Christmas Tree Salad

I've been writing more in my journal lately than my blog, sorry.  I've got some internal work to do so may go missing more than usual in the next few months.  But I wanted to post this salad I've been eating and really enjoying.  I call it a Christmas Tree salad because it's green with red (pomegranate) berries that remind me of Christmas tree lights.

Ingredients:
1 head romaine lettuce
1/2-1 lb cabbage
1/4 -1/2 lb broccoli
1/4-1/2 lb cauliflower
1 apple
1 asian pear
1 orange
1 Tbsp spicy pecan vinegar
1 Tbsp riesling raisin vinegar
1 small pomegranate or 1/2 large
1/2-1 oz seed mixture

Chop the lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower in the food processor using the S-blade.   Put in a big bowl.  Blend the apple, asian pear, orange, and vinegar in the food processor.  Add to the bowl along with the seed mixture.  Extract the pomegranate seeds and add.  Stir.   I like this a lot.

Well, if you don't hear from me for a while, all you have to remember about healthy eating is this:  GOMBBS

G is for Greens
O  onions
M mushrooms
B beans
B  berries
S  seed mixture

That's what I remember when I'm making soup and veggies for the week.   Happy holidays!

This week's foods

I've been eating a lot of raw foods lately. It's mostly because I haven't been making the time to cook, but I also like it. I'm in a happy rut with these "confetti" or "micro" salads. My base is usually lettuce, baby bok choy, spinach, arugula, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, sometimes red bell pepper, cucumber. Then if I go the savory route, maybe some tomatoes, beans, corn, spices (e.g., Mexican or Italian). Or go the sweet route, some yummy fruit like apple, grapefruit, strawberries, mango, blueberries, mango (not all of them, 1 or 2). Then maybe some cilantro and lime juice, and/or flavored vinegar and/or orange juice. Yesterday I had fresh strawberries and blackberries. Was that ever yummy. A few days ago I had an apple and grapefruit. On weekdays last week I had a big one of these salads for brekky and lunch. I've also been eating a ton of carrots. The season for local carrots will end soon. I'm on maybe the last 25 lb bag. They are sweet and yummy. My dinners lately have included large portions of carrots. I'm just having fun eating large quantities before they run out. The good news is, about the time they run out, we start seeing spring crops at the grocery store--local spinach and lettuce greens. So I'll have something new to look forward to.

About the only cooked thing I've been eating lately is beans. Today I prepped my favorite mixture of beans, carrot juice, onions and mushrooms, to cook up tomorrow. I also made housemate smoothies and my seed mixture. Tomorrow I probably won't feel like being in the kitchen much so will probably just scrounge on raw veggies and beans. And manna bread. I've had that the last few days. I think that's raw too.

tomorrow's salad

Let's see if I can remember what went into this:

1 head lettuce

1/2 small head cabbage

1 stalk broccoli

1/3 cauliflower

1/2 cucumber

1 celery stalk

some spinach and arugula, maybe 1 cup packed each?

2 apples, cored

cilantro

1 cup frozen corn

juice of 1 small orange and 1 small lime

2 Tbsp seed mixture (soaks up the juice)

Chop everything (except the last 3) in food processor and combine in a big bowl. Add the last three ingredients. The lime adds a nice zing. I wonder if cumin would be good in this. Or cinnamon...or pumpkin pie spice. It seemed good as it was so I didn't want to mess with it. Update: I did try pumpkin pie spice the next day and didn't like it so much--doesn't go well with the lime. Fortunately it didn't ruin it, but I don't recommend it.

Mexican Chopped Salad

Today's salad started with my usual veggies chopped in a food processor: romaine lettuce, kale, bok choy, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Stir in a giant mixing bowl.

Then I chopped 2 apples and a yellow bell pepper in the food processor and added those. I would have added cilantro but I didn't have any. Stir into the giant mixing bowl.

Then tomatoes from a 16 oz can (from our garden). beans. and 1 cup frozen corn. Stir into the giant mixing bowl.

I took the water from the can and added 3 Tbsp seed mixture, 1 Tbsp oregano, a sprinkle of chipotle powder, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1-2 Tbsp spicy pecan vinegar (any vinegar or lime or lemon will do), stirred that together and then stir into the giant mixing bowl.

I'm looking forward to lunch and dinner!

Breakfast was just nibbling on this and carrots and sugar snap peas while preparing.

tomorrow's food

For tomorrow I made a large confetti salad from lettuce, cabbage, mango, banana, pomegranate seeds, seed mixture and a little orange vinegar. That plus a bowl of chili will get me through the day. I measured amounts to see if I'm following Dr. Fuhrman's general guidelines. He recommends (about):

1 lb of raw veggies

1 lb of cooked

1-2 lb of fruit (1 if trying to lose weight)

1 cup of beans

1-2 oz nuts & seeds (1 if trying to lose weight, more than 2 if an athlete).

1 cup starchy vegetable or grain (optional)

I measured:

2 lbs of raw veggies

not much cooked, just whatever's in chili

1.2 lb of fruit

about 1 cup of beans (counting tofu as a bean)

small amount of starchy vegetable (corn in chili)

That should be good enough. I'd like to incorporate more cooked greens and starchy veggies but it's more work during the week. It's easier to make a big portion of one thing and eat it for all the meals in one day. So maybe the cooked greens will happen more on the weekends.

confetti salads

This is my new name for my "microprocessor" salads, which can be misconstrued with electronic devices. Carol has a beautiful presentation of her confetti salad on her website. This is a much better name for it. I think she was also inspired by Carrots' thread on the Fuhrman forums.

microsalads

Today's microsalad was sooooo good. I was thinking it's as good as any Thanksgiving treat. It's pretty much what I posted a week or two ago, so I just updated the post a bit and added a few pictures. Maybe I'm just insane to think this is so good, but hey, as long as I'm happy with it.

Fall microsalads

Here's what my microsalads have been like lately.

Chop in a food processor and stir into a big bowl:

1 head romaine lettuce (about 1/2-1 lb total)

1/4-1/2 lb broccoli

1/4 - 1/2 lb cauliflower

1/4 - 1/2 lb purple cabbage

1/4 lb bok choy or baby bok choy

puree in a food processor and add to the bowl:

1-2 oranges (2 if small), peeled, remove seeds

1 banana peeled

1 apple and/or 1 pear (or 2 small apples)

Then stir into the bowl:

1 oz ground seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, hemp) and pignolias

pomegranate seeds from 1 pomegranate

optional

add 1/2 cup edamame

This fits into three 3-cup tupperware bowls. Total calories (without edamame) is about 1000 so it's substantial! This tastes like dessert to me. It's crisp, fresh, inviting, zingy (from the pomegranate), and sweet (banana, orange and apple!). It's real yummy! This post describes how to "peel" a pomegranate and extract the seeds.

Here's the fruit I used one day. At left is a persimmons--I left that off the ingredients list because I use it rarely but it's a nice treat when you have a ripe one.

Here's the final product. It may not look like much but boy is it tasty:

Today's microsalad

This is a combination I've been having a lot lately because strawberries have been cheap and delicious! I vary the amount and type of greens so today's is just an example. Sometimes I used kale or cabbage instead of bok choy or lettuce. I also don't measure things out specifically, this is just what they came out to be when I weighed them.

Ingredients:

Romaine lettuce, 4.6 oz

broccoli, 1 stalk (peel the outer stalk layer)

cauliflower, 1/2 lb

spinach, 4 oz

bok choy, 8 oz

1 lb strawberries (big box)

6 oz blackberries (small box)

another fruit if you want, e.g., pear, apple, orange (peeled, deseeded, sliced)

juice of 1 lime

1 oz fresh squeezed orange juice

2 Tbsp seeds, grind if desired (e.g., flax which you need to grind, chia, hemp, sunflower)

Chop the veggies in a food processor using the s-blade. trim the strawberries, then chop them with the other fruit in a food processor. They will liquify but I like them chunky so I don't fully puree them. Do it to your desired chunkiness. Combine everything except the seeds in a large bowl. I then dish them out into 3 tupperware bowls to have with brekky, lunch and dinner. They are like dessert even though they are loaded with veggies! I wait to add the seeds until mealtime. It seems fresher that way.

Here's a picture of one bowl with a small spoon in it.

Breakfast micro-salad

Here's a salad I made several times this week. It was so filling I often spread it out to lunch even though it has under 500 calories.

Maybe it doesn't look the greatest but it takes a longer time to eat if you don't chop it down with the food processor. I like it both ways.

Ingredients:

Lettuce and/or spinach, 5-10 oz

cauliflower and/or broccoli (optional), 0.5-1.5 lbs

Fresh herbs if you want (e.g., chives, dill, cilantro), optional, I just do this when I have some in the garden

lime juice, from one lime

fresh berries if in season, otherwise frozen (16 oz)--This time of year it's fresh strawberries and blackberries, very yummy. But I don't shop every day so other days it's frozen cherries and blueberries or banana, etc.

1 orange, peeled

1/2 cup edamame (optional)

1 Tbsp seeds (e.g., sunflower, chia, flax, hemp) (optional)

I chop everything except the seeds, edamame and lime in the food processor. I grind the seeds in the coffee grinder, juice the lime, and add them. You can chop the edamame in the food processor too.

healthy black bean salad

Despite all the healthy stuff in here, my guests enjoyed it too. I brought this to a potluck tonight.

Ingredients:

1 lb dried black beans (I was out, so used Rancho Gordo vaquero beans--they are black and white), or 2 cans

1 bunch kale, frozen

juice of 1 lime

flavored vinegar (optional)

1 stalk broccoli

1-2 cups cauliflower

1 red bell pepper

fruit--10 oz frozen or fresh mango, or apple, orange, pear in any combination, maybe 12-16 oz total

some cilantro and/or chives

10 oz bag of frozen corn

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cook the beans if dried (soak overnight first, cook for a few hours), drain. Add the corn which will thaw the corn and cool the beans. Remove the kale from the freezer and crinkle right away with your hands (shatters into small pieces so save chopping time!). Add the lime juice and some vinegar to the kale. Chop the rest of the ingredients in a food processor, combine everything in a big bowl. Serve and enjoy!

I forgot to take a picture of the final product but here's the beans and the corn before draining:

and here's the veggies after chopping in the microprocessor:

Then they were all combined. It was good and filling!

today's food and last week

Today's brekky was my "dessert" salad. It had spinach, romaine lettuce, a bag of frozen cherries, sliced banana, 1/2 cup edamame, 2 Tbsp spicy pecan vinegar. The cherries and bananas are so sweet, that's why it's like dessert. yummy yummy:

Lunch was banana walnut ice cream for a treat! and some carrots and celery.

Dinner was a "micro-processor" salad, Carrots' invention from the Fuhrman forums. It's a salad where you chop everything in the food processor. This had a bunch of greens I harvested from the garden (came up from last year):

kale, mustard greens, spinach, chives, cilantro

+ some local greens from the co-op:

ramps, arugula, sorrel

+ apple, orange, (pureed in the food processor) and juice of 2 limes

+ 1/2 cup frozen peas (as is)

+ 1/2 Tbsp chia seeds:

I thought for sure this was going to taste horrible. The greens were strong and bitter, especially the mustard greens, and I thought, I really should cook these, but I didn't feel like it. Fortunately the lime, orange and apple made it taste great. Amazing! The lime is key for offsetting the bitter taste of the raw greens.

This last week I was working 16 hours days, and didn't have the time or inclination for cooking, besides the beets, mushrooms and beans I added to my "micro-processor" salads. I mainly just ate salads for brekky (like this), and micro-processor salads for lunch and dinner. Tomorrow for lunch I'll make black bean hummus and lightly steamed veggies for dipping. I'll probably cook more at lunch this week as my collaborator will be joining us I think. And I'll have salad for brekky and dinner probably. That's my guess but I never know when my mood will change.