A Salad Recipe

I am not a salad person. This is because I eat a giant salad for dinner, then an hour passes and I am dying of hunger, so I eat a huge sandwich and perhaps chocolate, a pizza, and maybe another salad. And soup. And some of the ice cream in the fridge and waffles, because they looked tasty when I pulled out the ice cream.

This is a problem, because the goal of salad-eating is to NOT eat all of those other things.

But I have always loved Biaggi's house salad. As long as it is followed with chicken parmesan or some other delicious something-or-other and crème brûlée.

So tonight, feeling sick to my stomach as I have been for the last week, I decided to have Clean Food.

Clean Food is what I call food that is not greasy, not heavy, Not overly-meat-filled. Light. Clean.

I went to the grocery store for waffles, so I could eat them for breakfast the next day. But I needed dinner too, so I decided I would try to mimic the Biaggi's House Salad, since that is what I really wanted.

I got lettuce. Since nothing looked actually "fresh" in Kroger except Bibb lettuce, I picked it. Then I got a red pepper, a cucumber, and the creamy balsamic vinaigrette made by Briannas' (they call it The New American).

As I checked out, a creepy lady behind me in line decided to move my groceries around so she could start putting down her groceries. Can I just mention that I have a problem with someone Manhandling my groceries? I do. If you don't work for Kroger, don't touch my food. Enough people paw it already as it makes its way from the farm to the produce section. Okay. I'm done.

I went home. I roasted the red pepper by first scrubbing it clean (stupid grocery-moving lady), drying it, then placing it directly on the burner of my gas stove. The burner then made the skin of the pepper crackle and pop, browning it. And I removed the skin, with a lovely roasted red pepper after mere minutes.

I peeled the cucumber, then removed the seeds.

I washed my lettuce.

I combined.

This is when I realized I'd forgotten the carrots.

I tossed it with the dressing, which was remarkably similar to Biaggi's. The trick here was to resist my natural urge to see the dressing, which would have overpowered the salad.

And this is where I would give you a lovely picture of the salad.

But we ate it all.

For those of you who also adore the house salad at my fave Italian restaurant, this is a suitable copy. It might not be exact, but it satisfied my craving!