Salads, with their potentially unlimited number of ingredients, are an extremely versatile vehicle for meals. While they seem to be few and far between now-a-days my family loves it when a restaurant has an abundantly stocked salad bar. Common ingredients like lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers create a solid base for a number of uncommon ingredients like ham, chickpeas, fruits, cranberries and beets. Now, you may be saying, "We have chickpeas or cranberries in our salad all the time!" Well aren't you special?! We don't always think ahead for impromptu meals so it turns into a treasure hunt when I do get the inkling for a salad.

For the Wizard's Salad today I needed to root around our pantry and fridge to find ingredients to make my lunch time meal more interesting than plain ol' rabbit food. I didn't attack this meal with a plan. I added an ingredient, then dug around some more, then added another, etc. So here's the ingredient list:

Ingredients

• Lettuce and/or Spinach
• Cherry Tomatoes (quartered)
• Celery (sliced)
• Carrots (shredded)
• Chick Peas (canned)
• Green Grapes (halved)
• Feta Cheese
• Raisins
• Sunflower Seeds
• Sprinkling of Oregano (fresh or dried)
• Grilled Chicken (optional)
• Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Start with the normal chopped lettuce, tomatoes, celery and carrots as a base. Then commence the piling on of the toppings! There's no real set amount, you add as much of each ingredient as you desire. If you don't like Feta Cheese maybe a shredded cheddar or bleu cheese will suit your tastes. The idea is to attack your taste buds with a variety of flavors and textures.

Once your salad reaches maximum super secret ultra yumminess you can dowse it with the Balsamic Vinaigrette. You say, "But almighty WizardofCheeze, I don't have Balsamic Vinaigrette." [and you start to show a pouty face] But I say to you as I wink and embrace you, "Fear not fellow Steemian! I will give you the recipe that will take your salad enjoying experience to the moon!"

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

This dressing is very simple to make and goes great with most any salad.

• 1/4 C Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/2 C Olive Oil
• 2 Large Cloves of Garlic (minced)
• 2 tsp Brown Sugar
• 1 or 2 pinches of Salt

Whip these ingredients until the dressing starts to thicken. Store in an air tight glass container like an old canning jar and use whenever you need it. We keep ours in the cabinet instead of the fridge because the cold can make it even thicker and difficult to get out of the jar.

And that is it. It was an incredibly delicious lunch that I got to enjoy outside on an extremely warm day. Should've probably stayed inside in the wonderful air conditioning...where the flies didn't try to steal my delectable and nutritious salad! I hope you try this salad out and let me know how you like it. If you don't, I will hunt you down and tickle you.