Tuesday, July 04, 2006
The Summer Of Salads Lasts About Two Weeks: Lessons Learned
"The Summer of Salads" was an idea my wife came up with as a way to help her lose weight and possibly save some grocery money over the summer while we without our finicky 11-year-old son to fuss over what we where eating (he has been shipped to grandmother's for the summer where he allowed to eat cheese slices and peanut butter for every meal). The plan, simple enough, was to eat nothing but a salad for every single meal until Labor Day.
Well, "The Summer of Salads" is officially done due to lack of interest...from my wife...who pushed for this thing in the first place. While the headache of coming up with themed salads every day is officially over (a week or so worth of meals were chronicled at one of my other blogs, The Mis-Adventures of the Jazzy Cool One), the challenge of having to think up consecutive salads with variations to keep it from being boring was a great exercise in creativity. Here's a short listing of some of the things I learned:
-Vary your ingredients: Just because you like cucumbers, peppercorns, and olives in your salad, don't put them in every salad. Vary your ingredienants and you vary you salad's taste.
-Choose your dressing wisely: Just like you're going to learn to mix and match ingredients, test different dressings you like on different salad combinations.
-Croutons & crunchies: For some they make the meal. Try different types and flavors of croutons and salad toppings.
-Have some meat with your greens: A steak salad? Greatest thing I ever tasted! I also used baked chicken with different flavors (BBQ, Spicy, Salsa, and Honey Dijon) and diced ham for other salads.
-Toy with your definition of 'salad': Lose the bowl and stuff you lettuce and veggies in a pita, taco shell, or tortilla
Brecks Bulbs
Well, "The Summer of Salads" is officially done due to lack of interest...from my wife...who pushed for this thing in the first place. While the headache of coming up with themed salads every day is officially over (a week or so worth of meals were chronicled at one of my other blogs, The Mis-Adventures of the Jazzy Cool One), the challenge of having to think up consecutive salads with variations to keep it from being boring was a great exercise in creativity. Here's a short listing of some of the things I learned:
-Vary your ingredients: Just because you like cucumbers, peppercorns, and olives in your salad, don't put them in every salad. Vary your ingredienants and you vary you salad's taste.
-Choose your dressing wisely: Just like you're going to learn to mix and match ingredients, test different dressings you like on different salad combinations.
-Croutons & crunchies: For some they make the meal. Try different types and flavors of croutons and salad toppings.
-Have some meat with your greens: A steak salad? Greatest thing I ever tasted! I also used baked chicken with different flavors (BBQ, Spicy, Salsa, and Honey Dijon) and diced ham for other salads.
-Toy with your definition of 'salad': Lose the bowl and stuff you lettuce and veggies in a pita, taco shell, or tortilla
Brecks Bulbs
