Set Up a Salad Bar at Home
I’ve been talking about how much I am enjoying eating salads these days, they are the perfect meal for these super hot days. Plus really easy to put together! I started making them randomly by just tossing whatever I had handy in a bowl. Confession: this was pretty much sheer laziness, I just wanted to prepare lunch as quickly as possible.
A couple weeks ago while meal planning for the week I came across this recipe for an orzo chicken salad.
It’s made with shredded chicken, orzo, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red peppers, arugula, basil, parmesan, and a garlicky vinaigrette. I knew we would all love it, but since I am avoiding carbs, and my son won’t eat anything green, I decided to serve it deconstructed, so each of us could make individual salads. It was a complete hit! So this week, when meal planning I started from that concept, and we have done salad bar dinners every night.
At the start of the week I made shredded chicken and shredded pork using my InstantPot. Then I prepped the following:
- cherry tomatoes
- avocado
- green onions
- red onion
- red pepper
- arugula
- spring greens
- sweet corn
- pasta
- cucumber
- cilantro
We stuck with the dressing from the original recipe which seems to go with everything.
Dinner this week has been uncomplicated, and delicious! Everyone builds a salad with the ingredients they are in the mood for. We’re currently experiencing a heat wave, so it was just perfect to have this laid back approach, plus a cold, delicious, and filling meal.
If you need a break form all the cooking, I highly recommend doing this! It takes a bit of time to set up at the start, but it’s completely worth it!