Another Salad, and a yummy one!

This salad is super easy to assemble, and because of the flavors and ingredients, does not need dressing. In fact, by storing diverse ingredients to toss in salads, you can make this very fast. Usually, I use leftover sauted mushrooms from dinner in this salad, but if you want uncooked mushrooms are great, too.

Mo's Nicoise

• 1 cup of assorted Lettuce, the more variety in color the better!
• 1/3 cup of packaged Tuna (I prefer the kind in the packets not cans; less water)
• 1/4 cup of purple cabbage
• 1/3 cup of sauted mushrooms (Baby Portabellas are amazing this way)
• 5-6 Sugar Snap Peas
• 5 green olives (sliced is nice, but you can do this when you sit down to eat)
• 1 tb of chopped red onion
• 1 slice of goat cheese crumbled (I use the type in a roll; it is a superior texture and taste)
• Sprinkle pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds on top.

Toss ingredients together and Bon appetit!

Please, no chicken, bacon, cream dressing, or ham.

Going to restaurants, I often need to rearrange the salads. "I would like the BBQ Chicken Salad, please. But, can you remove the chicken, add more tomatoes, and put the dressing on the side?" Ugh, I sound like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. However, salads in restaurants do not contain enough vegetable ingredients, so when the meat is removed you usually only have lettuce and carrots. I knew it was bad last summer when the waitress at Cap City knew me just by my odd order. Last night, in an effort to recover from the gluttony of a vacation in Mexico, I made the following salad. Restaurants should follow suite.

The Right Restaurant Salad.

• 1 cup of edamame
• 2 slices of a purple cabbage chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup of arugula
• 1 cup of carrots shaved
• 1 cup of bean sprouts
• 1 cup of green onions chopped
• 1 red bell pepper sliced
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1 orange segmented
• 1 cup of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice
• 1 tb sesame oil
• 2 tb soy sauce
• 2 tb of chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tp of honey

1. Mix edamame, cabbage, arugula, carrots, bean sprouts, green onions, red pepper and almonds. Plate the salad mixture, add orange pieces on top.
2. In a small bowl, whisk rice wine vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey and ginger.
3. Pour vinaigrette over salad.

This serves two, but if you chop up more ingredients, and put them in storage containers, you can have this for lunch the next day like I will . Creating a good salad is actually easy, if you make sure you chop the ingredients ahead of time. Assemble the dry ingredients in a Tupperware, and the wet ingredients, including dressing, in a Ziploc bag-- voila a healthy lunch. As someone who allows herself only 20 minutes to get ready at 6 in the morning for work, I can say there is no excuse for not packing yourself a healthy lunch.

Try a few new ingredients tonight...

I used to be afraid of Barley and Leeks. As exotic ingredients, I was convinced I would never know the mystery behind how to cook them. Instead of using a new recipe in one of my cookbooks, I altered a fairly familiar fail safe recipe I use with pasta. And, I found, I actually love Barley. Cooked in enough liquid, it can be creamy like risotto, but it is also a very filling grain. Leeks can be intimidating because you need to soak them. However, this only takes one extra step, and such a payoff to eat an interesting alternative to the onion. When we vary our ingredients, home cooked food does not bore us.

Veggies and Barley

• 2 Cups of Pearled Barley
• 3 Cups of Water
• 3 Cups of Veggie Broth
• 2 Leeks
• 1 cup of chopped Carrots
• 4 cups of Baby Spinach
• 2 Zucchini
• 2 Yellow Squash
• 1/2 Purple Cabbage
• 1 package of Baby Bella Mushrooms
  
• 2 cups of Fresh Basil
  
• 1 -2 tb of Kosher or Sea Salt
• 1-2 tb of Olive Oil
• Pepper to taste
  
• 1/2 cup Romano cheese

1. Preheat oven at 375.
   
2. In a large pot, boil water, veggie broth, and barley. Once water boils, turn it down to low, place to lid on top of the pot, and let the barley cook. If it is stiff, feel free to add more water to make the barley moist.
   
3. Meanwhile, chop the leeks. Place them in a bowl of water to soak out the sand. Continue chopping the zucchini, squash, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, and basil. With a slotted spoon remove leeks from the water.
   
4. Lay veggies and basil on a large sheet of aluminum foil, which sits on a baking sheet. Mix in Salt, Olive Oil, and Pepper. Cover the foil, and place in the oven for 20 minutes or until the carrots are tender, but still a little crunchy.
5. Once everything is cooked, ladle barley into a bowl, add the mix of veggies on top, then the Pepper and Romano cheese.
   

This recipe serves 6, but freezes really well.