It’s PB&J or Starve!
Oh so many years ago (about 30!) I was a newlywed and only knew how to make PB&J! Fast forward to today, and I’m writing a blog on the greatest food hack ever – the big box of salad hack!
As a young, married woman, I was holding down a 9-5 in the big city and going to school in the evenings for my bachelor’s degree. The weekends were usually spent doing projects with classmates or studying for tests. There was no time to figure out anything more than a quick PB&J! My husband cooked all our meals, and I took them the next day to work for lunch.
Enter: The Unemployment Line!
In 2010, right smack in the middle of the great recession, I got laid off from my position as a C-Suite Executive Assistant. It was then that I realized I couldn’t ask Bob to cook our meals when I was home during the day. So I started cooking from recipes. My kitchen was upside down from end to end as I learned what pots and utensils I needed. A simple chicken dinner took 3 hours, from prep to table! I hated it!
Then I learned that I could take elements of my favorite recipes and create several meals from the basics. I started buying in bulk the things we ate the most, chicken, pork, broccoli, string beans and brown rice. I started adding salad to lunch and dinner, buying the big box of salad from the grocery store.
The Problem
I soon found that the problem was I was the only one eating the salad and it would wilt or go bad. The waste was incredible. I started to throw all the waste into my vegetable garden and watched as it composted into the soil. Sadly, my garden was happy, my wallet was not, and neither was I.
The Solution
One day while meal prepping, I realized that yet another box of salad had gone bad. I was so sad! I thought that there had to be a better way than just feeding the garden half my big box of salad. Most of the boxes I buy are a mix of dark greens, spinach, kale, chard, etc. I realized that I cooked these all the time, pairing them with chicken or throwing them in a soup.
So I chopped up some garlic and onions, sauteed them in olive oil and threw in the big box of salad. To my surprise, it was delicious! I could have my salad and eat it too! This was how The Big Box of Salad Hack was born!
The How To
In this short video, I show you the steps to The Big Box of Salad Hack, enjoy!
This is lunch: I paired the greens with a lentil cake from inspiralized.com. Grab the recipe here.
Wait, wait! Before you go….
As always, I want to hear from you! Drop me a comment below, and let me know how yours came out, or if you have a tip to share as well!
