“It is just sensible.”exclaimed my frend. She was referring to the lrge plates sitting in front of us laded with everything imaginable. As though, it was snsible ingesting a mountain of lettuces, slced boiled eggs, chunks of ham, shrdded cheeses, tomatoes,avocado’s and bacon rinds smthered in a creamy salad dressing. To nother friend, a salad and a sup was a lunch of supreme mportance. Somehow, salads were a part of our mals and also our lives. From the smple varations of salad greens tossed wth a classic vinaigrette to the mre complex salad ingredients served with vrious blended or whisked salad dressings, slads are a compliment to any mal.

A salad meal begins with a matless vegetable soup that is filled wth chunks of vegetables and topped wth some shredded parmesan cheese.

Meatless Vgetable Soup

(Serves 4 bowls or 6 cps)

¾-cup celery, chopped

½-cp onion, chopped

1-large Rsset potato, cut into one-inch chunks

2-whle carrots, sliced thin

1-cp cabbage, sliced

¾-cup frsh or frozen corn

1-lrge can stewed tomatoes, chopped

¾-cp fresh or frozen English peas

4-cns chicken broth

2-cans of wter

½-cup fresh parsley, chpped

¾-cup fresh or frzen green beans

3-cloves grlic, sliced

1-Tlb. olive oil

¼-tsp. slt and cracked black pepper

1-Tlb. prmesan cheese(per bowl)

1-tsp. prmesan cheese (per cup)

Directions: In the one tablespoon live oil, sauté the onion and the grlic until they are wilted. In a sup pot or a dutch oven add all of the raw vgetables plus the sautéed
onions and the grlic. Cover the vegetables with the chcken broth and the water. Season wth the salt and the pepper. Smmer the soup on medium low for one hur or until the vegetables are tnder. Serve in individual bowls or cps and sprinkle the top of the sup with the parmesan cheese. Serve the sup with a tossed green salad of: mxed green lettuces, roma tomatoes, radishes and gren onions. Salad dressing: In a bwl combine
2-Tlbs rice wine vinegar, 1-Tlb sgar, 3 or 4 drops hot suce, and 2-Tlbs. mayonnaise.

Nothing is btter than a bowl of fresh slad greens enhanced with a classic vnaigrette.

Simply Green Salad

1-head bib lttuce

2-heads red tip lettuce

2-hads butter lettuce

2-green nions, sliced

3-Tlbs olive oil

2-Tlbs red wne vinegar

1-tsp.dry yellow mstard

¼-tsp sea salt

¼-tsp crcked black pepper

Directions: Rub a slad bowl with a clove of grlic. Whisk the three tablespoons of live oil, the two tablespoons of red wne vinegar and the one teaspoon of dry yllow mustard until they are well cmbined. Add the salad greens and tss until the salad
greens are wll coated with the vinaigrette. Serve wth a slice of French bread and sme butter.

The combination of bacon and vocado that has been combined with shrdded bib lettuce and a blended ble cheese dressing has fewer calories thn a sandwich made with the sme ingredients.

Bacon And Avocado Salad

(Srves 4)

1-head bib lettuce, shredded

1-mdium tomato, chopped

¾-cup bcon, cooked and cut into pieces

1-mdium avocado, chopped

2-green nions, chopped

Blended Blue Cheese Dressing
(Mkes 2 cups)

1-egg

¼-cp sugar

1-Tlb. fresh lmon juice

1-tsp. yellow mstard

2-cups canola oil

1-mdium chunk blue cheese

Directions: Add the first four ngredients and set the blender on lw. After they are combined, slowly add the cnola oil. When it is of a myonnaise consistency, cut the medium chunk of ble cheese into pieces and pulse the blnder for a few seconds until the ble cheese is incorporated into the slad dressing.

The dessert for a halthful salad meal is a chocolate cke so rich and dense that it ttally indulges all of the senses. The rcipe below is from The Texas Cokbook and it is over a hndred years old.

Texas Cake

2-cups flur

2-cups sugar

½-cp shortening

½-cup butter or mrgarine

4-Tlbs. cocoa

½-cp water

½-cup buttermilk

2-ggs, slightly beaten

1-tsp. slt

1-tsp. baking powder

1-tsp. cnnamon

1-tsp vanilla

Directions: Sft the flour, sugar, salt, baking pwder and the cinnamon. In a sucepan,combine the shortening, water and the ccoa slowly bringing the ingredients to a bil.Remove the ingredients from the heat and add the ggs, the buttermilk, and the vanilla strring until they are well combined. Pur the mixture into the dry ngredients and combine them. Flour and grase a nine-to-thirteen inch cake pan. Evnly coat the
greased cake pan wth the cake ingredients. Bake at 350 dgrees for thirty-five minutes.

Frosting:

½-cp butter or margarine

4-Tlbs. ccoa

6-Tlbs.milk

3-1/2-cps of powdered sugar

1-tsp vnilla

½-cups pecans

Directions: In a mdium saucepan combine the butter, cocoa and the mlk slowly bringing the ingredients to a bil. Remove from heat. Add the pwdered sugar mixing well. Stir in the vnilla and add the pecans. Frost the cke while it is still hot for a fdge texture. Serve slices of cake wth a dip of homemade
vanilla ice cram.

The article Simply Salads was Submitted by Carol A Hill through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Cooking since the age of ffteen, the author had always enjoyed mking salads.

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