Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Works For Me Wednesday


I enjoy reading all the Wednesday tips on Shannon's blog and today I thought I'd add my own. It's my very first WFMW!


My tip is about salad. I love salad, but only if I have a large variety of ingredients and they are all fresh and crunchy. Hubs will tolerate salad, but will eat very, very few ingredients. I hate left over salad that is already all mixed up. Some ingredients go bad faster than others, then you have to toss the whole thing. I used to not prepare salads at all. It just seemed like they went bad too fast, for just the two of us.

Then I changed how I make salads and the new system works really well. First, I make a big bowl of lettuce. I prefer a mix of romaine and spinach, but will sometimes add other baby greens. I can just pick and choose what looks good and is on sale and mix it up at home. In the TW bowl I keep it in, it actually stays fresh for a very long time, much longer than if it were stored in the bag or with other ingredients.

Then I pre-chop all the other ingredients and put them in individual containers, even the little ziplock/glad containers work well for this. I like to have a large variety: olives, bell pepper, carrots, broccoli, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc. There are only 4 containers shown above, but sometimes there are more.

When we make dinner, there is no extra time spent making salad - it's all already in the fridge. I just get out all the bowls and we each get to make the salad we want, and if one ingredient is looking a little suspicious, you can toss it without tossing all of it. Recently we went to some friends' house for dinner; they asked us to bring the salad. My containers were still pretty full so I just put them all in a bag and headed over. They were so impressed that we all got the salad we wanted, with really gourmet ingredients. When we were done, I packed up my containers, put them back in my fridge, and they still lasted a long time more.

Works for me!

http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2006/08/works_for_me_yu.html


3 comments:

Rae said...

I hate how ingredients go before others do when you mix it all together.. so thanks for the great tip! Welcome to WFMW! =)

Unknown said...

You're right--I hate that leftover tossed salad with little cucumbers going bad.

Welcome to WFMW!

Overwhelmed! said...

Welcome to WFMW!

I really need to try this at home. I like salads but, like your husband, my husband is will at best tolerate salads and isn't much of a veggie fan. I end up throwing a lot of salad stuff away because I don't eat it fast enough and it spoils quickly in the plastic bags I keep it in from the grocery store.

I'm trying to make a conscious effort to eat healthier, so I'm going to give this method a try!

Thanks for sharing!