Salad Spinner and Pad Thai Salad

Guess who is the proud new owner of a salad spinner?!  This girl!  I knew that one of the first recipes I wanted to try from Appetite for Reduction was the recipe for "Pad Thai Salad."  But I also know that washing and drying lettuce is a PITA.  I picked up this puppy for $10 at Meijer today.  They also had a $25 model, but I failed to see the benefits of spending an extra $15...

After a good rinse of both the romaine lettuce and the new spinner, I dumped it in for a ride.

It went as well as I'd expected.  The lettuce wasn't drippy, which is nice.  Next, I needed to put it in a bowl and add the other ingredients for the salad.  Since the book is copyrighted, I won't be posting the recipe here.

The salad consists mainly of Romaine Lettuce, Bean Sprouts, Shredded Carrot, and Red Onion

The hardest part of the salad was making the dressing, and even that wasn't very hard.  Simply combine a few things in the food processor.

Roasted Peanuts and Raw Shallots

The recipe called for Agave nectar, but I didn't have any on hand.  I replaced it with half maple syrup and half honey.  The Sriracha sauce is a new addition to my kitchen.  It was definitely spicy, but lent a good flavor to the salad dressing.

I didn't take a picture of the finished dressing by itself because, frankly, it looked gross...like salad dressing typically does.

Here is a picture of the finished product and my dinner for that evening..  Pad Thai Salad, Broccoli Chowder in a teacup, and Sweet Potato Drop Biscuit (substituted Butternut squash because thats what I had on hand).

More to come later on the Broccoli Chowder and the Sweet Potato Butternut Squash Drop Biscuits...