Rabbit Food - Er, I mean Salads

I'm super picky about my salads. The standard side salad leaves me cold-iceberg lettuce, a slice of crappy mealy tomato, a slice of cucumber with it's waxy skin still on it and maybe some sort of carrot shaving-with a plasticy ranch or neon-orange french dressing....you know the type.

But then the salads can get too 'trendy'. I do prefer a chopped salad, only because I don't like shoving a big ass piece of lettuce in my mouth. Some salads-its  alot of work to eat them. And I'm not a big salad 'garnish' person. Croutons, seeds, nuts, Chinese noodles, etc......naw.

I like traditional salads-a Chicken Ceasar, and a seafood salad with chopped egg and 1000 island-old school salads. Greek, the Wedge with the blue cheese-those types of salads. So now when I eat a salad as a meal-I don't mess around. I put a ton of stuff in.

Of course, I've had to forgo the chicken on the Ceasar, and lose the crab and egg on the seafood (so i don't even bother with that one) but Greek I can still do, and my favorite-Thai Beef Salad.

Minus the beef. If I am honest with myself-it's always been the dressing on that salad that has made me adore it. I found the recipe for the dressing and I will post it here. I make my Thai Now Beef-less salad with cabbage, and heirloom tomatoes, and mint and cilantro and basil and baby corn, but it's the dressing. It's ALL about this amazing dressing.

Asian Dressing

2 tsp brown sugar
juice of one small lime or 1/4 cup
1 1/4 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp of Sriracha (less if you want less spicy)

This dressing is a mix of sweet, tangy, salty, spicy and sour-every tastebud gets hit. To really bring an authentic flavor, use fresh cilantro, mint and basil ontop of cabbage mixed with lettuce. OYE so good!!!

Greek Salad...Omit Feta for Vegan. Cucumber, dill, mint, black olives, red onions, tomato and parsley. Can also add artichoke hearts. Squirt with lemon and Greek oregano. 

Garbage Salad. Let your imagination guide you! I have all colored peppers, zucchini, red cabbage, tomatoes, yellow squash, cucumbers to name a few!

Obviously, not all of these salads are 'vegan' per se. Some contain egg, some have some cheeses. Other's shown have tuna, or chicken pieces. But most are in fact, vegan. Though I will probably have to have my Tarragon Grape Chicken Salad once every 6 months. it's killer (hopefully not literally.) Fuck it it's a great way to go.

Rotisserie Chicken, shredded ( must. No other chicken will do)
Hellman's Mayo ( must. No other mayo will do.)
Tarragon, dried preferable.
Salt
Pepper
Red onion, minced
Red grapes, chopped
squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Mix all, garnish with almonds.

*CLEARLY NOT VEGETARIAN or VEGAN but hey, I include 'treat' food also, because my kids-who are not quite vegetarian or vegan may want our family recipes. So F off. 

But the point is really, that even if you began to eat thse non-vegan salads as a meal-you are doing your body a great service. So many people don't eat salads like these-unless they dine out and usually at lunch-and then they eat the 'side salad' which is nutritionally anemic at most dinners. Of course iceberg lettuce is the worse as far as nutrition goes, and surprisingly, straight-up plain Roman is very nutritious. You can use greens, kale, spinach, spring greens-the possibilities are endless. Just create a lettuce or greens 'base' and store in fridge. Kinda like this :

Then, chop you little ass off of veggies-or let the food processor do it.

Think of the combinations that you really love. And for some people, the Mason Jar salads are really a thing, and great for them to take to work.

Stolen From Here:

I guess my point is, is that there are as many variations of salads as there people. YOU know what you like. Chopped, plain, with lots of crap, dressing ontop, dressing on the side. You know that you can add veggies to rice, pasta, quinoa, beans, grains of all sorts, and make it a 'salad'. There are 'hot' salads and there are 'cold' salads. But truly people should aim to eating at LEAST 4 big-ass salads a week as a meal. Not a little side dish, but as the meal, with a nice bowl of soup. For me, nothing is more satisfying than a hearty soup and a salad.

When you make salads with the grains or beans-like the Black Bean salad above, or the quinoa veggie salad, you are getting a complete protein meal to boot. We need to get it out of our heads that things have to be hot or contain meat to give us complete proteins and nutrition.

As far as dressings go-read your labels. I mentioned before that I like Kraft because they don't use HFCS. They do however use oils and sugars, and many of their dressings have cheese in them. I probably shouldn't hawk Kraft since they are allegedly part of the GMO system and I should rave about some sort of off-brand, private brand, local artisan brand, some Whole Foods brand BUT-this is LOW CLASS vegan. This is average, run-of-the-mill garden variety Joe Normal Vegan. You want fancy and hard to find (and expensive)-it's around. I think some of the refrigerated dressings in the produce sections might be okay, and Lord knows-there are millions of recipes here in the interwebs of salad dressings, from traditional to classic to totally vegan and even oil-less.

Don't be lazy but if you will be, for God's sake at least pick up a bag of salad that has stuff in it already. Some of it is already so pre-assembled that you get the 'antioxidant' blend, which includes even the freaking sunflower seeds and acai berries for your sloth-ridden ass. OK. I'd rather see people consume that, than not eat salad or God forbid grab one pre-packaged from the deli, which is filled with preservatives and other unsavory for you stuff. Usually like the 'chef's salad' with gross processed lunch meat ham and cheese. Yuck.

Eat like a rabbit, and you'll wanna do other stuff like rabbits! ;)