Whole 30 - Another Salad Mix + Lemon-EVOO Dressing

No matter the time of year, and even though I live in Northern Minnesota, I almost always have a BIG fresh greens and vegetable mix in my refrigerator, so a salad can be put together in only a few minutes. This is my current one for the next few days. 

Salad Mix:

1 big petite or regular Romaine

6 big green onions

2 carrots

1 big handful of chopped kale

2c sliced-chopped purple cabbage

1/2 of a long, skinny, bumpy English cucumber

Slice the Romaine lettuce lengthwise into quarters. Cut into 1" cross sections. Wash well in your salad spinner, starting with warm-hot water, then drain and wash in icy cold water. Drain, spin several times to remove all the water. Rinse and dry the outer container then fill with the spun lettuce. Wash and prep the other vegetables then slice or chop them into the lettuce. Use this as the base for a tossed salad, like mine, or grab a handful and top with chopped chicken or tuna packed in EVOO. . .think of other ways to use these greens and vegetables. Chop up some fresh fruit: an apple, grapes, a whole Cutie Mandarin orange, including the skin! Put these on a bed of the greens and drizzle with the dressing. Mmmm, so good and fresh! Add to a pot of soup - grab a handful (put the cucumbers back in the mix) chop it fine and throw it into the pot.

Lemon-EVOO Dressing: 

1c single source EVOO*

1/2c pure lemon juice

2t Himalayan pink salt

1t black+cayenne pepper mix

1/2 -1t granulated roasted garlic - optional

*I can't stress strongly enough, how important it is to read labels on extra virgin olive oil. If there's a 'code' at the bottom - telling which countries the oil came from - PASS on it!! It's been proven, through chemical analysis, that often these multicountry offerings test as substances other than olive oil!! Buy only EVOO from one country / point of origin, i.e.: California, Spain, Italy, Greece, or the best by far: Moroccan.

Combine in a 14oz., or larger, glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake well. This keeps in the refrigerator a long time, a month or more, but probably won't last long. In addition to using as a salad dressing, it would be a good addition, just a drizzle, to mayonnaise for coleslaw, egg salad, tuna salad and also as an excellent marinade for meats.

Today, my salad for a 1pm breakfast-lunch was a big handful of the salad mix, with the addition of 1/2 medium tomato, 1/2 large avocado, 1 hard boiled egg and a handful of walnuts. Drizzled with a good amount of the dressing. Don't worry about this type of 'fat'. It's the absolute best type for your body. So many nutrients here! The fresh vitamins from the greens and tomato, the protein and fiber from the avocado, egg and walnuts. This is anti-inflammatory and it all tastes so great. . .Lin

A Fresh Lettuce Mix

Celebrate The First Official Day of Summer! . . . Make A Lettuce Mix!

Keep it in your spinner container in the refrigerator. It will stay fresh at least 5 days, ready for your additions for all sorts of healthy salads.

Chop or slice the Romaine into your salad spinner. Wash and spin it dry, then add the remaining sliced or chopped vegetables:

2 Romaine hearts

purple cabbage

green cabbage

1 carrot

1/2 lg. purple onion

Serve this as is, for a simple green salad, or add whatever you'd like to make it a side salad, or a whole meal. Shown here with leftover taco type beef, corn and beans. I also added 1/2 an avocado and a drizzle of mayonaise-sour cream-Greek yogurt dressing with pepper, garlic salt and dill. 

It's salad season!

Make a lettuce mix, then be creative! . .Lin

It's Salad Season!! (but isn't it always?)

For me. . .Yes, it's always Salad Season.

Today on my dog-walk with my buddy, Oliver, we still had to avoid sidewalks that are massively drifted over with old clumpy snow. However, there was a sunny-springiness in the air. All I wanted to do when I came home was make a big salad mix.

It varies a bit from time to time, but this one included:

1-1/2 heads of Romaine

1/3 sm. purple cabbage

1/2 lg. Vidalia onion

1 English cucumber

1 celery heart

2 carrots

After tossing I put a big handful in my bowl, then added: 

6 red and yellow grape tomatoes

1 very small mini-avocado

1/2 can drained-rinsed black beans

cubed Manchego and Dubliner cheese

Today's dressing was a variation of my Lemon-EVOO Salad Dressing. I added a little brown mustard, a splash of honey and some finely chopped sun-dried tomato (jarred in EVOO) Mmmm...Tastes like Summer! Lin

Sometimes You Just Need A Salad!

I'm not a big fan of traditional breakfast food, so when hunger strikes in the morning, I'm more likely to be craving dinner leftovers.

Today, after coffee, all I wanted was a big salad. I put together a nice lettuce mix the other day with red and green lettuce, cucumbers and green onion. There was enough left for one more salad, so I was off and running! To this I added cut up, drained and rinsed pickled beets, 2 oz. chopped, roasted chicken, a handful of roasted pumpkin seeds, a splash of dressing and some fresh ground black pepper.

Mmmm! Today It's What's For Breakfast! . . Lin

A Big Lettuce Mix and Salads

I'm feeling the need to narrow my food focus for a little while, to just soups and salads. I made a big pot of soup and a big lettuce mix to use for various salads in the next several days.

I haven't bought iceberg lettuce in a long time but realized that I've been craving it. While shopping recently I found the heads were very solid and heavy, which are the only kind I ever buy. After coring, removing outer leaves, I washed and let it drain, patted it dry with paper towels, then combined it with the rest of these ingredients:

1 lg. heavy head of iceberg lettuce

1/3 head of purple cabbage

1 celery heart + green tops

4-5 big green onions

1/2 med. sweet onion

3 lg. pickling cucumbers

Cut the lettuce in half, then slice it one way then the other, into cubes. Do the same with the purple cabbage. Slice-chop the celery and onions. Rough peel then slice-chop cucumbers into the mix and toss well.

Today I took a big handful of the lettuce mix and added:

2oz. smoked Lake Superior Whitefish

1/2 sm. avocado

juice of 1/2 lemon

2T± EVOO

salt + pepper 

Then a Strawberry Salad sounded good, drizzled with Thai Coconut dressing.

I added macadamia nuts after I took the photo.

This was just lettuce mix, tomato, mushrooms, avocado with ranch dressing and fresh ground black pepper.

Today I had company for lunch and we had 3 or 4 smaller salads with tomato and avocado with our soup and bread. This mix made a LOT of really good salads!

Remember, salads are good all year-round. . .Lin

A Good Salad begins with. . .A Great Lettuce Mix

I have a wonderful Progressive brand salad spinner (lettuce washer) I bought at Walmart for under $10.  When I start craving salad, which is pretty much always, I put together a lettuce mix so I can store it in the 'fridge.  Once that's done, a really great salad is just a few minutes away.

This mix contains green cabbage, regular romaine lettuce from a 3-pack, purple romaine from a gourmet lettuce 4-pack, sliced fresh baby spinach and sliced onion.  Chop and wash the lettuce, spin it dry, then add the cabbage, spinach and onion.  Now you're ready to create 5 or 6 big salads over the next several days.

I made some of my Lemon-Olive Oil Dressing, adding 1T of garlic from a jar, a drizzle of honey and 2T garlic aioli mustard. I used that one each of these salads. If you love vegetables, raw, steamed, canned, like I do, It's ALWAYS Salad Season! Make a lettuce mix and put salads into your daily diet.

Here are the ones I created from this particular mix.

Be Bold - Be Creative - Go Salad Crazy! . .Lin

+ avocado, tomato, walnuts,
mushrooms, cucumber

+ avocado, tomato, white beans,
cucumber, hard Irish cheese

+ tomato, garlic-stuffed olives, white beans,
fresh mushrooms, feta 

+ lentil sprouts, white beans, feta

+ lentil sprouts, pickled vegetables, feta

Make A Lettuce Mix!

As soon as I start craving a salad, the first thing I do is make a great Lettuce Mix, the base for all my salads for the next several days.  Today mine was:

• 2 long heads of romaine
• 1/3 lg. head of green cabbage
• some fresh spinach
• 1 lg. purple shallot
• 1 lg. carrot

Once those are all cut, chopped, sliced the way I want it with the greens washed and spun dryin my salad spinner, it's my blank canvas for the next few days. I can grab a handful, just as is, dressed with vinegar and oil, salt and pepper to go with a stroganoff, or a bowl of chili and have everything ready in no time. Or, like today, I was craving salad. Typically, for me a salad isn't complete without fresh, small, bumpy pickling cucumbers and a perfect avocado. I didn't have those, and by the time the kitchen was cleaned, a salad was still on my mind. To the big handful of this Lettuce Mix, I added walnuts, mung bean sprouts, half a peeled tomato, a little feta cheese, and Raspberry Vinaigrette, because where there are walnuts, spinach and feta...well, that's just how it is! This was exactly what I was craving!

The leftover tomato gets stored with the Lettuce Mix right in the container of my salad spinner. A great one by Progressive I found at WalMart for right around $10 😁 Apparently, they realized what a great deal these were, since the price is now more than double! Still a great deal though. I love mine. Happy Salad-ing! . .Lin

A Healthy Salad Mix

I've been doing a lot of listening and reading lately, trying to sort through all the information floating around, regarding nutrition.  My old standby, my 5 Ingredient Salad, has always been my favorite go-to.  It would (will) be hard to turn my back on that.  However, I've learned that tomatoes and cucumbers 2/5 of the salad, contain high levels of lectins.  The 'jury' still seems to be out as to whether or not they should be reduced or eliminated from our diets, but I do know lectin containing foods are inflammatory.  Having many auto-immune conditions, which are perpetuated by inflammation, for myself, I'm going to eliminate foods high in lectin until I hear or read otherwise.

This is one version of a healthier alternative.  If we shop carefully, at food co-ops and farm stands, we can later, check our vegetable drawers for good salad mix ideas.  Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, kale, cilantro, parsley, celery, green and purple cabbage, radishes, kohlrabi, onions, romaine and all types of lettuce, carrots. . .SO many good choices!

This time I used Romaine, Purple Cabbage, Green Cabbage, Celery, Carrots, Onion, and added black beans, avocado, and some bleu cheese crumbles.  The dressing I was craving today was made in an old Good Seasons cruet using apple cider vinegar, rosemary seasonings, water and good quality extra virgin olive oil.  Clean eating can be fun as well as healthy. . .Lin

5 Ingredient Lettuce-Vegetable Mix

Shown in Salad Spinner Bowl—>

2 romaine hearts

a big handful of fresh spinach

1/3 med. head of cabbage

1 med. sweet onion

1 fat carrot - scrubbed

Slice the romaine lengthwise, then make 1½" crosscuts.  Put this in your salad spinner, rinse, soak then drain and spin until dry.  The salad spinner shown is a priceless find!  It's a Progressive brand spinner and is under $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond as well as Walmart!!  I've tried others over the years, mine as well as friends.  You can spend anywhere from $10 - $100 on one, and you'll have a hard time finding one you like better than this!  Such a bargain!

With Feta Cheese, Capers & Tomatoes

Almonds, Beans & Tomatoes Added

In a large bowl, or the bowl from your salad spinner, combine this with the spinach; either left whole, or sliced a little; the slice-chopped cabbage, quarter-sliced onion, and julienned pieces of the carrot.   

With Beans, Capers, Cauliflower

Toss this, grab a handful, and it's ready.  By itself, with your favorite dressing, or add any and all of your favorite accouterments: chopped tomato, avocado, capers, artichokes, chopped mini-English cucumber, cashews, black beans or garbanzos, sunflower seeds, cheese, croutons, or. . .whatever strikes your fancy.  😉  Here are three big salads I've made with this salad mix in the last couple days.  There's still enough for one or two more.  I also added canned corn and feta to the last one!  So good!  And healthy, but NOT low carbs or calories.  Have Fun-Be Creative-Happy Cooking! . .Lin 

Carrot Tossed Salad

a little crunchy Iceberg lettuce
sliced red cabbage
Earthbound Farms Baby Kale
Chinese cabbage
red butter - Boston - lettuce
sweet onion
1 lg. heirloom carrot
extra virgin olive oil


pear infused white Balsamic vinegar
pink Himalayan salt
black and red ground pepper
crumbled bleu cheese
craisins & pecans - optional

Chop or slice the first 5 ingredients for the lettuce mix. Put a big handful in a large salad bowl.  Add sliced, onions and carrots.  Sprinkle with oil and vinegar, season, toss then top with crumbled cheese, craisins and pecans. . .Lin