It started with a workplace baby shower with a salad potluck directive: everyone bring something you can put on a salad. As we stood around munching, while cards were opened, we thought, “Hey, this was REALLY easy, and it’s healthy, too! We need to do this more often!” So we made it a weekly thing for the summer.
One or two people volunteer to bring greens and everyone else looks in their fridge/pantry/garden/grocery store, and brings anything you can put on a salad — vegetable, protein, cheese, fruit, nuts, etc. Spread everything out in the conference room, and voila!
We have a few bottles of dressing we keep in the company fridge, and leftover non-perishables like nuts go in the cabinet for the next week.
It helps us all eat healthier and it makes “packing lunch” as simple as throwing a random fridge vegetable or a bag of dried cranberries or can of black beans in your bag. (Pro tip: don’t forget to have a can opener!)
But this doesn’t just have to be about eating at work. I’m totally going to steal it next time we have a girls night gathering or shower when I don’t have enough time or brain cells to plan a meal.
Nice! I really like this! I imagine everything would have to be cleaned and sliced at home though.
Some folks slice at home, and some wash and slice at work. ‘Tis helpful to have a few basic kitchen items around like a knife, serving spoons, plate, bowl, and can opener. 🙂
This is brilliant! I have to try this!
We used to do this all the time with a group of friends i had. We used to meet at someone’s place and everyone would bring something, then we set everything up as a salad bar. It was very nice because everyone would bring the best they could- greens from someone’s father’s garden, buffalo mozzarella from the farmer, organic nuts, homemade bread etc.
We did have dessert after that, too.
Perhaps an ice cream sundae bar following the same concept?
We used to do this at one of my jobs years ago with salads for lunch and fruit in the afternoon. It brought people together in a really nice way.