Why Your House Should Have A House Salad

If you're anything like me, when you hear the term "house salad" mental images of some really sad chopped romaine, two cherry tomatoes, some grated carrot and a lonely crouton come to mind. Am I right? That is NOT the house salad we're talking about today.

Today I make a case for creating your own House Salad. A salad that is your signature: loaded with only your very favorite veggies and toppings. A salad you always have on hand and know you'll always want to eat. It'll take the pressure off of coming up with a veggie side or random salad and give you ZERO excuses for not eating your vegetables daily.

I discovered many years ago that when I bought a bunch of fresh veggies I thought I should eat, more than half of the time I didn't. I was buying interesting things at the store, and then finding that in the busy routine of Monday - Friday, I was not experimenting with new purple lettuce or green tomatoes as I had envisioned. So, one day I elected to create my very own House Salad - a baseline salad of my favorite veggies that I know always taste awesome together, and I make sure that I always have all of those ingredients in the house.

Every Sunday when I head to the grocery store, I always have the basics of my House Salad on the list. Do we eat other salads? Yes, of course. Lots of them. But this is the one we always have all the ingredients for. And, now that I have my House Salad well established, I've learned to transform it into many different salads by adding nuts, berries, fruit, different cheeses and proteins, but that base collection of delicious and healthy veggies has never changed.

I'm happy to share with you The TINY Kitchen baseline House Salad in all it's yummy goodness. I encourage you to think about what makes up your perfect simple salad, and to build your own Signature House Salad that becomes a part of your regular eating routine.

INGREDIENTS

Raw Spinach

Grape Tomatoes

Garbanzo Beans

Yellow or Red Bell Pepper

Red Onion

Low Fat Feta Cheese

Cracked Black Pepper

Light Balsamic Vinaigrette

DIRECTIONS

In a mixing bowl, place your raw spinach. I use 2 cups when the salad is a main part of our 2-person dinner. I use one handful when making my own lunch.
Half grape tomatoes, add to spinach. Use as many as you like! For dinner, I use about 10 - 14. For my lunch, I use 5-7.
Dice a colorful bell pepper, and add to the spinach and tomatoes. I use half a pepper for dinner, and 1/4 for lunch.
Dice the red onion, and add. I traditionally cut one slice of red onion and then dice it up for our dinner salad. I use about half that (or less) for lunch.
Add garbanzo beans. I use canned beans, rinsed. Add half of the can for your dinner salad, and 1/3 for lunch.
Give the veggies a generous sprinkle of cracked black pepper.
Add 1-2 tbs low fat feta cheese
Add 1-2 tbs balsamic vinaigrette
Mix everything together and serve!