Hello there neighbors,
It feels strange to be sitting here not planning out a grocery list for an upcoming week of Meal Club! While I’m not in the kitchen this week, I’m still (constantly) thinking about food…
What I plan to make for dinner tomorrow (Aldi marinated and butterflied leg of lamb with carrot ginger soup). What I’ll feed my hungry brood for breakfast, school snack and lunch (the list of possibilities is endless as our fridge somehow went from completely barren to overstuffed with random odds and ends of leftovers destined for greatness). What I need to pack for our upcoming camping trip (3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 3 dinners in camp not to mention the necessary endless supply of snacks) and what I plan to feed YOU once we rev back up into Meal Club
A few things…..
Now that we’ve got a solid month of Meal Club under our belts we would really like to get a feel for how it’s going for you guys, what you like, what you don’t etc. It would really help us put our best foot forward and bring you exactly what you want. If you could take a few minutes and fill out our subscriber feedback questionaire https://www.rebelchefcooking.com/feedback-survey, we would be oh so appreciative.
I'm a bit sad to not be feeding any neighbors this week. In lieu of that, I offer to you my handy dandy 5-Minute Homemade Vinaigrette formula and sincerely hope you enjoy it.
I’m sure it’s become quite obvious by now but we really do love salads. We eat salad almost every single day. It’s a fantastic, simple way to get veggies on your plate, use up odds and ends from the fridge (because literally anything can go in a salad, there are no rules!) and most importantly, pave a nice smooth road in your digestive system for the heavier parts of your meal. Yes, our kids eat salad too. No they do not always eat it willingly. Sometimes they just eat the lettuce and pick out whatever else is in there, sometimes they just eat the whatever else and pick out the lettuce. The important thing is that they are used to seeing vegetables on their plate at every meal as a regular part of their diet. We don’t typically force them to eat their veggies as long as they’ve had at least a few bites on their own without coaxing or if we’ve had a particularly junk food-y kind of day. Otherwise, the salad goes unpresumptuously on their plates and usually, it gets eaten. They also really enjoy making the salad dressing with us, as well as tearing lettuce, peeling carrots and slicing cucumbers. Typically if they get a chance to be a part of the process, they are more likely to want to eat the fruits (or veggies) of their labor. We always make our own salad dressing. Not only does it taste about 100x better than store bought, it helps us reduce the amount of packaging we bring into the home and then dump into the world.
Every-Day Salad Dressing
This is a Basic Formula for quick vinaigrette. This is the base for pretty much every dressing/sauce I make at home. You can easily tailor it by switching up the acid to best compliment the other flavors in your meal, adding more or less honey/maple syrup depending on the sweetness content of your salad or preference of your palate. I also like to put just a splash of cold water in if I’m feeling like I want a little less of an acid punch. Typically dressing recipes use a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio of olive oil to acid….we personally don’t enjoy that ratio as we feel it is too oily and really mutes out the other flavors. That may very well be your preference, or not. This is just a basic formula, play with it and make it your own!
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons acid of your choice, ANY type of vinegar or lemon juice works beautifully, lately we are really enjoying using the pickling liquid from our Pretty Pink Pickled Onion
A small dab of honey or maple syrup
Salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Ways:
‘THE JAM JAR’
Mix all ingredients in a jam jar by either vigorously shaking or using a frother wand. This is ideal if you want to double or triple the recipe and have fresh vinaigrette in your fridge for a few days. If you do this, the olive oil will solidify under refrigeration and you'll need to remember to take it out of the fridge a few minutes before you want to use it to allow it to loosen up a bit. Once it's come a little up to temp, give her a good shake and enjoy!
‘THE MIX-IT-IN-THE-BOTTOM-OF-YOUR-SALAD-BOWL’
If you don’t eat a lot of salad and don't want to dirty an extra dish, go for the ‘mix in the salad bowl’ method and whisk together all of the ingredients except for the olive oil in the bowl you plan to serve your salad in. When you are just about ready to serve your salad and have ALL of your ingredients, cleaned, chopped and absolutely ready to go, slllowly whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Then simply plunk in all of your salad ingredients and toss with your dressing! Voila, salad done, dressed and ready to eat.
Happy Eating!
xoRC
Comments