Salad of the Week

I have been trying, trying, trying to get more veggies into our family's diet. To accomplish this, we decided to eat a big ol' salad at least once a week. In days past we would chop up different veggies and put them all in individual bowls so everyone could assemble a salad that pleased his or her own palate. That usually meant my daughter ate some of the lettuce I put in her bowl topped with whatever protein we put on the table and possibly a slice of onion. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Then one summer evening, my Cousin was making supper for us, and she crafted a salad that was magnificent! Delicious! Dare I say Phenomenal? Although I can't remember exactly what all she put in it, it changed the way I made salad FOREVER! See, this wise woman put all the ingredients in one bowl, tossed them with dressing, and then served it up to everyone, just like that. The children didn't have a choice, and if they couldn't abide a piece of onion, well then, that was just TOUGH. (Easy enough I guess, Cousin's girls always eat whatever I put in front of them with nary a whimper of complaint.)

It worked on my girl too! Or at least it did as far as I know. Maybe I didn't notice what all she scraped into the trash can before she put her dish into the dishwasher, but it sure beat sitting at the dinner table begging "Please, just TRY a slice of artichoke heart, it is Delicious! No, ok, you have to eat at least one bite of pepper, seriously... I don't want you to die of malnutrition! No one can survive on boiled eggs alone..." et. cetera...

Anyway, now when we make a salad, it is a harmonious conglomeration, a co-mingling of flavors and textures designed to go together in one big salad bowl. Tonight, we made a variation on Delia's Favorite, the Steak Salad.

Thanks to my Food Network Boyfriend Alton Brown, I learned a while back how to cook a steak. So we do up a steak, usually whatever I find on sale at the grocery store because I slice it very thinly across the grain at a steep angle and that keeps it from being tough even if it is a cheaper cut of meat.
To a bag of salad mix we added some cherry tomatoes, a shaved carrot, half of an onion sliced thinly, and a small head of broccoli that I break up, parboil and then plunge into ice water. Also, we get these super awesome rosemary and garlic potato wedges from the freezer section at Aldis (but any old frozen french fries will do). Really, any stray veggies we have hanging around might end up in the salad, but to be a Delia Steak Salad it just has to have steak, potatoes, broccoli and onions. AND my beloved Steak Sauce Dressing, which is so easy I am almost ashamed to call it a recipe.

• 1 part Marzetti Original Slaw Dressing
• 1 part Steak Sauce
• 1 part Garlic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
• fresh ground black pepper

Whisk these together in whatever proportion you need to cover your bowl of salad. My family likes their salad dressed a little on the sparse side (a puddle of dressing in the bottom of the bowl is THE KISS OF DEATH here), and I dip french fries in whatever I have leftover.