Expert Chef Assembler - Salmon Salad recipe

Cooking for one is always challenging - and I'm not a huge fan of leftovers the entire week so it's often hard to come up with single-serving ideas week in and week out.  Also, I'm not the greatest chef in the kitchen and let's be honest, at the end of the day, I'm just too lazy to stand in the kitchen and cereal for dinner gets pretty boring after the 4th night.

But I love Trader Joe's - they have many fresh entrees that usually have 2-3 servings per package and it's usually just a few minutes in the microwave to "cook."  The downside is that I hate all the plastic and waste that it creates (that's for another post).

The other option is what I call assembling and thanks to Trader Joe's, I have become a Certified Master Assembler. They have great options of semi-prepared goods and I've come up with some great, quick ideas that usually don't take too long to prep.  Also, mom did buy me one of their cookbooks that always comes in handy, too!  I've found some great assembling ideas in here!  I'll be posting some of my favorites here on my blog on occasion.  

I find myself eating a lot of salads for lunch but it doesn't always have to be the same boring thing - always comes down to how creative you can be with the ingredients.  This was my lunch today and I LOVED it:

~Salmon Salad~

Ingredients: (everything was from TJ's)

Salmon

organic baby spinach

beets (already cooked, cleaned and ready to go)

marinated mushrooms

crumbled feta cheese

Persian cucumbers
Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette

The night before, I poached two salmon fillets in my handy rice cooker/steamer so I used half of one for the salad - this is one of my favorite new kitchen appliances by the way.  You can cook your rice and it comes with a little tray that you can steam fish, veggies, tofu on top so everything is ready at the same time - genius!  Unfortunately, once I cooked the salmon and the rice... my apartment smelled like a true Asian household... I'm still airing it out today! :/