Meatless Monday: Everyday Salad Dressing

I know it looks like we’re mostly a pork household around here given this and this and this but I promise we really do eat our greens (and our reds, oranges, yellows and purples too).

Everyday I take a salad to work for lunch. If you’re anything like my co-workers, you’re rolling your eyes at me: “oh how virtuous of Marilene, eating a salad for lunch; she never gets takeout, she never eats junk”.  I can assure you my daily bring-my-own-salad- for-lunch ritual has much humbler (and less noble) origins…

I’m too cheap responsible with my money to pay for overpriced, low quality, low nutrient food. Think about it, $10 for lunch every workday is $2500 a year spent on food you could make for less at home. Think of the trip you could take with $2500…

I used to take leftovers for lunch but we started to run out of food. I’d make a stew for dinner and instead of it serving as dinner for 2 nights, it was gone the next day. I don’t have time to cook everyday so it’s just wiser to take something else for lunch.

M makes them for me. Yes that’s right, my husband packs my lunch for me everyday. With homemade dressing. Need I say more?

I know you’re asking why he makes homemade dressing when there are so many bottled ones available. Each day of the week your greens can travel to a new part of the world. Greece! Italy! France! The Thousand Islands! But those exotic excursions in a bottle are full of refined vegetable oil, sugar, artificial flavours and waaaay too much salt. As is my motto, homemade is always better.

Salad for lunch doesn’t have to be boring either. The variations are endless, see some of my favourites here.  And they’re also quick to pack up whether you do it the night before or the morning before work. Here are some of our foolproof tips:

1. Whip up the dressing using a handblender-this way the ingredients will emulsify and the dressing will be easy to pour. Make a big batch so it lasts all week long.

2. Pour the dressing into small single serve jars like these at the beginning of the week so you can just grab and go. Or take your big jar of dressing to work and pour as you need. Packing your salad into a mason jar also works well, just place some dressing in the bottom of the jar and pile the vegetables on top. Shake together when ready to eat.

3. Buy pre washed salad greens. Ain’t nobody got time for washing lettuce. Pack all the ingredients into a mason jar and voilá!

4. Add chopped fresh herbs to your salad. We really like mint and parsley. But cilantro or tarragon will take you to entirely different salad flavours.

5. Bring added protein. My favourite is a can of sardines because they’re cheap affordable and they are calcium, iron and omega-3 rich. Pre-cooked chicken breast, hardboiled eggs or salmon salad also works well.

And there you have it, greens for lunch so you can have pork for dinner.