Fast Salads

This time of year – I am buying all my produce at the grocery store with the locally grown produce seasons still a couple of months away. Once the season starts there will be a lot more cleaning and cutting to make a salad. Right now I am savoring that I can buy my salad ingredients in nearly ready to eat form: mixed leafy greens and purples,

Broccoli and cabbage slaw, and carrot sticks.

I combine them in my salad bowl and use scissors to cut them in to smaller pieces (no cutting board or knife required).

Shelled soybeans and salad dressing goes on top.

Lunch is ready in under 10 minutes!

Chicken Soup

Yesterday was blustery and cold. When we first got up there were a few snowflakes but the only place I could find that they were sticking was the skylight on the covered part of our deck (as seen from my office window). The day alternated between a gray winter day with short periods of brilliant sunshine.

It was a good day for making Chicken Soup with the leftover chicken from earlier this week. I started a pan with water, a chicken bouillon cube, and a cup of shredded summer squash from the freezer (left from last summer’s CSA). By the time I had cut up a few mushrooms to add, the squash had thawed and the liquid was bubbling. I added seasonings (not measuring…just added what I thought would be enough): onion flakes, my own grated orange peel, minced garlic, ‘original’ Pinch Perfect no-salt blend. I decided that cilantro would be good in the soup but it has more flavor if it isn’t cooked too much so I put it in the soup bowl and cut it up with scissors – with the plan to pour the soup over the fresh greens. Finally, I cut up the chicken and added it to the simmering soup. It took about 15 minutes…and was just what I wanted for lunch!