Thursday, June 20, 2013

Non-Salad Days for Great Salads!

Basic Salad Preparation. Slow Cookers preparing beans,
ShreddedVeggies ready to go, and a
Kale Salad being prepared in the forground.
Before I wrote this post, I was thinking of entitling it "Salad Days" because I had this vague feeling that "Salad Days" meant carefree times of fun. A quick internet search showed me how wrong I was! First, the expression is from Shakespeare. Cleopatra used it to refer to her youth when she didn't have wisdom, and didn't plan properly for her future. That's rather the opposite of what I wanted to express! And, apparently the expression has been "done to death" as a cookbook title.

So, note the more accurate but less catchy title!

I find that it is very helpful for me, when I have a bit of time, to do some basic preparation all at once to have salads ready to go for a whole week. I might fill the Slow Cookers with Beans and/or Lentils for summer Bean Salads and put on a pot of Rice or prepare some Bulgur for the Freezer. I pull out the Salad Shooter (a food processor with a shredding/slicing disk does the same job) and shred a couple of pounds of carrots and a head of cabbage. Perhaps I might also chop, wash, and salad-spin some Romaine and/or Kale. A batch or two of Dressing (such as my Slaw Dressing or Simply Greek Dressing (Regular or Oil Free)) complete the picture.

This leaves me ready to quickly construct any of the following salads:
Better than Coleslaw
Black Bean and Corn Salad
Carrot Raisin Salad without Mayonnaise
Dinosaur Salad! ( Kale Salad )
Fattoush
Black-eyed Pea Salad
White Bean Salad
Lentil-Rice Salad

As well as several other salads that I plan to feature here soon : )

Then, during the week, I can simply pull out the prepared ingredients I want and mix them together to make an "instant" salad. Couldn't be easier or more convenient!

It's really nice that when I'm hungry (and getting grumpy) I don't have to wait a long time for a grain to cook, plan ahead for beans, waste money on canned goods or pre-chopped veggies, or fuss with cleaning and shredding salad veggies.

Try it! You'll like it! Saves time, frustration and money! : )

This is being shared on Healthy Vegan Fridays and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and The Thrifty Home's Penny Pinching Party and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

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4 comments:

  1. I didn't know that about that phrase! Learn something new everyday, eh!? Thanks for that! These look and sound awesome! I need to get better about preparing and planning stuff! I'm more of a spur of the moment type. LOL

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  2. Just what I needed at the moment. I've been stuck in a salad rut making batches of lettuce, cucumber and tomato so it's great to have some more ideas for quick salad batches. Congratulations on being featured on Healthy Vegan Fridays.

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  3. Hi. Sorry to bother you, but when I click on the links to view the salad recipes, I get the message that I do not have access with my google account. Shouldn't everyone be able to view the recipes? Many thanks!

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    1. Thanks so much for letting me know! I can't imagine what is wrong - and since I can access the recipes, it's very hard for me to see what you're seeing. I'll double check the settings in my account. Meanwhile, if you go to the Recipe Index tab & scroll down to "Salads" perhaps you can find it from there? Really sorry about the trouble, and will be seeing what I can do to fix it!

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