I've been loving my salads lately so I decided they are post-worthy. These make up 2 meals of my day on weekdays, sometimes weekends too if I'm gone most of the day. I prepare them the night before. I start with kale and cabbage. I add 1 Tbsp of really good vinegar, such as a good balsamic. I accidentally found this really good date vinegar at a fancy-pants store next to Penzey's spices (where I went to get some ceylon cinnamon). They serve it up from the cask in which it was made--or fermented or whatever they do to make vinegar. It's expensive and unfortunately I really like it. so I will probably go back for more. But a good balsamic or one of Dr. Fuhrman's flavored vinegars will do nicely:
I mush up the kale and cabbage (sometimes broccoli too) with the vinegar and add it to the bottom of my bowls. They will marinate overnight and be more tender when I eat the salads.
Next I add 1/2 cup beans to each bowl (I often forget this until the end so order doesn't matter much after the kale and cabbage). I also add some cinnamon because it's good for you and I like it. So I've been adding it to everything.
Add herbs from the garden if you want. Right now it's cilantro, chives, parsley and dill for me.
Next, a head of romaine lettuce. We just started getting it locally and boy is it ever good!
Top it with fruit. We usually have something on special at my co-op. Lately it's been strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe and watermelon. And the blackberries have been good too even if not on special. So I've been mixing up those things lately.
I wait until my meal the next day to add the "dressings." At lunch it's usually a serving of soy yogurt. Yum! Here's today's lunch. The fruit is strawberries, blackberries and cantaloupe and it's topped with soy yogurt.
I enjoyed that after a 2-hour mountain bike ride. I was hungry!
At dinner, my topping is 1 Tbsp flavored vinegar (D'angou pear or spicy pecan are my favorites), and 1 Tbsp of my seed mixture.
