Lunch: Bright Chopped Veggie Salad & Cacao/Goji Berry Bites

Lunch: Bright Chopped Veggie Salad & Cacao/Goji Berry Bites... Lunch is a perpetual struggle for me. I like to bring creative things I will enjoy eating, but sometimes the task can be daunting. I'm also an anxious planner type, so making my lunch for Tuesday is one of the first things I do when I get home from work Monday. So with all this self inflicted pressure on myself (which I quietly love) I am constantly coming up with lunch ideas. Some I enjoy, some don't get a repeat. I will also say that chopping is something I thoroughly enjoy, especially on a Sunday afternoon with time to myself. It's almost therapeutic  So below is the salad I came up with for today. It was bright and fresh and crunchy and Dahlicious! I also brought 2 hard boiled eggs for protein and these little cacao/goji berry bites I picked up at the store.

What I Used:
1/2 large heirloom tomatoe
1 small persian cucumber
2 organic yellow & orange carrots
4 small radishes
8-10 mint leaves
juice from 1/2 a lime
olive oil
crumbled feta & balsamic reduction to taste

I picked all of these things up at the grocery store because they had either sounded good ahead of time or looked perfect upon perusing the produce section. The heirlooms looked fab so a grabbed a couple. And the bunch of carrots (yellow/orange/purple) I just couldn't resist. Radishes were on the list ahead of time because I love the spicy crunch they add yet I always seem to forget about them.

How To:
I basically gave all of the veggies a scrub and a trimming (those that had leafy greens that weren't involved in the salad - aka the radishes and carrots) and then chopped them into like sized pieces. I mostly used inch long skinny almost shreds of each. Thicker then julienne I'd say. You could dice them in any way you choose, but try to keep them similar sizes for tossing and consuming purposes. Then I gave the mint a nice chop into fine little pieces, you could tear them also - totally based on your preference. I added a tiny bit of grape seed oil (olive oil is fine too) and the juice from half of a fresh lime. I gave it a toss and put it in Tupperware for work. In two separate containers I crumbled some feta and squeezed some balsamic reduction as a side sweetener. I added it all together at lunch today and it was PERFECT.

Hope you all enjoy this as much as I did - I absolutely cannot wait for summer time and great produce at farmers markets. There is just something about bright colorful vegetables that totally puts a smile on my face. Enjoy!