving something green and a little spice. This salad combines whole grains, hefty healthy dark greens, a spicy bite from chorizo and a pop of tartness from sliced apples. It’s pretty well rounded This amount serves 2 as an entrée, by the way.

We used freekeh in this salad, but you could use any whole grain you like! And if you’re low carb/Paleo/Whole 30ing it, you could just use cauliflower rice.

Oh, and did I mention the shallots? There’s fried shallots on top. In my opinion, it’s an excuse to put miniature onion rings on one’s salad, and who wouldn’t want to do that? I can’t wait to make it again.

Apple Chorizo Grain Salad

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked whole grains (freekeh, quinoa, brown rice, barley, whatever is your favorite!)
• 1 whole shallot, very thinly sliced
• 1-2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/3 lb. spicy chorizo
• 4 cups shredded kale or other sturdy greens
• 1 tart apple, sliced or roughly chopped (such as Autumn Glory, honeycrisp or fuji)
• 2 Tbsp. dried currants
• 1 Tbsp. best quality olive oil

Instructions

1. Toss the shallots with the flour, and shake off any excess. Heat about 1/8 inch of vegetable oil in a skillet, and when hot, fry the shallots until crispy. Remove to a paper towel, sprinkle with salt and set aside.
2. Next, brown the chorizo in the skillet. Remove, and set aside.
3. Finally, wilt the greens in the oil and fat left behind by the chorizo. They should reduce in size by more than half.
4. Toss the cooked grains, chorizo, greens, olive oil and apple together in a large bowl and top with shallots and currants. Enjoy!