the friday feed: chopping

A couple weeks before the Coldwater Lake weekend, the Lake Girls text chain got chatty with meal planning and who was going to bring what. The first night we go out to dinner but then we need food for two days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sunday morning breakfast is full of leftovers. The girls know I love vegetables so I am tasked with bringing a couple salads. This is my third year for being the "Salad Girl." For the summer-in-a-bowl salad I walk around the farmer's market and put a bunch of veggies in my basket: tomatoes, peppers, green beans, a couple ears of corn, an onion, zucchini, cucumber, and then add lettuce, carrots, and celery from my vegetable bin. Since there was a half head of cabbage in the refrigerator, a small bowl of cole slaw would round out the salad component.

I laid out the beautiful array of vegetables and thought, "Wow. That's a lot of chopping." But for me chopping is relaxing and calming. After I chopped each vegetable, it went into its own small plastic bag and then the salad veggies went into a large plastic bag and the slaw ingredients went into their own. All the prep was done and it was easy to throw the salads together when it was time.

Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop,

chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop,

chop, chop, chop, chop.......Done.