[Not a boring] Salad

As a general rule, I cook an astonishing amount for two people. What can I say? We love good food, and we love feeding our friends (I can hear you all rushing to knock on my door at mealtime). I love to cook, too, and I especially love to experiment. Now, it's true, I developed my salad making technique through experimentation, but my Mom deserves a lot of credit, too. We made salads for lunch together nearly every day of my four years of high school. Mother-daughter bonding, making a healthy meal, not too much clean up... it was a win all around. 

My general method is pretty simple: Open fridge and pantry. Dump everything on a plate. 

You think I'm kidding. 

I've had everything from cold peas and broccoli to cottage cheese to banana (it's awesome) to parmesan to leftover spaghetti in my salads. Soup is about the only thing I exclude, mostly because I'm terribly messy, and I don't want to deal with the splatter. It's bad enough that balsamic stains, and I loooove balsamic vinegar. 

John and I had salads for lunch yesterday. (Before you think we really are that healthy, the salad was largely inspired by the chocolate chip greek yogurt oatmeal pancakes we had for breakfast and the rotten coconut cake I had made for small group later in the afternoon). We really did need to eat our vegetables. 

So, after church, I started pulling things out of the fridge and washing veggies. 

There's something earthy about cutting raw veggies. It gets me every time, and I wonder why I don't eat salads like it's my job. The preparation and the satisfactory crunch of each bite is refreshing, calming. There's a peace about eating something so healthy. Something closer about God's provision of the food. 

Yesterday's salad: romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrot, tomato, celery, mushroom, apple,

 banana, almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins, dried cranberries, and feta cheese.  

Dressing: balsamic vinegar.

Delicious!!
Adventure well; Live fully.