a badass little salad

Fun fact about me: I eat a salad every single weekday for lunch. I usually have one on the weekends too unless I'm hungover. Because we all know when you're real hungover a salad just won't do.

I get my salad on every day no exceptions for 3 reasons:

-Salad is friggen delicious, there are about 697,694,496 various salad combos you can create so they never get old, and it is fun coming up with new combinations of shit to throw on a salad: leftovers, veggies, nuts, fruit...you name it I will put it atop lettuce.

-I get tired when I eat a big meal. I know the word on the streets is you should have a bigger lunch and smaller dinner, but that is just not my style. If I eat anything heavy for lunch I am super tired in the afternoon and I don't get anything done at work. Plus I like to chow down at dinner and then plant my ass on the couch  for several hours every night like a good American.

-Balance. I feel no guilt having a slightly rich or carb heavy dinner once in a while because I know I had a very healthy lunch. I like that I get my veggies in everyday without fail so I can to some degree eat whatever I want for dinner. This is the same reason I juice for breakfast most days. It makes for less worry about making sure my dinners are balanced and all that crap.

I try to get creative with my salads every week because lunch is my favorite part of the work day. If I have a crummy lunch I am not a happy camper. One of the most fun things about the salads I find is making new dressings. I got one of those fancy dancy stick blenders and while it certainly does not perform half of the functions it claimed to on the box, it works great for making dressing. I occasionally buy bottled dressing, but I usually prefer homemade.

This week I went with the old standby of caprese style salad which is something I could honestly eat probably every single day for the rest of my life. The salad itself is nothing fancy, and pretty much exactly what you would expect, but the dressing is a gd delight. I sort of want to drink it. It is like a phony pesto of sorts and it is gooood.

So here you go in case you want to see if I am lying about this....

You Will Need:

Baby spinach
Cherry Tomatoes
Fresh basil
Fresh mozzarella
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
White vinegar
Ground black pepper
Seat salt

Directions:

(This recipe makes enough dressing for 5-6 servings of salad depending on how saucy ya like it)

-Combine 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 table spoons of white vinegar, two table spoons of balsamic vinegar, a teaspoon each of fresh ground pepper and sea salt, and a shit ton of fresh basil in a jar (or blender if you aren't blessed with an emulsifier like I am). Seriously the more basil the merrier. I used about 4 sprigs (or stalks or whatever they are called) I chopped of the stems and put them right in I didn't worry about picking each leaf off or anything like that. It was one entire package of the small packs you buy at the store so probably about 30 individual leaves in case you are lucky enough to have a basil plant you can gank leaves from.

-Blend that crap up. I just hit it with the stick blender for a few minutes but a food processor or conventional blender will work great too. Give it a taste and see if you want more salt, pepper, more acid, more oil, etc.. and doctor it up to your heart's content.

-Now assemble your little salad. Place washed baby spinach on your plate (or in your to go container as I do each night) top it with a few halved cherry tomatoes and a bunch of chunks of heavenly fresh mozzarella cheese. Dress it right before your eat it and enjoy. I always like to make enough dressing for the week and keep it in little jars I have saved from various products. My dressing this week is chillin out in a few old caper jars because I am ghetto like that. I like to think of it as being green not cheap, but tomato tomato right?

Tell me your favorite salad recipe and I will be your friend for life!

oh and want some more recipes?? Check out the blogs Blissfully Miller and Let's Get Bananas.