Beans, Greens and Grains

I have been thinking a lot about how to organize a salad plate that we could put on the menu, or as a feature item at the Black Dog Pub. Not only that, but as the spring and soon to follow summer creeps in here, I want to be able to make quick and filling meals to eat on our back deck. This morning, while I was flipping through Nava Atlas'Vegetarian Five Ingredient Gourmetcook book, it dawned on me! BEANS! GREENS! and GRAINS! All I need is a green salad, with a bean (legume) salad coupled with a grain salad... and voila you have a nutritionally balanced salad plate meal! I wasted no time putting it together my first beans, greens, and grains salad plate for lunch today.
Pictured here is lunch. I served a lentil salad, a coleslaw, hummus, a baguette, some brie cheese, grapes and strawberries. YUMMY!

We enjoyed this lunch after doing a little bit of planting this morning. Pictured below is my herb garden. The oregano is coming back strong from last year. I decided to plant LOTS of basil (can you say I love pesto) some lavender, sage, garlic and corriander/cilantro. I also planted some individual pots of parsley, and much more basil. I will have enough basil to make pesto this year.