Salads Galore

Oh how i miss you guys!!! These past few weeks have been hectic but I’m so glad that its coming to an end. Piled with projects after project i’ finally have some down time to update you guys.

Lately I’ve been trying to eat more vegan type foods. I really want to get use to eating raw foods in its naturalness where the ingredients in the product is just a few things i am able to pronounce. So one day for lunch, i stopped by whole foods and decided to try out the salad bar,and picked out anything that looked good and satiating. So i made a big bowl of Lentil Tabbouleh, Cranberry Couscous salad and a Savory Quinoa salad. They all were a bit different but surprisingly not bad. I’ve noticed most of these salads are about flavors and the common ingredients is ONIONS, if you don’t like onions its pretty much unbearable but if you do then this is a great choice. I got to say though it was nice trying something new and experimenting, i wouldn’t switch out to eat these salads everyday but every now and than with some salmon would be great.

Have your tried Tabbouleh or any Grain Salads before? What are your thoughts?

My ode to Caesar (salad)

You ever had one of those days where you just wanted a salad, but not just the ordinary salad? I’m not gonna lie, I rather drink a green smoothie with kale, spinach and collard greens than actually sit there and  eat the actual leaf itself. Knowing me once the dressing hits the salad its no longer healthy, i like my salad drenched in dressing . My favorite salad is the infamous Caesar salad, always has and always will be. But seeing that lately its been  listed as one of the worst salad you can eat I’m slowly backing away from it. So i decided to try this new salad at Publix called Harvest Salad. This pretty much had everything but the kitchen sink in it. This particular salad had lettuce, apples, blue cheese, carrot slaw , candied walnuts, sunflower seeds , cherries and a vinaigrette for dressing.It was a new twist to the usual salads at the grocery store but the vinaigrette was too acidic to my liking. All i could think of while eating this salad was how great it  would be with some Caesar dressing. At that point i realized i hadn’t taken the breakup with Caesar to well. So i wrote a poem to which i call: My ode to Caesar .

My dear Caesar, you’ve truly been good to me. I enjoyed the time we had together . The days, the night we share are memorable bliss. I hope one day , we can meet again and reminisce. Till that day, you’ll forever be in my heart. You’re truly missed .

Whole Foods pizza run

The other day, i was in the mood for some pizza. So for my lunch break i decided to head over to Whole Foods to see if they offered any. Let me be the first to tell you that I love Whole foods, its literally like a new adventure every time i go there. I could spend hours looking at products and sampling new things, to me its like a library, grocery store and cafeteria all in one. I freaking love that place lol!…  I usually try keep a budget of five dollars for lunch a day, whether its fruit salad, salads, veggies , parfaits i try my best to keep it at 5 or under. Sometimes i master it sometime i don’t, usually when dealing with whole foods i don’t. On this particular day i was able to keep it under 5 with 2 slices of  cheese pizza at $1.99 a slice. But me wanting something more than cheese, i decided to try one of their specialty pizza which was a Blue Walnut Pizza.  This particular pizza had blue cheese, walnuts, caramelized onions , spinach and the usual mozzarella cheese . All in all To me  it tasted like a salad but at $3.50 a slice, its kinda of pricey. But if you fancy “fancy” pizza than this might spark your interest, but for me I’ll stick to the basics.

FYI: Not sure if it applies to all, Whole foods cheese pizza are made with Whole wheat dough. So technically their good for you , right? lol

Mediterranean style quesadillas

On my weekly stops at the farmers market, i saw that they had these huge pita breads on sale. Not knowing what i would do with it, i threw it in the basket along with some greens. I than headed over to Whole Foods for some spirulina tablets and decided to grab some cheese. I bought a mozzarella cheese ball and pre- diced goat cheddar. This was my first time trying Goat cheddar but for those who haven’t tried it before , i would say it taste like  a mixture of  goat cheese and sharp cheddar.  Its pretty good but this is coming from a person who likes goat cheese lol, but if you want to try something different this is great to try.

Any-who when i got home i just threw in anything i had in the kitchen and created this Mediterranean style quesadilla. First you spread some pesto sauce on half the pita bread and sliced the mozzarella cheese and goat cheddar. Warm it up for about a minute in the microwave until the cheese is evenly melted. Add sliced tomatoes and fresh spinach followed by a couple splashes of balsamic vinaigrette and dried basil. Fold over the pita bread and cut into 2 to 4 pieces.  🙂

Hot and Cold

Summer in South Florida is not what its cracked up to be, Its usually one of the two extremes. Which is generally Super Sticky Hot or Super Wet and Rainy. Usually if we’re lucky, we tend to get both in the same day. Any-who, I don’t know how to explain the science of how the temperature of an air conditioned room drops to practically below zero when it raining outside. But at  my job this is what pretty much happens. So usually mid day when  the afternoon showers roll in, I’m in need of a parka and snow boots. Well today i couldn’t take it any more, so during lunch i went over to Starbucks to grab a hot zen green tea . When she handed me my tea, it was such a euphoric feeling that words can not describe how great it felt. To just hold that hot cup in my hands and defrost *sigh*… life simple pleasures :).

But for those who didn’t know, green tea have great health benefits check  out the list below:

Anti Aging

Immunity Boosting

Promotes Weight Loss

Lowers your risk of cancer

Prevent arthritis

Lower your cholesterol and blood pressure

Documentaries that changed my whole perspective

I don’t know about you but, summer days just makes me want to lounge around the house and watch movies all day. Forget the beach, give me an air conditioned room and unlimted movies and ill be good for days lol…This past weekend i was in the mood for one of those air condition and movies days, so i hopped on netflix and decided to watch for the second time Food inc. I’ll be the first to tell you, I’m definitely not a fan of documentaries but this movie is an eyeopener  This movie will have you second think about  your next fast food run ,let alone scared to eat. But once seeing this and a couple other food documentaries that i will list below, you’re whole perspective  on food period ,will soon change.

1) Food Inc. 

2) Forks overs Knives

3) Food Matters

4) Fat Sick and nearly Dead

  

 

Image Source : delish.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com ,jacklalannepowerjuicerreview.com

Summer Smoothie: Mango Madness

Ahhhh the summertime!  Long nights, hot days  and cool drinks…. My favorite thing about summer ,are the mangoes ! We wait all year round for them to ripen ,off our front yard tree.  While we are waiting for them to be hand picked ready, frozen mangoes chunks will just have to do.  Here’s my recipe for a summer green smoothie “cocktail”  that i call “mango madness” in it is 2 handfuls of spinach, a handful of mangoes chunks, and a dash of coconut water dash of aloe vera juice with pulp for sweetness and a cup of water.  And that my friends is a summer smoothie that  is tasty and refreshing all in one. Blend the summer away mi amigos! 🙂

Welcome to Italy!

So the other night, my sis was in a “whip something up mood” , and decide to make “caprese salad” on ciabatta bread. The ingredients are so simple and go so well together. She sliced  Mozzarella Cheese, Tomato and had Fresh Organic Basil on hand, but she also did a nice little concoction for the bread. She mixed olive oil, dried basil, and crushed garlic and drizzled it on both side of the slice bread and  baked  till toasted. She than layered the cheese, and tomato with basil to top it off. In 15- 20 minutes  tops you got “caprese salad on ciabatta bread”…. Welcome to Italy!

Thought of the day: Alkalizing the body

As Promised, let’s talk about Alkalizing the body. Alkalizing the body is actually a key step to promoting overall health .Eating alkaline-rich foods helps to cleanse the body by flushing out acidic wastes caused by poor diet, environmental toxins, stress, drugs and other destructive substances. Incorporating  salads and green smoothies daily is a great way to alkalizing your body. Leafy greens are said to be the best and high alkaline forming foods,but there are others foods that contain them as well. Check the list below:

Vegetables
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cabbage Lettuce, Fresh
Cauliflower
Cayenne Pepper
Celery
Chives
Cucumber
Dandelion
Garlic
Lettuce
Onion
Peas, Fresh
Red Cabbage
Spinach
Zucchini

Root Vegetables
Beet
Carrot
Potatoes
Red Radish
Turnip

Fruits
Avocado
Fresh Lemon
Limes
Tomato

Nuts
Almonds
Brazil Nuts