I love soup and salad.

My challenge with soup is that buying it means it’s usually laden with sodium. Yet it can be hard to find recipes that don’t taste the same but also don’t use a long list of ingredients. And for salad, it’s achieving the right combo of ingredients in the salad with a dressing that isn’t too heavy (or calorie laden).

I think I tore out about half the April issue of Cooking Light magazine, finding a slew of recipes that looked good and would be easy to make. Recently we tried the roasted red pepper and ricotta soup (twice!) and the spinach and arugula salad with creamy parmesan dressing .

I used radishes in the soup instead of turnip, basically because of personal preference (and I’m on a bit of a radish kick lately) but pretty much followed the recipes otherwise. My first trip to Australia almost ten years ago introduced me to arugula– also known as rocket. I love the combo of putting it with another more mild green.

We’re trying to eat more simply at our house. I don’t need to cook big elaborate meals every night although I do enjoy it once or twice a week. And we’re trying to cut down on the calories we consume as we move closer to summer (pool weather has begun at our house!). Both of these recipes accomplish just that and work well together.

I love French onion soup.

When I think of it, I think of dark seventies steakhouses with tall booths and heavy wooden furniture. And I think of family weddings and events.

Some years ago, I believe after I had moved to Albuquerque, my dad showed me an easy way to make the soup although I don’t remember one detail: it wasn’t broth but it was a juice you could buy in a can (it looked to be the size of those cans of Hawaiian Punch that used to be available– in the days before plastic took over). I didn’t go back to look for the cans recently, instead I went online and found this recipe from epicurious.

And because it had such good reviews, I went ahead and made it. Greg, who told me he doesn’t really like French onion soup, said he liked it (but I think he really liked it because it meant I would make a loaf of bread for it). Still, the best part is the cheese set under the broiler to melt (I used provolone).

Perfect for a cold night and being that it’s only February, we all have at least a few more of those to endure.