Every week I have to come up with a new recipe for you guys. I usually start to think about it on Fridays an hour or so before it's due. This is good for you (because the recipes I come up with are lickity split easy) but bad for the web guy because I'm always missing his deadlines.

Miho and I were in the kitchen testing recipes for another gig when we remembered our Friday deadline. We had leftover julienne veggies, a little smoked salmon and some plain low fat yogurt.

Miho wrapped the salmon around the veggies and I whisked some chopped basil, a sprinkle of salt and a dash of pepper into the yogurt and drizzled it over the smoked salmon rolls. We hightailed the plate out to the street, the only patch of sun left, and snapped the picture.

For those of you who don't know, Miho is the very talented chef I sometimes have the privilege of working with. She's won awards for her culinary knife skills. I have not. She juliennes veggies with a knife. I use Oxo's $69 dollar mandolin, which I've come to learn, no cook should live without. It makes slicing and julienning veggies Duck Duck Goose Simple Simon easy.

One cannot expect to lose weight and keep it off living a life void of veggies. And for those of us who are both incredibly lazy and suffer from broccoli boredom, a stash of julienne veggies that don't require Martha Stewart's patience to produce, come in handy.

My version of this salad isn't photogenic. Dump a whole bunch of chopped or julienne veggies into a salad bowl, add smoked salmon that's been cut into bite size pieces, top with dressing, and toss. Grab a fork, plop in front of the telly and dig in. If you're not a bachelorette, divide salad among serving plates and sit down to a deliciously simple, vivacious salad.

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