I’ve made this simple Mediterranean cauliflower rice bowl many times when I’m hungry and too tired to cook. It’s one of those meals I can pull together without thinking too hard about what to make.

This recipe came together by accident, which might be why it’s become one of my go-to meals on low-energy days.

I was grocery shopping and saw a bag of steamable vegetables on sale. Nothing fancy — just one of those microwave-in-the-bag varieties. The ingredients looked good, so I grabbed it, went home, cooked it up, and ate it plain. It was fine. But it was missing something.

That’s when I thought about the frozen cauliflower rice I already had in my freezer. I microwaved a bag of that too, poured both into a bowl together, and added a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of lemon juice, and a sprinkle of sea salt, pepper, and oregano. That was it. That small addition turned a plain bag of vegetables into an actual meal I looked forward to eating.

If you’ve read my post on cauliflower rice as an MS-friendly rice substitute, you already know how much I rely on the frozen, steamable kind. This bowl is that same cauliflower rice, paired with a bag of steamable veggies and a few pantry staples, for a meal that asks almost nothing of you.

Why Mediterranean-Style Foods?

This Mediterranean cauliflower rice bowl was created because it’s easy, but I also love that it uses foods commonly found in a Mediterranean-style diet, including vegetables, olive oil, herbs, and lemon.

Interestingly, research has looked at the Mediterranean diet and MS fatigue. One study found that people with MS who followed a Mediterranean-style diet more closely tended to report less severe fatigue. More research is still needed, but it’s another good reason to fill your bowl with colorful vegetables and healthy fats when you can.

Why This Mediterranean Cauliflower Rice Bowl Works on Low-Energy Days

MS fatigue doesn’t care whether you’ve eaten well that day. On the days it hits hardest, standing at a stove, chopping vegetables, or even measuring out ingredients can feel like more than you have to give. That’s exactly the gap this bowl fills.

Both the cauliflower rice and the vegetables come precut and pre-portioned in steamable bags, so there’s no prep work at all. The whole meal cooks in the microwave. And because nothing here needs to be measured, there’s no mental math involved either — just drizzle, sprinkle, taste, and adjust.

It’s also still doing real nutritional work. You’re getting a cruciferous vegetable base plus whatever vegetable mix you choose, extra-virgin olive oil for healthy fats, and fresh lemon juice for brightness and vitamin C — with very little hands-on effort.

What You’ll Need

No measuring required — this is meant to be flexible. Use these as a starting point and adjust to taste.

• A bag of steamable frozen cauliflower rice
• A bag of Mediterranean steamable frozen vegetables (or any blend you like)
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Fresh lemon juice
• Sea salt
• Pepper
• Dried oregano
• Leftover cooked chicken (optional, if you have it on hand)

How to Make It

1. Microwave the bag of cauliflower rice according to the package directions.
2. Microwave the bag of vegetables according to the package directions.
3. Pour both into a bowl.
4. Drizzle with olive oil.
5. Drizzle with lemon juice.
6. Sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, and oregano.
7. Toss and taste. If it needs more of anything, add another splash or sprinkle.

That’s the whole recipe. No chopping, no standing over a stove, and almost no cleanup.

If I have leftover chicken in the refrigerator, I’ll stir some in to make it more of a full meal. It’s still no prep — just tearing or cutting up what’s already cooked.

The Lemon Juice Trick That Makes This Even Easier

I keep fresh-squeezed lemon juice in my refrigerator at all times. Every so often, I juice several lemons at once using my juicer and store the juice in a jar in the fridge. That way, when I want to add lemon juice to a meal, it’s already done — no lemon to cut, no juicing in the moment.

(I’ll link the juicer I use here.)

With the lemon juice already prepared, this meal really does become as simple as: open the freezer, microwave, open the refrigerator, drizzle, sprinkle, eat.

Common Questions

Can I use any vegetable blend? Yes. Whatever steamable vegetable bag you like or already have on hand will work. This is meant to be adaptable, not exact.

Do I have to use lemon juice from a jar? No — a fresh lemon works too. Keeping juice on hand just removes one extra step for days when even that feels like too much.

Can I make this a bigger meal? Yes. Leftover cooked chicken is my go-to addition. You could also stir in a scoop of canned beans (if you eat beans) without adding any real prep time. Just remember to check the ingredient list, since some canned beans contain added ingredients you may not want.

Is this good during a flare or a fatigue crash? Yes. There’s no step here that requires standing, chopping, or sustained focus.

Have your own no-measure, low-energy meal you rely on? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Recipe

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Mediterranean Cauliflower Rice Bowl

This colorful Mediterranean cauliflower rice bowl is bright, savory, and full of flavor from fresh lemon, olive oil, oregano, and a sprinkle of sea salt. No chopping. No measuring. Just microwave, drizzle, sprinkle, and eat.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword cauliflower rice bowl, easy cauliflower rice recipe, Mediterranean cauliflower rice bowl, vegetable bowl

Cook Time 13 minutes minutes

Total Time 13 minutes minutes

Servings 2 servings

Author Cathy @ msinthecountry.com

Ingredients

• 1 bag frozen steamable cauliflower rice
• 1 bag frozen Mediterranean-style vegetables  (or any blend you like)
• Drizzle extra-virgin olive oil to taste
• Splash fresh lemon juice to taste
• Sprinkle sea salt to taste
• Sprinkle pepper to taste
• dried oregano to taste

Instructions

• Cook the frozen cauliflower rice according to the package directions.
• Cook the steamable Mediterranean vegetables according to the package directions.
• Add the hot cauliflower rice and vegetables to a large bowl.
• Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, and oregano.
• Give everything a quick toss. Add another splash, drizzle, or sprinkle of anything you think it needs.

Notes

No measuring required! Start with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and oregano. Toss, taste, and add more until it tastes just right.

Low-Energy Tip: Squeeze several lemons at once and store the fresh lemon juice in a covered glass jar in the refrigerator. Then it’s ready to drizzle over quick meals like this one without having to cut and squeeze a lemon every time.

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Can you really have low vitamin D in summer, when the days are long and the sun is shining? Surprisingly, several things can reduce how much vitamin D your body makes.

Living out here in the country, I get to see a lot of sky. There’s nothing blocking the horizon — no buildings, no trees crowding in — just miles of open land in every direction. One of the small pleasures of that view is watching the sun’s path shift through the seasons. Right now, if you pay attention, you can actually see it: the sun is rising and setting noticeably further south than it was even a few weeks ago. 

That seasonal shift has also made me think more about vitamin D and MS, especially as summer begins winding down.

For most people, that’s just a pretty seasonal change. For those of us managing MS, it’s also a quiet signal worth paying attention to — because it usually means less sun on our skin, and less sun means less vitamin D.

But This August Wasn’t Actually a “Sunny Month” for Me

Here’s the thing that caught my attention this year. August is supposed to be one of our sunniest months. And yet there were days — plenty of them — where I couldn’t even see the sun. Wildfire smoke settled in so thick that the sky turned hazy and dim, sometimes for days at a stretch. On top of that, when the air quality was bad, I stayed inside anyway.

Heat intolerance and wildfire smoke are two reasons people with MS could end up with low vitamin D in summer, even when there seems to be plenty of sunshine.

So even in what’s “supposed to be” a high-sun month, my actual sun exposure was a lot lower than the calendar would suggest. And I have to imagine I’m not the only one in the MS community who experienced that this year. It made me realize how easy it could be to have low vitamin D in summer, even during a month we think of as sunny.

Why Vitamin D and MS Are So Closely Studied

Vitamin D isn’t just about bone health — it plays a role in regulating the immune system, and researchers have been studying its connection to MS for years.

Several studies have found a connection between lower vitamin D levels and more MS relapses. In one study, people who had frequent relapses also had lower vitamin D levels (source).

It’s worth being honest about the research here, the way I try to be with everything I share: the picture isn’t perfectly clean. While low vitamin D is consistently linked to higher relapse risk in observational studies, clinical trials testing whether vitamin D supplements actually prevent relapses haven’t shown the same clear benefit (source). Researchers think this might be due to differences in dosing, study length, or how “relapse” gets measured across studies.

And here’s another thing that’s important to remember: geography doesn’t tell the whole story. Although MS has historically been more common in populations living farther from the equator, researchers know that sunlight and vitamin D can’t fully explain who develops MS. Genetics, environment, infections, lifestyle, and other factors may all be part of the picture.

In other words, vitamin D matters, but it’s only one piece of a much bigger MS puzzle.

So the honest takeaway isn’t “take vitamin D, and you’re protected.” It’s more like this: lower vitamin D levels have been associated with greater MS disease activity, and making sure your level doesn’t quietly slide is worth paying attention to — especially heading into a season when several things can work against you at once.

What My Own Vitamin D Test Showed Me

Vitamin D became much more personal to me when I was trying to figure out what my body needed to function at its best.

At the time, heat intolerance was a major problem for me. Like many people with MS, hot weather could make everyday life much harder. I was already changing my diet and paying close attention to how different foods and lifestyle habits affected me, but I also decided to have my vitamin D level checked.

The result surprised me. My vitamin D wasn’t technically deficient. It was sitting near the bottom of what the lab considered the “normal” range.

That made me look at the number differently. Being within a laboratory reference range doesn’t necessarily tell you whether your level is ideal for you. I decided I didn’t want my vitamin D hovering near the bottom of the range, so I increased my vitamin D intake and continued monitoring my level.

Over time, something remarkable happened: my heat intolerance disappeared.

I can’t say that raising my vitamin D caused that change. I had changed several things during the same period, including my diet, so there is no way for me to separate one factor from another. That’s an important distinction. My experience is not proof that vitamin D reverses heat intolerance in MS.

But it did teach me something valuable. I don’t want to wait until something falls outside a laboratory reference range before I pay attention to it. Vitamin D became one more piece of the bigger picture I use to support my health.

And that’s one reason I still pay attention to it today.

Why You Can Have Low Vitamin D in Summer

There are so many things besides clouds that determine how much vitamin D your skin can make:

1. Time of day: UVB is strongest when the sun is higher in the sky. Early morning and evening sunlight may feel wonderful, but it generally isn’t very effective for vitamin D production.
2. Season: As fall approaches, the sun’s angle gets lower. At northern latitudes, winter sunlight may provide very little useful UVB for vitamin D production.
3. Latitude: The farther you live from the equator, the more dramatically vitamin D-producing UVB changes with the seasons.
4. Being behind glass: Sitting beside a sunny window doesn’t have the same effect because ordinary window glass blocks most UVB.
5. Clothing and sunscreen: Both reduce the amount of UVB reaching your skin.
6. Skin pigmentation: Melanin reduces UVB penetration, so people with darker skin generally need more UVB exposure to produce the same amount of vitamin D.
7. Age: Our skin becomes less efficient at producing vitamin D as we get older.
8. Smoke and air pollution: Heavy atmospheric pollution can reduce the UVB reaching ground level.

Three Things Quietly Cutting Into Your Sun Exposure Right Now

1. The sun’s natural seasonal shift. As we move toward fall, the sun sits lower in the sky, and its path moves south. This happens every year, gradually, which makes it easy to not notice until you’re deep into the low-light months.
2. Wildfire smoke. Smoke doesn’t just make the sky look hazy — it scatters and blocks UVB rays, the specific wavelength your skin needs to produce vitamin D. A smoky “sunny” day can leave you with a lot less usable sun exposure than it looks like from behind your window.
3. Heat intolerance keeping you indoors. If heat is one of your MS triggers, you may already be avoiding peak sun hours during the hottest parts of summer — which, ironically, are also the months when sun exposure would normally be topping off your vitamin D stores for the year.

Any one of these on its own might not matter much. All three stacking up in the same season is worth noticing.

Can You Store Vitamin D From Summer?

Your body can store vitamin D, mainly in fat and muscle tissue. That’s one reason vitamin D levels can rise during sunnier months and then gradually decline during fall and winter.

But summer doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you built up large stores.

Think about your own August. There may have been plenty of daylight, but how much of it actually reached your bare skin? If you spent hot afternoons indoors, avoided being outside because of wildfire smoke, wore clothing that covered most of your skin, or simply weren’t outside very much, your vitamin D production may have been lower than you’d expect. That’s one reason low vitamin D in summer shouldn’t automatically be ruled out just because the weather has been sunny.

Why Late Summer Is a Good Time to Pay Attention

Most vitamin D conversations seem to happen in winter, once the low-light months have already settled in. By then, you’re not catching a seasonal dip — you may already be well into it. Winter days are shorter, the sun sits lower in the sky, and vitamin D levels may have been gradually declining for months.

Late August and September give you a chance to think about vitamin D before you’re deep into the darker months. There’s still time to take stock of how much sun you’ve actually been getting before the darker months arrive.

This can be a good time to have your vitamin D level checked rather than assuming summer sunshine has kept it where you want it. Depending on the results, you might spend a little more time outdoors when conditions allow, pay more attention to vitamin D-rich foods, or talk with your doctor about whether supplementation makes sense for you.

Think of it as the seasonal equivalent of checking your tire pressure before a road trip instead of after you’re already stranded. Nothing dramatic has to be wrong for it to be worth a look.

What You Can Do About It

You don’t need to guess about your vitamin D status. A 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood test can show you where your level actually stands.

From there, think about the everyday factors that may be affecting your vitamin D.

• Pay attention to how much sun you’re actually getting. A sunny forecast doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve spent meaningful time outdoors.
• Remember that timing matters. Early morning and evening sunlight may be cooler and more comfortable, but UVB levels are usually much lower then. The sun needs to be high enough in the sky for significant vitamin D production.
• Include vitamin D-rich foods when they work for you. Fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, trout, and mackerel are among the best natural food sources. Some mushrooms and fortified foods can provide additional vitamin D.
• Consider supplementation if you aren’t getting enough. The amount someone needs can vary considerably, which is another reason I prefer knowing my blood level instead of guessing.
• Recheck instead of assuming. If you make changes to raise your vitamin D, testing again later can tell you whether those changes actually worked.

I think of vitamin D as one piece of a much larger puzzle. Nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, time outdoors, and other everyday habits all matter. Instead of looking for one magic answer, I prefer to look at how those pieces work together.

A Small Seasonal Habit Worth Building

When it comes to vitamin D and MS, I think the most important thing is not to assume your level is fine simply because you’ve had a sunny summer.

I don’t think you need to overhaul your life around this. But I’ve started treating that shifting sunset — watching where it drops on the horizon each week — as a little seasonal check-in. It reminds me to ask myself: have I actually gotten outside today, or has it just been a “sunny month” on paper?

Given everything working against sun exposure this year — smoke, heat, and the season naturally turning — it felt like a question worth asking a little earlier than usual.

That’s why I don’t think we should assume low vitamin D in summer isn’t possible. What matters isn’t how many sunny days were on the calendar, but how much useful sun exposure we actually received.

Keep Going: Build Your MS Healing Plan

Low vitamin D in summer may be one piece of the puzzle, but nutrition, gut health, stress, sleep, movement, and supporting your nervous system can all be part of the bigger picture.

If you’re ready to keep going, here are a few places to start:

→ Nourish and Heal: 5 Steps to Healing Naturally
Start here if you want to see how food, lifestyle, and everyday habits can work together.

→ What Causes MS Fatigue?
If low energy has been getting in your way, learn about some of the different things that may contribute to MS fatigue.

→ Nervous System Healing Guide
Learn simple ways to support a calmer nervous system and reduce some of the everyday stress your body is carrying.

→ Explore All My MS Healing Guides
Choose the area you’d like to work on next, from gut health and energy to vitamin D, B12, inflammation, and nervous system support.

📌 Low Vitamin D in Summer? Save This for Later

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This easy healthy stuffed peppers recipe has been on our dinner rotation for years, long before I ever wrote it down.

My husband and I started making stuffed peppers the traditional way — ground beef, tomato sauce, a lot of chopping, a long ingredient list. It was good, but it was never easy, and there are plenty of days with my MS when standing over the stove for long stretches just isn’t something I want to do.

Then one day it dawned on me: I already had a filling I made all the time for sloppy Joes — grass-fed ground beef, a whole bag of coleslaw mix, chopped onion, and diced tomatoes. No rice to cook. No cabbage to chop. Just brown the beef, dump in the bag, and season it. Why was I making a completely different stuffing for peppers when I already had one sitting in my regular rotation?

So I stopped. Now the sloppy Joe filling is the stuffed pepper filling, and dinner comes together in a fraction of the time it used to take.

Why This Easy Healthy Stuffed Peppers Recipe Works for MS

Managing MS naturally means looking for meals that give you real nutrition without asking a lot of you in return, and this easy healthy stuffed peppers recipe was built around exactly that trade-off.

There’s no separate stuffing recipe to learn and no rice to cook on a second burner. Just brown the filling in one skillet, spoon it into halved peppers, and bake. Most of the 40 minutes is hands-off oven time, which matters on days when standing at the counter is the hard part.

It’s also a meal that doesn’t feel like a compromise. The peppers come out of the oven vibrant and colorful, piled high with a savory, slightly sweet filling — it looks like something you’d order, not something you scaled back.

The Secret: One Filling, Many Meals

I’m not going to rewrite the filling recipe here, because I already did — it’s my healthy sloppy Joe recipe, and it’s the exact same mixture I use for these stuffed peppers.

That’s the part I want you to walk away with: one skillet of filling, three or four different dinners. Make a big batch on a good day, and you’ve got sloppy Joes, a stuffed pepper dinner, a topping for baked sweet potatoes, and a bowl over cauliflower rice — all without cooking from scratch each time.

The filling itself is grass-fed ground beef, a full 16-ounce bag of coleslaw mix, chopped onion, diced tomatoes, a touch of maple syrup, and a simple blend of mustard powder, paprika, and cumin. The coleslaw mix is the part people are always surprised by — no chopping cabbage, no extra prep, and it quietly sneaks a serving of cruciferous vegetables into a meal that tastes like classic comfort food.

Choosing Your Peppers

Any bell pepper color works here, but they’re not identical, and I have strong opinions about this after years of making the recipe both ways.

Red bell peppers are my personal favorite. They’re sweeter and more tender than green once roasted, and they hold the filling beautifully. I also skip green bell peppers entirely — they’re less ripe than the other colors, which means they’re more bitter, and they’ve never agreed with me the way red, orange, or yellow peppers do.

Red peppers also happen to be the most nutritionally dense of the bunch. A 100-gram serving of fresh peppers can supply more than 100% of the recommended daily allowance for vitamin C, and red peppers, as the most ripened version of the fruit, carry the highest concentration of that vitamin C along with beta-carotene and lycopene.

If you want the most colorful presentation, use a mix of red and yellow or orange — that’s what’s pictured here, and it’s what makes the dish feel a little more special without any more effort.

Easy Ways to Make This Recipe Your Own

Swap in ground chicken. We usually make this with grass-fed beef because we like the flavor better, but ground chicken works well when you want something lighter, and it still holds the filling together nicely.

Pre-cook the peppers slightly. If you like your peppers very soft, give the halves a 5-minute head start in the microwave or a quick blanch before filling and baking. I usually skip this step and let the oven do all the work.

Add nut cheese on top. A sprinkle of dairy-free cheese in the last few minutes of baking adds a nice finishing touch if that fits your way of eating.

Make extra filling. Since the filling is the time-consuming part, doubling the batch means your next round of stuffed peppers — or sloppy Joes, or a cauliflower rice bowl — is nearly effortless.

Common Questions

Do I need to pre-cook the peppers before stuffing them? No. Halved peppers soften nicely in the 25–30 minutes it takes to heat the filling through and lightly roast the pepper itself.

Can I make the filling ahead of time? Yes, and I often do. The sloppy Joe filling keeps in the refrigerator for 3–4 days, so you can cook it once and stuff peppers on a night when you have less energy to cook.

Why do you avoid green bell peppers? Green peppers are picked before they fully ripen, which makes them more bitter and gives them less vitamin C than red, orange, or yellow peppers. I find red peppers noticeably sweeter and easier to enjoy.

Is this a good recipe for a flare? Yes, especially if you make the filling ahead of time. On the hardest days, all you’re doing is chopping the tops off the peppers, spooning in filling you already made, and sliding a pan into the oven.

If you try this easy healthy stuffed peppers recipe, I’d love to know which pepper color you went with. Leave a comment below — I read every single one.

Easy Healthy Stuffed Peppers Ingredients

• 4 large bell peppers red, orange, or yellow (avoid green — more bitter, less ripe)
• 1 lb grass-fed ground beef grass-fed or open-range
• 1 16 oz bag coleslaw mix
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 4–5 fresh tomatoes diced, or one 16-oz can
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Himalayan pink salt and pepper to taste

Recipe…

Print

Easy Healthy Stuffed Peppers

A colorful, nutrient-dense dinner that looks impressive but takes almost no effort — built on the sloppy Joe filling my readers already love.

Course Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword easy healthy stuffed peppers, grass-fed beef stuffed peppers, MS-friendly dinner, stuffed bell peppers with coleslaw mix

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4 servings

Author Cathy @ msinthecountry.com

Equipment

• Large skillet
• 9×13 baking dish

Ingredients

• 4 large bell peppers red, red, orange, or yellow (avoid green — more bitter, less ripe)
• 1 lb grass-fed ground beef grass-fed or open-range
• 1 16 oz bag coleslaw mix
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 4–5 fresh tomatoes diced, or one 16-oz can
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Himalayan pink salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the tops off the bell peppers (or halve them lengthwise) and remove the seeds and membranes.
• Brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat, breaking it apart as it cooks. Drain excess fat if needed.
• Add the chopped onion and cook for 3–4 minutes until softened.
• Add the entire bag of coleslaw mix and stir to combine. Cook for about 5 minutes until the cabbage begins to soften.
• Add the diced tomatoes, maple syrup, mustard powder, paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper. Stir everything together and simmer for 10 minutes, until the mixture thickens.
• Stand the peppers upright in a baking dish and fill each one generously with the meat mixture, packing it in and mounding it on top.
• Bake for 25 minutes, until the peppers are tender and the filling is heated through and lightly browned on top.

Notes

Filling swap: This is the same filling I use for my healthy sloppy Joe recipe — make a double batch and use half for peppers, half for sloppy Joes, sweet potatoes, or cauliflower rice.

Pepper color: Red peppers are the sweetest and most nutrient-dense choice. Avoid green peppers if you find them bitter.

Ground turkey or chicken can be substituted for the beef if you prefer poultry.

Leftovers: Keep in the refrigerator for 3–4 days. The filling also freezes well on its own.

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By the end of August, I’m always ready for cooler weather. Even without heat intolerance, weeks of summer heat wear a person down. And when you’re managing MS, the causes of MS fatigue can pile up — making simple things suddenly take more out of you than they should.

It’s easy to blame all of it on MS. I used to do that too. But over time, I learned something that changed how I think about fatigue: not every bit of exhaustion is actually MS fatigue.

Heat can absolutely be part of it. But it’s rarely the whole story. There are several everyday causes of MS fatigue that quietly stack up — and once you know what they are, you have a real chance to do something about them, instead of just accepting “I’m tired because I have MS” as the final answer.

Here are seven things worth looking at.

1. Heat and Temperature Regulation

This one is familiar to most of us. MS can affect how the body regulates temperature, so heat hits harder and drains energy faster than it used to before diagnosis.

If you’ve read my post on managing MS heat sensitivity, you know this is something I’ve worked through myself. The short version: cooling strategies matter, and so does pacing yourself during the hottest parts of the day.

2. Poor-Quality Sleep

Being in bed for eight hours doesn’t always mean restful sleep. MS can disrupt sleep in quiet ways — muscle spasms, bladder needs, or trouble getting comfortable can all fragment your night without you fully realizing it.

Poor sleep quality often shows up the next day as fatigue that feels unrelated to anything you did. If your energy is low no matter how much you slept, your sleep quality — not just the hours — may be the real culprit.

Sleep is one of the easiest causes of MS fatigue to overlook because you may think you slept well simply because you were in bed all night. But waking frequently, even for short periods, can keep you from getting the deep, restorative sleep your body needs.

3. Not Drinking Enough Water

Dehydration can sneak up on you. You don’t have to feel extremely thirsty to be running low on fluids. Hot weather, sweating, and simply forgetting to drink throughout the day can all add up.

When looking at the causes of MS fatigue, hydration is an easy one to overlook. Sometimes it’s tempting to drink less when bladder urgency is already a problem.

Instead of trying to drink a large amount at once, keep water nearby and sip throughout the day. Pay attention to whether your energy changes on the days you stay better hydrated. If drinking enough water is a struggle for you, I’ve shared some simple ways to drink more water throughout the day.

4. Stress and an Overloaded Nervous System

Stress isn’t just a mental weight — it’s a physical one too. An overloaded nervous system burns energy even when you’re sitting still, which can leave you feeling drained for no obvious reason.

I’ve written more about this in my post on calming an overwhelmed nervous system, including a few practices that have made a real difference for me.

5. Blood Sugar Ups and Downs

Blood sugar swings can cause energy crashes that feel a lot like MS fatigue, especially in the afternoon. Skipping meals, or eating meals heavy in refined carbs, can send blood sugar up quickly and then drop it just as fast.

Steadier blood sugar usually means steadier energy. Pairing protein or healthy fat with carbohydrates at each meal is one of the simplest ways to smooth out those swings.

6. Nutrient Deficiencies, Including Vitamin D and B12

Fatigue isn’t always coming directly from MS. Nutrient deficiencies can cause tiredness too, which makes them another piece worth considering when looking at the causes of MS fatigue.

Vitamin D is especially interesting in MS. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found that vitamin D supplementation was associated with a small improvement in fatigue among people with MS. The researchers also pointed out that more research is needed to determine the best dose and how much of a difference vitamin D can make.

Vitamin B12 matters too. A B12 deficiency can cause fatigue, weakness, and neurological symptoms, making it easy for some symptoms to be mistaken for MS itself. Older research on managing MS fatigue specifically lists vitamin B12 deficiency, along with anemia and thyroid problems, among metabolic causes that should be considered when investigating fatigue.

Rather than assuming low energy is simply part of MS, knowing your nutrient levels can help uncover something that may have been overlooked.

If you want to go deeper on this one, my Vitamin D Healing Guide walks through what to look for and how to support healthy levels.

7. Too Little Movement — or Doing Too Much and Crashing Afterward

I’ve found that more isn’t always better. Some days, a small amount of movement spread throughout the day works better than trying to do everything at once. The goal is to give your body a reason to keep moving without using up every bit of energy you have.

It can take some experimenting to find that sweet spot. Pay attention to how you feel not only during an activity, but an hour or two later. If you repeatedly crash afterward, that may be a sign that you need to shorten the activity, slow it down, or build in more recovery time.

This one cuts both ways. Too little movement can leave muscles weak and energy stagnant. But overdoing it and crashing hard afterward is just as common — maybe more common — for people with MS.

When it comes to the causes of MS fatigue, the goal isn’t necessarily more movement or less. It’s finding your own steady rhythm. I’ve shared how I approach this in my post on movement strategies for MS, including the hourly alarms and gentle tools that help me avoid the boom-and-bust cycle.

Understanding the Causes of MS Fatigue

If there’s one thing I hope you take from this post, it’s this: fatigue isn’t a fixed part of having MS. It’s often a signal — one made up of several smaller, changeable pieces.

Heat, sleep, hydration, stress, blood sugar, nutrients, and movement all play a part. Some weeks, it might be one of these. Other weeks, it might be several stacked together, the way heat and dehydration often are.

Once you stop assuming “I have MS, therefore I’m tired” and start asking “what, specifically, might be draining me right now,” you open the door to real changes — not just acceptance.

If you’re ready to dig deeper into which of these might be at play for you, my Energy Depleted Healing Guide walks through each one step by step, so you’re not left guessing.

🧩 Still Trying to Figure Out Your MS Symptoms?

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This is the first year I’ve made my own homemade tomato paste using round, juicier slicing tomatoes rather than Romas; it happened by accident.

My husband and I usually buy our tomato plants from the big box stores. This year, we decided to try something different and bought them from our local farmer’s market instead. Wow. What a difference. These are, hands down, the best tomato plants we have ever grown. One single plant — the one you see in the photo below — has over 30 tomatoes on it right now, with more flowers still coming. We planted both red and orange tomatoes this year, although the red ones have been much more productive. We didn’t even grow Roma tomatoes this year. Next year, we will.

Getting here wasn’t easy, though. Early in the season, we were under siege. First it was rabbits, munching their way through everything low to the ground. Then starlings moved in. Then came the voles — and if you’ve never dealt with a vole invasion, count yourself lucky. We tried everything to stop them, and they still wiped out a good portion of our garden.

But they never touched the tomato plants.

So now I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with, and the most practical thing to do with an overflow of tomatoes is turn them into paste — the kind you can pull out of the freezer all winter for soups, sauces, and stews.

Why Homemade Tomato Paste Works for MS

Homemade tomato paste is naturally rich in lycopene, the antioxidant that gives tomatoes their deep red color. Cooking tomatoes down concentrates it, which is part of why tomato paste has a much higher lycopene content than a fresh tomato does, ounce for ounce. Research on lycopene has looked at its role in reducing oxidative stress and calming inflammatory pathways in the body — two things that matter a great deal when you’re managing MS naturally. One review of the research on lycopene’s antioxidant properties found it may help with oxidative stress-related conditions, including inflammatory and nervous system disorders (source: PMC, National Library of Medicine).

This recipe is also fatigue-friendly by design. Instead of standing over a hot stove stirring a pot for hours, the oven does the work for you. You get the tomatoes prepped and into the pan, and then you’re free to sit down, rest, or do something else entirely while it cooks low and slow.

Why I Use Roma Tomatoes

For this recipe, I specifically use Roma tomatoes, and it’s not just habit — they’re genuinely the easiest tomato for making paste at home.

Roma tomatoes have thicker skin, which makes them easier to peel than a thin-skinned slicing tomato. They also have far fewer seeds and much less watery juice inside, which means less prep work and a faster path to a thick, spreadable paste. With juicier, seedier tomatoes, you’re fighting extra liquid the entire time you cook — with Romas, you’re not.

If you’re growing your own and didn’t plant Romas this year (we didn’t either!), don’t worry — I’ve included notes below for adapting this recipe to juicier garden tomatoes. It just takes a little longer.

Why the Oven (Not the Stovetop)

Traditionally, tomato paste is made by simmering tomatoes down on the stovetop, which means standing nearby, stirring frequently, and watching closely so the bottom doesn’t scorch as the mixture thickens. For anyone managing MS — especially on a day when standing for long periods or gripping a spoon for an hour isn’t realistic — that’s a real barrier.

Using a low oven instead solves this. The heat surrounds the pan evenly, so you don’t need to stir constantly, and there’s no single hot spot on the bottom of a pot to cause scorching. You can prep everything, slide it into the oven, and check on it every 30–45 minutes instead of standing over it the whole time.

A Note on Buying Organic Tomato Paste

Even though I’m making my own this year, I want to share what I look for when I do buy tomato paste, because it matters just as much as growing it yourself.

When I buy organic tomato paste, I always check the ingredient label for citric acid. Despite the name, citric acid used in food manufacturing typically isn’t extracted from citrus fruit — it’s produced through a fermentation process using a strain of black mold. I personally avoid it, so I read labels carefully.

My go-to is Simple Truth organic tomato paste in a tube, not the can, because the tube version doesn’t contain citric acid. If I can’t find it locally, I order it from Amazon instead. I’ll link the one I buy here.

If You’re Using Juicier Garden Tomatoes Instead

This year, most of what’s coming out of our garden isn’t Romas — we’re growing round, juicier slicing tomatoes instead. If you’re in the same boat and want to use whatever’s ripening on your own vines, here’s what to adjust:

• Remove the excess juice and seeds first. Cut the tomatoes in half and gently squeeze out the seeds and watery juice before cooking, or run the cores through a food mill after a quick simmer. Skipping this step means a lot of extra liquid you’ll have to cook off later.
• Plan for a longer cook time. Because there’s more liquid to evaporate, expect to add roughly 1 to 2 extra hours in the oven compared to the Roma tomato method below, depending on how juicy your tomatoes are.
• Stir more often. Check and stir every 20–30 minutes instead of every 45 minutes, especially in the last hour, since a wetter mixture is more prone to uneven cooking as it thickens.
• Watch the edges of the pan. The outer edges of the tomato mixture will dry out and thicken faster than the center. Stirring pulls the thicker paste from the edges back into the middle so nothing scorches.
• Expect a slightly less concentrated paste. Even with a longer cook time, a juicier, seedier tomato won’t reduce down quite as thick as a Roma will. That’s completely fine — it will still work beautifully in soups, sauces, and stews.

My Freeze-in-Portions System

However you make your tomato paste, the most useful part of this whole project is how you freeze it.

Store-bought tomato paste cans are 6 ounces, so I portion my homemade paste into 6-ounce amounts using my kitchen food scale, then freeze each portion in its own bag. I’ll link the food scale I use here. That way, whenever a recipe calls for “one can of tomato paste,” I just grab one bag from the freezer — no guessing, no measuring, no thawing more than you need.

I use Ziploc Freezer Slider Quart Size Bags for this, since they’re BPA-free and the slider makes them easy to open one-handed, which matters on days when your hands aren’t cooperating. I press the paste flat in the bag before sealing, so it freezes quickly and thaws even faster.

This is the exact same system I use for freezing bananas — one bag, one banana, portioned and ready whenever a recipe or a smoothie calls for it. Once you set up a system like this, it makes cooking from the freezer so much easier.

Common Questions

Do I have to peel the tomatoes first? For the smoothest paste, yes. Roma tomatoes peel easily after a quick blanch in boiling water for about 30–60 seconds, followed by an ice bath — the skins slip right off.

How long does homemade tomato paste last in the freezer? Frozen in a sealed freezer bag with the air pressed out, it keeps well for up to 6 months, and up to a year if your freezer stays consistently cold.

Can I use a slow cooker instead of the oven? You can, but the oven gives you more even, hands-off heat and better evaporation since the lid stays off. A slow cooker traps steam, so your paste will take much longer to thicken.

How many Roma tomatoes do I need for one 6-ounce portion? It varies by tomato size and moisture content, but plan on roughly 2 to 2.5 pounds of fresh Roma tomatoes for every 6 ounces of finished paste, since the water cooks out almost entirely.

Is this recipe good on a fatigue day? Yes — that’s a big part of why I switched to the oven method. Once the tomatoes are prepped and in the pan, there’s no active stirring or standing required. Check on it every 30–45 minutes, and rest in between.

Ways to Use Homemade Tomato Paste

Homemade tomato paste is one of those ingredients that’s handy to keep in the freezer. A little can add richer tomato flavor to all kinds of meals.

• Sloppy Joes — tomato paste adds rich tomato flavor and helps create a thick sauce that clings to the meat. Try it in my Homemade Sloppy Joes recipe.
• Pizza sauce — use tomato paste as the base for a quick, thick pizza sauce that won’t make your crust soggy.
• Enchilada sauce — use tomato paste as the base for an easy homemade red enchilada sauce.
• Taco meat or taco bowls — stir a little into seasoned ground beef or turkey for deeper tomato flavor.
• Stuffed peppers — add some to the filling or use it to make a tomato sauce for spooning over the top.
• Chili — tomato paste adds concentrated tomato flavor and helps thicken chili.
• Vegetable soup — stir a spoonful into the broth for a richer tomato base.
• Beef and vegetable soup — especially good with potatoes, carrots, green beans, and herbs.
• Spaghetti or meat sauce — add tomato paste to your tomato sauce for a deeper, richer flavor.
• Meatballs — use it to make a rich tomato sauce for meatballs if you eventually add an egg-free meatball recipe.
• Cabbage rolls or an unstuffed cabbage skillet — tomato paste can help create the tomato sauce that goes so well with cabbage and ground meat.
• Lasagna-style zucchini bake — use it to make a thick tomato sauce for layering with zucchini and a dairy-free filling.
• Spanish-style rice — a little tomato paste adds color and concentrated tomato flavor without adding much liquid.
• One-pan chicken — combine it with liquid and seasonings to make an easy tomato sauce for chicken and vegetables.
• Homemade barbecue sauce — tomato paste makes a great thick tomato base without having to start with ketchup.
• Tomato dipping sauce — thin and season it to make a simple dipping sauce for vegetables, potatoes, or other savory foods.

Homemade Tomato Paste Ingredients

• 5 pounds Roma tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (for the pan)
• Pinch of sea salt (optional)

This homemade tomato paste recipe has become my favorite way to use up an overflowing garden — no scorched pots, no standing over the stove, and a freezer stocked with perfectly portioned paste for the whole winter. If you try it, let me know in the comments whether you used Romas or a juicier garden variety!

Recipe

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Homemade Tomato Paste Recipe

A simple homemade tomato paste recipe made with Roma tomatoes, portioned into freezer bags so every batch matches a store-bought can — no citric acid, no scorched pots, just a low, slow oven doing the work.

Course Condiment, Pantry Staple

Cuisine American

Keyword freezing tomato paste, homemade tomato paste recipe, how to make tomato paste, MS-friendly preserving, Roma tomato paste

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 12 ounces

Author Cathy @ msinthecountry.com

Equipment

• Large pot  (for blanching)
• Large bowl of ice water
• Food processor or blender
• Fine mesh strainer or food mill
• Large rimmed baking sheet or shallow roasting pan
• Kitchen food scale
• Ziploc Freezer Slider Quart Size Bags (BPA-free)

Ingredients

• 5 pounds Roma tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (for the pan)
• Pinch sea salt (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 250°F (120°C).
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Score a small X on the bottom of each tomato, then blanch in batches for 30–60 seconds until the skins begin to split.
• Transfer the tomatoes immediately to a bowl of ice water. Once cool, slip off the skins and discard.
• Core and roughly chop the peeled tomatoes, then blend in a food processor or blender until smooth.
• Pour the puree through a fine mesh strainer or food mill to remove the seeds, pressing to extract as much pulp as possible.
• Lightly oil a large rimmed baking sheet or shallow roasting pan and pour in the strained tomato puree, spreading it into an even layer no more than ½-inch deep.
• Place in the oven uncovered and cook for 3 to 4 hours, stirring every 30–45 minutes to prevent a skin from forming and to keep it cooking evenly. The paste is done when it’s thick, deep red, and holds its shape on a spoon.
• Season with a pinch of sea salt if desired. Let cool completely.
• Using a food scale, portion the cooled paste into 6-ounce amounts — one portion per freezer bag, matching a standard store-bought can.
• Spoon each portion into a Ziploc Freezer Slider Quart Size Bag, press flat to remove excess air, seal, and label with the date.
• Freeze flat for up to 6 months (up to a year in a consistently cold freezer).

Notes

• Using juicier, seedier garden tomatoes instead of Romas? Remove the seeds and excess juice before cooking, add 1–2 extra hours in the oven, and stir every 20–30 minutes rather than every 45. See the full notes above.
• Buy organic tomatoes when possible to reduce pesticide exposure.
• If you’d rather buy tomato paste than make it, look for one without citric acid on the label — I use Simple Truth organic tomato paste in a tube.
• Freezing in 6-ounce portions means every bag equals one store-bought can — no measuring required when a recipe calls for it later.
• This is the same portion-and-freeze method I use for frozen bananas — one bag, one banana.

Looking for More Homemade Sauces & Dressings?

If you enjoyed this Homemade Tomato Paste Recipe, browse more of my homemade sauces and dressings made with simple, wholesome ingredients.

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Stress makes MS symptoms worse — I know that firsthand, because I’ve struggled with stress for as long as I can remember, long before MS ever entered the picture.

As a young child, I experienced situations at home that left me feeling scared and uncertain. I didn’t understand it at the time, but my body learned to stay on high alert. Even when life was calm, I was always waiting for the next bad thing to happen. As an adult, I reacted to everyday problems as if they were emergencies, because that’s what my brain had learned to do.

It took me many years to realize I wasn’t just reacting to what was happening today. I was reacting with habits I’d learned decades earlier.

In this article, I’ll explain why stress makes MS symptoms worse according to research, share my own experience, and walk through three changes that helped me respond differently.

What Changed, and What Didn’t

A few years ago, one unexpected problem could have ruined my entire day. My heart would race. My mind would jump to worst-case scenarios. I’d replay the mistake over and over, trying to figure out how to fix it.

Recently, something happened that easily could have triggered that same response. For a split second, I felt the familiar wave of panic. Then I stopped.

I reminded myself that worrying wouldn’t solve the problem. We’d deal with it one step at a time. Instead of spending the day stressed, I accepted what had happened and focused on the next thing I could do.

The situation worked itself out, but the biggest victory wasn’t the outcome. It was realizing how much my response had changed.

Why Stress Makes MS Symptoms Worse

I’m far from the only one who’s noticed this connection. Researchers have been studying the link between stress and MS for decades, and a large body of research now points in the same direction: psychological stress is tied to a higher risk of relapse and, over time, disability progression. One recent systematic review pulled together data from over 30 studies and found this connection held up across nearly 25,000 cases.

Part of “why” makes sense once you understand what chronic stress does to the body. Long-term stress disrupts the system that regulates your stress hormones, and that disruption can leave the body in a low-grade, ongoing state of inflammation. For a condition like MS, where inflammation already plays a central role, that’s not a small thing. This helps explain why stress makes MS symptoms worse for many people living with MS.

There’s also research suggesting the effects of stress can run even deeper and further back than people realize. A study out of Duke University found that childhood stress was linked to worse pain, fatigue, and mental health in adults living with MS, decades later. Reading that research was the first time I saw my own experience reflected back at me in black and white — the idea that what happened to me as a small child could still be shaping how my body responds to stress today.

My Turning Point: Why Stress Makes MS Symptoms Worse for Me

For me, I noticed that whenever I became highly stressed, my symptoms got worse. I also believe — though I can’t prove exactly how much each factor contributed — that years of chronic stress played a real role in my walking getting worse.

During the Great Recession, life became incredibly stressful. My husband’s job disappeared, and my own workplace was filled with uncertainty. Every few months, people were laid off, wages were cut, hours were reduced, and everyone wondered if they’d be next.

At the same time, my job changed. I lost the position that had me walking throughout the building every day and instead spent most of my day sitting at a desk. My legs became stiffer, and I noticed I was falling more often.

Then I had a serious fall at work that resulted in surgery. When I returned, I was worried about losing my job. Looking back, I believe those years created a perfect storm — chronic stress, less movement, and injury, all stacked on top of each other. I can’t prove exactly how much each one contributed, but I believe prolonged stress was one of the reasons my walking became more difficult.

3 Things That Helped Me When Stress Makes MS Symptoms Worse

1. I started paying attention to people who seemed calm and content. They still had problems — everyone does — but they didn’t seem to carry every worry around with them the way I did. I realized I wanted that kind of peace too, and that it might actually be possible for me.

2. I stopped ignoring the mind-body connection. I knew chronic stress could affect the entire body. If I wanted to give myself the best chance to feel better, I couldn’t keep ignoring the way I reacted to life’s challenges.

3. I changed how I talked to myself. This was the biggest shift, and the hardest one. I started actually listening to the way I talked to myself, and honestly, I wasn’t very kind. I expected the worst. I criticized myself. I blamed myself for things that weren’t my fault. I treated myself in ways I would never treat someone I loved.

So I decided to change that. Every time I caught myself spiraling into worry or talking negatively to myself, I paused. Instead of assuming the worst, I’d remind myself, “We’ll figure this out.” Instead of criticizing my body, I’d remind myself it was doing the best it could. Instead of replaying fearful thoughts over and over, I’d redirect my mind to what I could actually do in that moment.

At first, it felt awkward. I’d been thinking the same way for decades, and changing that habit didn’t happen overnight. But little by little, those new thoughts became more natural.

Where I Am Now

Today, I still have stressful moments. The difference is that I don’t stay there. My mind is quieter. I’m more patient. I sleep better. And I no longer spend so much energy worrying about things that may never happen.

Changing how I responded to stress didn’t change my past. But it did change the way I experience today.

If you’ve noticed that stress makes MS symptoms worse, know that this kind of change is possible — even if, like me, you’ve been carrying it since long before your diagnosis. It’s slow, and it’s not really about willpower. It’s about noticing, and choosing something different, one moment at a time.

If you’re working on this too, a few things that pair well with this kind of inner work: staying as active as your body allows (I write more about that in Keep Moving), supporting your gut, since stress and gut health are more connected than most people realize (Gut Health & MS), and tracking your own patterns over time, which is exactly what the trigger-tracking section of Better Days was built for.

And if heat is also a trigger for you, know that stress and heat often compound each other — I wrote more about that connection in Why Heat Makes MS Symptoms Worse.

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This bacon avocado salad is one of those recipes I created years ago and never forgot.

My mom absolutely loves it. She’s made it more times than I can count, and she’s shared it with her friends too — which is the best kind of compliment a recipe can get. When someone loves something enough to pass it along, you know it’s good.

The original recipe used apple cider vinegar as the dressing. I don’t use ACV anymore because foods high in histamine can cause a rash on my face — and who wants that? Lemon juice gives the same bright acidity without the histamine concern, and honestly, I think it works even better with the avocado.

The other swap I’ve made over the years is the bacon. If you eat pork bacon, watch out for nitrates, high sodium levels, and fat content — it’s worth reading the label carefully. I personally prefer turkey bacon. I know that might not sound as appealing, but I genuinely like the taste of it better than pork bacon — that’s just my preference. My favorite is Applegate turkey bacon, which reminds me a little of Canadian bacon. When I can’t find it, my second choice is Simple Truth by Kroger.

This salad pairs beautifully with my honey orange glaze drizzled over the top — the citrus sweetness plays wonderfully against the savory bacon and creamy avocado.

Why This Bacon Avocado Salad Works for MS

This salad is built almost entirely from anti-inflammatory ingredients — and the combination of healthy fat from avocado and olive oil, plant-based minerals from pumpkin seeds, and the antioxidants in dark leafy greens makes it genuinely nourishing rather than just a side dish.

The avocado also does something important here that goes beyond flavor: the healthy monounsaturated fat helps your body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in the dark leafy greens. Just like roasting carrots in olive oil increases beta-carotene absorption, adding avocado to a salad significantly increases how much nutrition your body actually gets from the greens.

It also comes together in about 15 minutes with no cooking beyond the bacon — which matters on the days when energy is limited.

Why Every Ingredient Earns Its Place

Dark leafy greens: The foundation of this salad and one of the most nutrient-dense food choices you can make. Dark greens — kale, spinach, arugula, or a mix — provide folate, magnesium, vitamin K, and iron in significant amounts. The darker the leaf, the more nutrition it contains. Use whatever mix looks best at the store or whatever is coming from your garden.

Avocado: Two avocados cut into chunks give this salad its signature creaminess and richness. Avocado is a rare food that’s genuinely satisfying in a salad — it adds body and a buttery texture that makes this feel like a complete meal rather than a side dish. Choose avocados that give slightly when gently pressed — that’s the sweet spot between underripe and overripe.

Turkey bacon: Five to six slices cooked until crispy, cooled, and cut into small pieces. The crispy bacon pieces add a savory, salty crunch that contrasts beautifully with the creamy avocado. I use Applegate turkey bacon as my first choice and Simple Truth by Kroger as my second.

Red onion: Thinly sliced red onion adds a sharp, slightly sweet bite that cuts through the richness of the avocado. Red onion is also one of the best dietary sources of quercetin — a flavonoid with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. If raw red onion is too sharp for your taste, soak the slices in cold water for 10 minutes before adding them — it takes the edge off significantly.

Pumpkin seeds: A quarter cup sprinkled over the top adds crunch, color, and a meaningful nutritional contribution. Pumpkin seeds are an excellent source of magnesium, zinc, and iron — minerals that are often depleted in people with MS and that support nerve function, immune health, and energy production. They also add healthy fats and protein that make this salad more filling.

Extra virgin olive oil: Two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil is the fat base of the dressing and does important work beyond flavor — it helps your body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in the dark greens, and it provides oleocanthal, the anti-inflammatory compound in olive oil that I’ve written about in other recipes on this blog.

Fresh lemon juice: One tablespoon brightens the entire salad and adds vitamin C that enhances iron absorption from the dark greens. I use lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar because ACV is high in histamine, which causes my face to break out in a rash. Lemon juice gives the same bright acidity without that concern — and I think it actually pairs better with avocado.

Sea salt and black pepper: Simple seasoning that pulls everything together. Season after tossing and taste before serving — the bacon adds saltiness, so you may need less than you think.

A Note on Bacon

If you eat pork bacon, it’s worth reading the label carefully. Many brands contain nitrates, which are preservatives linked to health concerns, along with high sodium levels and significant saturated fat content.

Turkey bacon is my personal preference — not just for health reasons, but because I genuinely like the taste. My favorite is Applegate turkey bacon, which uses clean ingredients and has a flavor that reminds me a little of Canadian bacon. Simple Truth by Kroger is a good second option when Applegate isn’t available.

Whatever bacon you choose, cook it until lightly browned and cooked through — turkey bacon won’t crisp up the way pork bacon does, but it firms up nicely as it cools. Cut it into small pieces once cooled. The texture still contrasts beautifully with the creamy avocado.

The Dressing

The dressing is simple — just extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, sea salt, and black pepper. Whisk them together in a small bowl or shake them in a small jar, then drizzle over the salad right before serving.

Base dressing: 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil + 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice + sea salt and black pepper to taste.

Optional addition: A drizzle of my honey orange glaze over the top of the finished salad adds a beautiful citrus sweetness that pairs really well with the savory bacon and creamy avocado. It’s not in the original recipe, but it’s a wonderful addition if you have it on hand.

Easy Ways to Make It Your Own

Add grape tomatoes. Halved grape tomatoes add color and a juicy burst of flavor that works beautifully with the avocado and bacon.

Add cucumber. Sliced cucumber adds crunch and hydration — especially good on warm days.

Add fresh herbs. A handful of fresh basil or cilantro scattered over the top adds brightness and an herbal note that elevates the whole bowl.

Swap pumpkin seeds for walnuts. Chopped raw walnuts add omega-3 fatty acids and a slightly richer flavor than pumpkin seeds. Both are delicious — use what you have.

Add hemp seeds. A tablespoon of hemp seeds adds plant-based protein and omega-3s without changing the flavor at all.

Common Questions

Can I use pork bacon? Yes — if pork bacon works for your diet, it works in this recipe. Just read the label and look for a brand without nitrates and with reasonable sodium levels. Cook it until crispy.

Can I make this ahead of time? The bacon can be cooked ahead and stored in the refrigerator for a day or two. The avocado should be cut fresh right before serving — it browns quickly once cut. You can prep all the other vegetables ahead and assemble when ready.

What if raw red onion is too sharp? Soak the slices in cold water for 10 minutes before adding them to the salad. This takes the edge off significantly without losing the onion flavor entirely.

Is this good during a flare? Yes — the only cooking required is the bacon, and that can be done ahead of time when you’re feeling well. On a hard day, assembly takes about five minutes. Having pre-cooked bacon in the refrigerator makes this one of the easiest nourishing meals available.

Can I use bottled lemon juice? Fresh is better — the flavor is brighter, and the vitamin C content is higher. But if fresh isn’t available, bottled works in a pinch. Check the label and make sure it contains only lemon juice.

Bacon Avocado Salad with Pumpkin Seeds Ingredients:

For the salad:

• 3–4 cups dark leafy greens (kale, spinach, arugula, or a mix)
• 2 ripe avocados, cut into chunks
• 5–6 slices turkey bacon (I use Applegate)
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup raw pumpkin seeds
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

This is a recipe my mom loves enough to make again and again — and to share with her friends. That’s the best recommendation I know. If you try it, leave a comment below and let me know what you thought. I read every single one.

Recipe

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Bacon Avocado Salad with Pumpkin Seeds

Dark leafy greens, creamy avocado, crispy turkey bacon, red onion, and pumpkin seeds with a simple olive oil and lemon dressing — a salad my mom loves so much she’s made it for her friends.

Course Main Course, Salads, Side Dishes

Cuisine American

Keyword avocado salad with bacon, bacon avocado salad, MS-friendly salad, pumpkin seed salad, turkey bacon salad

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2 servings

Author Cathy @ msinthecountry.com

Equipment

• Large skillet
• Large salad bowl

Ingredients

• 3–4 cups dark leafy greens (kale, spinach, arugula, or a mix)
• 2 ripe avocados, cut into chunks
• 5–6 slices turkey bacon (I use Applegate)
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup raw pumpkin seeds
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Cook the turkey bacon in a skillet over medium heat until cooked through and lightly browned — turkey bacon won’t get as crispy as pork bacon, but it will firm up nicely as it cools. Remove from the pan, let cool completely, then cut into small pieces.
• While the bacon cools, cut the avocados into chunks and slice the red onion thinly.
• Add the leafy greens to a large salad bowl. Layer the avocado chunks and red onion on top.
• Add the bacon pieces and sprinkle the pumpkin seeds over everything.
• In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
• Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss gently — be careful not to mash the avocado.
• Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately.

Notes

• Cut the avocado right before serving to prevent browning.
• If raw red onion is too sharp, soak the slices in cold water for 10 minutes first.
• Turkey bacon won’t get as crispy as pork bacon, but it firms up as it cools and still adds great texture and flavor to the salad.
• My favorite turkey bacon is Applegate; Simple Truth by Kroger is a good second choice.
• A drizzle of honey orange glaze over the finished salad is a delicious optional addition.
• Pork bacon can be substituted — read the label for nitrates and sodium content.

Looking for more salads?

Enjoyed this Bacon Avocado Salad with Pumpkin Seeds? Here are some more salads you might enjoy:

➡️ Browse All Salad Recipes

🧩 Still Trying to Figure Out Your MS Symptoms?

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Heat makes MS symptoms worse for most of us — and for years, it made mine so much worse that I dreaded every Idaho summer. I was lucky in that debilitating fatigue was never really my issue with MS. Instead, heat had its own way of getting me.

I remember afternoons out here on the homestead when I’d walk from the garden to the house and by the time I got to the porch, my face would turn bright red and my eyes would start to black out. My legs would get so weak I could barely walk — like my whole body was shutting down. It would take hours to recover. I used to think I was having a relapse every single time the temperature climbed. It scared me every time.

It isn’t a relapse. And in 2015, mine disappeared — though it didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t from any one single thing.

In March of that year, I made one big change: I stopped following a strict MS diet. Not because it was doing anything wrong, but because I wasn’t seeing improvement from it anymore, so I decided to stop following someone else’s rules and start actually listening to my own body instead.

That’s when I discovered some of the foods I’d been eating because they were supposed to be “healthy” were working against me. It turned out I’m sensitive to histamine — foods like sauerkraut and leftovers that have sat too long still have to be portioned carefully for me even now. I was also drinking lemon water every day because it’s supposed to be good for you, and every single time, I’d slightly lose my voice and have to keep clearing my throat.

Around that same time, I saw a functional medicine provider, who had my vitamin D levels checked. Mine came back on the low side of “normal” — low enough to matter, which I get into more in my Vitamin D Healing Guide. He also had me start eating more flaxseed, something I still do to this day (more on that here: Flaxseed post).

Then in late June, once the weather started warming up, I noticed the heat wasn’t affecting me the way it always had. I honestly didn’t believe it. I tested it over and over, waiting for it to catch up with me. It never did.

I’m still not entirely sure which piece made the biggest difference, or whether it was the combination of all of it. Around that same stretch of time, I was also making sure I drank enough water, slept well, and — the hardest part by far — worked on my stress. Stress has always set me back more than almost anything else. I didn’t just try to lower my everyday stress levels; I worked hard on how I responded to stress, and how I talked to myself when things got hard. That part took a long time to change. Every time I caught myself thinking something unkind about myself, I made myself stop.

A lot of my symptoms improved after that stretch. Not all of them — I still live with some, and I’m not claiming to be cured. But between eating in a way that actually works for my body, staying active, and how I treat myself, I’m in a genuinely good place now, MS and all.

I share all of that not to promise the same thing will happen for you, but because I know how much it used to shape my summers when heat makes MS symptoms worse, and I want you to have the tools that helped me through the many years it was a real problem — tools that still help a lot of people managing this right now.

What’s Actually Happening When Heat Hits You

Heat makes MS symptoms worse because of biology, not because you’re doing something wrong. MS damages the protective coating (myelin) around your nerves, and damaged myelin is far more sensitive to temperature changes than healthy myelin. Even a small rise in your core body temperature — from a hot day, a hot bath, exercise, or a fever — can temporarily slow down the nerve signals traveling along those damaged areas. That temporary slowdown is what causes symptoms to flare up or old symptoms to resurface.

This has an actual name: Uhthoff’s phenomenon. Researchers have been documenting it for decades. The key word is “temporary.” Once your body cools back down, the nerve signals go back to normal. The symptoms settle back down with them.

The worsening is almost always in symptoms you’ve already had before, not brand-new ones. And it goes away once your core temperature comes back down.

Studies have also found that heat and cold sensitivity are one of the most common triggers people with MS recognize in themselves, closely tied to fatigue and other symptoms. That probably sounds familiar if a summer afternoon has ever wiped you out completely. And research on exercise specifically backs up what a lot of us learn through trial and error: cooling down before and during activity measurably reduces how much heat affects your symptoms.

Knowing all of this changed how I approached summer. It’s not willpower. It’s not “pushing through.” It’s a nervous system responding to temperature exactly the way research says it will — and cooling down is the actual, physical fix.

4 Things That Help When Heat Makes MS Symptoms Worse

This is the toolkit I leaned on for years, and it’s still what I recommend when heat makes MS symptoms worse for you too.

Cool your body proactively, not reactively. Waiting until you feel bad means you’re already behind. I keep a rotation of go-to cooling products on hand from spring through early fall, and I use them before I head outside to garden or do chores, not after I’ve already overheated.

Hydration matters more than people think. Dehydration makes heat sensitivity worse, and it’s easy to under-drink when you’re not sweating heavily or when you’re limiting fluids for other reasons. I go into more detail on how much and what kind of hydration actually helps with MS symptoms here.

What you eat and drink can help you cool down from the inside. This is honestly one of my favorite parts of managing this naturally, because it means summer doesn’t have to be all restriction — it can be genuinely enjoyable. My cooling foods and cold drinks for MS posts cover what I actually reach for on hot days, straight from my own kitchen and garden.

Build a longer-term plan, not just hot-day fixes. The workbook I put together this year, Better Days: A 90-Day Quality of Life Workbook, has a whole section on tracking your personal triggers — including heat — so you can see your own patterns instead of guessing. It’s the tool I wish I’d had decades ago, back when I thought every hot day meant a relapse.

The Bottom Line

Heat makes MS symptoms worse because of how damaged myelin conducts nerve signals when your core temperature rises — not because something new is going wrong. Once you understand that, and you build a cooling strategy that fits your life, summer stops being something to survive and starts being something you can actually plan for.

It took me a long time to get here. I hope this post gets you there faster than it got me.

Want More Help Managing Heat Sensitivity?

If you’re wondering why heat makes MS symptoms worse and looking for practical ways to stay consistent during the hottest months, my Better Days Workbook was created for that purpose.

Inside you’ll find:

• Daily habit trackers
• Hydration reminders
• Gentle movement pages
• Goal-setting worksheets
• A simple system for building routines that stick

See Everything Included in the Better Days Workbook →

Could Something Else Be Contributing to Your MS Symptoms?

Heat is just one piece of the puzzle. My free Find Your Root Cause of MS guide walks you through four common patterns—nervous system, inflammation, energy, and gut health—so you can discover where you may want to start.

Get the free guide below, and you’ll also join my weekly newsletter with simple ideas for living better with MS. 👇

📌 Living with heat-sensitive MS symptoms?

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This honey orange glaze started as something I threw together because I needed a dressing and didn’t want to make a complicated sauce.

Fresh orange juice. Raw honey. Stir. Done.

I wasn’t expecting much — but the combination of bright citrus and gentle sweetness turned out to be one of the most versatile things I keep in my refrigerator. It works on everything. Salads, fruit salads, roasted vegetables, salmon, smoothies. And if you stir it into cold almond milk with ice and a splash of vanilla extract, it tastes remarkably similar to an Orange Julius — which was a very welcome discovery.

The other thing I love about this recipe is how I make it. I juice several oranges at once — enough to last a few days — and store the juice in a glass jar in the refrigerator. Then I add the honey when I need it. That way the hard part is already done when I’m ready to cook. And if a few days pass and I haven’t used it for a recipe, I just drink the orange juice before it goes bad. Nothing wasted.

Two ingredients. Endless uses. Zero wasted energy.

Jump to…

• Why This Honey Orange Glaze Works for MS
• Why Every Ingredient Earns Its Place
• Ways to Use It
• A Note on Pork
• Tips for the Best Results
• Common Questions
• Recipe

Why This Honey Orange Glaze Works for MS

Managing MS naturally means finding ways to add nutrition and flavor to meals without adding inflammatory ingredients. Most store-bought dressings, glazes, and sauces are loaded with refined sugar, processed oils, preservatives, and ingredients that work against an anti-inflammatory diet.

This honey orange glaze has two ingredients — both of which actively support your body rather than working against it. Fresh orange juice brings vitamin C, folate, and potassium. Raw honey brings natural antioxidants and a sweetness that doesn’t spike blood sugar the way refined sugar does. Together they create something bright, balanced, and genuinely nourishing.

It also requires almost no energy to make, which matters on the days when cooking from scratch feels like too much. Juice the oranges when you have the energy, store the juice in the refrigerator, and the glaze is always just a spoonful of honey away.

Why Every Ingredient Earns Its Place

Fresh-squeezed orange juice: The foundation of this glaze and the reason it tastes so bright and alive. Fresh-squeezed is noticeably better than store-bought — the flavor is more vibrant, the vitamin C content is higher, and there are no additives or preservatives. I juice several oranges at once and store the juice in a glass jar in the refrigerator, so I always have it ready without having to juice every time I cook.

Raw honey: Just a small amount — two teaspoons for a salad dressing, up to a tablespoon for roasted vegetables — adds natural sweetness that balances the acidity of the orange juice perfectly. Raw honey retains trace enzymes, antioxidants, and antimicrobial properties that processed honey loses. Adjust the amount to your taste and the dish you’re making.

Ways to Use It

The ratio stays the same — ¼ cup orange juice to 2 teaspoons honey as a starting point — but how you use it changes completely depending on what you’re making. Here are my favorite applications, with more detailed recipes coming soon:

On salads. This is where I use it most often. Drizzle it over a simple green salad, and it brightens every ingredient without overpowering anything. It’s especially good with salads that include fruit — apple slices, mandarin segments, or dried cranberries. If you use dried cranberries, always read the ingredient label first. Many brands add sugar, oils, and preservatives you don’t need. I use Herbaila Dried Cranberries — the only ingredient is dried cranberries.

On fruit salads. A light drizzle over a bowl of fresh fruit adds a floral, citrusy note that makes the whole thing taste more intentional. No additional dressing needed.

On roasted vegetables. This is where the glaze really shines. For Brussels sprouts, I increase the honey to about 1 tablespoon per 1½ pounds of vegetables — the extra sweetness balances the bitterness of the sprouts beautifully. I’ve also added a little garlic and red pepper flakes for heat, and a splash of coconut aminos for depth. Roasted carrots, sweet potatoes, and broccoli are all wonderful with this glaze.

On salmon. Brush it over salmon before roasting or add it during the last few minutes of cooking. The orange and honey caramelize slightly and give the salmon a beautiful glaze. A splash of coconut aminos added to the mix takes it in a savory-sweet direction that’s really satisfying. Always choose wild-caught salmon for the best omega-3 content and the cleanest sourcing.

In smoothies. A tablespoon stirred into a smoothie adds natural sweetness and a bright citrus note without refined sugar. It pairs particularly well with mango, pineapple, or peach.

As an Orange Julius-style drink. This was an accidental discovery — stir the glaze into cold unsweetened almond milk with ice and a splash of vanilla extract. It tastes remarkably similar to an Orange Julius. Refreshing, naturally sweet, and dairy-free.

With shrimp or scallops. The sweetness of this glaze pairs beautifully with seafood. Always choose wild-caught shrimp and scallops — they have a cleaner flavor, better nutritional profile, and fewer concerns about farming practices than farm-raised alternatives.

A Note on Pork

Pork chops would work well with this glaze — the sweetness of the orange and honey complements pork naturally. However, I personally don’t eat pork because of the risk of parasites, particularly Trichinella and Toxoplasma gondii, which can be present in pork. NCBI’s StatPearls resource on trichinosis explains the risk clearly — while commercial pork in the US is now considered low risk due to modern farming practices, the concern is real enough that I choose to avoid it personally.

If you do eat pork, always cook it thoroughly to the USDA-recommended internal temperature of 145°F, and let it rest for at least three minutes before serving. A meat thermometer is the only reliable way to know it’s fully cooked.

Tips for the Best Results

Juice in batches. This is the tip that makes this recipe practical for everyday use. Juice four to six oranges at once, store the juice in a glass jar with a tight lid in the refrigerator, and it keeps well for 3–4 days. The honey gets added when you need it — not before — so the glaze is always freshly made without any extra effort.

Use an electric citrus juicer. If you have weakness or fatigue in your hands, a handheld juicer can be difficult and tiring. I use a Black & Decker Citrus Juicer — it does all the work for you and makes juicing several oranges at once completely effortless.

Adjust the honey to the dish. For salads, 2 teaspoons of honey per ½ cup of juice gives a light, bright result. For roasted vegetables, especially Brussels sprouts, increase the honey to 1 tablespoon — the extra sweetness does important work against the bitterness of the vegetable. Taste as you go and trust your preference.

Add coconut aminos for savory dishes. A small splash of coconut aminos added to the glaze when using it on salmon, shrimp, or roasted vegetables adds a savory depth that balances the sweetness perfectly. It’s not always necessary, but it’s a nice option to have.

Use fresh oranges, not bottled juice. Bottled orange juice has been pasteurized, which reduces the vitamin C content and changes the flavor. Fresh-squeezed takes a few extra minutes, but the difference in flavor and nutrition is significant.

Don’t waste the juice. If a few days pass and you haven’t used the stored orange juice in a recipe, just drink it before it goes bad. It’s delicious on its own, and nothing goes to waste.

Common Questions

Can I use bottled orange juice instead of fresh? I personally never buy store-bought orange juice — and here’s why. Beyond the flavor difference, many bottled orange juices contain ingredients you wouldn’t expect, including natural flavors, added vitamin D (which is a concern if you’re already supplementing daily), and citric acid. As I mentioned in my homemade ketchup post, processed citric acid is produced using a strain of black mold, which is something I choose to avoid. If you do buy bottled, read the ingredient label carefully and look for one that contains only orange juice. Fresh-squeezed is always the better choice — it takes just a few minutes, and you know exactly what’s in it.

How long does the glaze keep? The orange juice keeps for 3–4 days in the refrigerator. Add honey fresh when you’re ready to use it rather than storing the combined glaze — the honey can affect the texture of the juice over time, and fresh-mixed always tastes better.

Can I use a different sweetener? Pure maple syrup works well as a substitute for honey and gives a slightly different flavor that’s also delicious — especially on roasted vegetables. Adjust the amount to taste.

Is this recipe good during a flare? Yes — especially if you’ve already juiced the oranges and stored them in the refrigerator. On a hard day, a spoonful of honey stirred into ready-made orange juice takes about thirty seconds. That’s about as low-effort as cooking gets.

Can I double the recipe? Easily — just scale everything up proportionally. The ratio of orange juice to honey stays the same regardless of quantity.

Once you have a jar of fresh orange juice in the refrigerator and raw honey in the pantry, this glaze comes together in about thirty seconds — and you’ll find yourself reaching for it constantly. If you try it, leave a comment below and let me know what you put it on first. I read every single one.

Recipe

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Honey Orange Glaze

Fresh-squeezed orange juice and raw honey — that’s it. One simple glaze that works on salads, roasted vegetables, salmon, smoothies, and more.

Course Condiments, Dressings, Sauces

Cuisine American

Keyword 2-ingredient glaze, honey orange glaze, honey orange sauce, MS-friendly sauce, orange honey dressing

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 4 tablespoons

Equipment

• Citrus juicer
• Glass jar for storage
• Small bowl

Ingredients

Base recipe:

• ¼ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (one orange)
• 2 teaspoons raw honey

Instructions

• Juice the oranges and pour the juice into a clean glass jar. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days.
• When ready to use, measure ¼ cup of orange juice into a small bowl or jar.
• Add honey and stir until fully combined.
• Use immediately as a salad dressing, drizzle over roasted vegetables, brush onto salmon before or during cooking, or stir into smoothies.

Notes

• Add honey fresh when you’re ready to use the glaze rather than storing them combined.
• Adjust honey to taste — less for salads, more for roasted vegetables.
• A splash of coconut aminos added to the glaze works beautifully with salmon, shrimp, and roasted vegetables.
• Always choose wild-caught shrimp and scallops.
• If using with pork, cook to an internal temperature of 145°F with a 3-minute rest.
• Fresh-squeezed orange juice is significantly better than bottled for both flavor and nutrition.

This garden salad with honey orange dressing is the salad my husband and I make all summer long — and I mean that literally.

I call this a garden salad, and I mean that literally.

Most summers, we grow a good portion of what goes into this bowl right outside our door — the basil, the cilantro, the tomatoes, the bell peppers, the green onions. There’s something about walking out to the garden and picking what you’re about to eat that makes a simple salad taste like something special.

This summer was a little different.

The rabbits came first. We put up rabbit fencing. Then the great horned owls moved in, which helped — until they flew away. Then the voles moved in. Voles look like mice with shorter tails, and they are relentless. We tried bird netting, smoke bombs, everything. Every morning we’d go out to the garden and find something else gone. The cilantro — gone. The basil — gone. The young onion sprouts — gone.

They never touched the tomato plants or the bell peppers, which we were grateful for. And they never touched the catnip. Our cat was very pleased about that. 😄

In the end, the voles won this year. We bought what we couldn’t grow.

But the salad? The salad was still delicious. Because what makes this particular garden salad special isn’t just the vegetables — it’s what goes on top. Dried cranberries. Chopped walnuts. And a simple honey orange dressing that ties everything together in a way that makes you forget you’re eating a salad.

My husband and I eat a big bowl of this regularly. It never gets old.

Why This Garden Salad Works for MS

A salad is only as good as what’s in it — and this one is built almost entirely from anti-inflammatory ingredients. The leafy greens, bell peppers, cucumbers, fresh herbs, and walnuts all contribute nutrients that support MS management in meaningful ways. The honey orange dressing adds vitamin C and natural sweetness without refined sugar. And the dried cranberries and walnuts turn what could be a plain side dish into something genuinely satisfying.

It’s also one of the most fatigue-friendly meals I make. No cooking required. Everything is raw, fresh, and assembled in minutes. On the days when standing at the stove isn’t happening, a big bowl of this salad with some leftover protein on the side is a complete meal.

🌿 Healing Tip: Bell peppers — especially red, orange, and yellow varieties — are among the most vitamin C-dense vegetables available. Vitamin C is a critical antioxidant for people with MS: it supports immune regulation, helps the body synthesize collagen for connective tissue, and significantly enhances iron absorption from the leafy greens in this salad. Red bell peppers in particular contain nearly three times the vitamin C of an orange, gram for gram. Using all three colors in this salad isn’t just beautiful — it’s one of the easiest ways to get a meaningful amount of vitamin C in a single meal.

Why Every Ingredient Earns Its Place

Mixed leafy greens: The base of the salad and the foundation of its nutrition. A mix of greens — whatever looks good at the store or whatever is growing in your garden — gives you folate, magnesium, vitamin K, and iron in every bite. I use whatever mix I have on hand, which changes throughout the summer.

Cucumber: Cool, hydrating, and mild — cucumber adds crunch and volume without overpowering the other flavors. I buy organic cucumbers specifically to avoid the wax coating that’s applied to conventionally grown cucumbers. Organic cucumbers have a better flavor, and you can eat the skin without concern.

Green onions: A gentle onion flavor that’s milder than regular onion and works beautifully raw in a salad. Green onions contain quercetin — a flavonoid with anti-inflammatory properties — and add a fresh bite that ties the other flavors together.

Grape tomatoes, halved: I cut them in half — not because it’s necessary, but because it releases a little of the juice and makes them easier to eat in a bite with everything else. Our tomato plants survived the vole invasion this year, which felt like a small victory. Most of the year I use grape tomatoes, but when our homegrown tomatoes are coming in, I use those instead. A fresh garden tomato sliced into wedges is in a completely different league from anything you buy at the store.

Red, orange, and yellow bell peppers: This is where the salad gets its color and a significant portion of its nutrition. I use all three colors for both the visual impact and the slight flavor differences between them — red is the sweetest, yellow the mildest, orange somewhere in between. Our bell pepper plants also made it through the summer unscathed.

Cilantro: Fresh cilantro adds a bright, slightly citrusy flavor that pairs beautifully with the honey orange dressing. Some people are genetically predisposed to find cilantro soapy — if that’s you, simply leave it out. The salad is wonderful either way. You can also swap the cilantro with parsley.

Basil: Fresh basil adds a sweet, slightly peppery note that elevates the whole bowl. It’s one of those ingredients that’s subtle when you include it and noticeably missing when you don’t.

Dried cranberries: This is the ingredient that surprises people. A small handful of dried cranberries adds natural sweetness and a chewy texture that contrasts beautifully with the crisp vegetables. Always read the ingredient label — many brands add sugar, oils, and preservatives. I use Herbaila Dried Cranberries because the only ingredient is dried cranberries. I’ll link them here. Raisins work just as well if that’s what you have.

Chopped raw walnuts: The finishing touch that adds crunch, richness, and healthy omega-3 fatty acids to every bite. Raw walnuts are one of the best plant sources of alpha-linolenic acid — the same anti-inflammatory omega-3 found in ground flaxseed and chia seeds. A small handful is all you need.

The Dressing That Makes It Special

Here’s where this garden salad with honey orange dressing stops being ordinary: the dressing is simply fresh orange juice mixed with raw honey.

That’s it. No oil, no vinegar, no emulsifiers. Just the bright citrus sweetness of orange juice and the gentle floral sweetness of honey, stirred together and drizzled over everything.

I keep a jar of fresh-squeezed orange juice in the refrigerator — I juice several oranges at once and store it so it’s always ready. When I’m building the salad, I just pour what I need into a small bowl, add a spoonful of honey, stir, and drizzle. The whole dressing comes together in about thirty seconds.

The dried cranberries and the honey orange dressing work together to give this salad a sweetness that makes it feel more like a celebration than a side dish. My husband, who is not a salad person by nature, loves this one.

For the full honey orange dressing recipe and all the ways I use it, visit my honey orange glaze post.

Starting ratio: ½ cup fresh orange juice + 2 teaspoons raw honey. Adjust to taste.

A Note on Buying Organic

I buy organic produce for this salad whenever possible, and for two specific reasons.

The first is pesticides. Cucumbers, bell peppers, and leafy greens regularly appear on the Environmental Working Group’s lists of produce with higher pesticide residue. For anyone managing MS naturally — where gut health and reducing the overall toxic burden on the body matter — organic is worth it when you can.

The second reason is wax. Conventionally grown cucumbers and bell peppers are often coated with food-grade wax to extend their shelf life and make them look more appealing in the store. Organic produce isn’t waxed. The difference in flavor is noticeable, and you can eat the skin without any concern about what’s on it.

Easy Ways to Make It Your Own

Add protein. Leftover grilled chicken, wild-caught salmon, or hemp seeds stirred in make this a complete meal rather than a side dish.

Swap raisins for cranberries. If you don’t have dried cranberries on hand, raisins work beautifully — the sweetness is slightly different but equally good.

Add avocado. Sliced or cubed avocado adds healthy fat and creaminess that pairs wonderfully with the honey orange dressing.

Add apple slices. Thin slices of green or red apple add crunch and natural sweetness that works really well with the dried cranberries and walnuts.

Use whatever herbs you have. Fresh mint, parsley, or dill all work well in this salad. Use what’s growing or what looks good at the store.

Common Questions

Do I have to use all three colors of bell pepper? No — use whatever you have. The three colors together make the salad beautiful, but any bell pepper works. Red gives the most sweetness; green is more bitter and peppery.

Can I make this ahead of time? This garden salad with honey orange dressing keeps well if you store the components separately. The vegetables can be prepped and stored in the refrigerator for a day or two. Add the dressing, cranberries, and walnuts right before serving so nothing gets soggy or loses its crunch.

What if I don’t like cilantro? Leave it out — some people are genetically wired to find cilantro soapy and unpleasant. The salad is completely delicious without it. You can also swap the cilantro with parsley.

Is this recipe good during a flare? Yes — everything is raw and requires no cooking. On a hard day, the most tiring part is chopping the vegetables, which can be done sitting down. If you prep the vegetables when you’re feeling well and store them in the refrigerator, assembling the salad on a difficult day takes about two minutes.

Can I use bottled orange juice for the dressing? I personally never buy bottled orange juice because many brands contain citric acid, natural flavors, and added vitamin D. Fresh-squeezed is always the better choice — and if you have a jar already in the refrigerator from making the honey orange glaze, it’s ready to go.

Garden Salad with Honey Orange Dressing Ingredients

For the salad:

• 2–3 large handfuls mixed leafy greens
• 1 cucumber, sliced or chopped (organic)
• 3–4 green onions, sliced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (organic)
• 1 orange bell pepper, chopped (organic)
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped (organic)
• Small handful fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
• Small handful fresh basil, torn or chopped
• ¼ cup dried cranberries (ingredient: dried cranberries only) or raisins
• ¼ cup raw walnuts, roughly chopped

For the honey orange dressing:

• ½ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
• 2 teaspoons raw honey, adjust to taste

This garden salad with honey orange dressing I come back to all summer — simple, colorful, and somehow more than the sum of its parts. If you try it, leave a comment below and let me know whether you used cranberries or raisins. I read every single one.

Recipe

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Garden Salad with Honey Orange Dressing

A colorful mix of fresh vegetables, herbs, dried cranberries, and chopped walnuts tossed in a simple honey orange dressing — the salad my husband and I make all summer long.

Course Main Course, Salads, Side Dishes

Cuisine American

Keyword anti-inflammatory salad, garden salad with honey orange dressing, honey orange salad dressing, MS-friendly salad, summer salad

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2 large servings

Author Cathy @ msinthecountry.com

Equipment

• Large salad bowl (I use a 32-oz Pyrex bowl with a lid)

Ingredients

• 2–3 large handfuls mixed leafy greens
• 1 cucumber, sliced or chopped (organic)
• 3–4 green onions, sliced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (organic)
• 1 orange bell pepper, chopped (organic)
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped (organic)
• Small handful fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
• Small handful fresh basil, torn or chopped
• ¼ cup dried cranberries (ingredient: dried cranberries only) or raisins
• ¼ cup raw walnuts, roughly chopped

For the honey orange dressing:

• ½ cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
• 2 teaspoons raw honey, adjust to taste

Instructions

• Wash and dry all vegetables and herbs thoroughly.
• Add the leafy greens to a large bowl. Layer the cucumber, green onions, grape tomatoes, and bell peppers on top.
• Add the cilantro, basil, dried cranberries, and walnuts.
• In a small bowl or jar, stir together the orange juice and honey until combined.
• Drizzle the dressing over the salad just before serving. Toss gently and serve immediately.

Notes

• Buy organic cucumbers and bell peppers to avoid pesticide residue and wax coating.
• Add the dressing, cranberries, and walnuts right before serving to keep everything crisp.
• Raisins can substitute for dried cranberries if that’s what you have.
• Always read dried cranberry labels — many brands add sugar and oils. Look for one ingredient: dried cranberries.
• For the full honey orange dressing recipe and more ways to use it, see the honey orange glaze post.
• Add leftover chicken, salmon, or hemp seeds to make this a complete meal.

Looking for a Refreshing Drink?

Enjoyed this Garden Salad with Honey Orange Dressing? Here are some refreshing drinks you might enjoy:

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