I have a major vegetable problem. In that I don’t eat nearly enough of them (and neither do my kids, by extension). I don’t have a lot of interesting ways to prepare them, I’m not particularly adventurous in trying new ones. It’s not a good thing.
Enter the always versatile Salad. Salad is a good thing. Lots of different veggies in one place, endless possibilities. The go-to lunch of any good dieter. So why do I have such a mental block on them? I have great intentions. I bring home a head of lettuce, some tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, broccoli, etc. And it just sits and goes bad in my vegetable drawer, because making a turkey sandwich sounds like a lot less work. Oy, the washing and the chopping and the putting away half of a chopped cucumber because you don’t need it all, but hope it won’t go bad before you want to use it again…. this can’t just be me, right?
My other issue is that, as well as I try to dice up the individual components, it never seems to combine as well as I might like. Even when I hit the almighty Salad Bar, the pieces are just too big. I don’t want one big honking mouthful of broccoli, followed by an enormous slice of cucumber, and then an unwieldy whole leaf of lettuce.
Take, for instance, this lovely box o’ roughage that I picked up at Whole Foods yesterday:
Lots of great color and variety, but ugh.
ENTER: the Salad Scissors. (Keep reading if you want to win a pair!)
My mom had a pair of these bad boys, and I instantly knew I wanted them. Two scissor blades with a sort of scoop on one side to hold veggies in place and let you toss them around. Lucky me, she had already gotten me a pair for Christmas. Wohoo! Just take your bowl or box of veggies, and start chopping away.
Go nuts. Get all of those giant cucumber slices and wedges of bell pepper. Chop the lettuce into little bits, and get the cherry tomatoes, too. Within a minute, you have this gorgeous mess:
Everything in tiny little pieces, all mixed together. I am so much happier, I can’t even tell you. Just one bite, and I get a little lettuce, some carrot, some onion… everybody just gets along. And, as an added bonus, I find it much easier to distribute dressing, so you can just use the 2 tablespoons you’re supposed to use, instead of ending up with globs on one leaf of lettuce and a whole lot of dry broccoli.
Et voila, lunch is served and you get your nice chopped salad at home.
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So, what do you think? Do you want to win a pair for yourself? Leave me a comment on this post and tell me either what your favorite salad ingredient is, or your favorite vegetable dish. I need some ideas! The contest will close on Monday, October 26 at 5PM Eastern. U.S. folks only, please, as my beloved Williams-Sonoma does not ship overseas.
And if you’re wondering about disclosure, nobody paid me for this or sent me these things to give away. I just really like them, and will be swiping no one’s credit card but my own. Enjoy!
LIZ!!! You have solved my salad nightmare! Even if I don’t win, I may go out and buy this wonderful implement! I love your comments about unwieldy vegetables and unevenly distributed salad dressing – so tragic, yet so avoidable!
DH and I both love vegetables, salads definately included! We’re happy with lettuce and tomato, but we both love “everything” salads–the usual suspects of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, and then we add the fun stuff–kidney or garbanzo beans, baby corn, pickled beets, jicama, broccoli, cherry peppers, and whatever else the crisper or pantry yields. The spray-on dressings were a little weird for me to get used to, but they are quite tasty. I would recommend trying one of those. I think they are made by Wish-Bone.
My SIL swears by putting salsa on broccoli. The bonus is that they are all vegetables.
Those scissors look awesome! They would be great for the “everything” salad!
OH MY GOD. This is revolutionary! My big issue with salads is I like to have the foods equally distributed. This is why I love a good chopped salad. Also why I hate burritos – all the rice on one side, beans on the other. Give me a burrito bol I can mix up any day.
My fave salad things to add are nuts and fruits. Probably my all time fave salad to make at home is lettuce, grilled chicken, grapes, pistachios with balsamic vinegarette. Sometimes I replace blue cheese crumbles for the dressing.
Jon’s fave salad is southwestern: lettuce, corn, black beans, tomatoes, jack cheese, red bell pepper, etc.
As for eating vegetables, having been a vegetarian I’ve got tons of easy recipes.
Roasted green beans: toss green beans with olive oil and salt, roast 450F for 10 min. Stir around, roast 10 more minutes. It takes them to a totally different place. Bonus: green beans are low WW points.
Making these sweet potato “fries” tonight: http://chewonthisvegan.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/baked-sweet-potato-shoestring-fries/
.-= LauraC´s last blog ..The great Halloween costume debacle =-.
I love broccoli and serve it about 4 times a week. Thankfully, Katie loves it too. I like the recipe below to kick it up a notch. I don’t use real butter and less than it asks for.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Broccoli-with-Garlic-Butter-and-Cashews/Detail.aspx
We also do carrots with ginger, green beans with lemon zest and almonds, roasted asparagus with a little Italian dressing, roasted red potatoes with rosemary, sweet potato fries, (Kate thinks these are French fries we have them so often) and whatever gets thrown into the crockpot.
I have never heard of salad scissors…looks like something I could really use in my kitchen. I go on salad hiatus every now and then and I just got out of one, so we are doing salads almost daily. One day each week I try to get in 11 or 12 servings of veggie/fruit, (it’s a weird goal for me) and the only way to do it, is to have two huge salads each day, one at lunch and one at dinner. I can knock out 4 servings with each salad. If I did that everyday, I would be a size 4, but, alas, there are doughnuts on some of the other days.
SPAGHETTI SQUASH! I make this instead of pasta and eat it with Trader Joe’s basil marinara sauce (and sometimes I add mushrooms and onions to the sauce). Delicious!
Tabor Salad is my favorite salad – romaine lettuce, avocado, oranges, walnuts, grilled chicken, shallots, and dressing (we use a homemade orange dressing – whisk together 1-1/2 cups fresh oj, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 T balsamic vinegar, 1 t salt, 1/2 t pepper
I’m a big fan of spinach and garbanzo beans. Oh, and raisins.
Except for the spinach, I normally only get the others at restaurants
.-= Mike´s last blog ..A Math Trick for Counting by 2s =-.
That is an awesome gadget–surprised Oprah hasn’t featured it yet.
I just made roasted brussel sprouts last night and they were a hit.
Halve the sprouts and place them flat side up on a baking pan lined with foil.
Douse with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover with balsalmic vinegar.
Roast on 425 for about 15 minutes, the remove from oven and seal up the brussel sprouts in a little packet, using the foil that was under them as they roasted–this adds a little extra steaming time.
Voila! Wonderful taste to a veggie that I used to find repulsive.
Extra bonus, works with many, many veggies and all types of tubers.
.-= Emily´s last blog ..I’ll never… =-.
this is brilliant! It looks like it would also totally work for chopping veggies for pasta salad or stir-fry. Funny, my husband was scolding me over the wkend for cutting our WF stir-fry veggies in the flimsy plastic container they came in with a knife.
For favorite veggie dish, I’ve been making big batches of stir-fry — mostly veggies, plus shrimp or tofu, and any other protein could be substituted as well — over the weekend, then eating it with brown rice for lunch during the week. Relatively healthy & yummy too.
I have a love/hate relationship with salad. When they are served to me in a restaurant: love. When I have to take out all the stuff to make them at home: hate.
I have so many things I like on salad. Some of my favorites include black olives, red onions and red grapes. LOVE the red grapes.
My favorite veggie dish (one that the kids will eat as well): cooked green beans with raw, halved cherry tomatoes, tossed together in a little fat free Italian dressing. Colorful and delicious!
.-= Cynthia´s last blog ..Good Night. =-.
Those are SO COOL. I think my favorite salad ingredients are kidney beans. Good source of protein and they help fill me up when I’m using the salad as a main course. If the ingredient has to be a vegetable, I’d have to say sprouts. Yum!
Those are awesome! How did I not know about those until now. I have the same hang up with salads as you do, but these things might just take my salad consumption to the next level.
I am a huge fan of salads with fruits/nuts. I love salads with craisins included and of course, I always love some sort of cheese on my salad. But, I guess that kind of defeats the purpose of eating a salad, doesn’t it?
.-= Erin´s last blog ..Future Domers =-.
You’re not alone – I suffer from the same problem. Love a good chopped salad, pretty much against any other type of salad, and so not interested in all the work it takes to make a good chopped salad – nifty tool or not. Enter NYC’s latest salad craze – the chopped salad chain – Chop’t, Just Salad… I can go on. Ridiculously $$$ but definitely superior to ordinary salad. Next time you’re here, I’ll introduce you, or maybe we should go to Brasserie instead – they have the most amazing chopped chicken salad – so, so good. Wow, I miss working in midtown right now… alas, there is neither a Chop’t nor a Brasserie downtown and the salads at Just Salad just don’t even compare.
I second Raisins as one of my favorite ingredients. I also love the Cosi signature salad with the light sherry-shallot vinaigrette..I loved getting salads when I worked downtown DC and had them for lunch everyday. They truly are so much harder to get right at home…good luck and it looks like your new gadget might be the answer!
DANG! Those are super cool. Wonder if that would help ME eat more salad….
I tend to like all of the heavy stuff (figures for those times your at the salad bar place that WEIGHS food, right??): Cucumbers, garbanzo beans (or chick peas – if that’s what you call them. Personally, I just like saying “Garbanzo!”), little baby corn, tomatoes, bacon bits… But just romaine for me…no stinkin’ bitter greens please!
.-= Nancy´s last blog ..Scaring the Crap Outta My Kids =-.
That is one of the coolest inventions ever. Some of my faves in salad are garbanzo beans and raisins. For some reason, they just seem a little unsuspected.
.-= Susan D.´s last blog ..16 months =-.
My easy go-to salad consists of spinach (love those big bags from Costco, although they could be 1/2 as large), pistaccios, craisins, feta cheese, and extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
As far as getting your whole family to eat more veggies, try veggie lasagna (great recipe recently in Parents magazine) or even a meat lasagna with a hefty dose of veggies. There are also some good healthy version recipes for mac-and-cheese that use califlour in place of some of the pasta and sharp cheddar so you need less cheese. Other than that, we’ll throw just about any veggie in the oven with salt, pepper and olive oil (sweet potato “fries” are the best!) or in a skillet on the stovetop (like zucchini, onions and mushrooms). Yum!
.-= Tara´s last blog ..Flower Power =-.
That looks awesome! My favorite salad ingredient – sprouts and kidney beans. A little protein in the salad helps tide you over.
.-= Stacy´s last blog ..Overheard =-.
Oh wow, those are awesome! I almost never enter blog giveaways, but you’ve just enticed me
I like sliced hard boiled eggs in my salad. And crumbled blue cheese. And sliced strawberries. Mmmm. Guess what was in my salad tonight? Lettuce and arugula. Good, but a little spartan, even for my tastes
I think you know I write for (a couple) cooking blogs…one is very veggie-focused and might give you some ideas. This is one of my favorites, roasted garbanzo beans with swiss chard http://localnewengland.blogspot.com/2009/06/roasted-garbanzo-beans-with-swiss-chard.html
This butternut squash soup is also awesome, healthy, and quite seasonal! http://localnewengland.blogspot.com/2009/10/butternut-squash-soup.html
.-= WhatACard´s last blog ..An interview with N-man and B-man =-.
I love the before and after salad pics! I also hate getting gobs of dressing on one lettuce leaf and then mouthfuls of dry ingredients at the end. This tool sounds like a great salad saver.
As for my favorite things to add, I’d have to say red onion and beans. Oh, and sunflower seeds too.
Believe it or not, my daughters love salad… yet shun vegetables by themselves. These salad scissors would be a great tool to hide things in salad. My favorite ingredient is Lite Raspberry Vinagrette dressing. OK, that’s not really an ingredient, but if it’s on a salad I’ll eat whatever else is in the bowl.
.-= Quadmama´s last blog ..Private Parts =-.
Wow, those scissors would look nice in my hands
So I am known to family & friends to make the best salad dressing… I’ll take the compliment…
I squirt a tablespoon or so of honey dijon or honey mustard, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I use 2/3 balsamic to 1/3 olive oil. I season the salad with garlic salt and pepper. Try it and let me know what you think. And, sometimes I will replace the mustard for honey.
I am not a fan of cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes etc. I use mixed greens, peppers ( prefer red, orange or yellow, avcocado if ripe, red onion chopped, carrots, celery ( all for crunch) cranberries, chickpeas a handful of walnuts, croutons and either goat, feta or blue cheese. I always make a salad with dinner and kids love it, but I think they like the dressing.
If I am making it for lunch I add tuna or chicken….but I too never feel like my lunch salad is as good as one I would pick up.
Your salad looks delicious, I gotta get me some scissors…
Those scissors are amazing! Cedars (the people who make the Hummus) make an awesome chickpea salad, of chickpeas, edamame, carrots, dried cranberries-very tasty and adds some zest to my boring salads. When I’m “on the wagon” I also use a very healthy dressing using Flax seed oil, Apple Cider vinegar (both so good for you)- you can also add lemon juice, and seasoning.
We love the bagged salad kits at Trader Joe’s – spinach and dried berries and cheese and nuts and dressing – sometimes we’ll add in pomegranate seeds or roasted sweet potato (a little odd, but yummy – that started from when I had leftovers from making oven fries) – also diced apple. Yum.
Perfect! I’m always having to cut up salad ingredients the old fashioned way. My favorite add-in lately has been candied pecans or other nuts – a good source of protein. And the sweetness is a good offset to lettuce if you skip a lot of dressing (although honestly, I’m a dressing whore).
.-= Mommy, Esq.´s last blog ..Morning Laughter =-.
First of all, that thing is the bomb. I don’t make “typical” salads but I think that would wokr for me.
That said, the key to a good salad is hitting different food groups. Who says you have to only have veggies?? That’s why people hate veggies – because they don’t know how to dress them up! For me, the ideal salad has an interesting green – I like arugula and watercress. Next, you need some nuts. And, if time allows, toast them. Just plain on a pan with heat – no oil. Really brings out the flavor. Fruit is always a great addition – I am partial to strawberries. Goat cheese is a must for me. Beans (like kidney beans, chick peas, even black beans) make a salad feel more like a meal, too.
On the veggie side, I like to add roasted vegetables because I think they are tastier.
Dressing for me is usually just olive oil and vinegar – with all those yummy ingredients, you don’t need to rely on the dressing for all the flavor. And most dressing have HFCS and/or vegetable/soybean oil which I am not a fan of.
.-= Nicole´s last blog ..11 Months =-.
Love these scissors…what a great idea! I love black olives and those dried cranberries on a salad. Also, sometimes I through in some sunflower seeds or lunchmeat for added protein!
As for veggies, my girls love them. I just hate to make them
I try to do lots of soups and casseroles that have everything in them. A favorite recipe is Leftover Turkey Pie (great around Thanksgiving!). I also use chicken in it. http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1639,147160-254192,00.html
I was going to suggest the beans that LauraC mentioned, but instead I’ll add that it works for just about any vegetable. I’ve done beets (cut into matchsticks), okra (whole), sweet potatoes, and green beans. I pretend they’re french fries and can go through a ridiculous amount while watching tv or reading. Very healthy, very tasty.
Crunchy chow mean noodles!!! They are the perfect crunch and I get so burnt out on croutons. We started using these a few weeks ago and now my husband will finally eat salads. The chopper looks amazing- I hate the big bulky chunks too!!!
mein, not mean. oops!
Awesome idea! I don’t really mind big chunks in my salads…but this would be super useful for the kidlets.
My fave salad
spinach, orange slices (mandarin or regular), bell pepper (any color), raisins (or craisins), cashews, cheddar cheese chunks, sesame seeds and chicken or veggie chkn strips. Top with your fave asian sald dressing! Yum!
Those look awesome!! I love to eat salads, just not make them very often. I love all types of veggies in mine, I also love the nuts and dried fruits, gives it a totally different taste.
Man – I’m the same way about veggies. I wish I could eat them more! My fave thing to add to salads is kidney beans, and a good go-to for a non-salad veg is sauteeing some broccoli in a little olive oil and then sprinkle it with some brown sugar and salt and pepper, or red pepper flakes if you like.
.-= Erin´s last blog ..iCried =-.
The most frustrating thing about eating out in the US was the unmanageable salads. To me, it seems that every salad should be chopped. What a fantastic contraption!
I recently discovered that I eat too many veggies or, rather, not enough of everything else. You just can’t win!
.-= Sadia´s last blog ..Not in love with Halloween =-.
Oh – sorry for the second comment, but artichokes and apricots make any salad better, and are super-good for you.
.-= Sadia´s last blog ..Not in love with Halloween =-.
Those look great!
My twins love salad but I hate chopping everything up small enough so they won’t choke. I love to add canned beets to my salads, makes everything turn pink, but is so yummy!
Wow, I think if I don’t win them, I’ll go out and get a pair myself!
My favorite salad ingredient is French Feta. It’s not as tangy as Greek or Danish and is super creamy!