shadsy

okay SO i went to whole foods during my lunch break to get a few things, and then i thought i forgot to lock my car, so i basically did a speed-run of the whole thing, and also resisted the siren song call of whole foods sushi. their sushi there is good! but i didn't get to have much of a salad thing yesterday, and if you look at previous editions of this blogcast, you'll know that i ALWAYS try to have at least one portion of dark leafy greens per day. so this was distressing me.

ANYWAY i stopped by the premade salads and after a survey, i decided on the field greens & goat cheese salad. been really getting into goat cheese lately. it's delectably creamy and a brilliant contrast in a salad. my spouse and i went to the boutique restaurant and they had it in their arugula salad. divine. five stars.

so i get home, i put everything away. so this salad on the surface has:

mixed greens (spinach, arugula, that purple-y lettuce, etc.)
goat cheese
candied pecans
dried cranberries
balsamic vinaigrette (on the side)

so i'm like "cool that's smart choices!" turns out there's 43G OF SUGAR IN THIS SALAD. WHAT?!? so i said "okay, okay, this has got to be pared down somehow. i can modify this". which kinda defeats the point of a so on the go premade salad, but i was just bringing it home As A Treat, For Me. the salad modding went as follows:

candied pecans: now that will add a lot of sugar. i just took them out. luckily for me, i had REGULAR chopped pecans in the cupboard, so i added roughly the equivalent that i took out
dried cranberries: not necessarily bad on their own? but there were a ton of them. i took out about half, maybe even 2/3. just enough to give a little sweetness. like to be clear it was like a whole snack pack of raisins worth of them
i used maybe half of the dressing when tossing the salad
added a couple freshly sauteed chicken tenders, chopped, to add a little protein

i'd say that i cut the sugar down by quite a bit doing all that! not that i have any way of actually measuring that.

and OH MY GOD. IT WAS. DELICIOUS!! mind blowing. i've got to get some goat cheese and make this same business on my own. i'll even do the balsamic! it goes with the meal!! maybe once i go through the romaine (that i just bought) and i'm getting more salad stuff, i'll get some mixed greens and make this salad.

for those of you keeping track at home, here are my salads so far:

SALAD A: "MODIFIED CEASAR"

romaine lettuce
chicken if applicable
parmesean cheese
dressing: olive oil, lemon juice, coarse dijon mustard, minced garlic (jar), pinch of salt

SALAD B: "ARUGULA:

arugula
parmesean cheese
dressing: olive oil, lemon juice, pinch of salt

SALAD C: "MIXED GREENS THE GOAT"

mixed greens
chopped pecans
dried cranberries
goat cheese
dressing: balsamic vinaigrette

i think i should be okay just buying that off the shelf and not needing to try and make it myself. it SHOULD just be balsamic vinegar and oil. but if i go shopping and it's anymore complicated than that, then we've got trouble. (stevie nicks voice) whole lotta trouble

that should do it for now. wow we're really posting here lately! also might need to make a white woman wednesday: tuesday edition tag if this keeps up