My Yummy Lunch

I recently returned from a work trip in Greenville, NC. While there I had dinner at a little cafe that served over 10 different salads. The one I ordered was delicioso!

So for lunch today I made a modified version based on what I had on hand in the fridge. (Yes, I already had feta and pesto on hand...we use them for homemade pizzas and they don't go bad for a long time.)

Without further adieu, here is what was on my tasty salad:

• Baby spinach (organic from TJ's)
• Diced celery (organic from Papa Spuds)
• Diced carrots (organic from Papa Spuds) If you haven't tried organic and/or local carrots, I highly recommend you do. They really don't cost much more than conventional and they taste a lot better.
• Diced red pepper
• Sliced black olives (these are one thing that are permissible to eat from a can) ;)
• Instead of dressing, I added about 1 T of pesto to the diced veggies and then topped the spinach with them. Pesto has a bad rep for being high in calories, but you have to eat a lot of it to for this to be the case. 1 T is only about 60 calories. And you don't need much of it...a little goes a loooong way. Try it with pasta or on pizza if you haven't before. It really makes a great pizza pie. Or maybe try making your own. We've experimented with making pesto from different herbs (traditionally it is made with basil) and most turn out very tasty.
  
• I sprinkled the finished product with about 1 ounce of fresh, real, feta.
  

I also had an organic pink lady from Papa Spuds, a yogurt and a coke zero (I am not without my food vices and coke zero is one of them....but that's what makes me realistic!)

For dinner I will be making a mango asian noodle salad borrowed from the Food Blogga.