So, this week, I conquered the Salad chapter of Jamie's Food Revolution. 

If 4 of you learn this recipe and share it with 4 other people...we are well on our way to getting the world back to wholesome, affordable home cooking.  To read more about this quest, click here.

Jamie's approach to salads is wonderfully simple and flexible.  This particular salad is called the PICK-AND-MIX SALAD.

Here's how it works:

You pick one item from each of these groups -see my choices after the basic directions...(the examples are just that - not written in stone):
SOFT LETTUCE (butterhead, oak leaf, mache or watercress)
CRUNCHY LETTUCE (romaine, little gem, endive, radicchio)
HERBS (mint, basil, italian parsley, arugula -all fresh)
VEGGIES (cucumber, tomatoes carrots, celery)
CHEESE (Parmesan, mozzarella, feta, creamy blue cheese)
TOPPINGS (mixed, toasted seeds, toasted pine nuts, 'rustic' croutons, pappadams (ok, honestly, I have no idea what that is)).

Then:
-Wash and tear the lettuce and 'spin' dry.
-Pick the leaves off the herbs stems.
-Finely slice or peel veggies.
-Shred, shave, crumble cheese.
-Toss everything in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper and drizzle with one of these dressings:

I made the Lemon Dressing:  Put 6 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a jam jar with a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon. Put the lid on the jar and shake well!!!  That's it.

I couldn't find a jam jar, so I doubled the recipe and used a spaghetti sauce jar.  This is before the shaking...

And this is after the shaking.... it actually looks like the recipe. YAY!!

So, Here's how I made my salad!  We are on a strict budget, so I tried to make choices that were affordable...after all, that's what the food revolution is all about!

Oak leaf lettuce - conveniently growing in my side yard! OK, I can't take credit. It's all Greg.

I chose romaine for my crunchy lettuce, but I forgot to take a picture of it!  For my herb, I walked in my backyard and picked some fresh mint.  Can you tell we have A LOT OF MINT???  Please, if you need mint, you know where to get some!

Tomatoes for the veggies...

Parmesan Cheese...I used a potato peeler to 'shave' it.

And...sunflower seeds for my topping.  Can you believe the Boss wants to be part of the food revolution?  Or, does he just want to control it??

It was a beautiful and really interesting salad! I never would have put mint in a salad. It was really wonderful just the way it was....but I did make one more change...

Since this was our main course, I asked Greg to throw a couple chicken breasts on the grill and added that at the end. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!   Add a slice of homemade bread (Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day!!) and....

HOME RUN!!!