Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Salad - It's What's for Dinner!


.....a couple of FRESH ideas for you....

Here's a concept.... 

Make Salad the Meal! 

If you're like me, you grew up on with your mom building meals around the meat du jour -- veggies were typically overcooked, canned or frozen or simple iceberg lettuce with bottled dressing...  Starches were typically baked or mashed potato - sometimes white rice and white bread and butter - sound familiar?   Please know that I'm not criticizing "Mom" -- she did the best with what she knew in that era.  She was greatly influenced by media and food manufacturers looking to influence her meal planning decisions. 

What I think is exciting is to see smarter choices coming into spotlight from lots of chefs and everyday cooks who know that they are just... well, smarter!  And, guess what?  When you get into experimenting and being more open to trying new tastes and textures, looking for produce and grains that contain their whole nutritional values, it's very exciting and satisfying to build meals with this newer philosophy.  

Your body will thank you for it with greater energy and vitality!

When you add in the fact that it's been proven that eating closer to the source - staying away from processed foods - those containing GMO's, hormones, pesticides, antibiotics, allergans and other contaminants, one can even expect to prevent and reverse disease - well, it's just awesome, IMHO....

Above is a close up pic of what I created for dinner the other evening - I can't even begin to tell you how very delicious and satisfying it was!  I had fun setting up a salad bar for Paul and I so we could build our custom salads with what we like.  For example, he wanted to take advantage of two of his last four homegrown, organic tomatoes of the season and likes his organic, "cowgirl ranch" dressing.  Mine consisted of organic: baby spinach - petite heirloom lettuce - Spanish onion - mushrooms - black olives (good fat), hard boiled egg, raw sunflower seeds, shaved carrots, halved red grapes (considered a berry, I recently learned...) - red pepper flakes, sea salt & cracked black pepper.  I made a quick dressing from organic apple cider vinegar and 2T of Vegenaise - Cholula hot sauce, sprinkling of shaved organic romano and S&P -- I made it dinner plate size and it was so safisfying with a glass of chardonnay! 

Neither of us were tempted to hit our fav before-bed snack - "Late July cheddar crackers - organic" -- they are so good, but we are trying to break that habit.  We are eating a little earlier than before - closer to 5:30-6pm and just feeling better for it!   When I build a salad now, I think of Dr. Joel Fuhrman's talking about his "GOMBS" salads for sticking to the micronutrient ingredients -- "GOMBS" stands for: "greens - onion - mushrooms - beans/berries and seeds/nuts" and usually add a little more... 

VERY satisfying year round - no need for anything more! 

& & & & & & & & & & &

Speaking of satisfying, check out this great sounding dish by Lisa Murphy - our regular contributor -- Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash --


I'm going to try it for our dinner this Thursday --  If you're not familiar with cooking with this super healthy, ancient grain - we highly recommend it.  I just recently tried it myself and both Paul and I enjoy it's interesting texture - like little "pearls" that sort of pop in your mouth with a subtle nutty flavor -- really compliments a variety of other foods - whether used in a soup, casserole or a salad -- this dish could be a salad or main dish for lunch or dinner, served warm or room temp.  Sounds delicious.    Thanks, Lisa!

To our health,

Cris

3 comments:

Paul said...

Great salad !!

Christine Zipps said...

Thanks for sharing it with me!

Christine Zipps said...

Hello again, Anon -

Thanks for encouragement - am grateful to be getting a lot of that and already have started writing - can't wait to get this baby birthed!

Please stay tuned and thanks for commenting...

To our health,

Cris