For 3 months of every year our entire lives revolve around
the city swim team, which includes daily practice and 1-2 meets per week once
school lets out. We’re champion picnic-packers, so I think it’s just a little sad
that we finally bowed to the ceaseless badgering and started letting the kids
buy food at the concession stand during meets. There’s a “healthy snacks” table
but really they’re all about chili cheese dogs and Gatorade and Ring Pops for
dinner. (I just keep reminding myself of the mantra of toddler parents: It’s
what they eat in the course of a week that counts….)
Possibly I’ve mentioned previously how very much we love our
picnic basket? After experimenting with a few different types, we settled on a
rolling suitcase sort of thing, complete with a telescoping handle. A second
case attaches to the front of the insulated cooler part, and contains plates,
silverware, wine glasses, cloth napkins, a cheese board, salt and pepper
shakers, and so on. It’s nice not having to scramble around looking for paper
plates before we leave or figure out how to serve something with no spoons, and
the amount of garbage generated at any given picnic is minimal; also we feel
very glamorous and well-prepared for any picnic eventuality.
This picnic cooler sees some pretty intense usage over the
course of the summer including – until very recently – at swim meets, where we
would pack more-or-less the same dinner we’d be eating at home. As a result we
have a pretty extensive repertoire of picnic-friendly foods, main dish salads,
and such (including one that I love so much, I blogged it twice)(oops). This particular
recipe has appeared on our dinner plates no less than 5 times in the last month,
as it’s an excellent base for just about anything you have hanging around in
the fridge or pantry as well as being a great side dish as-is. I’m posting it
in honor of the last swim meet of the regular season, which is tonight (and
which will *not* feature this salad; see above re: concession stand and chili
cheese dogs).
A note about the cabbage: Fer cryin’ out loud, just buy a
head of cabbage and cut it up. It’s not that much work, and the pre-shredded
stuff in packages always tastes like the cabbage equivalent of iceberg lettuce.
This has never lasted more than 24 hours in our house, but I expect that it
would keep reasonably well for the better part of a week.
As are so many other favorite recipes, this is from Mark
Bittman; in this case, “Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating,” which is also
a very good and accessible read on healthy eating that isn’t preachy.
Chopped Cabbage Salad
1 small head cabbage, cored and chopped (not necessarily
shredded, just chop it like lettuce)
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
½ red onion, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
2-3 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice (white wine vinegar
or similar is very good here)
Salt and pepper
If you have time, put the cabbage in a colander, toss with a
couple of teaspoons of salt, and let it sit for an hour or so, pressing once or
twice to get the liquid out. If you haven’t planned that far in advance, feel
free to skip this step.
Combine all the vegetables in a bowl, grind some pepper over
the top, and toss with the olive oil and vinegar. Check the seasonings and
adjust to suit your own taste (if you salted the cabbage previously, it’s
almost certainly salty enough).
Other things we’ve put on this salad: avocado; leftover chicken;
canned chickpeas; feta cheese; peas; any other leftover veggies in the fridge,
including bell peppers, radishes, and tomatoes. We’ve also thrown it into pita
bread with shawarma. You could try different kinds of oils and vinegars to change
the taste, though we’ve been very happy with it as is.
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