Yet Another 5-Ingredient Salad

1½ romaine heart ~ cut off end

~ cut vertically then across

¼ sm. green or purple cabbage

~ slice thin or cut in ½ cubes

½ med. onion - sliced

2-3 pickling cucumbers ~ cubed

1 lg. carrot ~ scrubbed and grated

tomato and avocado

My Original 5-Ingredient Salad contained: lettuce mix, onion, cucumber, tomato and avocado.  Lettuce Mix is a loose term since it always contains more than lettuce.  I don't buy pre-packed, I make my own.  Cut or tear the lettuce of your choice into your salad spinner and get it squeaky-clean.  Enhance it with the addition of cabbage, carrot, spinach.  Balance these with thinly sliced kale, radicchio, or other bitter greens (even radish greens!) for a whole different pop of flavor.

Onion. . .Ohhh onion.  Todays salad has solidified my love-hate feelings about purple onion.  Love it cooked, in chili, dark soup or stew since cooking often turns it an odd blue-green!  I thought of Dr. Seuss the few times I used it in an omelette!  I tried once again today, but I stand by my original parting-of-the-ways with numerious TV Foodies regarding putting it in a raw salad.  I hear from several of them that purple onion is the 'mildest' of onions, therefore perfect for this.  Nope!  To me at least, it's the most aggressive of all the onions.  My hands down favorite for a tossed salad is a perfect Vidalia onion.  One that's short and wide...think puffy hockey puck!  They're the best!

I add the onion to the lettuce mix.  Cucumbers too, if they're in their prime.  Otherwise, don't put them in the lettuce mix.  Check them each day for freshness and slice them on the salad as you fix it.

Once the lettuce is spun dry, I put it back into the bowl of my spinner and add whatever else I'm using in the current mix.  I store it there, covered in the 'fridge.  Grab a handful, add tomato, avocado and dressing. . .So easy for a quick lunch or dinner side salad for the next several days.  Today I added gorganzola crumbles, sunflower kernels and my Lemon Olive Oil Dressing *  Summer is the perfect time for a big, colorful salad.  Remember to shop at your Local Farmer's Markets for the best, freshest locally grown vegetables. . .Lin

Slow Eggs and a 5 Ingredient Salad

Scrambled Eggs

½T butter

2 lg. pasture raised eggs

a splash of half and half

Rosemary Seasoning *

Leftover. . .for another big salad!

5 Ingredient Salad

sliced romaine lettuce

½ cubed firm avocado

Sliced Vidalia onion

*chopped cucumber

*chopped tomato

Lemon Olive Oil Salad Dressing *

The other day, this was breakfast.  I love vegetables with some great well raised, perfectly cooked, brown eggs served together.  

Whisk the first group together in a medium glass bowl.  Pour this into a small non-stick pan with the butter melted, over low heat.  These should take about 10 minutes, start to finish.  Leave them a while, then slowly move them around the pan.  Repeat this until they're the way you like them, but go slow...

Arrange the first 3 salad ingredients on the plate.  *I'm seeing a new Chiropractor and reading a book on nutrition he recommended, that's very informative.  There is so much interesting information available about the foods we eat and ways to make them healthier!  Nightshade Vegetables: potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers are bad for people with inflammatory issues and auto-immune diseases.  Additionally, tomatoes, cucumbers and squash, with seeds we eat, such as zucchini, all contain lectins.  The lectin in tomatoes and cucumbers is diminshed greatly, and they're made healthy, simply by peeling and removing the seeds.  The cucumbers are self-explanatory, but the tomatoes can easily be peeled if dropped, for a minute, into boiling water.  Remove and put them in ice water for a couple minutes.  Quarter them, cut out the cores, and the skin will slide right off.  Remove the seeds and continue with your salad assembly.

Drizzle with the dressing, plate the eggs and savor your Beautiful Breakfast 😃 . . . Lin

Chive Flower, Pistachio, Cilantro-Ranch 5-Ingredient Salad

Anytime I begin with one of my 5-Ingredient Salads, things can only get better and more interesting depending on the current additions. This time, I added mung bean and lentil sprouts, pistachios and a couple pulled-apart chive flowers. The entire chive is edible, and the flowers are often overlooked for an amazing onion-y pop of flavor, as well as their pale violet color and delicate beauty.

The other wonderful, surprise, addition to this salad was the dressing. . .

I combined equal parts of ranch dressing and coriander (cilantro) chutney. Ohhh my. . .so much freshness! However, be aware, there are Serrano peppers in the chutney, so depending on your heat preferences, you may not need to add black or cayenne pepper. After I dressed the salad I realized another great, flavorful addition, would have been a finely minced, crushed, fresh garlic clove.

Mmmm . . . It's Salad Season!
Have fun with them! . .Lin

Another Take on my 5 Ingredient Salad

Salads should be a year-'round part of our diets. My original 5 Ingredient Salad is made with tomato, cucumber, avocado, onion and a lettuce mix usually containing romaine, cabbage and spinach. Today I skipped the lettuce but added fresh mushrooms and some peanuts.

This was lunch today, a late lunch, after grocery shopping, voting and a few other stops in town. I found a new tea at Aldi's today.  Pomegranate, Blueberry, Acai berry. I added lemon juice, zest and honey. That was really good with the salad and a ciabatta I made a while ago and froze. I heated up a big piece of that and spread it with Swiss almond cheese spread. Today's salad dressing was Lemon-Olive Oil Dressing. . .Lin

5-Ingredient Salad

I make these a lot. Once you find a mix you really love, you'll always want to have some in the 'fridge. My perfect 5-Ingredient Salad consists of:

~Lettuce Mix – a blend of any 3 of these is good: iceberg, baby romaine, red cabbage, red butter lettuce, red frieze, green cabbage, green butter lettuce, green frieze, oak leaf, arugula, radicchio, etc. . .

~Onions – green, red, white or yellow

~Cucumbers – pickling or mini English cucumbers

~Tomatoes – any size, shape or color

~Avocado – a perfect one – not too ripe

Once the lettuce mix is prepped - chopped, washed and spun dry in a salad spinner - it keeps nicely in a covered container for many days, ready for whatever other ingredients you want to add.

Try mine or pick your own – thin-sliced carrots, fresh mushrooms, baby zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. It's nice knowing a fresh, healthy salad can be ready in just minutes. . .Lin

". . .Salad. . .

For me, when I'm craving a salad, perfection is my 5 Ingredient Salad.  A lettuce mix, tomatoes - all colors, avocado, onion, cucumbers.  Any variation on this is just great with me.  However, 'salad' may conjure up all sorts of images, potato, jello, coleslaw, Caesar, Italian Bread Salad, or one with pasta, prosciutto, cheese, turkey pastrami, etc.  It might include, tuna, croutons, raisins or craisins, olives, seafood, artichokes, seeds, nuts, chicken, hearts-of-palm, or any combination of the above.  The important thing is to be creative and use good quality, fresh components.

Today, since I had leftover Tamari-Garlic Chicken for lunch, I decided a 4 Ingredient Salad (no lettuce mix) with Sunflower Seeds and Swiss Cheese, was just right for dinner.  One of my favorite Burgundy Poppy Seed dressings was getting toward the bottom of the bottle, so I added some White Balsamic Vinegar and it was just perfect. . .Lin

Colorful Food

Current nutritional wisdom tells us we should plan our meals around the color pallet. There are certain vitamins an minerals associated with each of them. Variety ensures a healthy balanced diet. The tomatoes are what inspired my post for today.

The end result of this photo is one of my 5 Ingredient Salads. In this salad, each component can be as simple or complex as you'd like.

My LETTUCE mix today is red leaf lettuce, romaine hearts, sliced onion, radishes and chopped red cabbage for a nice crunch. Since I recently bought 10# of Vidalia ONIONS, they're showing up in a lot of my recipes right now. While this mix isn't just lettuce, lettuce is the base and the rest are compatible ingredients since they're all relatively dry. They can be mixed days ahead and the leftovers store well together. I chop and slice all of those, wash in my salad spinner, then refrigerate what's not used in the large plastic covered bowl that is the base of my spinner.

To the lettuce mix I add the remaining 3 ingredients. The only CUCUMBERS I buy are the long, skinny 'Burpless' English, Mini-English, or pickling cucumbers. So crisp and fresh tasting! I feel the regular dark green, smooth skinned common grocery store cucumbers, the 'Straight Eight' variety, are tasteless, watery, have horrible big nasty seeds and tough plastic-bag skins - ick!

In my opinion, the TOMATOES with the best flavor are the huge, big-shouldered, red beefsteaks. However, the ones for today are so pretty! The orange and yellow also are quite low in acid - if that's a concern for you. AVOCADOS are a staple in my kitchen and wonderful in tossed salads. Since they're the most delicate, I add those last.

The finished 5 Ingredient Salad is shown here with croutons and 3 salad dressing I make regularly - Recipes for all of the above were posted earlier. Happy Cooking. . .Be bold and creative with your colors! . . Lin

Creamy Chili Garlic Dressing (and a salad)

2T chili garlic sauce

2T white balsamic vinegar

6-8oz. mayonaise

If you like things hot and spicy, just combine these 3 ingredients in a shaker container, shake, and you're done!  If you're not fond of the idea of all those chili pepper seeds surprising you with a blast of heat, strain the sauce, rubbing it with the back of a spoon, into a little bowl,  Stir the strainer contents a bit, then press, repeating until you've extracted all the sauce and are down to seeds.  Drizzle a teeny bit of vinegar over the seeds, stopping to stir and press again.  Continue with this until you run out of vinegar.  Pour this into your shaker jar.  Add mayonnaise and shake well. . .Lin

¼ sm. head of purple cabbage

1 baby romaine heart

3-4oz. baby kale

6 green onions

1 big carrot

lentil sprouts

Those of you who follow my blog probably know that my ultimate definition of A Salad is this one *  Today my lentil sprouts were ready to eat, and the lettuce mix I made a few days ago was gone.  I have no tomato, avocado or cucumber, so I was forced to totally deviate from my usual 5 Ingredient Salad.  This ended up being sort of a "clean-out-the-'fridge" salad!  It's good to do that once in awhile, to expand our brains which seem to like to be fixed on one or just a couple ways, of doing things.  Use your salad spinner for the romaine, baby kale and cabbage.  Scrub the carrot then slice lengthwise into long julienne strips and cut them about 1" long.  Add the rest and toss.



This all turned out wonderful.  A nice lunch.  There was enough leftover, for another 3 bowls of salad this size. . . Ahhh, more for later!  Be Bold, Be Adventurous, Think Outside Your Normal Routine, Happy Cooking! . . . 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

Another Lettuce Mix for 5-Ingredient Salad

I talk about and publish variations of this all the time. :o) When we find or create a good thing, we need to keep it in the forefront of our minds.

1 Romaine lettuce

1 mini green Frisee lettuce

1 mini red Boston (butter) lettuce

Slice Frisee, Boston and Romaine lengthwise-twice into quartered heads, leaving attached at the stem end. Turn and slice crosswise into the strainer basket of a salad spinner. Rinse and spin several times.

2 mini English cucumbers

1/3 of a large head of red cabbage

2 sm.-med. Vidalia onions

Scrub cucumbers and take a little of the stem-end peel if you want. Slice into cross sections and add to the spun-dry lettuce mix. Slice-cube the cabbage, half and slice the onions. Toss into the lettuce mix. Cover and store in refrigerator. Keeps for 2-5 days.

This salad travels well. Wherever you are, when it's Salad Time, put a big handful of lettuce mix in a bowl, slice tomatoes and avocados on top. Toss, dress and serve. . .Lin

Pineapple-Strawberry Pico de Gallo

Earlier this summer I knocked my own socks off when making one of my 5 Ingredient Salads. I was in the chopping-slicing stage when I discovered my tomatoes were less than stellar. I checked the fridge and there it was - a perfect container of strawberries. Okay then, worth a try!?! What a great salad! Try substituting strawberries for tomato the next time you make a big, fresh, garden salad!

Today I was thinking I'd make salsa when I saw my perfect tomatoes. I changed it to pico, then wondered about strawberries. . .In the end. . .Strawberries Won! I don't know if anyone else ever uses celery in pico or salsa. I had 2 big bunches of it, and this celery heart really wanted to marinate with its 'fridge mates in the bowl, and, Who Am I, to say no to such gorgeous celery?

1 lg. clove garlic

1/3 poblano pepper

1 celery heart and tops

10 oz. cleaned strawberries

4 oz. frozen pineapple

1 lemon - zest and juice

1 oz.+ fresh cilantro

1 med.-lg. Vidalia onion

1t fresh ground black pepper

1/2t Himalayan pink salt

1-2t fruity white Balsamic vinegar

Finely mince the garlic and pepper, chop the rest and gently combine in a medium glass bowl. Serve with corn chips or quinoa chips. Grind it up a bit, and spoon it over any grilled meat: chicken, fish, shrimp, steak, burgers. . .This would also be great over a wedge salad with a drizzle of poppy seed dressing.

Or just grab a fork - Pico Salad! 😉 Lin

A Big Salad. . .

Sometimes all you want at the end of a long summery day is a really great salad.  Tonight was one of those nights.  This is a variation on my 5 Ingredient Salad, posted here earlier.  Instead of one of my homemade dressings I decided to try this funky stuff I found in a grocery liquidation store.  It's really interesting, low carb, gluten free and full of all sorts of healthy things - some of which I've never even heard of.

First make your lettuce mix.  Be creative.  Today this is what I had in the 'fridge, but it varies each time.  This will be enough for several big salads.  Any leftover lettuce mix stores well in a Ziplock bag:

1 sm head of red Boston lettuce
1 heart of Romaine
1 c  shredded cabbage
fresh basil and cilantro
Chop the above, wash and dry well in a salad spinner.

In a big individual bowl, combine a big handful of the lettuce mix with:
3/4 c  frozen peas - thaw in a strainer in warm water
1/2    avocado - sliced
1 sm  tomato - quartered and sliced
1/8 lg Vidalia onion - sliced
Gorgonzola crumbles
Pepper and dressing

Ahhhh Summer - - Welcome to Salad Days. . . Lin

Ahhh, Yes - Another 5-Ingredient Salad!

Start with a good quality lettuce mix - Do Not use packaged 'salad' or 'lettuce mixes' - they're FULL of preservatives and usually not at all fresh.  This time I used a mini head of Green Frisee and a mini Red (Butter) Boston and 1/2 a small head of red cabbage.  I cut all those up and ran them through my salad spinner.  Then I added:

1  beautiful, ripe Pink Heirloom Tomato - sliced or chopped.  This one was ripe enough to peel

2  long, thin, bumpy pickling cucumbers - rough peeled and chunked

1  perfect avocado - peeled and cubed

1/2  Spanish Sweet onion

Combine all — toss, let stand for 5 minutes to let the juice from the tomato bring out all the flavors.

Top with your favorite dressing.  I also added some snipped cilantro at the end this time.  If there are ingredients you don't like in this recipe, omit those and substitute your own.  Grated carrots, broccoli, I've found though that other than the lettuce mix, if you have more than 4 ingredients the flavors get lost in the muddle.

Be creative and have fun!. . .Lin

Cabbage Chopped Tossed Salad

Chinese cabbage

purple cabbage

½ sweet onion

½ lg. tomato

½ avocado

2 med. pickling cucumbers

crumbled bleu cheese

This is a cabbage version of my 5-Ingredient Salad. Rough slice and chop all the vegetables into salad bowls. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, season with finely ground red pepper, black pepper, and Himalayan pink salt. Splash with some really good balsamic vinegar. . .Lin

My Go-To Salad

This is one version of comfort food for me.

A fresh 5-Ingredient Salad with a side of rinsed-drained red beans.

Dressed with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and my favorite Balsamic vinegar.

A sprinkle of coarse grey Celtic Sea salt and some fresh ground black pepper.

Happy Salad Days to you! . . . 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 

5-Ingredient Salad with Beans

Today a big salad sounded great. A handful of the kale, onion, cabbage, lettuce mix, ½ a can of beans for some great soluble fiber, kohlrabi, white and green pickling cucumbers, half an avocado and a tomato. The avocado is also surprisingly high in fiber.  Dressing was Fig Balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

Eating cleaner, closer to the way food grows in nature, is a great goal. It helps with weight loss, blood pressure, stabilizing blood-glucose levels, mood fluctuations, headaches, etc.  I'm excited to see the changes. . .Lin

German Potato Salad Soup

I thawed a package of 6 Quail and also 1 Pheasant to roast over the weekend for a family get together after church this past Sunday. Rather than a fussy sit-down roast poultry dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, etc. I decided to keep it casual. I made an interesting version of something similar to German Potato Salad and a cucumber, tomato, onion salad to go with the roasted meat. After lunch, I took off all the meat, packaged that, and made a pot of bone broth with the bones and skin.

I'll probably make a stroganoff sort of thing with the leftover meat, either all 18oz. of it, or half and use a chicken salad recipe for the rest, so stay tuned for those.

Meanwhile, I still had leftover hot potato salad to turn into something else. Today I decided to make soup, using mashed up potato salad as the focal ingredient. This potato salad has onion, celery, dill pickles, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, a bit of sugar, salt, pepper, and crumbled bacon. Mashing it somehow seemed the logical thing to do.

Slice-chop the scrubbed vegetables shown: carrots, celery, green pepper and garlic. Sauté these a few minutes in 2-3T butter. Add a couple ladles of bone broth, cover and simmer with seasonings and bay leaves for about 15 minutes until they're all tender. Remove the bay leaves, then mash everything in the pot to a rough-mash stage with a potato masher.

Add the mashed potato salad, stir to combine. Ladle in more bone broth to make it just barely 'soupy.' Simmer this on low for 5-10 minutes. Check the flavor, then stir in a can of coconut milk if you'd like, or just stick with bone broth, using enough to make the consistency right for a rustic soup. Serve with a little shredded cheese on top. . .Lin

I had a bowl of this, made with coconut milk, without cheese on top, and I have to say, it's for sure one of the most interesting soups I've ever eaten! 

A one of a kind recipe, and since there's 3 quarts of it, I'll be working on this pot for a while. It's surprisingly good!

Garlicky Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad

Here we are, in the midst of a, predicted 8"-16," blizzard, but I suspect we've far surpassed that amount! People are cross-country skiing down my street, into the wind! They're all bundled up, wearing goggles, pulling toboggans filled with small children. . .And I'm craving salad!

I have all the components for one of my 5 Ingredient Salads...but...I also had everything needed for an interesting Brussels sprout salad. And. . .The tiny 'cabbages' won out!

Start by whisking the dressing in a medium bowl then add the fresh garlic:

3T Moroccan EVOO

3T Heinz Salad Vinegar

2t spicy brown mustard

2t Maple syrup

1t lemon pepper seasoning

1 lg. garlic clove minced-smashed into a paste

~ a mortar & pestle works best for this

Add the following to the bowl:

2oz. craisins

1/2c chopped Vidalia onion

1 small celery heart + greens

10oz. thinly sliced Brussels sprouts

Fold everything together and continue to mix until all the chopped vegetables are well coated with the dressing. Heat this in a microwave for 40 seconds to jump-start the blending of flavors. Mix again, then chill a couple hours before serving. This would be great with grilled chicken, lamb chops, steak or salmon. . .Lin

Fish and Vegetables

Sauteed Corn and Potatoes
2 ears of fresh corn

3 sm.-med. Yukon Gold potatoes

1 med. Vidalia onion

a few shakes of Rosemary Seasoning

several sprigs of Lovage

Cut kernels off corn cobs, half then slice potatoes and onion. Combine this in a non-stick pan in 1T butter. Sprinkle with a little Rosemary Seasoning and saute' covered over med-high heat for 5 minutes. Uncover, reduce heat and stir occasionally. Add finely sliced lovage leaves and stems. Continue to saute' until potatoes are done the way you like.

Tilapia — Melt 1T butter in a non-stick frying pan. Add fish that has been peppered and sprinkled with seasoned salt. Fast fry on both sides.

Serve with Sauteed Corn and Potatoes and a small 5-Ingredient Salad. . .Lin