my daily salads (lately)

I've been loving my salads lately so I decided they are post-worthy.   These make up 2 meals of my day on weekdays, sometimes weekends too if I'm gone most of the day.  I prepare them the night before.  I start with kale and cabbage.  I add 1 Tbsp of really good vinegar, such as a good balsamic.   I accidentally found this really good date vinegar at a fancy-pants store next to Penzey's spices (where I went to get some ceylon cinnamon).  They serve it up from the cask in which it was made--or fermented or whatever they do to make vinegar.  It's expensive and unfortunately I really like it.  so I will probably go back for more.  But a good balsamic or one of Dr. Fuhrman's flavored vinegars will do nicely:

I mush up the kale and cabbage (sometimes broccoli too) with the vinegar and add it to the bottom of my bowls.  They will marinate overnight and be more tender when I eat the salads.

Next I add 1/2 cup beans to each bowl (I often forget this until the end so order doesn't matter much after the kale and cabbage).  I also add some cinnamon because it's good for you and I like it.  So I've been adding it to everything.

Add herbs from the garden if you want.  Right now it's cilantro, chives, parsley and dill for me.

Next, a head of romaine lettuce.  We just started getting it locally and boy is it ever good!

Top it with fruit.  We usually have something on special at my co-op.  Lately it's been strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe and watermelon.  And the blackberries have been good too even if not on special.  So I've been mixing up those things lately.  

I wait until my meal the next day to add the "dressings."  At lunch it's usually a serving of soy yogurt.  Yum!  Here's today's lunch.  The fruit is strawberries, blackberries and cantaloupe and it's topped with soy yogurt.

I enjoyed that after a 2-hour mountain bike ride.  I was hungry!

At dinner, my topping is 1 Tbsp flavored vinegar (D'angou pear or spicy pecan are my favorites), and 1 Tbsp of my seed mixture.

my salads

I'm in Palmdale California resting up before my all-night flight on SOFIA.  Take-off will be 7:40 pm, landing 5:45 am.   Here's what I ate yesterday:

I try to get only organic produce so my choices are limited at Trader Joe's but it makes it kind of fun to get things I don't always get at home.  Bottom layer is watermelon and blackberries; then romaine lettuce, herb salad mix, mushrooms (cooked in microwave), cherry tomatoes, and broccoli.  Topped with balsamic vinegar.  Yummy.  Note:  when the fruit is on bottom and the veggies on top, I like to wait to put on the vinegar so it doesn't all go down to the bottom.  I like the vinegar best on the veggies.  I would put the fruit on top but I like to eat it last.  I ate 3 of those babies, a banana, cucumber, and lots of carrots and sugar snap peas.  And I mean lots.   Here's a side viewing showing the treasures that await me for dessert, at bottom.  There's the Dr. fuhrman forums in the background, heh heh.

Today's salad has strawberries, blackberries and banana on bottom, topped with romaine lettuce, herb salad mix, mushrooms, broccoli, and for breakfast I included a generous serving of edamame.  

I decided to lay off the edamame for lunch and dinner since I'll be on an airplane all night and don't want to have to expell gas in close quarters, heh heh.   I'm bringing carrots, sugar snap peas, and an apple on the plane ride tonight.   Expert nutritarians may have noticed I didn't mention nuts and seeds.  I forgot them!   I could have bought some but the bags were way bigger than the amount I wanted.  That's okay, I'll have an extra treat when I get home.

Oh, what the heck, here's an airplane picture, NOT the one we'll be flying tonight.   At left is an SR-71.  At right is an A-12.  My dad was flight engineer for A-12s from 1965-1968.  He had a fun job!

After tonight's flight I'll rush off to LAX and hope to get there in time to catch my flight to Wisconsin.  Funnily enough, we will fly over Wisconsin tonight on Sofia.  So hopefully I'll go there twice in one day.  I'll be pointing the telescope to a massive star forming region and collecting infrared photons and turning them into images that will hopefully tell us about the nature of the source--how the outflows are shaping the envelope cavity for one thing.  And by combining these data with those at other wavelengths, we'll understand better the evolutionary stage of this source and add to our knowledge of the processes that form very massive stars.

For tomorrow I have carrots, sugar snap peas, and an apple to get me home.  Then I'll probably buy some luscious berries and local spinach for dinner, oh yeah, and maybe some brazil nuts!  I'm hoping that eating carrots on the way to LAX will keep me awake.  I will try to drive very carefully!

How do you like that mixture of food and astronomy?  ha.

Still more on the Grand Canyon Salads

I got requests to post some more pictures so here they are.  This is what I made tonight for tomorrow's final day of vacation.  This is my favorite as it is topped with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.

These are 8 oz containers!

  

The layers are

bottom:  broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage topped with 1 Tbsp vinegar (in each bowl):

This is black cherry infused balsamic vinegar, very good!

Then spinach, romaine lettuce, and seed mixture topped with another Tbsp of vinegar.  I would have put in mushrooms but I forgot to get them at the store. 

Then 1 can of chickpeas, 16 oz box of strawberries, 6 oz box of blueberries, 6 oz box of blackberries.  The organic berries taste better than conventional, especially the blackberries.



To eat the salad, I think the best way would be to put a plate over the bowl and turn it over so it's upside down, and you can eat the veggies first.  But I don't have a plate so I just stir it up with a spoon and dig down to the bottom to eat my marinated veggies first, then my lettuce, then my fruit and beans.  But of course, you can eat it however you want!



Oh, you can also cook the veggies a bit if you'd like.  A couple of days I got tired of raw veggies, so I microwaved the cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli so they were slightly cooked.  That was good.  I'd probably do that more often but it takes more time and if I had to choose between that and longer rides mountain biking, I will choose the mountain biking (which means getting to the hotel later).

Here was today's salad as described in yesterday's post:

This had asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower on the bottom, 1 Tbsp vinegar

bok choy, romaine lettuce, spinach, 1 Tbsp vinegar

seed mixture, mushrooms

small red beans, apple, and orange on top.

Here is my work surface, a hotel bathroom:

 When done, I clean up everything including the floor so it is spotless.  We nutritarians don't want to get a bad reputation.



Here are some of the other vinegars I tried.  One of them I don't like as well but I'm not sure which one.

Still more on the Grand Canyon Salads

I got requests to post some more pictures so here they are.  This is what I made tonight for tomorrow's final day of vacation.  This is my favorite as it is topped with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.
These are 8 cup containers!
  

The layers are

bottom:  broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage topped with 1 Tbsp vinegar (in each bowl):

This is black cherry infused balsamic vinegar, very good!

Then spinach, romaine lettuce, and seed mixture topped with another Tbsp of vinegar.  I would have put in mushrooms but I forgot to get them at the store. 

Then 1 can of chickpeas, 16 oz box of strawberries, 6 oz box of blueberries, 6 oz box of blackberries.  The organic berries taste better than conventional, especially the blackberries.

To eat the salad, I think the best way would be to put a plate over the bowl and turn it over so it's upside down, and you can eat the veggies first.  But I don't have a plate so I just stir it up with a spoon and dig down to the bottom to eat my marinated veggies first, then my lettuce, then my fruit and beans.  But of course, you can eat it however you want!

Oh, you can also cook the veggies a bit if you'd like.  A couple of days I got tired of raw veggies, so I microwaved the cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli so they were slightly cooked.  That was good.  I'd probably do that more often but it takes more time and if I had to choose between that and longer rides mountain biking, I will choose the mountain biking (which means getting to the hotel later).

Here was today's salad as described in yesterday's post:

This had asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower on the bottom, 1 Tbsp vinegar

bok choy, romaine lettuce, spinach, 1 Tbsp vinegar

seed mixture, mushrooms

small red beans, apple, and orange on top.

Here is my work surface, a hotel bathroom:

 When done, I clean up everything including the floor so it is spotless.  We nutritarians don't want to get a bad reputation.

Here are some of the other vinegars I tried.  One of them I don't like as well but I'm not sure which one.

Clarification on Grand Canyon Salads

I've been getting a fair number of questions about the Grand Canyon Salads.  Thanks for your interest!  Here are some of my answers, as well as questions for you:

1)  Should I cook the mushrooms?  Yes, to kill some of the toxins.  1 minute in the microwave is sufficient.  And it tastes better!   Though when I'm traveling and don't always have a microwave, I've eaten them raw.  I'm hoping my nutritarian immune system can handle it.
2)  What size container do you use?  8 cup.  I've accidentally said 8 oz here and there, sorry about mis-speaking.  8 cup.  big.
3)  Do you eat all three in one day?  (are you crazy?)  Yes.  (yes).  :)   I go for simplicity and ease and don't seem to mind repetition.   For me the variation is day-to-day with the ingredients (the veggies and fruit), and the repetition is 3 meals in one day.   I'm gone from 8 am until 9 pm every day.  I prepare my food the night before and take it with me during the day.  You should do what works for you!  If you want to have this at lunch only, just make a smaller batch to fit one bowl for lunch.  Then have what something else for breakfast and dinner.
4)  How long will these keep?  24 hours.  I could probably push it to 36 hours if I skip a meal and still have one left the next day for breakfast.  But I don't think I'd do that on a regular basis.
5)  Do you cook the veggies?  I've done it both ways, cooked and raw.  Both ways are good.
6)  What do you do in between your salads?  Is that all you eat?  I usually have a few hundred extra calories to play with.  I fill it with favorite veggies in season.  Right now my favorites are usually carrots, sweet potato, sweet corn, and/or sugar snap peas.

I have questions for you all:  I'm surprised at the interest in these salads.  I was just going after an easy way to prepare food that tastes good and satisfies Dr. Fuhrman's 6-week plan.  Is this what appeals to you too?  Or do you just think the salads are good?

Let me know if you have any more questions or answers!

Yesterday's Grand Canyon Salad

After 2 weeks on the road, I was in the mood for some cooked vegetables, but I was on the same kind of schedule, preparing food at night for the next day (on weekdays, I'm gone from 8 am until 9 pm usually).  My go-to meals right now are the Grand Canyon Salads, also known as, 6-Week Plan in a bowl (Dr. Fuhrman's recommendations for a healthy diet, p. 216 of Eat to Live, 2nd edition, p. 179 in the 1st edition).

So here's what I did with my full kitchen and stove:

Bottom layer:  strawberries and blackberries.  The organic strawberries are on sale now and are fantastic.  This is the time of year to gobble them up!  I meant to add the beans here but forgot so they ended up in an upper layer.

Next:  romaine lettuce, spinach, 1 Tbsp strawberry balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp seed mixture (in each bowl).  The spinach is local and it tastes sweet.  I am surprised at how delicious and how much better it is than the California variety we usually get--that tastes salty and stale in comparison.

Next:  cooked vegetables:  cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, ramps (yum!  local and grown wild), and mushrooms.  Top this with another Tbsp of vinegar in each bowl.  I cooked in the pressure cooker for 30 seconds, let sit for several minutes, then had to put them into the freezer to cool. 

Now I remembered the beans, and added 1 can of black beans divided into the 3 bowls.

Next, a treat:  toasted spiralized sweet potatoes!  I got this idea from someone on the Fuhrman forums.  Spiralize the sweet potato, then cook in the oven for about 10-15 minutes at 350 F, stirring occasionally. Here's my spiralizer in action:

The sweet potatoes out of the oven:

The views of the salad, top:

and side:

Total calories:  1241.  That wasn't enough, so I had some carrots and corn and tomatoes when I got home.  That increased my calories to 1500.  That still wasn't enough as I woke up at 5 am hungry this morning.  I hate when that happens.  Now that I'm back up to my pre-injury exercise levels, my caloric needs have jumped up.  I will have to increase my calorie intake to match.  I might post about that when I settle on a good average daily intake.

Verdict on the salad:  it was very good.  You can't beat the berries this time of year.  The cooked veggies were a nice change and the sweet potatoes were nice.  On the other hand, I think I might prefer just eating a baked sweet potato all on its own.  I love baked sweet potatoes and can savor the flavors more.  Cooking and cooling the veggies took too much time.  I want to start playing my flute again so will be even more pressed for time on weeknights.  However, I think I can compromise and partially cook them in the microwave, and let them continue to cook internally while they cool in the bowl.  So I'll try that next week.  Several people have asked, should they cook the mushrooms?  YES, to kill some fungus or toxin.   That's what Dr. Fuhrman recommends.   I usually slice or chop them, then put them in the microwave for 1-2 minutes.  That's all it needs.  I think they taste better cooked too.  On my trip I didn't always have a microwave so didn't cook them all the time, but in general I do.

Update on Grand Canyon Salads

I'm still on vacation and have been having fun experimenting with  my Grand Canyon salads.  I've been varying the layers.  I think I like the broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and cabbage on the bottom so they can marinate in the vinegar.  I've been varying the veggies, sometimes using  asparagus and bok choy, but usually my mainstay is those four I mentioned.    Then pour a Tbsp of vinegar on top of that, then add the beans, lettuce, spinach, maybe arugula, some cilantro is good.  Another Tbs of vinegar.  Then mushrooms, seed mixture.  Then fruit on top.   And sometimes beans on top.  I like to eat the fruit last so then I have to dig around to the bottom to get the veggies.  If I had a plate, I should just turn the salad upside down on the plate and it would be sorted how I want for eating.

I've been getting to Whole Foods every other day to stock up, so my produce has been outstanding.  Today's salads were sooo good.  They had strawberries, blueberries and banana for fruit.  How yummy.  Tomorrow's has apple and orange.  That's how I'm varying it usually because I like to eat the berries within a day of buying them.  I didn't buy enough food yesterday so I'm going to bed a little hungry tonight, especially after biking a lot today.  I wish I had a bag of carrots to munch on.  I'll hit a Whole Foods tomorrow and will buy lots of carrots and sugar snap peas, my favorite treats.  Oh, I found this great and cheap vinegar at Whole Foods:  Napa Valley naturals black cherry balsamic vinegar.  It was only $3.99.  It's great!

okay, time for bed.

Grand Canyon Salads

I was going to call these salads "6WP in a bowl" because they include everything Dr. Fuhrman recommends in his 6-week plan (from his book Eat to Live).   But they started turning into what I felt were masterpieces, because of my layered approach, and it reminds me of the geologic layers of the Grand Canyon, which I happen to be visiting this week.   So I call them Grand Canyon Salads.   I start by putting fruit in the bottom.  I bought 6 days worth of food at the Whole Foods in Albuquerque so I got fruit with staying power:  oranges, apples, and bananas.   So one orange, one apple, and 1 banana gets cut up and put into 3 large bowls (breakfast, lunch and dinner, yes I am boring).   I top that with a can of no-salt beans.  Then spinach, arugula, lettuce, and kale.  Then 1 Tbsp of fruit-infused vinegar in each bowl.  Then scallions, mushrooms, seed mixture, red cabbage, then 1 Tbsp of fruit-infused balsamic vinegar, then broccoli and cauliflower.  Then smash down and put the lids on.  Oh, on the first day I had a tomato and used strawberries and banana for the fruit.    Here's what one looks like:

First you eat the raw veggies with a nice slight vinegar taste.  Then the mushrooms and seeds and scallions and leafy greens with some more nice vinegar taste.  The romaine lettuce and kale stay crisp but the spinach and arugula get a little soggy which I like--sort of like they have been sauteed. The dessert is the fruit and beans with a little of everything else mixed in.  It reminds me of some desserts I got in Taiwan that were made with beans and fruit.

Here I am eating my lunch at the Desert Watch Tower

and dinner at Mather point:

I'm also eating a bunch of raw carrots.  

I can verify that being a nutritarian transforms your body.  I hardly notice the altitude or get out of breath walking up the canyon, partly because I'm slowing down for others.