Italian Orange Salad

Reagan and I used to have this tradition where we ate pizza every Sunday night. Be it frozen, homemade, carryout - we ate pizza. After I had to go gluten free, I spent my Sunday nights pretending to like the flatbread(ish) pizza that I had to eat while Reagan ate something delicious.

The other day I remembered this Italian Orange Salad recipe and decided to "surprise" (ha!) Reagan with it on a Sunday night. (My reasoning is that it has pepperonis. That's pretty solid, right?)

Italian Orange Salad
serves 4

For salad:
1 small head of lettuce (or a bagged lettuce of your choice)
1/2 head curly lettuce
1 large can mandarin oranges
1/2 red onion, sliced
Pepperonis
1 1/2 tsp. butter
1/3 cup walnut halves
1/4 tsp. salt

For dressing:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced onion
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. celery seeds

To make walnut croutons, melt 1 1/2 tsp. butter in skillet.  Add 1/4 tsp. salt. Add 1/3 cup walnut halves and brown over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Combine all the dressing ingredients and shake well.  Assemble the salad and enjoy!

After this dinner, Reagan suggested we change our tradition to salads on Sunday night. I think that was the I'm-taking-three-finals-in-three-days-and-I'm-delirious-from-studying voice talking!

P.S. If you are ever in the mood for whipping up a homemade pizza, I highly recommend this recipe. Or, if you are really brave and want to try a creative salad, give this Southwestern Chicken and Spaghetti Squash Salad recipe a try! Pin It