Making salads simple...

Salads are delicious and

we can get as many as vegetables as we want in one meal.

When we come home hungry

or open the fridge on a relaxed Sunday afernoon,

the thought of cutting vegetables, cheese,

and making salad dressing is the last thing we want to do.

Sooooooo....

We reach for snack food instead.

Seeing beautiful salads

on The Food Network

or in glossy magazine spreads,

we think to ourselves,

'Wow! That looks absolutely delicious

and I would love to make that.'

There is a solution.

There is an art to preparing food as fast

as you would get it in a restaurant...

at home.

Here it is:

Cut and bag vegetables as soon as you get them home

from the grocery store.

Don't wash them. The veggies will spoil.

Cut carrottes, celery, and peppers and bag them separately.

Cut one head of lettuce and bag it, too.

Mushrooms, radishes, and 

cucumbers have to be eaten as soon as they are cut.

Thus, only cut them when you need them.

Store the chopped veggies in a bowl in the fridge.

When it's time to make a salad...

Voila!

All the hard work is already done and

the salad takes only a few minutes to assemble.

Last is the salad dressing.

If you've ever peaked at the

ingredients in processed dressings,

it would be quite a surprise.

The ingredients are very unhealthy.

On the other hand, salad dressings made at home with olive oil, vinegars, mayonnaise, cheese and spices taste amazing, are very healthy,

cost A LOT LESS $$$

and they store in the fridge for up to a month.

A great one to try that is a basic dressing

for almost any salad:  balsamic vinaigrette.

Check out the video on YouTube on how to make it...

 

A fun anytime of year dressing is

Raspberry Poppyseed Vinaigrette

Here is the recipe:

                                                                 
                            10-12 FRESh RASPBERRIES 

                                        ¾ CUP OLIVE OIL.

                           ¼ CUP WHITE WINE VINEGAR.

                           2 TABLESPOONS POPPY SEEDS.

                                          PINCH OF SALT.

IN A FOOD PROCESSOR,

BLEND ALL INGREDIENTS EXCEPT OLIVE OIL.

AS THE FOOD PROCESSOR IS BLENDING, POUR OLIVE OIL IN VERY SLOWLY.
CONTINUE UNTIL DRESSING THICKENS SLIGHTLY.

Check out more salads and salad dressing recipes in the photo albums on Facebook. Here is the direct link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150199640390177.439062.175447350176&type=1

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