Archive for the Helpful Ideas Category

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15 08 2009

Something Helpful: A Bowlful of Yum

Posted by: Blaq Berry in Helpful Ideas

By now you’ve probably noticed how much I love to gorge on salads. I like to play with different combinations to include a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods in my diet. Since there are countless ways to enjoy salads, I’ll generally not have the exact same mix twice in a week.

Here’s my selection of yummy ingredients!

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Radicchio, kale, parsley, thyme, zucchini, romaine lettuce, orange bell pepper, chioggia beet, cucumber, radish, golden delicious apple and avocado. Off to the side were also goji berries, hemp seeds and a lemon.

Have a peep into the bowl…

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…filled with chopped, spiral sliced, minced, grated, julienned, and cubed ingredients.

Everything is still recognizable but altered enough to create interesting textures and enhanced flavors. Yep, the flavors were enhanced. When you change the structure, you also change the flavor. Sure the zucchini is still a zucchini, but spiral slicing it versus chopping it results in a slightly different taste. The same applies to the radicchio. Cutting the radicchio into small ribbons somewhat lessens its bite, making it more palatable to those that find it bitter. If you’re not fond of a particular vegetable or leafy item, try changing how you prepare it and then see if you still don’t like it. You might be surprised!

The finished salad was sprinkled with thinly sliced chioggia beet, hemp seeds, goji berries and fresh lemon juice.

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Sometimes I’ll be lazy about making salad dressings and will just drizzle a few things over the top of my mix and then toss and tweak where necessary. So in addition to the lemon juice, this time I also added a touch raw olive oil, a few pinches of Celtic sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. And depending on the mix of ingredients and my mood, I’ll switch the lemon for a lime or an orange. I’ll even occasionally forgo salad dressing. Amazing, huh? [smile]

For more salad ideas, check out:

Red Kale and Bok Choy Salad

And also these posts from the “What I Ate” category:

What I Ate: In The Midday

What I Ate: Leaning Tower of Kimchee

What I Ate: Early Morning Salad

25 06 2009

Helpful Ideas: What He Ate

Posted by: Blaq Berry in Helpful Ideas

My husband is really good about packing snacks and lunches for himself on workdays, although I will make his meals when possible. I try not to spoil him too much! Whenever I do prep his food for the day, I usually include several things to choose from just in case he stays later than planned or ends up being more hungry than he figured. Following is part of what I created for him one day.

Tomatoes, broccoli sprouts, seasoned avocado mash and slices of Carrocumber Bread.

Doesn’t it look like a giant lunchable? [giggle]

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With that mix, he easily created different combinations and enjoyed a satisfying lunch predominately comprised of live ingredients. Putting something like the above together doesn’t take much time and is fairly simple but also interesting. If I’m remembering correctly, on that same day I also made him a large fruit smoothie and included a couple of tangerines, an apple, about a palmful of raw macadamia nuts (his favorite), and a couple of homemade raw chocolate brownies. He loooooves chocolate.

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