High-Protein Greek Salad (Summer Salad Series Ep 1)

& birth prep

Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every Wednesday! Paid subscribers get even more on Fridays — right now I’m doing a 30-minute budget meal series! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!

CATCH UP!

A lot going on this week and a lot on my mind! I’ve obviously been extremely disheartened by what’s going on in LA right now and especially the rhetoric people use when talking about immigrants. No matter how you feel about policy, it is no excuse to look down on or say nasty things about other human beings. LA is not in shambles right now from riots and violence. People are just standing up for their community to be treated with dignity and compassion.

I am very much getting the nesting urge hard, and I really like it. I wish I felt this way all the time, but I’m not typically motivated to organize under normal circumstances. Over the weekend, I worked on our bedroom and bathroom, getting rid of old products, cleaning, and reorganizing. We also FINALLY got started on the nursery room, formerly Grant’s office. We cleared it out brought all our baby packages in, which feels like a great step. We still need to get some furniture to put everything away, but it made things feel more real.

We also took two birthing classes over the weekend — one was a more a Childbirth 101 course and the other was a Labor Comfort class at a yoga studio. They both worked in tandem, but the dichotomy was also interesting. At the yoga studio, a lot of women were choosing to do unmedicated home births. Right now, my plan is a hospital birth with an epidural, but I’ve actually really been enjoying learning about unmedicated births and all the holistic tactics you can use to get through labor. I really like a blend of natural and modern. So although I still want to be at a hospital and get medication, I still want to learn techniques like breathing, massage, meditation, etc. And we will be using a doula!

THINGS I’M LOVING!

We’ve slowly phased out all the plastic in our kitchen over the years, but for some reason, we were (unintentionally) holding on to our black plastic kitchen utensils, which are truly the worst of them all. We recently replaced them with this GreenPan Silicone Set, and I’ve been very happy! So much better than using plastic, and I love the way these look on our countertop. Love that it comes with the cute marble holder too!

This is my summer of affordable, natural fiber summer dresses, and I’m so excited about it because that’s all I want to live in! This 100% Cotton Eyelet Dress is so cute and lightweight, and it’s only $25?! It runs big — I got a small and it’s still oversized, even with the bump!

I’ve been wanting to get new throw pillows for our living room couch for awhile, but I was struggling with what type of vibe to go for. When I saw these Green Velvet Striped Pillows from Sézane, I pulled the trigger immediately. I love the rich, earth-tone green, and it goes well with our new rug! I actually think I might buy a couple more from their site to stack on our couch.

ACTIVE DISCOUNT CODES!

Supplements

• KALEMEMAYBE25 gets you 30% off your first order with Ritual!

• Use my link to get up to 45% off Grüns gummy vitamins!

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Food

• KALEMEMAYBE gets you 10% off Fishwife products!

• KMM10 gets you 10% off your first purchase with Ground Up Nut Butters

• DRIZZLE gets you 20% off Little Zing Mustard

• KALEMEMAYBE gets you 15% off Kola Goodies tea lattes

• CARINA20 gets you 20% off Primal Kitchen products

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• CARINA15 gets you 15% off Juliet Wine!

• CARINAWOLFF gets you 40% off your first order with Hungryroot!

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• CW15 gets you 15% off Bon Charge Red Light Therapy

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RECIPE!

I’m kicking off my summer salad series with this high protein Greek salad! Now, before we ruffle some feathers, let’s get into what a classic Greek salad is and how this is obviously not authentic. A typical Greek salad is usually made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, chunks of feta, and often, olives. I used that base as the inspiration for this salad but added a few ingredients to make it a full meal and filled with protein. And I omitted olives because I hate them. I’m sorry. I wish I didn’t. Feel free to judge me, but I can’t help it, no matter how hard I try.

The protein comes from both chickpeas and the hard-boiled eggs — well, not full hard-boiled, more like medium-boiled. I also added in some pepperoncini and chopped dill and parsley, and the whole thing is tossed in a bright and zesty lemon vinaigrette.

I love this salad because you get the vibes of a light and refreshing Greek salad, but you don’t have to make anything on the side with it to round it out.

High-Protein Greek Salad

Ingredients (serves 2)

Salad

• 4 large eggs

• 2 roma tomatoes, chopped

• 2 Persian cucumbers, chopped

• 1/3 cup chopped red onion

• 1/3 cup sliced pepperoncini

• 1 (14.5 oz) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

• 5.5 oz feta, chopped or broken up into crumbles with your hands

• 3 tbsp chopped dill

• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Lemon Vinaigrette

• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

• 1/2 tsp honey

• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Bring a small pot water to a boil. Carefully add your eggs, and boil for 9 minutes. Immediately transfer eggs to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking, and let cool for at least 10 minutes.

2. While eggs are cooking, prepare the rest of your ingredients (chop, slice, etc.)

3. To make the dressing, add ingredients to a small bowl or jar, and whisk together with a fork until smooth.

4. When eggs are done cooling, peel, and chop up.

5. Add everything to a bowl, and toss together with dressing. Taste, and season with salt and pepper if needed.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

Last week, paid subscribers received a recipe for Peach & Goat Cheese Pearl Couscous Summer Salad! This one is SO good and perfect for meal prep or even to bring to a summer potluck!

Just a reminder!!! Anytime you become a paid subscriber, you get access to ALL of the past recipes in the archive, plus one exclusive recipe a week! You can always do a free 7-day trial as well!