Bonus post

To all our loyal readers – I’m sorry I’ve fallen behind on posting and even taking pictures.  I promise to do better.  I have good excuses – trips to other states, iPhone problems, etc., but none of them can make up for my delinquency.  Hopefully this helps a little, though:

We were in Manhattan and thirsty, so we stopped at a Rite Aid to buy some water.  But the cheapest water bottle they sold was $1.59, and this behemoth was also $1.59, so … we bought it!  And drank from it freely.  And lugged it around the city.  And brought it all the way back to DC

Five Guys Fries Salad

‘Nuff said.

Guest post by … Sarah!

I’ve enlisted Sarah’s help, since I’m not always around when she eats her salads (unfortunately), to send me a picture and description so we don’t miss any (or we miss fewer – I’m still not perfectly in the habit of taking the pictures and notes each time I witness a Sarah Salad, and the lag time between salad consumption and salad posting is in even more need of improvement).

Here’s lunch from last week:

I bought it for $3.25 from the cafeteria, pre-made.  I added cracked pepper and some balsamic vinegar.

iceburg lettuce

swiss cheese

cheddar cheese

ham

turkey

hard-boiled egg

sliced cucumbers

grape tomatoes

shredded carrots

shredded purple cabbage

cheap and satisfying

Back to real salad

Some of our readers have complained that most of the salads so far are really just other food masquerading as salad, hiding on top of a thin veneer of Romaine.   Some of our readers have even accused of a bait and switch with the blog title, suggesting alternatives such as “Sarah’s Regular Old Food” or “Sarah’s Anything You Ever Eat.”

Ok, that’s a lie – we don’t really have any readers, or at least not any that contact us (in that sense they take after their mother).  But if we did, they’d probably be saying things like that.

In response to our imaginary readers, I give you today’s lunch:

Ingredients:

Kiwis

Redleaf lettuce

Havarti with dill

Avocado

Pomegranate seeds

Roasted acorn squash (with butter and sugar, leftover from last night)

Bosc pear

Slivered almonds (sauteed with kosher salt, olive oil, butter, dillweed, and ground mustard seed)

Whole almonds (Tamari roasted, sauteed along with the slivered ones above)

I like meat.

There.  I said it.

You might think this would conflict with Sarah’s penchant for salads … but you would be wrong.

I was ready to eat Sunday night, and Sarah cooked up a fantastic melange of chicken, sausage, onions, and spices to go over the lettuce (and next to the equally delicious acorn squash).

That one is Sarah’s plate.  The orange-ish stuff in the upper left-hand corner is mashed carrots-and-potatoes-and-onions.

And that’s my plate.  I am clearly a better eater than Sarah, if only in terms of quantity.  On the quality front, Sarah probably still wins, though.  Exhibit A: the pomegranate we had for dessert ended up on my sleeve (despite the valiant efforts of a Williams and Sonoma apron).

In other news, it turns out that an overnight soak in cold detergent water will completely remove pomegranate stains from a white dress shirt.  Don’t rub it, do get it wet quickly and thoroughly.

Oh Yes We Did.

I had heard about Dominos new recipe reinvention/admission that their shrinking market share was related to their statically inferior product, and Saturday offered the perfect chance to try it out, since Sarah and I were making another valiant effort to get something accomplished on each of our long-standing writing projects and didn’t want to take time to buy and make food for lunch.  So we logged in to dominos.com, found a coupon code for two medium two topping pizzas for $12, added a free order of cinnastix (thanks again, slickdeals!) and picked up some Romaine (and shampoo and contitioner – I had run out) at the Giant on the way to pick up the pizza.  Which led to …

Dominos Pizza Salad!

You can’t tell from the picture, but Sarah had been cutting up her pizza in order to make sure it was well integrated with the lettuce.  Just goes to show you can feel better about eating anything when it is a salad.

Admittedly this was a stretch of our only eat out once a week rule, even if we did bring the pizza home.  The pizza was pretty good, and lasted until Monday lunch (skipping over Sunday and Monday breakfast, so three meals total).

Thai goes to the blogger

On Friday our good friend Linda was in town with her friend Liz, and the pickings were slim at the international potluck/birthday party (maybe because we came two hours late? and/or because we didn’t bring anything?) (but Trader Joe’s mochi is the new best thing in my life), so we decided to go out to dinner.  I still hadn’t used a restaurant.com coupon (which I recommend – make sure to read all the rules for usage first, and make sure to check for 80% off coupons here) for Neramitra Thai.  Also it was nearby, and Liz hadn’t ever had thai food, so it was a go!

We put in a special request for a side of lettuce (as we usually do), and they brought it out with no questions asked and no additional fee (as they usually do).  Which led to …

Panang Curry Salad!

Yet another example of the anything-can-be-a-salad principle, which is especially important to remember when eating out, since restaurant salads are so often a disappointing afterthought at best.

And for the locals, Neramitra Thai turned out to be not so impressive.  A strange color scheme (strangely copied on the plates) combined with a selection of loud Kenny G music in the background, violet walls, unusual light fixtures and an abortive attempt at a sports bar to create a sad sort of ambiance.  And the food was pretty much all disappointing – the curry was watery, the pad thai noodles were mashy and the taste of everything wasn’t quite right (which was sad for Liz – we made her promise to try thai at a good restaurant before giving up on it altogether).  On the bright side, the $25 discount from the restaurant.com coupon (which only cost $2 after 80% off, and was easy to use since the $35 minimum goes quickly with four mouths to feed) helped take the edge off the disappointment.  But I wouldn’t recommend the place even when using the coupon.

Stuffed shells salad

One of Sarah’s deepest salad insights is that anything can be a salad! Take a favorite meal, add some quality Romaine lettuce and anything else salady around, and presto – you have yourself a salad.

For example, last night’s dinner started out as stuffed shells (bartered from a roommate using the remainder of the barbecue pork). Tear up and wash the rest of a head of Romaine, add some otherwise-sad-looking Roma tomatoes and canned green beans, and voilà!

A Succulent Sunday Salad

Sunday evening was Sarah’s roommate’s vegetarian dinner.

Sarah, of course, made a fantastic salad.

Look at those tongs

I, of course, brought a barbecue pork shoulder. But everyone loved the salad.

The recipe:

Starfruit
Blackberries
Oranges
Candied pecans (honey, kosher salt, a little candied ginger)
White Stilton with candied lemon
Avocado
Romaine lettuce

Sarah

is awesome, it turns out.

Salad is ALSO awesome, it turns out.

What could be awesomer, I asked myself, than a blog about Sarah’s salads?

So I started one.  Bon appétit!