Helping each other keep on track with the goals we've set for ourselves.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Looking for veggies

I don't have it often, but I've been craving veggies today, and a salad in particular. Maybe I just haven't been getting enough servings of fruit and vegetables so far this week, but I'm finding it irritatingly difficult to find a salad. Not just any salad, but preferably a not too expensive salad bar like place where I can get lots of veggies and not much lettuce or cheese or meat or other sources of protein (that's what hamburgers are for).

Usually I'd pop across the street to the dining hall of the dorm for my usual little bit of spinach, lots of beets and peas, maybe some broccoli or shredded carrots and whatever else looked appetizing (can be difficult at times), but it being spring break around here, they're closed.

So, I went down the street and started perusing menus and peeking at tables. Most places has a caesar salad which is almost entirely romaine lettuce, and house salad which is mostly lettuce, a pale slice of tomato, a few shreds of carrot and/or red cabbage, and maybe some onion. You might find an entree salad which is guaranteed to have some sort of cheese (usually blue or feta) and grilled chicken. I found a pea salad that had bright orange cubes of cheese and enough white fattening dressing that I found it downright scary. Oh, did I mention that being lactose intolerant lack of dairy in my salad is a BIG plus? Lastly, none of the above mentioned salads would have cost me less than $5 after tax and tip; that includes the caesar and house salads without chicken.

So, I'm stuck at my desk eating old baby carrots and a squished green banana. I might go back down to the corner store to grab a bag of Terra chips since that's the closest to veggies not in a salad I could find. Plus, I'm hoping that I remembered to ask M to pick up some veggies, any veggies, on the grocery list I left him last night. Otherwise, I might have to drag a toddler to the co-op for an early evening veggie run.

4 comments:

Ann in NJ said...

Around here, I would say you are fighting the season. Even in the grocery store, the fresh salad veggies are looking a little tired or way too expensive. Not being a big salad eater, I'm sort of waiting for our CSA farm to start up again and force me to consume 6 heads of lettuce. A week.

Lisa C said...

Heh Ann, that sounds downright meant! Of course I started seeds for cucumber and carrots so that they'll be ready to go outside in a month or so. Lettuce starts are already in the ground here in my planter box I made last fall! I'm going to have a lot of greens if the shoots all make it, I figured not all the seeds would germinate, and boy was I wrong... I'm missing one of my cucumber plants (of 18) and 5 of the carrots of the same amount. Had to warn one of my quilt groups I may be foisting plants off on them in a month or so.

ooolia said...

When we had a CSA, I'd just compost the lettuce since there's NO WAY we would eat most of the lettuce. Sometimes I'd pass it on to neighbors and friends, but eventually I just gave up.

Ann in NJ said...

I composted (rather, threw the extras in the woods for the deer), gave away, etc., but still did end up eating way more salads, which was a good thing. It's so much fresher than the store and so much more variety. But it's a lot. Everything else was in more manageable quantities. It was a good year for lettuce. That was only half a family share!