Farmer's Market Fresh

We finally made it to the Downtown Tifton Farmer's Marketon Saturday. Got some fresh onions, green peppers and tomatoes to put on the green, leafy salad stuff. We also bought some yellow squash and Georgia peaches for good measure. I was amazed to note that our total bill was about $1300!! That alone may be a good reason to start eating healthy on an ongoing basis!

Due to the growing season in south Georgia, we had to go with a bag salad for the lettuce - also included shredded carrots and radishes. You can see all of the ingrediants put together for my daily salad in one of the pics above.

Much to my surprise, the onions and peppers were quite good! The onions are a sweet variety, the seller told us, and added a nice flavor. The peppers gave a nice kick and a bit of a crunch. I even liked the carrots and radishes, though they were not exactly fresh.

I'm still not sure about tomatoes, though. These tomatoes (Early Girl variety, if we heard correctly) were better than the grape tomatoes on the fast food salad, but I still wasn't crazy about them. I gave it three bites and will try again over time. So far, not expecting to embrace tomatoes beyond this challenge.

My wife is certainly happy that I am eating - even beginning to enjoy - salads. She's been trying to get me into salads for 12 years of marraige, and hopefully we can get our toddler son into healthy eating through the good example of both of his parents.

Well, that's about it. I'm actually looking forward to future visits to the farmers' market - definitely not a statement that would have sprung from my mouth as little as two weeks ago! :)

Good night, and happy eating!!

Green Leafy Leftovers

Today was leftover Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad from Zaxby's. Those Zaxby's salads are big! I must say that I'm looking forward to getting to the Downtown Tifton Farmer's Market tomorrow for some fresh veggies. Please send your recipes on in to CasaGregGoesGreen@bellsouth.net so I know what to buy.

I gave a full review of the Zaxby's ceasar in yesterday's post, but I can add a few observations about the leftovers. No surprises here, probably. Primarily, everything was just not as crispy. This fact was especially apparent in the Texas toast bread pieces, which had the texture of croutons yesterday byt were more like soggy toast today. The lettuce was likewise less crispy. The grilled chicken, now cold, had lost its great grilled flavor. To Zaxby's credit, my wife (who has always regularly eaten salads) says that it's rare to even have chicken left on a salad during the second day.

Tomorrow to the farmer's market! Check back Saturday night for a report on my first venture into a fresh, homemade salad.

Green Leafy Salad - Day 2

Today's salad is also of the fast food variety - the Grilled Chicken Ceasar Zalad from Zaxby's. I'm looking forward to taking in the Downtown Tifton Farmer's Market on Saturday to get fresh veggies and begin making salads. Until then, looks like fast food will do.

The Zaxby's Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad is a good basic salad with grilled chicken. It consists of lettuce, grilled chicken, bacon, melted cheese (Swiss, I think), croutons and a tangy Ceasar dressing.

The chicken is flavorful - kind of a mesquite grilled flavor. The bacon was actually a surprise. It was hiding under the chicken and lettuce at first. At first, I didn't know that I would like bacon with lettuce. I know - bacon bits are standard and have always been a part of my greenless salad. Still, I was surprised that crispy fried bacon provided a nice flavor in a forkful of green, leafy salad.

The melted cheese adds a nice softer texture to a crisp, mostly crunchy salad. The croutongs are actually small cubes of the usual Zaxby's Texas toast, cooked to a greater degree of dryness than the buttered toast that comes with most of their meals. It worked out pretty well.

The Ceasar dressing from Zaxby's was slighty tangy and added another nice layer of flavor to the salad.

At least 363 salad days to go. I would sure love to have some more fresh salad recipes coming into my inbox at CasaGregGoesGreen@bellsouth.net. Should be a fun day at the Tifton Farmer's Market on Saturday!

See you tomorrow with another salad review!