Whole 30 - Another Salad Mix + Lemon-EVOO Dressing

No matter the time of year, and even though I live in Northern Minnesota, I almost always have a BIG fresh greens and vegetable mix in my refrigerator, so a salad can be put together in only a few minutes. This is my current one for the next few days. 

Salad Mix:

1 big petite or regular Romaine

6 big green onions

2 carrots

1 big handful of chopped kale

2c sliced-chopped purple cabbage

1/2 of a long, skinny, bumpy English cucumber

Slice the Romaine lettuce lengthwise into quarters. Cut into 1" cross sections. Wash well in your salad spinner, starting with warm-hot water, then drain and wash in icy cold water. Drain, spin several times to remove all the water. Rinse and dry the outer container then fill with the spun lettuce. Wash and prep the other vegetables then slice or chop them into the lettuce. Use this as the base for a tossed salad, like mine, or grab a handful and top with chopped chicken or tuna packed in EVOO. . .think of other ways to use these greens and vegetables. Chop up some fresh fruit: an apple, grapes, a whole Cutie Mandarin orange, including the skin! Put these on a bed of the greens and drizzle with the dressing. Mmmm, so good and fresh! Add to a pot of soup - grab a handful (put the cucumbers back in the mix) chop it fine and throw it into the pot.

Lemon-EVOO Dressing: 

1c single source EVOO*

1/2c pure lemon juice

2t Himalayan pink salt

1t black+cayenne pepper mix

1/2 -1t granulated roasted garlic - optional

*I can't stress strongly enough, how important it is to read labels on extra virgin olive oil. If there's a 'code' at the bottom - telling which countries the oil came from - PASS on it!! It's been proven, through chemical analysis, that often these multicountry offerings test as substances other than olive oil!! Buy only EVOO from one country / point of origin, i.e.: California, Spain, Italy, Greece, or the best by far: Moroccan.

Combine in a 14oz., or larger, glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake well. This keeps in the refrigerator a long time, a month or more, but probably won't last long. In addition to using as a salad dressing, it would be a good addition, just a drizzle, to mayonnaise for coleslaw, egg salad, tuna salad and also as an excellent marinade for meats.

Today, my salad for a 1pm breakfast-lunch was a big handful of the salad mix, with the addition of 1/2 medium tomato, 1/2 large avocado, 1 hard boiled egg and a handful of walnuts. Drizzled with a good amount of the dressing. Don't worry about this type of 'fat'. It's the absolute best type for your body. So many nutrients here! The fresh vitamins from the greens and tomato, the protein and fiber from the avocado, egg and walnuts. This is anti-inflammatory and it all tastes so great. . .Lin

A Fresh Lettuce Mix

Celebrate The First Official Day of Summer! . . . Make A Lettuce Mix!

Keep it in your spinner container in the refrigerator. It will stay fresh at least 5 days, ready for your additions for all sorts of healthy salads.

Chop or slice the Romaine into your salad spinner. Wash and spin it dry, then add the remaining sliced or chopped vegetables:

2 Romaine hearts

purple cabbage

green cabbage

1 carrot

1/2 lg. purple onion

Serve this as is, for a simple green salad, or add whatever you'd like to make it a side salad, or a whole meal. Shown here with leftover taco type beef, corn and beans. I also added 1/2 an avocado and a drizzle of mayonaise-sour cream-Greek yogurt dressing with pepper, garlic salt and dill. 

It's salad season!

Make a lettuce mix, then be creative! . .Lin

A BIG Power-Packed (Vegan) Salad

A good, healthy salad is a Food Treasure! 

Year-round, my salad spinner is always in my 'fridge, filled with a fresh lettuce mix. If you don't have a good salad spinner, that would be my first recommendation. Washing the leafy greens and spinning them dry is easily accomplished. Mine was around $10.00 at Walmart, made by Progressive. The new ones look a bit different, but they work so well. "A good salad spinner" doesn't always equate to spending way more than this. 

My lettuce mixes alway include Romaine lettuce, cabbage, onion and other greens. If the mix will be used within a couple days, I'll add cucumber. Today my other greens are half a big bunch of fresh curly parsley. To that I added: half a red bell pepper, one sliced carrot, and -since I just ran out of cabbage- I used 4 big Brussels sprouts, sliced very thin, in place of that. 

About 1/3 of this fond its way into a big bowl for lunch. Then I added quite a few things. Drained, rinsed garbanzo and black beans - 1/2 a can of each, so I'll have the same left over for another big salad. There are also mushrooms, sprouted lentil, seasoned almonds, grape tomatoes, and half a big avocado.

The fresh, raw vegetables are good sources of vitamins A & C for sure, as well as many other nutrients. The canned beans, sprouts, almonds and avocado are full of protein and the entire salad has lots of great plant fiber.

I topped it with this favorite dressing, of mine and others, that I created long ago. I always have a 12oz-32oz bottle of it in my 'fridge. I'll graze on this for the next several hours.

If your stomach is sensitive to raw, you could steam the hard vegetables, then cool them a bit, before adding them to your bowl. In this salad it would be the carrots, onion and peppers. Salads are a great, clean reset for your body, if you find yourself eating less than healthy, and to get your food plan back on track. . .Lin

Cooking For Oliver 🐶

My Sweet Boy, Oliver, has some shoulder joint arthritis that causes him pain. Our Vet put him on prescription dry food that's supposed to help with that. I didn't notice much, if any, improvement. So, at over $6.00 a pound. . .I switched him back.

I've cooked for my dogs in the past and it seems it might be a good idea to try that again. Even if it doesn't help with his limping, it'll be a great healthy way to supplement his dry food. He gets a cup of dry food in the morning. In the evening I'll give him 3/4c to 1c of this mixed with a little bit of the dry. This recipe today breaks down to $1.40 a pound.

The 4 quart pot I used was too small, so, in a 5 quart pot, lightly sauté the rice, olive oil and the meat until the meat starts to brown and the rice is snapping.

1# ground meat - turkey, beef or chicken

1/3c single source extra virgin olive oil

2c brown rice

Add 4c of fresh cold water and simmer, covered, 15 minutes before adding the following vegetables to the pot.

8oz. frozen California Blend vegetables

- - well chopped

8oz. frozen peas

8oz. green cabbage

1 chopped sweet potato

2 additional cups of water

Simmer this another 5 minutes then stir in 1 finely chopped Romaine lettuce. Cover the pot and turn off the heat. 

You can put this in portion-size small bags and freeze until needed. Thaw on the counter an hour before feeding time. Add the dry food and a little hot water. Stir then stand back and watch them gobble it up. . .Lin

Blended Potato Vegetable Soup with Romaine

6-8 med. Yukon Gold potatoes
3 big carrots
3 ribs of celery
2 sm. yellow onions
3/4 lg. red bell pepper
2T Moroccan EVOO
2T butter
            2-3T chicken soup base
            1T Sofrito seasoning
            1t black pepper
            1-1/2 quarts chicken bone broth

1 lg. Vidalia onion

2 small bunches of Romaine

Chop-slice the vegetables in the first group. I only used 5 of the potatoes along with the bowl of fingerlings my daughter grew at her house. Sauté in a big pot, in the olive oil and butter.

Stir occasionally, over low-medium heat, until the scent fills your kitchen.

Add seasonings, bay leaves, and bone broth. Simmer, covered 45-60 minutes. Chop and add the Vidalia onion, then blend with your immersion blender.

Stir in the sliced-chopped-washed Romaine, blend again for just a little bit to only break up the long pieces. immer another 10 minutes, take off the heat and cool 30-60 minutes.

I didn't use the half and half. The soup didn't need more liquid. 

Instead I decided to use 1c Spinach-Artichoke-Parmesan dip, which has cream cheese as the first ingredient. Perfect for this soup!

When the soup has cooled enough to touch the bottom of the pot, stir in the dip. Heat again, just until it starts to steam and begins to bubble.

This would be great with crusty sourdough bread. . .Lin

Lingonberry, Blueberry-Lemon Chèvre, Romaine Salad and Dressing

This is my version of a salad at a fancy restaurant in the same complex as the condo, that I own fractionally with 7 others. Their menu was posted online and this piqued my interest, It's called Lingonberry and Goat Cheese Salad. I'm at a disadvantage - I've never had their salad, nor is there a photo, but I have most of the listed ingredients and a couple not called for, of course. . .

crisp, washed and sliced Romaine lettuce

*thinly sliced purple onion

a little sliced celery heart

lemon-blueberry chèvre

craisins-dried cranberries

chopped walnuts

Lingonberry Dressing: I have no idea what their dressing is like, but this time I stirred 3T of lingonberries with 2T each of: Mengazzoli Italian white wine vinegar, water, EVOO and 1/2t-1t of fresh ground black pepper. This turned out similar to a really flavorful Raspberry Viniagrette.

Next time I might make a creamy version, mixing the lingonberries with a little mayo, black pepper, and plain Greek yogurt -or- sour cream. A good poppyseed dressing would also be a good base for the warm lingonberries. 

This was a wonderful salad! I can't think of much I'd change *(although, diagonal sliced green onion might be a good swap for the purple onion) I ate the whole salad myself! . .Lin