Chopped salads = easiest weeknight dinners!

My body has been craving salads, which is unusual for late December. I think that it is telling me to get some nutrients after my holiday indulgences, and I agree. I haven't been doing very well with the ketogenic lifestyle lately, and it is time to get back on track.

Whenever I crave salad, I want something interesting and somewhat gourmet, but I don't always have a lot of time to wash and prep my veggies. I am also somewhat picky about salad greens, because I can not tolerate the chunky white parts of lettuce, so I take a lot of time to go through and remove all of them whenever I make a salad. I discovered these new(ish) Dole chopped salad kits, and they are good! They are easy to eat, since everything is chopped into little pieces, and there isn't much of the chunky white parts to pick out.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work tonight, and I got a Sunflower Crunch chopped salad kit, which has cabbage, kale, carrots, sunflower seeds, bacon bits and a sweet onion citrus dressing. It was $3.49. I also got a rotisserie chicken for $6. Rotisserie chicken is the best thing ever for low carbers. I don't have time to roast chickens! Nor do I really care to touch raw chickens. $6 is such a low price to pay for the convenience of getting one ready to eat. And they are always so juicy and delicious. We took our ingredients home, chopped up the chicken, dumped the salad and chicken into a bowl, tossed with dressing, and devoured. You can't get much easier and healthier than that! And, compared to our usual habit of going out to eat all the time, it was very economical at just under $10 for two people. I've made it my New Year's resolution to eat way more of this meal in different variations- I am thinking around three times a week. Besides Sunflower Crunch, these chopped salads also come in the following flavors: Sesame Asian, Bacon & Bleu, BBQ Ranch, Chipotle Cheddar, and Summer Garden Blend. (Dole should be paying me for this free advertising, but they're not!) That will ensure I am getting all kinds of good vitamins and protein, and it will be so fast and easy. That is a resolution that I think I can stick to!

Recipe: Smoked Salmon Salad with Creamy Lemon Garlic Dill Dressing

We have a stockpile of salmon in our freezer right now. When we got our new car in February, the salesman from the Volkswagen dealership chatted with Kent, and found out that he works at a company that designs computer games, and is therefore fairly computer savvy. He asked Kent if he'd be willing to help him with his computer, which wasn't working, so Kent went over and ended up replacing the hard drive and revamping it for him. As a token of appreciation, we received a bunch of the salmon and trout that he had caught. This is just the kind of funny stuff that happens to Kent, being a nice guy and willing to help people. We'd already tried some of it grilled, and wanted to try to smoke it at home. Kent loves his Trager pellet-fed smoker, and found a recipe on how to smoke his own salmon. It turned out great! I wanted to use it to make some sort of recipe that used the same flavors as one of my all time favorite pasta dishes, minus the pasta, of course. This is what we came up with.

Pre-mixing, so you can see what's in it!

 Smoked Salmon Salad with Creamy Lemon Garlic Dill Dressing

1 large filet of smoked salmon (probably need 2 if using store bought)
1 package of Spring Mix salad greens
6 radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 of an English cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 package of sugar snap peas, roughly chopped
1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 a pint of cherry tomatoes, each one cut in half

For dressing:
1 cup mayonaise
1/2 pint of buttermilk, approximately
1 Tablespoon dried dill
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
Juice from that lemon
1 Tablespoon minced garlic from a jar, including garlic bits and some of the juice
1/2 Tablespoon cracked black pepper
pinch of Maldon or other salt

Whisk mayo in a bowl, and add buttermilk a little at a time until the consistency looks right. Add remaining ingredients and whisk to combine.
I like to use my mandolin slicer to get perfectly uniform slices of radish and cucumber. I even used it for the red onion, and that method completely eliminated any onion tears. In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients. Take a picture for Instagram. (Wait, that's just me.)
Pour all dressing on the salad and toss to combine. This makes enough for 3 huge salads, so if you plan on taking some for lunch the next day, set aside some of the dressing first and pack up your lunch portion of salad before you put the dressing on the rest to keep it crisp.

Here it is all mixed up and ready to eat. It is so hard to force myself to stop and take pictures first, but I do it for the greater good. :)