A Salad For the Adventurous

Creamy Kale Salad

from a recipe as seen in Whole Living Magazine

Above you'll find a photo of all of the ingredients in this salad. Once again this came from the recent issue of Whole Living Magazine like my previous post: Subtle and Fresh. This salad looked amazing to me but I knew that there was a chance I wasn't going to like it. I've never been a big fan of using kale as a salad green, but it just sounded so interesting and healthy that I thought I'd give it a go. Plus I knew that I would use all of these ingredient individually if I didn't like them all together. (I've got a recipe from the same mag that is a fruit and veg smoothie that will also contain the beets- which will most likely be my next post). Below you'll find my review after the recipe itself. Here goes!

Ingredients list:

1 ripe avocado, halved, seed removed

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

3 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Walnut oil

Salt and pepper to taste for dressing

1/2 bunch kale, stemmed and coarsely chopped

1 small red beet, peeled and thinly sliced ** Leah's note: I peeled this like an apple. My beet was hard as a rock so it was hard to slice it evenly. I decided to steam my beet to soften it up a bit- oh and beware- beets stain like the dickens!!! I now have a section of my cutting board that will forever be magenta!

1 sweet, crisp apple, cored and cut into thin wedges (I used organic Fuji)

1/2 cup toasted walnuts chopped.

Directions:

Combine avocado, vinegar, mustard and oil in a food processor or blender. Pulse til smooth. (this will be thick) Season with salt and pepper. (*see photo below)
Stem the kale and chop or rip into coarse pieces. (note on stemming kale if unfamiliar. lay kale leaf bottom side up on cutting board. take a sharp knife and cut leaves along base where it meets the stem. for a visual of this see my Kale Chips recipe blog: I'm Dipping My Toes In )

In a large bowl (so you can toss the salad with the dressing) combine kale, beets, apple, and walnuts. Toss with the avocado dressing and season with salt and pepper if necessary. The below photo is the finished product without the dressing. After I tossed it everything was stained red from the beets and it wasn't very pretty! I did take a photo but my camera said it didn't recognize it when I tried to transfer.

Here's my review:

This salad was actually good and I would make it again! The mustard and vinegar help to balance the sweetness of the apple and beet. I found that eaten with every component on the fork it was delicious! I was unsure about how the apple and beet would be together but combined with the toasted walnuts they were really good! As I said in the title this salad is for the adventurous eater who likes to think outside of the salad box. I have some friends that are huge fans of kale as a salad green so this recipe is definitely for them. I'm not quite sure what I would replace the kale with exactly- perhaps peppery arugula?

All in all a good addition to my health food repertoire, my husband was all thumbs up as well!!

Subtle and Fresh!

I just bought a copy of Whole Living Magazine (formally Body +Soul) and was inspired by some of the recipes I found inside. Tonight I tried the Linguine with Toasted almonds, parsley and lemon. Here's the recipe and my review:

I added another ingredient to this recipe that it didn't originally call for: Greek Kalamata olives. My husband is not a big "nut" fan so I didn't think he'd want the toasted almonds on his, so I had to think of something else that would compliment the flavors that I knew he would like. It was a welcome addition and in the end we added the toasted almonds with the kalamata olives- it was a great combo!!!

Here's the recipe and ingredients list:

8oz of whole wheat linguine (I couldn't find linguine so I used spaghetti. I used Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta)

salt for pasta water

1 cup raw almonds toasted and chopped

1 cup parsley leaves, chopped

zest of one lemon

juice of one lemon

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or almond oil

freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup grated hard cheese- I used an asiago, parmesan, romano mix. delish!!

cook pasta according to directions on box with the salted water. Toss pasta with the remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with cheese.

The above photo of the finished product is without the toasted almonds. This dish was subtly flavored and really light! The combo of lemon and parsley really made it taste fresh. It is a dish I would definitely make again.

Naughty Little Cheese!

(*this could be a long one.....) So I've been on a quest for a year and half to eat healthier both for weight loss and for my health (I don't want any nasty cancer or diabetes coming my way!!!). I started this journey after I read, "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. As cheesy as this sounds that book changed my life because it made me change the way that I looked at food. I wanted to cut out all the processed junk, send high fructose corn syrup into the trash, and was determined to not eat anything that's ingredients list was long and full of things I'd never heard of and sounded like plastic. I wasn't entirely sure where to start and then an amazing little publication came my way, landed in my lamp and saved my taste buds!!! It's a fabulous magazine called "Clean Eating"

So that's where I started. I got excited about cooking and discovered that I love chopping veggies!!! Daniel loved it because we had homemade tasty meals every night that were healthy and good for you. Tosca Reno is a contributing columnist to the magazine and she had a book called the "Eat Clean Diet" so I got that, read it cover to cover and started my eat clean diet lifestyle. I was eating well, drinking TONS of water (and peeing like crazy)- I was stoked... and then.....da, da, duuuummmm- I gained 15 lbs!!!! yes that's right I GAINED on a diet!!!!!!! sooooo not stoked about that!!!!

So I had to re-evaluate what I was doing. Why was I following a diet to what I thought was a "T" and gaining weight? Well here's the answer. After really looking at what I'd been eating I realized that it wasn't the food at all but my portion sizes and my free- for- all attitude, because I thought "well these are healthy good- for- me foods, so I can have meals and snacks and some more snacks!". So I went back on weight watchers (which I had done once before successfully 2 years ago) BUT I was doing it with my "eat clean" foods. So, still no processed foods etc.... but using the weight watchers points system to keep me from overdoing my portions.

Fast forward 10 weeks and 10 lbs less (yeeesssssss!!! and below is my inspiration picture that I keep on my fridge!) and I'm still exploring healthier eating habits.

A little background before I get into the next and current leg in my journey (and the WHOLE reason for writing this particular blog). My fabulous co-worker and friend Jenn became vegan around the same time I started eating clean. I've been inspired by her and am so glad I've been able to witness her journey too!! I've been flirting with the idea of becoming vegan, so I went back to being a vegetarian, which I was for 10 years, in the hopes that I could make the leap to being vegan.

So I picked up a copy of Alicia Silverstone's book, "The Kind Diet" which is a vegan cookbook (and explains the reasons to be vegan and why meat, dairy, etc... is bad for you). I wouldn't say it's mind blowing because I am aware of all the information in the book BUT the way she writes has really inspired me and I feel I can relate to her and she makes me feel like I can make the leap. She's also not judgmental about just dipping your toes in and not just jumping into the lifestyle. That makes me happy because I'm not quite ready to go all vegan all the time. I have an addiction to dairy that I need to kick. I can't help it, I love me some good creamy ice cream! Oh and I can't forget that naughty little cheese. Cheese and I have had a strange relationship over the years. When I was a kid I didn't like cheese at all (or eggs for that matter cuz they smelled yucky) because it was gooey when melted (except for mozzarella on pizza). Then I had a grilled cheese sandwich (can't say what age this was) and from then on I never met a grilled cheese I didn't like. I would love to turn back the clock and not have that grilled cheese that started the love affair, but honestly it was going to happen anyway, you addictive little lump of goodness! So this my friends is why I'm not quite ready to go completely vegan- goat cheese stuffed mushrooms, feta crumbles in salad, cheddar cheese and crackers, jack cheese on a garden burger, blue cheese and apple slices in salad and mozzarella on pizza- the list goes on... Anyway it's a process and we'll see how I do. If nothing else I hope to at least be eating lots of whole grains, veggies and things I've never tried (like nutritional yeast which tastes like parmesan cheese!!!!!!!!)