Eat from Home Challenge

With all of the marathon weekend activity last weekend, we never got around to doing a big haul grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s as we normally due each weekend. Add in the fact that my knee was too sore for me to get many groceries during the week, and you have a hungry girl without many food options.

Enter morning scones from Starbucks, sushi from Teriyaki House, salads from Rebecca’s and a shrinking bank account, not to mention I felt pretty awful for all of the packaging wasted in each food purchase.

So this week, we did an ample grocery shopping trip and will have to make do with what we have. I am hoping it will spark some creative meals and get me to use up some of the stuff in our freezer or pantry. The challenge starts Monday morning, and I will keep you posted every day.

One thing I hope to eat of lot of this week is salad. Last week, craving something crunchy and cold, I did go to the market to buy a few things for a Cobb-like salad.

I started with a bed of butter lettuce, grape tomatoes, and sliced mini cucumbers. I love cucumbers so much; they feel like such a hydrating addition to a salad.

Then came the bacon. As you know, I am not a full on vegetarian, even though the majority of my diet is veggie. I was originally craving some real bacon, but watching the Law & Order SVU episode about the slaughterhouse this past week kind of turned me off. . .

Enter Morningstar Farms bacon strips. Even my meat loving husband thought they were close to the real deal, and they provided the salty, smoky crunch we were looking for.

I added the crumbled bacon to the salad veggies, then topped it with crumbled gorgonzola cheese and hot sauce.

Soooooo good. So good. This is a meal salad, and it was full of flavors and textures, crunchy cold veggies, crispy “bacon”, and soft, tangy cheese.

To make this even more delicious, I bought several avocados to chop up in this salad next time. I kind of want to eat it for 3 meals a day, it is so good. If you like these flavors, definitely give this salad a try. It made a really good lunch one day last week, and I expect that it will make a repeat appearance at my desk this week.

What are your favorite salad toppings?

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