I like to make a big salad a few nights a week for dinner. Especially Mondays and Tuesdays to 'detox' after the weekend. There are a handful of vegetables and other items that I keep in my refrigerator on a weekly basis. As much as I'd love to keep a variety of colorful vegetables in my crisper at all times... it's not easy to keep them all fresh when I will likely be out a few nights a week. This doesn't mean that I can't get all the nutrients I need with a few reliable staples!

Here's what I made tonight (so simple).

I always buy these boxes... usually spinach or arugula. This week,

I found organic

baby kale

at foodies.

You hear a lot about Kale, a superfood.

It's high in potassium, vitamins A & C, and fiber. It has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Kale on its own would bore me so tonight I mixed it with butter leaf lettuce :)

The four salad components I purchase

every week

are:

Lettuce

(spinach, arugula, kale, romaine, etc),

shredded carrots

tomatoes (local & organic if I can find them)

, and

avocado

These four beauties last for at least one week (store your tomatoes on your counter, not in the fridge).

I also always have a variety of nuts and seeds in my fridge. Slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin, etc. And, of course, feta, part-skim mozzarella, and goat cheese (got to have cheese, all things in moderation). I usually make my own dressing but this,

avocado dressing

, that I found at foodies is fantastic and the

ingredient list

is amazing.

Tonight, I mixed together all of the above (tsp-tbs each of the nuts/cranberries/cheese) and added chicken marinated in extra virgin o/o, salt, lemon, rice vinegar, oregano, crushed red pepper and grilled. Easy & nutrious.

Tip: Yesterday I made a salad with my four staples, cooked the chicken in the original

Frank's hot sauce

, and used a yogurt blue cheese dressing. You can make any salad you want with the four staples!