Five Easy Pieces I

A few weeks ago I realized I was 5 recipes behind.  I thought "The title sure fits; I'll find 5 easy meals and I'll be caught up."

That was a few weeks ago.

Regardless, I will make five really easy new things in succession to get myself back on track with a few weeks ago, at least.  I'm shameless.

Here is today's first recipe taken from the NY Times "The Minimalist" recipes.  The author had 101 salad recipes.  Can you see where this is heading...?  As a bonus, I've included some before and after photos.

13. A red salad: Combine tomato wedges with halved strawberries, basil leaves, shaved Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.

That's so easy, even I can do that!

I added a handful of walnuts and used very aged balsamic vinegar (brought home from Italy a few years ago). 

It was really, really fresh and the aged BV had a nice bite to it.  I forgot how much I like basil. 

I am starting to enjoy this process and even more so when I make easy things like the above and realize I have yet another go-to meal.  Less aimless wandering around Wegmans - now I know I can toss strawberries and tomatoes - who knew.  Today's Wegmans visit had a purpose, I had at least 4 different recipes for which to purchase and it was very gratifying to see how full my cart was of simple, fresh ingredients, most of which were from the produce section.  No potato chips.  No junk food (I do not consider Triscuits to be junk food because there is no HFCS in them!).  No chocolate, although when I reached the spice counter I was fascinated by a "new spice" jarred and labeled "cocoa with chile powder".  Ok, ok, I'll pick that up, you never know what I could use it for... 

Yum.

(NUMBER ELEVEN in 2010)