Salad Made Interesting

I know I've been absentee. It's been part laziness and part lack of inspiration. There have been some changes and heartbreak and therefore I haven't been cooking as much, haven't been eating as much (leading to a phantom 6 pound weight loss, huh?) and haven't been taking pictures.

But today my friend Chris asked me what I use to dress the salads that I bring to work with me almost daily and I thought, why waste an email telling him my ideas when I can blog about it and send him the link?

I am usually an olive oil and vinegar girl. I love red wine vinegar and champagne vinegar and typically use balsamic only occasionally. I think that salad can have a bad rap because often times it is made with unhealthy dressing and tasteless boring vegetables. There's nothing weirder than eating a salad made with tomatoes and carrots and the only thing it tastes like is water. (Does anyone else have this experience? Personally I think that Subway sandwiches also taste like water. I have no idea if I am right on or everyone thinks I am crazy. Don't answer that part).

Today, for example, my salad was made up of the following:
spinach
romaine
heirloom tomatoes (incredibly sweet and in season)
radishes
red bell pepper
celery
tiny slivers of red onion
mozzarella
a couple amazingly salty kalamata olives

I dressed it with a few drizzles of organic extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and a few dashes of Frank's red hot sauce, just to add that kick.

This salad has tons of crunch from the veggies and then the softness of the mozzarella and the salty bite of the 4-5 olives I added in. It wasn't planned out, more like a cross-section of what I currently happen to have in my kitchen. I also never use bottled salad dressing. It is so easy to make my own, and why would I put any chemicals on all my lovely produce?

A few things that I believe are completely underutilized in salads:

fresh herbs- I made a tuna salad once (lettuce, veggies, tuna, olive oil and vinegar dressing) and I added tons of chopped Italian parsley that I didn't want to go bad. It absolutely 100% changed the salad and made it. It was amazing. I really cannot tell you how much of a difference this made, but you must try it. So chop in some chives, add basil or dill or whatever you have on hand. But it really makes a difference. Imagine a salad with hidden sage, sauteed mushrooms, slivers of parmesan and walnuts. Oooh, I need to make that, that sounds amazing.

Fresh fruit- a chopped apple, pear or peach can really change the entire composure of a salad. One of my faves in this vein is
Butter lettuce
cubed Granny Smith apple(taste your apple before you add it to make sure it's not mealy, nothing worse than that)
chopped prunes
ricotta salata
With a champagne vinegar, shallot and olive oil dressing, add a pinch of sugar and s& p to taste. Trust me, it works. And it's worth finding ricotta salata for, one of my all time favorite cheeses.

Roasted veggies- a sliced beet, some caramelized broccoli and cauliflower will add an extra oomph, not to mention nutrition, to any boring salad.

Cheese- and no, I'm not talking about cheddar. Grated parmesan can do wonders for a salad, as can ricotta salata, a little feta, goat cheese. I used all these sparingly as strangely as much of a cheese lover I am, I have never loved cheese in a salad. But some cannot soar to the heights that they are meant to be without the addition of these cheeses. Go to a cheese store and taste. Try a Tasmanian blue cheese, trust me on this one, or my beloved Fromage d'Affinois.

But experiment, there's really no going wrong. And if you mess up or don't like it, well try it differently next time.

Coming up: my favorite easy vinaigrettes.

Dark Greens are Good For You

Most people probably don't think, mmmm, kale. But that's exactly what I have been thinking recently. So I made some, easy solution, right? In a pan I sauteed some shallots and mushrooms in olive oil. When they were pretty soft I added the kale, stuck a little water in the pan, and placed a lid on it. Steam city! A voila, dunzo. I had told Johnny that I wanted a light and healthy dinner, and boy did we get one! I added a salad with my new favorite dressing. I make a faux French dressing.

Squirt about a tablespoon of ketchup in a small glass jar with a lid or in a bowl. Add 1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder, a big pinch of sugar, a tablespoon of vinegar (or more) and 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil.
Add salt and pepper to taste and either shake or whisk.

It is really good, sweet and vinegary, just like I like. I like to make a jar of this and bring it with me to work to add to my salads. Adding some chopped shallots makes it even more divine. Bon Appetit!

Sometimes A Girl Just Wants Crab

The other night John and I were discussing what to eat for dinner. Something healthy was my main criteria, and not too heavy. I threw out chicken but he said no and I agreed that I make too much chicken. Fish? Hmm, I could go for some salmon. and then it struck us... CRAB!
Off we went to Molly Stone's to pick up some crabbies and sourdough bread. The crab was good price, I can't remember exactly but I think about $8.99/pound. I had tons fo salad fixings at home plus cocktail sauce and mayonnaise (yes, I like to dip my crab in mayo. Some people may not, but I do.) John melted some butter and squeezed a lemon into it. While I made the salad Johnny fixed up the crab and set the table with all the additions that I love with my crab.

And dinner was perfect. Fresh, delicious crab, a large green salad loaded with raw veggies and my favorite Semifreddi's seeded sourdough baguette. To die for. We sat at my nice round table in the alcove of the house and had a lovely and romantic meal. It felt pretty good to be able to have a delicious and good for you meal for under $20 and 15 minutes of prep. Always remember to take your trash out that night though. I think the house was stinky just having all the crab in there for a few hours! I can't wait until our next crab meal. Next time I'll steam some artichokes to go along with it.

My Favorite Salmon

After going to the gym and running along Crissy Field at 8:00pm last night I was hungry for a nice dinner. I love salmon because it is so easy, good for you, and takes very little time to cook. What I do, while I am preheating the oven, is make some large slits in the filet with a butcher's knife and drizzle honey and soy sauce into the slits and onto the salmon. Add a dash of cracked black pepper and you are good to go! Once the oven is around 425F, or 450F stick her in for about 12 minutes. My oven is so old that I never know how warm it actually is. It has that ancient dial, so I turn it on, wait 15 minutes, and hope for the best. I don't bake too often so most of the food I make is easy to adapt whether it is 15 degrees too cool or what have you. You just have to keep an eye on it. Actually I took the salmon out after about 9 minutes, drizzled some of the marinade over it that had fallen to the sides, and then finished the cooking.
On the side I added a few vegetables. I steamed some broccoli and yellow squash, and I roasted cauliflower at the same time as cooking the salmon. I put the cauliflower in before the salmon, as it takes about 20-25 minutes. Roasted cauliflower is one of my all time favorites. It is amazing how the taste becomes so much more interesting which a bit of charring on the edges. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some lemon or lime juice and it is just the best. Yum!
A side salad completed this healthy meal. Just some spinach and romaine, bell pepper, radishes, cabbage, cucumber and tomatoes. A great meal.
I even had enough left on my plate to add to my salad for lunch the next day!

My Salads are Getting Stranger and Stranger

Lunchtime salad was an oddity this time!
It included:
spinach
romaine
red cabbage
fennel
basil
cucumber
sprouts
radishes
tomatoes
nectarine
slivered almonds
feta

I think that was it. And you know what? It tasted really good! Amazing.

Planet Organics Delivers Again

Another lvoely box was waiting for me at the office. This one full of fruits and veggies for the next week or so. I received:
cauliflower
kale
peaches
nectarines
sprouts
romaine lettuce
lemons
lime
cantaloupe
radishes
snap peas

I made the most ridiculous salad with some of the ingredients for lunch today. That will be a surprise that comes next...
But I am making a pasta with cauliflower and some kale for dinner tonight. Should be good and healthy. Slowly but surely the meat is disappearing again!

Salad Salad Everywhere

I've been eating a lot of salad. There are a few reasons for this. First off, I like salad. That's the simple reason. But it is summer time in California and teh produce is SO good, I can't figure out why I wouldn't take advantage of that. So I had a bunch of chicken leftover from my roasted chicken from last week that needed to be eaten. I placed that in a bowl and added purple cabbage, spinach, mixed greens, red bell peppers, tomatoes, avocado, and a balsamic vinaigrette I made. It was delicious. I also made some garlic bread on the side. I had a leftover seeded baguette that was a bit stale and wanted to use it though. So I slathered on some butter and some minced garlic I found in John's fridge and stuck it under the broiler. It was really good!

To make a more complete meal I also steamed some zucchini and yellow squash. Yum Yum. When you have good produce I find that there is no need to add additional flavor. Just some salt and pepper made these sweet and tasty.
I need to get away from the "European" dining hours that we have been keeping (that was the comment that John's roommate made the other night). It just takes so long to get everything together after work. If i am going to squeeze in the gym and a shower and get dinner together etc, plus the 30 minute bus ride home from downtown we don't end up eating til after 9:30pm. Oh well, I am usually not too hungry by this time anyway, I couldn't even finish my salad and I put the rest of the squash in a tupperware to eat for lunch the next day.

Lunchtime Salad

I made one of my usual salads for lunch yesterday. It was a combo of spinach and romaine and stuffed with veggies. Celery, tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumber, feta, red bell pepper, and some sliced tofurkey. I stuff it all in a tupperware and I am off to work! At home I ALWAYS make my own salad dressing, but I get lazy before work. AND I bought these cute little containers perfect for salad dressing and they leak. So I have a bottle of Newman's Own Light Italian or something along those lines in the fridge at the office. Then I pour it in, put the top back on, and shake her up! Perfect salad.

Easy Supper

So, John and I are on a health kick. Ok- maybe I am simply putting him on one. But I decided that I was eating too much crap. And I really don't eat crap, but too many rich foods (yes, the enchiladas were delicious, but after three days of them, I felt a bit heavy. So first off, we are eating vegan all week. What you say? Sacrilege?! Well, not really. I am not much of a meat eater (as discussed at other times in this blog) and I am also somewhat lactose intolerant, so not eating that stuff is both easy and probably better for me.
So I made an easy dinner. We went running along the water at Chrissy Field again and were both hungry when we got home. So, I decided to eat leftover corn and make a salad using basically anything I could dig up in my fridge. This meant spinach, carrots, celery, corn, radishes, avocado, tomatoes with a yummy dijon/red wine vinegar vinaigrette. Yum!
I really love eating simply and easy like this. It feels better going down and I don't liek that heavy feeling I feel so often after eating out.

Bad Food Day

I had a bad food day on Friday. What, may you ask, is this this? And how is it possible in a city like San Francisco? Hmm, well, it is possible, but I should be smarter than that. It actually started out Thursday night. I restaurant hopped from Little Star pizza to Nopa, which was pretty great. I had one piece of pizza, pepperoni carefully picked off as I was dining with three men who ignored my cries of a veggie pizza. I ate one chicken wing and some carrots, and then I was off, running down the street to meet another friend, and another meal. (Strangely I actually lost weight last week, perhaps it was all the running between restaurants).
I plopped myself down at Nopa and ate a delicious appetizer of "Warm Goat Cheese, Crostini, Pickled Beets, Frisée and Peppercress"- description taken directly from Nopa menu. I was lovely, just the perfect snack. I paired it with a nice pinot noir and I was a very happy girl. But, within an hour of socializing, I was a very tired girl. So I ran down the street, past the park, and into my house to get some much needed sleep (see, more running, and all in high boots too, amazing!) But, I woke up late the next day for work, understandably.
There I was, sitting at my computer, lamenting my choice to stay out too late on a Thursday night, and I was getting hungry. Really hungry. It was almost 1pm and I had yet to consume a calorie, I don't think that my green tea counts. So where to go? My office is situated on a slightly dead block of downtown San Francisco, re- I have to walk at least 3 or so blocks for a good food option. There is a coffee shop around the corner though where I pick up a turkey sandwich occasionally, but turkey and I are still on the outs, to there went that option. I hauled my lazy cookies around the corner to the coffee shop. I got a cobb salad. I figured it was more substantial than the other salad with it's eggs etc. So I ran back to the office, and after picking off the bacon on top of the salad (those pesky pork products again), I dove in. Chew chew chew, um, gross. The lettuce was old, the tomatoes were mealy, the dressing was horrid. I was completely underwhelmed. But at this point I had already spent $7 (I know! $7 for a bad salad, very disappointing) and I didn't have the energy to go elsewhere. So I stuck it out with my bad salad until the end of the day.
I left work late that night and decided that I was in the mood for a burrito. There is a chain Mexican place on my way home, between buses, so I figured I could run in there and get a bite. I trotted on down to La Salsa (yes, once again, this is all my fault. I live close to so many amazing burrito shops and I choose La Salsa). I ordered my "California Veggie Burrito." It is basically rice, beans, avocado, salsa, lettuce and cheese. Simple, right. I mean, that's hard to screw up. And in their defense they didn't really screw up, it was just, not good. I decided to eat in the shop because I was starving. So the first disappointment is realizing that it was Friday night and I was sitting alone on Fillmore Street eating a bad burrito with my nose in a book. (My nose is always in a book, more about that later). But the salsa that I poured onto the burrito so it would have SOME flavor, completely swamped any other taste. Oh well, I figured that I could eat well for the rest of the weekend. It's not like I wouldn't get another opportunity in about 12 hours...
PS- This picture of a burrito was the most unappetizing I could find. I didn't take a photo because of lack of inspiration/unworthiness of photographic evidence.