Salad and Homemade Vinigrette Dressing

In love a nice, big salad at lunch.  And now that I'm back in the office, I need it to be portable.  I found this great bowl with a bamboo cover at Target and I'm obsessed with it.  It holds just the right amount of salad, and is just deep enough for mixing it all together.

And I know we all talk about how a salad made by someone else is always more delicious than one you make yourself.  But I am challenging that -ism by using the best ingredients in my own salads, and the results have been great.

As a base, I use a mix of hydroponically grown butter lettuce, and a spring mix or arugula.
In this salad, I added sections of fresh avocado, red onion slices, cannellini beans, sliced black olives, crumbled feta, and sliced breaded chicken tenderloins leftover from dinner the night before (I had to hide them to make sure they were still there when I packed my lunch in the morning!).

In the version on the right I've instead used beets, chickpeas, thinly sliced cucumbers, scallions and Kalamata olives.

What really mades this salad comes to life is fresh vinigrette.  I based mine off of the recipe for  Go-To Vinigrette from one of my favorite chefs, Giada De Laurentiis.  Here is her recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon wildflower honey
• 1/2 cup garlic infused extra-virgin olive oil (note: I used regular olive oil, and added some fresh garlic)
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium bowl whisk together the vinegar, Dijon, honey, garlic oil and salt until fully combine and emulsified. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Shake well before using.