Shredded vs. Chopped

I've been out of town and eating way too much (good) food, so last night was a pseudo Monday and I wanted to do it right.  We also had a class at 5:00 and needed to do it fast!  Ah, the joys of the work-week.

I'd bought some easy salad ingredients to toss together, using some cooked pasta and some imitation crab as the protein.  I don't know about you, but for a long time I thought of imitation crab as....well, disgusting.  A friend re-introduced me to his rotini-crab salad and this is a twist on that dish (pardon the pun!).

I chopped a green pepper and put it in the bowl with some mung bean sprouts, cherry tomatoes, spinach leaves and the crab.  When I put the noodles on to boil, I left my son in charge of shredding the carrots for the salad and I jumped in the shower.

I came back to the kitchen to find this on the cutting board:

Kid-chef?  Nowhere to be seen.  So I drained the noodles, threw together the salad and turned around.  There he was, in his scout's uniform, which he'd suddenly remembered, mid-chopping, he wanted to show me.

You just can't be upset about that, you know? 

I served up the salad,

And it was good.

Here's what was in our Faux-Crab Salad:

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped small (so they don't see it....)

about a dozen cherry tomatoes, cut in half with kitchen scissors

1 package of imitation crab meat (made with fish and crab, good Omega 3s)

1/2 package of baby spinach

1/2 package of mung-bean sprouts

1/2 box of tri-colored rotini pasta, cooked al-dente

Vinagrette salad dressing to taste

2 medium carrots - shredded (with a veggie peeler).  Or chopped.