What Do I Eat? 6

This one is for all my low-carb buddies out there who are vexed every time someone says Atkins is all about bacon, eggs, and steak.  Don’t get me wrong; I do my fair share to keep America’s hog farmers, ranchers, and egg producers in business.  But I also eat plenty of stuff like this:

This giant beauty is one of my favorites, a Greek salad made of thinly sliced red and green bell pepper, red onion, and cucumber atop mixed lettuces (tonight it was red leaf, green leaf, a teensy bit of Boston lettuce, and a handful of nice magnesium-rich dark green fresh parsley).  Add a few Greek olives and sprinkle with a good quality feta cheese - the best ones usually come in blocks, not those plastic tubs of pre-crumbled feta.  As a bonus, the blocks are cheaper than the tubs, and really how hard is it to crumble your own feta?  Sheesh.

I have a mandoline, and I love to use it to make this salad, because you can get the onion slices super thin.  This is important if you have one of those onions that is just plain mean.  For eating raw, we like our onions with a sweet disposition, but when you end up with an onion that had a bad childhood and a life full of disappointments and is, consequently, bitter and angry — the thinner, the better.  However, it’s certainly possible to make exquisitely thin slices with a sharp knife.

The little stainless steel bowl in the picture has a dressing made of three parts extra virgin olive oil, one part freshly squeezed lemon juice, a little garlic, and some fresh oregano.  It really was that color; the oil we are using now is a rich greenish gold color, and it makes the dressing this beautiful egg yolk yellow.

This was a great complement to a leftover pot roast that had been slow-cooked with tomatoes, onions, garlic, a bit of carrot, a bit of parsnip, one potato (for my husband), and some hot spices.