Salad for nothin', chicken for free

When we were up in Angels Camp with my parents last weekend, my mom told me she hardly grocery shops anymore unless someone forces her.

"I can pretty much always find something to eat," she said.

This was amusing to me, because my memory includes long stretches of her being out grocery shopping. I swear it used to take her three hours to get the shopping done each week. I never understood this until I became a mom and realized exactly how blissful it can be to wander the aisles all by yourself. Even now that I am not at home full time, I regularly take an extra hour or so to peruse the clearance shelves at Target. I find the best stuff there!

Anyway, coming back around to my original point, I think I have inherited my mom's gift for being able to make a meal out of nothing. This is a good gift to have. We came home from our trip Tuesday night and although the fridge looked pretty empty, I have not yet had to go shopping.

Here's what I made for lunch today, out of bits and pieces of different stuff I found in the corners of the fridge and cupboards. Don't gross out; I didn't use anything rotten. The chicken was fresh.

Chinese Chicken Salad From Thin Air

Whatever lettuce you have left in the fridge (I had maybe 1/2 cup)
1 stalk celery, sliced on the diagonal
1 carrot, sliced on the diagonal
About 1/2 c raw broccoli florets
About 1/4 c chopped almonds
About 1 tsp pickled ginger shreds
About 1 tsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 of a cooked chicken breast
2 tbsp Soy Vay sesame dressing

Toss it all together. It's a lovely magical lunch for one.

(By the way, a kid from our ward just stopped by to tell us he got his mission call to Tokyo! Super cool! It gave me chills!)