When ever I go to visit my parents before heading back home, I always stop by the local vegetable store.  Often I stop by the local vegetable/fruit store on 5th Avenue, but I love to stop and shop at  the BIG Vegetable & Fruit shop on 65th street and Fort Hamilton Parkway called  Three Guys from Brooklyn.  They have a large variety of fruits and vegetable, it is also one of the busiest veg/fruit markets in Brooklyn, NY.

I visited them 2 weeks ago right after New Years and since both my husband and I have to loose a few pounds, I stocked up fresh vegetables and fruits.  When ever I go shopping – no I don’t make list (I should, but I don’t) but rather, I think and imagine in my head what I can make with what I am buying.  I also of buy a bit to much to feed 2 people, but believe it or not everything is gone in 2 weeks time.  I prefer to buy variety and  in large quantity  this because, I don’t have the time and don’t and can’t go food shopping for a few missing items every other day.  I rather have it in the stock then to think about what I don’t have.  Plus, most of the time the vegetable/fruit stores are closed by where I live and often I get home after 7pm.  As per my supermarket shopping, I often do it in the evening on weekdays, when the supermarket is practically empty and I am in and out in less then a half hour.  

This works for me right now because I work during the day and get home late. I’m sure if my responsibilities were different I would prioritize differently.

My question to you – how do you shop?

Now the salad, I purchased one pint of red plum and one pint of yellow plum for only .99 cents each nice price right? Also, they were so fresh I knew right away a simple salad would be great.

Ingredients
      ~ Serves 4

• 1 pint of cherry red tomatoes
• 1 pint of cherry yellow tomatoes
• 7 leaves of fresh basil (parsley would be great as well)
• 1/4 cup of crumbled goat cheese
  (feta cheese would work great as well – I had a 1/2 a goat cheese roll at home & wanted to finish it off)
• 1/2 a lemons juice
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• salt & black pepper for taste

Preparation

1. Wash the pints of tomatoes and let them drain.
2. Cut in half or into quarters and place into a serving dish.
3. Slice the basil into thin slices and sprinkle over the tomatoes.
4. Crumble the goat cheese over the tomatoes and basil as well.
5. Prepare the dressing ingredients and pour over the mixture and toss well.
6. Serve & Enjoy!

Note: I prepared the salad as described minus the dressing.  Divided the salad into two and stored the other half in a lidded container in the refrigerator and served it the following day.  Preparing all the ingredients at once everything is practical, saves me the hassle the following day.

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Tags: basil, goat cheese, three guys from brooklyn, tomato