Toppings Make Everything Taste Better

One of the things that I miss most about college is the cafeteria. This is probably not the case for most people… I’ve heard horror stories about  “dorm food”. Schools that only offer fast food choices, your typical pizza and chicken tenders fare.

This was not the case at Dickinson College. I loved the cafeteria! There were so many choices every night:

Two hot meals

One vegan hot meal

A meal from the grill

Two soups

And my favorite: the salad bar

Salad at home is always a bore to make. In my salads, I like to have lots of different toppings, but I dislike cleaning and chopping all the veggies. I want cucumbers, peppers, carrots, celery, peas, olives, artichokes, beets, cheese, couscous, pasta, tuna, etc., but I don’t want anything to go to waste later in the week.

That’s the obvious reason as to why I appreciate salad bars so much! Everything is chopped! There are so many choices! I can put as much or as little of any ingredient on my salad! It’s exactly what I want, when I want it.

Today, I decided to go to my local King Soopers grocery store to stop by their salad bar. Now, this isn’t a typical salad bar, but it has a selection of Mediterranean salads and veggies. I nabbed some spring greens from the produce section ($.54!) and then filled my to go cup with lots of Med goodness. For my salad I chose: three types of olives, artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper, baby mozzarella, wheat berry salad, and tabbouleh. Fantastic!

Doesn’t that make you want to dive in??? I love the different textures that all of the toppings provide. The red pepper went so well with all of the other items, hurray! Definitely a wonderful lunchtime feast.