A Big Bowl of Awesome Yumminess

Sometimes I'm starving. Well, most times actually. But it's those few moments that I have between diaper number 17 and making everyone else's meal when I get to open the fridge for myself.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when the fridge is full and there's NOTHING in it! How can that be? Every shelf is stocked. Every drawer is overflowing. If I take a deep breath and try to see through the blinding hunger what I usually come up with is: There's plenty in the ice box but THERE IS NOTHING PREMADE.

Getting behind on my schedule and having nothing prepared to eat is the bain of my existence. Mostly because it doesn't take long for me to start envisioning what I can pick up down the street in an instant. Soon enough I'm engulfed in the full fantasy... Do I want the super, cheesy, gooey, meaty melt? Perhaps the triple bacon beefy stack complete with colossal size order of french fries? Ohhh.... soooo....good.

And then reality hits... I am flooded by haunting memories of Fran, Angie and Barbara. For those of you who are not familiar with CrossFit the names of those women refer to some of the hardest workouts I've ever done. The workouts are named after women; kind of like hurricanes and equally as deadly.

So I get out the veggies and the chicken and start chopping all the while vowing to myself that this is the last time I will be so ill prepared.

This recipe is a quick fix. About 10 minutes and the glorious thing is that it keeps for 3 or 4 days so you can make a big batch. I hope you enjoy it.

You will need:

4 Persian cucumbers (or a big one peeled and seeded)

1/2 a container of cherry tomatoes

3 or 4 green onions

2 bell peppers (I like yellow and orange for the color)

3 pepperoncinis

5 kalamata olives

a sprinkle of pine nuts

1/4 cup awesome quality olive oil

1 lemon

a sprinkle of dried mint

1 garlic clove (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)

a dash of cayenne pepper

Any left over steak, chicken, fish or a cooked chicken from the market

If you are a bachelor you can use that nasty lunch meat hiding in the back of your fridge

First, make the dressing. If you happen to have a mortar and pestle laying around now's the time to get it. If not use a cutting board, a plastic bag and a meat mallet. If that's just too much of an undertaking you can cop out and use the garlic powder. Take your garlic clove and put it in the bag or bowl. Now, start crushing it. Smash that sucker till its unrecognizable. Pretend it's your boss' head. Annihilate it! Ok, good. Does it look like a gooey paste? Perfect.

Remove the garlic and put it into a bowl. Poor in the olive oil and squeeze in the lemon. Add a dash of cayenne and whisk it all up. Taste it. Faint. Now let it sit so the flavors can blend.

Chop up your meat of choice and put it in a large bowl. Take all your veggies and chop them into bite size pieces. Try to avoid getting carpal tunnel. Put them in the bowl. Add the pine nuts. Poor the dressing over the veggies and sprinkle on top with a little dried mint.