Make Ahead Basic Salads

Lettuce ready to be washed and thoroughly dried

What does God call you to? Honoring the Lord's Day will look very different depending on your answer to that question. In my experience He never calls us to stay still. Since we're not perfect yet, there is always something on His agenda for us yet rarely more than we can handle right now. Nearly always He call us to do something manageable, a One Thing which may seem small yet brings us much closer to Him than we ever imagined possible. Right now I'm trying to simplify the meal prep for our Sabbath celebration, kicked off each week with a special dinner on Saturday evening, continuing in the activities we do (i.e. church) and don't do (i.e. chores) on Sunday, and finishing with a simple dinner on Sunday evening. Our Sunday breakfasts have become extremely simple and our Sunday lunches are often leftovers from the night before or "snacky" food (like cheese I cut into cubes and keep on hand in the fridge) but Saturday and Sunday dinners require a lot more thought if I'm not going to spend all day Saturday or hardly any time on Sunday preparing for them and still have them a step up from weekday dinners. This Lord's Day celebration is what God has called me to so I'm not struggling for something outside of His plan for me.

Salad ready for the weekend. Just needs a towel to absorb
water and it'll keep fresh for up to a week (but it will be eaten
long before that deadline arrives!)

Nearly every dinner can be accompanied with a salad. That gives me at least one vegetable; I don't have to worry each week whether it will fit the menu or not; salad ingredients are on the shopping list every week so I never have to wonder if I have them on hand; we eat it regularly enough and serve to guests enough that there are always a variety of dressings available in the fridge. Best of all, I can prepare a very basic salad up to a week in advance as long as I dry the lettuce well. Nothing in the basic salad (usually just lettuce, carrots, pepper) is wet; I serve all other toppings on the side like a salad bar. I keep the salad in a rubbermaid type container so the lettuce doesn't wilt. I can keep it in the container to serve or dump the salad into a nicer salad bowl just before dinner. I always keep a kitchen towel or paper towel in with the salad to absorb any moisture. On the side in nice bowls with lids I keep toppings such as diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, bacon bits, dried cherries, sliced hard boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, croutons, etc. My preference would be to have these basic salads and 2-3 toppings bowls ready to go for the weekend by Thursday or Friday. Unfortunately my family tends to eat them nearly as fast as I make them. ;-) So, I'm trying to make more; trying to start each weekend with two large salads and a separate container of cut lettuce for tacos.

Salad toppings ready to serve. And two little girls always
eager to be included in the picture.

Linked with Works for Me Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter