This week I challenged myself to feed my husband and I without spending a dime on food. We had plenty in the house and it would give me the opportunity to use some of the things that might have been pushed aside for the newer, shinier stuff!

I've actually been doing quite well, using wonderful veggies and herbs from our garden in addition to items that I had meant to use, but hadn't yet.

Among these well-intentioned items were some leftover steamed beets that I had frozen from a massive batch earlier this season. Inspired by

with caramelized onion recipe, I went ahead and composed a salad from odds and ends in the kitchen - including celery, carrots and of course the onions and beets.

The dressing is very simple - a lovely mustard/red wine vinaigrette that complimented the sweetness of the roasted veggies very well. Both my husband and I were so surprised at how wonderful everything tasted. I had written it off as something not worth documenting until I tasted the finished product, but it definitely is on the list of make-agains. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

The beets and onion were from Strite's Orchard and were sweet as candy!

Odds-and-Ends beet salad

1 lb beets, steamed (you'll probably want to do this ahead of time, as it can take over an hour!)

a handful of carrots (2-3 medium)

a handful of celery (2-3 medium stalks)

1 medium to large onion

1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of olive oil

Dressing:

2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

1/2 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

1/2 tablespoon of coarse grain mustard (or just a whole tablespoon of the dijon)

1 tablespoon of olive oil (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 300F. Cube the beets, chop carrots and celery and combine in bowl. Add the teaspoon of olive oil and mix thoroughly. Arrange in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Place in oven and bake 20-30 minutes, depending on how you chopped your veggies. Keep an eye on it; you want to see caramelization on everything, but not burning.

In the meantime, over low heat add the tablespoon of olive oil. Allow oil to heat and add sliced onion. Stir often, but allow the onion to sit in between so it can get a nice brown on it. This will probably take as long as it takes to roast the veggies, so don't wait to start it.

For the dressing, whisk the vinegar and mustard together. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon or so of olive oil into the mix as you whisk.

Toss the veggies, onion and dressing together in a bowl. Add feta cheese for an added zing!