Making Salad

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After posting my monthly menu for the last few months I have gotten several emails asking me about my salads. I serve a green salad with my meals almost every night. I think fresh veggies are the best. I like to serve my family salad nearly every night because it is a great way to get a variety of fresh vegetables in their diet and it is easy! I do a lot of cooking and have learned ways to stream line some things and salad is one of those things.

I make a large salad every few days. I have found that if you don’t add vegetables to the salad that perish quickly your salad will last 2 or 3 days in fridge with no problem. So I have salad “system” if you will.. I use romaine lettuce (hearts of romaine), spinach and carrots to make the basis of all my salads.




I begin by chopping up romaine hearts and putting them in the salad bowl…




Then I add baby spinach…




Then I grate up carrots in my food processor and add them…


I mix this up and then cut up any other veggies I want and put them in separate bowls. For this salad I had tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers. If you add these directly to the salad it will not last as long. So I usually do it on the side, salad bar style..



My hubby also likes my 3 bean salad smothered on top of his salads. I serve them with homemade dressing. Our favorite is Ranch Dressing: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/ranchdressing.htm  other ones I make for a change of pace is Italian Dressing: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/italiandressing.htm or Catalina Dressing: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/catalinasaladdressing.htm

And that is it.. I like salads because I can focus on the main meal and any other extras (breads, side dishes, etc) and the salad is an easy addition to round everything out and a great boost to the nutritional value of the meal!


 

Comments

  1. EricaMarch 8, 2011 at 9:43 AM

    I'm with you on the salads! I make them with pretty much every meal too. Great idea on the 3 bean salad! I'll be taking out some of mine and putting it on top of my salad this evening!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 8, 2011 at 10:29 AM

    We also eat a lot of salads. They are healthy, easy, and for the most part, can be adapted to anybody's taste preference.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 14, 2011 at 10:30 AM

    Okay, I am officially embarrassed that this never occurred to me! We do like salads but don't have them as often as we should because I am not usually organized enough to prepare one at mealtime. But no more - now we can customize salad at the drop of a hat, if we have everything ready in the fridge. Thank you for posting this. I'm going to go get everything ready right now!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 18, 2011 at 7:24 PM

    I made your salad as posted, with the romaine, baby spinach and greated carrots. It was so nice to have handy around the house. It made so much! And on the 3rd day...I took what was left to my daughters' 12th birthday party (we did it at Grandma's house) and everybody loved it!

    Thanks again!

    Michelle Wood
    Holland, MI

    ReplyDelete
  5. CrystalMarch 18, 2011 at 7:46 PM

    Great job Michelle!! It sure is one of the easiest and most convenient health foods!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. CrystalMarch 18, 2011 at 7:46 PM

    oh.. and Happy Birthday to your daughter!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMarch 29, 2011 at 9:12 PM

    my sister-in-law told me the trick to making your salad crunchy, last longer, and is less expensive. Add shredded cabbage to it. Sounds a bit off, but it's actually really good, the kids even love it and the crunch is great. I buy the big shredded bag at Sam's Club and it also adds some color.

    ReplyDelete

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