A most versatile and healthful recipe: the garden salad recipe you create!

It's a well known fact that the majority of us do not get our 'five to eight' servings of fruits and veggies each day. Produce is quite expensive these days, which serves as a perfectly good reason not to ingest such unbelievable quantities. While we're all aware of the benefits of these foods, chock full of antioxidants, vitamins, trace minerals, fiber and anti-aging effects, the thought of five to eight servings in a three-meal day is an unmanageable notion.

There's no denying that, were we to eat these foods regularly, we'd be in better health. You sit there wondering how to make your child eat that side of green beans. If you succeed, it's a miracle. So, the question is, how do you increase that fruit and veggie consumption in a way your family finds appealing? A garden salad recipe, of your own creation, can be your secret weapon!

At least a few of those five to eight servings can be masterfully disguised and well appreciated, if you serve a garden salad every night with dinner, along with a few throughout the week in the lunch box. The problem with produce prices is that, so often, much goes to waste. You buy a big package of Romaine hearts, several tomatoes and a cucumber. You make a garden salad tonight and then forget about these choice (and pricey) ingredients, until it's too late. Tomorrow, it's green beans, and the next night it's corn. No wonder you shy away from the fresh produce stand! You simply can't afford the waste or the guilt!

So, here's a sneaky way to infiltrate your menus with those healthful plant friends, right along with your regular meals. Make the garden salad recipe a daily given at the dinner table. It doesn't have to be especially large. Treat it as a tasty introduction to every dinner. The salad is not so filling as to preclude your family eating the main entree. In fact, you can probably slip in a few canned or frozen green beans or corn, alongside the meat loaf, looking attractive enough to be eaten too!

The best part of any garden salad recipe is that you really don't even need a recipe. Almost anything goes in the garden salad. Varying your ingredients on a daily basis allows you to use up leftovers, toss in a couple of sliced mushrooms or a can of sliced olives, along with a mix of this week's produce purchases. The only certainty in your garden salad recipe is the greens. A variety of greens keeps things interesting. Instead of relying on a head of Iceberg lettuce, infuse your garden salad recipes with different textures and types of greens. Pick those which are in season for the most value, both nutritionally and for dollars spent sense.

If you bought tomatoes and green onions this week, use them first while they're at the peak of freshness. Wash and crisp your greens as soon as you come home from the store, laying them between paper towels, inside a zip plastic bag. They will stay fresh and crisp. When your fresh produce garden salad ingredients are exhausted, raid the frig for leftovers. That little bit of broccoli or three-bean salad can be combined with a few shavings of Parmesan and croutons for a brand new garden salad recipe.

Make the garden salad your every-night appetizer. You'll soon find your family, including the kids, looks forward to this new institution in your menus. Waste not, want not and be healthier!

Donald Trosper

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