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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Salad, salad, and more salad. This is what my body has been craving the last couple of weeks. Who can be surprised after the funnel cake splurge at the state fair and the Halloween candy that tempted everyone recently?

My husband happily munches on salad along with me. He’s even gotten into the habit of making grilled salad once or twice a week as of late. We’ve done lightly tossed steamed salads, cool and fresh green salads, and even pretty healthy home-made taco salads. It can be done if you start omitting fatty meats, sour cream, cheese, and other artery-clogging ingredients. Some cumin on lean beef or chicken with a little garlic and chili pepper quickly spices up the meat without weighing it down, and a ton of cilantro with the salad portion makes me a happy camper.

Another tasty veggie that’s been in a lot of our meals lately is pumpkin. Mmm pumpkin. A lot of my friends have turned their nose up at pumpkin dishes, thinking only of overly seasoned and sweetened pumpkin pie. A beef and vegetable soup served in a baked pumpkin (you scrape the pumpkin’s tender insides off with each serving) changed a few minds. Bright orange pieces cut into salad has been happening a time or two around the house. Pumpkin bread even happened, made partially with applesauce to cut down on the oil/sugar need and still promised to be a crowd pleaser. What to do with the pumpkin next? I think we’ll mash the leftovers and curry those suckers.

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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.