Warm Butternut and Beet Salad

Well, I am very happy to say I made it through the holidays with a weight loss!  I did indulge a bit but overall kept my healthy momentum.  We had a quiet, relaxing Christmas and New Years with lots of time together as a family.  I'm sure many of you have seen recipes similar to the one I'm posting below but this is my spin on it and what I had for lunch today.


On a cookie sheet in a 450 degree oven I roasted the butternut squash and beets (cut to a bite sized dice).  I added a bit of olive oil to the veggies first and did a good toss.  I roasted until the veggies were tender which was 20-30 minutes (sometimes I find beets take a while to cook this way).  While the veggies were roasting I toasted the walnuts in a dry nonstick pan until they started to brown and smell nice and toasty.  Once cooled off a bit I coarse chopped the walnuts.

For the dressing I mixed the basalmic, olive oil and Italian seasoning.  I have a Tupperware salad shaker thing that worked great for this.  Finally I added all the ingredients and tossed to mix.  This is great both warm and cold.  Sweet potatoes (the orange ones) and acorn squash would also be great added or substituted in this recipe.  Also I didn't add any salt as the feta has plenty and the Italian seasoning had a bit as well, you may choose to add salt and pepper to taste.

The Recipe:

1/2 of a medium butternut squash (2-2.5 cups diced)

3 medium beets (1.5 cups diced)

1 Tbs olive oil

1 Tbs balsamic vinegar

1/2 Tsp Italian seasoning (I used Epicure Italian salad dressing seasoning but any dry seasoning mix you prefer would be fine)

1/2 cup Feta cheese

1/2 cup walnuts toasted

Salt and pepper to taste