Fresh, but Simple Salad

The beautiful flowers are just because from my parents. 

Even though I am not vegetarian, a lot of my favorite meals lack meat or can stand alone without meat.

Before I was dating my husband, I ate meat about once a week to once a day. Then I started cooking for him and meat had to be included in each meal. In his opinion, chicken isn't exactly meat. Since I don't eat fish, I had to get creative a with the hamburger and pork products. :) This meal is one of those stand alone types. But if you had leftover chicken it wouldn't hurt the flavors by adding it in.

This is a meal that I crave in the spring and summer. I love to eat the fresh veggies and this is a quick way to get a lot of them in one bowl.

Simple Salad
1 Heart of Romaine Lettuce torn into bite sized pieces
Leftover carrot shreds
1 Red Pepper chopped
Olive Oil Vinaigrette Dressing (I used Bolthouse Farms)
A splash of Kraft Parmesan cheese
A dash of fresh cracked pepper

Extra for lunch the next day 

Combine in a big bowl, or separate them into bowls as you cut them up. Serve and enjoy. If you have time to make it ahead, chill the salad with the cheese. It sets up a little nicer that way. I would have loved to add cucumber to this recipe, but I ate the last of ours before this salad. You could also add some walnuts or pecans for a dry crunch. Either way it was satisfying.

You may notice in my pictures there is blue tape on containers. I live in a shared kitchen. My family doesn't have to eat gluten-free and yeast-free, but I do. I have a roll of bright blue electrical tape that I label my leftovers, condiments and speciality foods with as an indicator for people to be careful with/ or leave that item alone. This helps cut down on the cross-contamination in kitchen. The only hiccup is when people come to visit or for parties and have yet to learn about the tape.

Our pantry has a few baskets that have blue tape and all the items inside the basket do not have to be marked. The benefits from the electrical tape is that it is sticky enough to stay on an item, but removes easily enough that pieces of tape can be reused multiple times before having to be thrown away.

I still write GF on some items, like my peanut butter jar. But this cuts down on writing on tupperware, or cheese zipper bags. Not only is it a waste of time, but sometimes, the writing doesn't come off the tupperware, and therefore would be mislabeled. In the case of the cheese, there is already so much print on one bag, that I think gluten-free would not stand out well to others.

Blue Tape in Action

How about you? Do you have a system in place? Or do you live in a gluten-free only kitchen?