It was not my intent to post every day, but here I am, at 11:03 with something to say. Monday evenings, at least at the moment, are nights when dinner is simply a pipe dream for all of us.  A full day of work and an evening obligation teaching grad school result in me nowhere near the kitchen at the dinner hour, even though in our house that isn’t until at least 8:00.  This means two things:

1. There had better be leftovers for my family to eat or at a minimum something that one of my teenagers can assemble quickly (we are not a very good take out family)

2. I am usually hungry when I get home

Which brings me to my point.  I do not believe in going hungry if possible.  And, while I don’t count calories, I do not believe in wasting them on something that simply does not taste good.  And so at the risk of repeating many others’ wise counsel, my advice is to always have good ingredients on hand.  Fresh salad greens, good grape tomatoes, a bell pepper, a little bit of goat cheese, good bread, toasted, garlic salt (my secret ingredient to great salad) and some extra virgin olive oil and vinegar.  Magically, a bistro quality salad with some “crostini” on the side (if you squint and don’t look too closely at the toasted bread) appear and I will not go to bed hungry.  Suddenly I hear footsteps.  It’s never fun to eat alone.