Thursday, August 6, 2009

Salad Days


This summer of chaos has kept me out of the kitchen for the most part. You have no idea how difficult that is for me! I'm hoping that will change very soon and I can resume testing fabulous recipes for Terry Hope Romero and Julie Hasson. For now, though, my stove and oven are sadly neglected and I've been taking advantage of the abundance of blueberries, Rainier cherries (I'd never tried these before this summer and they are great!), apricots, and the other fresh fruit that's available to me.

I always bring my own lunch to work and, these days, lunch has been a big salad (and my requisite daily red grapefruit). The salad you see above consists of corn, spinach (I prefer spinach to lettuce), broccoli slaw (I find broccoli slaw easier to eat in a salad than raw broccoli), shredded carrots, black beans, raisins, 4 green pimento-stuffed olives, and sliced jalapenos*. I drizzle white wine vinegar over the top of the salad and bring along 1.5 tsp of ground flax seeds to sprinkle on top when I'm ready to eat. I've also added sugar snap peas, arugula, and baked tofu (instead of black beans), all of which are delicious, but this is an end-of-the-week salad and my veggie supply is dwindling.

*I'm always cold and the jalapenos do a nice job of warming me up a little.

11 comments:

Hannah said...

I've been surviving the summer with lots of big, flavorful salads, too. My new favorite involves this amazing vegan feta I found at Whole Foods... Heck, I could eat that stuff all by itself! Good to have lots of different ideas and recipes to mix it up though. :)

Ricki said...

Salads are perfect for summer and this one sounds great. I think sliced jalapenos would be a perfect addition to a salad--or any meal, really. ;)

aTxVegn said...

I eat salads every day and this one has such a nice combination of ingredients.

quarrygirl said...

well, this sure is perfect salad weather!

dude, i don't think i could handle those jalapenos though!!!

Anonymous said...

I've been doing so many big salads and green smoothies this summer - so refreshing and delicious! I do miss jalapenos, though! Je ne peux pas les trouver ici! Bisous ma puce :)

Jenn Shagrin said...

Thank you!
I thought we complimented each other pretty well :)

I am such a salad whore this time of year...especially green papaya salad. It's my vice, even when it's ice cold outside.

vegetarian girlfriend said...

I love grapefruit!

Mihl said...

Oh yes, summer and salad go together perfectly well!

Jenn Shagrin said...

That was so incredibly kind. I read it to Jane, and she says thankyouthankyouthankyou. We will fight as hard as we can to get her back.

Flippin' hypocrites.

HMS said...

salad looks mighty tasty

Jenn Shagrin said...

It really is the sexiest oven ever. I have to keep myself from actually seeing one in person out of fear that I may try to hump it.

I can't wait until I have some time to do more experimenting. I've been focusing on creating more solid full meals lately...I know it'll be sooner than later for the brie :)