Mama's Salad With A Smile

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I prepped a salad base in advance of chopped organic romaine lettuce and green cabbage in advance, which lasted me eight easy-assembly salads! If you want to see all eight, you can check out my guest post compilation over at A Boy And His Lunch, or see the individual posts here! You can check out my 3 scraps-and-salvage lunches, my Chinese dragon salad, my taco-night-leftovers-to-taco-salad lunch, and my "child-endangerment" lunch [that's a joke. You'll see what I mean...]

Monday, 3/18/13 - Seeing Red

Salad mix w/organic tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, carrots; raisins, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts,
raspberry vinaigrette; Chobani Bite, purple potato and beet chips, roasted pumpkin seeds, galia melon

This was just a utilitarian lunch. I must have been in a bit of a hurry. Normally I can at least take the time to cut out a few carrot flowers or something...

Hubby and I made the purple potato and beet chips. I did the slicing on my new improved mandoline (with guard! No more minced Mama fingers!) and Hubby operated the deep fryer. Yes yes, I know. Baking is healthier. But I can't get a crisp baked chip to save my life. But if it makes you feel better, you can pretend they were baked...

Just because I could, I tossed in some CB's Nuts Roasted Pumpkin Seeds too. CB's Nuts happens to be local, and I've driven by several times when visiting my sister, so I was excited to be given a package of their products at an event at Whole Foods! This is a small company with a great mindset. They roast in small batches, to ensure quality. Theirs were one of the few peanuts not recalled when there were those peanut/peanut butter recalls - they roast in a way that kills off harmful bacteria like Salmonella. 

While at Whole Foods, I found out that for their roasted pumpkin seeds, rather than wasting pumpkins to get the seeds, they buy the seeds that are being discarded by pumpkin canning companies (and companies that make whatever else pumpkins might be used for...) I can't remember exactly, but these are either seasonal or a Whole Foods exclusive product. Or both. Lucky me!

The Light My Fire spork was perfect for this lunch, since I needed a fork for the salad, and a spoon for the Chobani Bite Coffee With Dark Chocolate Greek Yogurt!

Wednesday, 3/20/13 - Happy Salad!

Salad mix w/organic beets, carrots, strawberries, tomatoes; raisins, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, raspberry vinaigrette;
hummus, Van's GF Crackers, organic leftover carrots, sugar snap peas, and cherry tomatoes 

This design was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I had the beet and carrot flowers (cut with a sakura flower veggie cutter) already made, but as I was placing them on, they kind of looked like eyes and a nose. So I cut a beet-scrap into a mouth, added rosy grape tomato cheeks, and one lone wilty strawberry cut up for hair. Done!

The chickie carrots (cut with a baran cutter set) were leftover from Z's chickie lunch. I'm not sure why she didn't eat them. Normally it's because something is too cute, or she humanizes it and says it doesn't want to be eaten, or you can't eat it on it's birthday, etc. But she had no answer for these ones. But overall I still have better luck getting her to eat carrots that are cut fancy in some way, versus coins or sticks.

Tools of the Trade