Thursday, May 24, 2007

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!)

6 comments:

SalGal said...

ARR!!

Sounds good to me!

Unknown said...

Hello sweethart, you know, you simply cannot go around telling everyone we're texting, they might get jealous, savvy?

See you Saturday...

Rachel said...

What a great talent. Any chance you can come to my house and make lets say...chicken enchiladas, "out of thin air?"

Angela said...

yummy!! But I would never have fresh cilantro and ginger just sittin' around my kitchen! I think I need you to do my shopping for me!

And I totally agree about Target clearance shopping--it's one of my favorite things to do! It's dangerous though--Target is only one street away from my house!

Unknown said...

Ang, get pickled ginger in a jar. It keeps forever and can just sit on the shelf with all your other condiments.

Cilantro was just a good coincidence. Or you could grow it, then it would be around.

Unknown said...

Rachel, if you have chicken, onions, and some other basics I could maybe do it!