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 Home Storage Salad Bar Sometimes everything loses it's appeal and the only food you can even dream of eating is a big fresh salad. Under normal circumstances this can be as easy as opening a bag of lettuce and piling on the toppings. When one is living primarily on stored foods it's not quite so simple. If you're planning a Salad Bar for lunch or dinner, then you have to start a few days in advance. Start a double batch of sprouts as described Sprout Page. A few days later, when they are ripe and ready for harvesting, it's time to get your salad fixin's ready. First off, be sure to drain and rinse your sprouts thoroughly so they are fresh and ready to go. Arrange the sprouts in a large serving bowl. If necessary use scissors to cut the tangled sprouts into smaller clumps so they are easy to scoop onto one's plate. Next you're going to arrange small bowls of goodies for everyone to add to their salad as they like. Tomatoes are popular with almost everyone, so drain a can of no-salt-added tomatoes and place them in a bowl near the sprouts. Have a look around your pantry to see if anything sparks your imagination. Pickles, cherry peppers, olives, bacon bits, sunflower seeds and croûtons are easy. Since all of these store easily on the pantry shelf, they are ready to go without any waste. Dehydrated vegetables can be soaked in water to cover for 30 to 60 minutes and then drained well. Broccoli, zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, cabbage, carrots and onion are all yummy choices. For salad bars I usually prepare half a cup of dehydrated veggies at a time. Consider your canned vegetables. Small 8-ounce cans are probably your best bet because they aren’t big enough to have many leftovers after the meal. Beets, green beans, peas, peas and carrots, water chestnuts, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, pimentos, sauerkraut and mixed vegetables are all good choices. Choose one or more depending on your family’s appetite and the number of people you’re serving. Next think of your bigger cans and jars of vegetables—14 to 15-ounce sized. Potatoes, no-salt-added green beans, pickled beets, small whole onions and 3-bean salad. Three-bean salad shouldn't be drained, but most other vegetables should be well drained and rinsed if possible. Dried and canned fruit are another option. Pineapple, mandarin oranges, fruit salad, or dried fruit like raisins, cranberries and apricots all make good additions. Finally consider offering protein in the form of beans, fish, meat or poultry especially if your salad is the main meal of the day. Chickpeas and kidney beans are both excellent choices. If you prefer something heartier then there are many options. Any small can of meat will work—chicken, ham, shrimp, crab, tuna, salmon—even summer sausage or luncheon meat cut into bite sized pieces.. I recommend serving several items that keep after opening and then adding a few canned items without allowing too much to go to waste. Below you'll find menus have been used successfully by my family. While you may follow them exactly if you wish, they are intended to give you an idea of how it's done.
Salad Bar Menus
[Home] [GFCF Recipe Index] [Frugal Food Storage] [Biblical Womanhood] [Archived Recipe Index] [Links] [New Blog] [Old Fashioned Education] [Prairie Homemaker] [My Mother's Blog] GFCF = Gluten Free & Casein Free
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