After a long and careful study of what makes a good salad, I have decided upon three key components, in addition to your standard greens and veggies:

1. Something sweet (like dried cranberries, raisins, pomegranate seeds, chopped apples, etc.)
2. Something crunchy (like croutons, crushed pita chips, tortilla chips, nuts, etc.)
3. Cheese (depending on the salad, goat cheese, feta, and parmesan are all good choices)

Of course you must use these things in moderation to avoid overdoing it and adding too much fat/calories/etc to a dish that, essentially, is supposed to be a healthy addition to your meal.

More on salad dressing after the jump.

Crabmeat Remick with artichoke -- we used a combination of canned and fake crabmeat. It might've been better with fresh lump crabmeat, but not actually worth it.

Sunday will be grilling lamb sliders.

Monday will be a modification of this recipe

Tuesday is Lamb sausage with tabbouleh and tzatziki

Wednesday, there's an outdoor showing of Buena Vista Social Club that reportedly includes an on-site BBQ purveyor.

Thursday will be Couzcouz with brick chicken

This week we're focusing on using up food and supplies we already have instead of being spendy (last week's fresh seafood-laden N'awlins menu ended up on the expensive side).

But we're resourceful, so we won't be eating poorly this week.