Mama's "Fire and Ice" Salad Series - Part 1

 

Over the Summer we got an abundance of blueberries and heirloom cherry tomatoes from our weekly farm share. Enough that we weren't eating them fast enough. So onto my salads they went! I started having a little fun with them, and tried different arrangements to make them more visually interesting, on the days I had the extra time.

Organic apples w/Sunbutter, HalfPops, The Good Bean Smoky Chili and Lime roasted chickpeas,
organic salad (red lettuce, carrots, blueberries, tomatoes, raisins, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, dressing)

Saturday, 6/15/13 - I packed this one to eat at Nana's (my MIL) with the girls since Hubby was out of town. Nana keeps gluten-free stuff on hand (yes, she's awesome!) but macaroni and cheese is her go-to for the girls, which I can't eat (dairy.) So I pack a lunch and then usually order Thai take-out for us both for dinner!
This was my first experiment with placing the tomatoes in a visually pleasing way. I tried to kind of make two waves; one with tomato halves going up the side and one with blueberries going up and splashing over.

(The Good Bean sent me a sampler of their roasted chickpea snacks. I wasn't a huge fan of the Smoky Chili and Lime, since I'm not a spice girl. But I would eat them again.)

Broken GF Van's Everything crackers, Hail Merry macaroons, organic pluot, organic salad
(red lettuce, spinach, kale, blueberries, tomatoes, raisins, chia and sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, dressing)

Tuesday, 7/16/13 - I was trying to make two spirals here, which I kind of did, but I wasn't clear on how it should work, so this wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind. It took longer than normal, so I didn't try again any time soon!

Dairy-free garlic dip, GF garlic pretzels, GF Kinnikinnick vanilla glazed donut, organic salad (red lettuce,
kale, blueberries, raspberries, tomatoes, raisins, chia and sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, dressing)

Tuesday, 8/6/13 - I was in a hurry here, so just a tomato smile at the bottom, then the berries tossed in willy-nilly.
I must say, one huge advantage to dairy-free is that my "dairy" doesn't go bad nearly as fast as before! The garlic dip was made for Fourth of July, and it was still good a month later! There's a local vendor who sells dried packets of dip mixes at fairs and such, and we always stock up on his garlic dip! Nom! I used vegan sour cream and cream cheese, and with the yummy garlic and spices, you couldn't tell it was dairy-free!

Home-made trail mix w/almonds, cashews, raisins; GF Kinnikinnick chocolate donut, organic salad
(red lettuce, kale, carrots, blueberries, Roma tomato, raisins, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, dressing)

Wednesday, 8/7/13 - Another hastily packed lunch. I opted for a larger tomato, sliced, instead of a bunch of cherry tomatoes, mostly to use it up.

Organic figs, dairy-free garlic dip, GF garlic pretzels. organic salad (red lettuce, kale, carrots,
broccoli, blueberries, tomatoes, raisins, chia and sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, dressing)

Thursday, 8/8/13 - Our farm had organic figs in their farm store, so I had to buy some - I'd never had fresh figs before. I managed to block out the whole "there are dead wasps in your figs" my husband tried to gross me out with. *plugs metaphorical ears* "La la la la la"

This was just a quick tomato circle filled with blueberries, like a reverse fire pit. Whee!

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