A Tale of Two Dressings

Why haven’t I been eating more salad at home? I wondered this for a while as I deliberated one day about what I could eat that would leave me feeling fresh and robust without weighed down.  Naturally I would veer towards a salad or veggie medley of some kind, and yet I stared longingly at my refrigerator and whimpered at the blatant lack of greenery, as if peering into an icy industrial factory town without a rolling green hill in sight!

That was immediately rectified by the welcoming of some heads of lettuce, hearts of romaine, and little spinach babies—I became a veritable Dr. Frankenstein of the Salads.  No green leaf is safe from my conniving palette!

However, something was now missing… Ah yes, my monstrously verdant creations were lacking clothes! So with a bit of thought and adventure, I stitched up some dressings for my salads, so they wouldn’t feel the bare cold before they befell their fate within my tickled-pink tummy.  Most of the time a simple olive oil-lemon combo is all one needs, with a dash of salt and pepper, but let’s face it, that gets boring.  So here I’m just sharing two of my quick fixes for a light pizzazz for salad (as I write this I’m already planning something else for tonight, a zesty spicy tang, but that’s for another post).

Superb Spinach Patties

Here’s something I did a little while ago but have decided I might share with you out of the kindness of my heart. We loved this recipe so much for its tastiness, versatility, and simplicity that I intend to use it over and over again.  I’ve already thought of a few new combinations and presentations for it actually.  This recipe came up because I was making shrimp and didn’t want to serve it alongside some basic starch—I try to make rice only once a week, and I lost a lot of weight curbing my bread intake so eating pastas or pita breads/rotis/naans all the time isn’t on my agenda either.  I don’t mind warming some up for the husband but even he wants to explore healthy alternatives occasionally.

So what about something that seems like a tostada, has a solidity that combines well with saucy shrimp, and utilizes the random ingredients in my fridge?  That sounded good to me, so I decided to dream up Spinach Patties.