Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet has been discussing how to get by in tough economic times and still eat well. She has asked bloggers to contribute ideas in her Pennywise Platter blog carnival. You will want to check out the many ideas to find some that suit your cooking style and taste.
Here in this house, one of my favorite meals for convenience, flavor, and price is a green salad topped with some sort of protein (usually a nutrient-packed depression-fighting food). In the depression-fighting department, there are few foods better than wild salmon, high in Omega 3 fatty acids and in minerals. I find it regularly at a discount store for one buck. It is canned, but hey, the price is right.
I keep the rest of the ingredients in stock: romaine lettuce, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. I dance a jig if I also have fresh tomatoes, pine nuts, and a few boiled eggs.
The key to any salad is the dressing itself. Though there are many great commercial dressings you could use for your salad, homemade salad dressing will be the most affordable and allow you the greatest flexibility. In making my dressing, I follow my mom's suggestions on how to make salad dressing. The instructions are gold; they provide suggestions on experimenting your dressing. At the bottom of the article, she even discusses homemade ranch dressing. I know that Peggy who posted on the blog this week printed the instructions and keeps them in her kitchen. Mom has more wisdom on handling the salad greens themselves in Salad Greens 101 and a video on handling salad greens which includes instructions on preparing the greens in advance to use in your work week.
When I am busy and not worried about making a fine dressing to keep all week in my refrigerator, I keep it simple and add oil and vinegar directly to my lettuce. If the salad is just for me, I create it in the bowl I will eat it in to keep things real simple. These are my steps:
Rinse and drain lettuce leaves.
Tear leaves into the salad bowl.
Cover leaves in olive oil.
Toss well.
Add a bit of vinegar (balsamic is usually my choice).
Salt.
Toss well.
Add tomato and boiled egg if I have them.
Add a bit more oil to the tomato and egg.
Lightly salt again.
Add canned salmon to the top.
Sprinkle with pine nuts.
Eat with wild abandon.
On that canned salmon, remove the back bone before putting it on your salad, but don't worry about all of the other little bones. You won't notice them. You may also want to mix the salmon with some good mayonnaise and, better yet, some homemade tartar sauce before putting it on the salad.
This meal does not take fifteen minutes start-to-finish. Sometimes I make a giant salad an eat it throughout the day.
If I were preparing the meal for a family, I would toss the lettuce in a large bowl, add the oil, and then toss the salad. I would add vinegar and salt and toss it again. I would plate the lettuce and add the rest of the ingredients individually as I describe above. A family of four could probably eat this salad for $5 and change if you have oil and vinegar on hand. It is simple, inexpensive, and nutritious. It make well be lunch today because writing this post has given me a powerful hunger for salad.
Comments (1)
Thanks for being part of the carnival. I love making a salad almost exactly like you described yours! I think we have similar tastes. :-)
Posted by Kimi @ The Nourishing Gourmet | June 25, 2009 8:44 AM | Reply