As I mentioned in my last post, before the weekend is out, I hope to be over 400 followers, +8,000.00 in steem power, +2,000 posts and a reputation score of 67. I have never posted a progress post before, but I am considering doing a top 5 post here soon. What do you think?

Ok, just in case if anybody was wondering, my family and I do not live exclusively on chocolate, dounuts, french fries, and more chocolate….

Yes, we have salads too. I will admit though that the normal every day salad is not blog worthy, most of the time. But, now, with PUMPKIN season upon us, it gives me an opportunity to share with you this amazing flavor combo, or as I said above, a flavor bomb.

I had originally intended this salad to have bacon and craisons, but I decided to leave out the bacon to make lighter and I didn’t have any craisons in the pantry. Up until a month or so ago, we did not have craisons. So happy to have access to them now.

Speaking of craisons,... did you know that Chile is a huge exporter of cranberries? It’s true. And another thing that is kind of funny, we grow a ton of cranberries here, but they are not available in our local stores. It’s crazy. They are all exported.

But, I digress… back to this salad… so, normally I do a chop salad, but the arugula was just so beautiful in its full form, I left it alone. In my opinion, the presentation of this salad is very photogenic and I am very happy with how the pics turned out, even if I do say so myself.

Ingredient List

Roasted Pumpkin:
1 sugar pumpkin
3 tablespoons olive oil, separated
salt and pepper

Salad:
4 cups fresh arugula leaves
1/3 cup pomegranate arils
1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans
5 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1 cup cooked garbonzo beans

Cider Vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons apple cider vinager
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup (or honey)
2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Roasting the pumpkin: You can do this by slicing the pumpkin into small wedges. Place on a cookie sheet and coat each side with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in an oven at 350 and give it 25 minutes, turning the pumpkin wedges over half way, say at 12 minutes. That should do the trick.

I hope you give it a try, YOU’LL THANK ME LATER

SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS OF LAST WEEK'S steemit photo challenge, which focused on food. There were some amazing entries!