... 'cause I eat my greens (or at least they make me feel super).
When I was a kid, my mom would use Popeye as an example to get me to eat my greens, like spinach, of course. Little did she know that I actually loved the stuff. Not only did greens make me stronger, but they tasted good (and still do), too (seriously, the thought of having arms like his was not my reason for consuming large quantities of yummy greens, although I do have a tendency to bulk in that area sometimes).
I used to sneak into the garden and pick greens (various lettuces, spinach and such) to eat as a snack. I especially liked to grab a handful of parsley, mint or even chives out of the herb section that bordered the veggie patch in our backyard.Lately, I've been trying to increase my fresh green intake, as I have to admit to eating more cooked during the cold winter months (homemade soups and baked sweet potatoes kept calling my name). I've been drinking more green smoothies and turning to salads for some of my main courses.
Recently, while watching "Martha," I started craving this salad made on her citrus show. I opted to make a heartier vegan version of it for lunch today.
My version of the salad had a romaine base (I didn't have any endive in the house), but kept the avocado and grapefruit. I also left in the fennel, which isn't listed in the recipe online (I think I remember them using fennel in it on the show), and continued to add texture with some celery and chopped artichoke hearts (which were cooked; please don't hold it against me).
As for the dressing, I squeezed some of the excess grapefruit juice into my trusty Magic Bullet blender, along with the olive oil and vinegar (I used raw apple cider vinegar instead of the white wine vinegar listed in the original recipe). Then, I "veganized" the rest of the recipe by eliminating the honey and swapping out the sour cream for some cashews. Do you think my vegan version of the salad was worthy of some super powers?Okay, so it is a little off topic, but my family loves the movie, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World." It cracks me up when Scott has to take on Todd, who believes he has vegan super powers (literally). Unfortunately for Todd, he has strayed on more than one occasion from his vegan diet, so the vegan police had to take his powers away. Ridiculous, I know, but the movie really is funny. BTW, I think Scott's ex-girlfriend (the blonde girl in the scene) looks a lot like Sarma. What do you think?
Anyway, enough about the movie. Now, back to the salad.To really make it special, I took a walk down memory lane, adding a couple of my favorite herbs to the mix. I tossed in some torn mint leaves (they are so good with grapefruit; I've been making smoothies with tons of mint, grapefruit, strawberries and hempseeds lately. Yum!) and topped off the bowl with a mixture of chopped parsley and walnuts (the combination of the two was used on the other dish made during the same Martha segment).
Hayden seemed especially interested in what was in my bowl. As she snacked on banana and peas, I added a little grapefruit and parsley to her tray. The grapefruit was a hit, but the parsley really got her attention.Something tells me she'll be snagging it out of my mom's garden soon (like she's snagging the camera in this pic).
That's my girl :-)
