What's In Your Salad?

Aug 26

6b7155_a55ce3b33cb2427eb5ce11407faa7460~mv2.jpg

Last week in my newsletter I wrote about how I ate a salad for lunch or dinner everyday. I'm a big believer in food as our medicine!

We all know the importance of eating lots of fruits and veggies everyday. Some doctors recommend up to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables every day! Fruits and vegetables are key to helping to manage your blood pressure, joint pain, and lots of other conditions.

A friend of mine reminded me that many people (especially Jamaicans LOL), think a salad is a small amount of lettuce and one piece of tomato. This is NOT a salad. My friend suggested that I clarify what I mean by a "salad".

A salad to me is large and varied, with lots of different ingredients!

My typical salad includes at least four or five different ingredients - with a variety of vegetables, some type of protein (usually beans of some sort, sometimes meat but not often) and some type of high quality carb (I love love love sweet potato).

My salads generally include the following:

Vegetables (at least four of the following items):

Lettuce - usually Romaine

Cabbage - usually the green one

Tomato - any kind, I like them all (can contribute to joint pain so be careful with this one)

Cucumber

Carrots

Kale

Olives (actually a fruit)

Protein:

Chick peas (whole or made into hummus)

Black beans

Pumpkin seeds

Almonds (can be hard on the teeth so I don't use as much as I used to)

Sometimes tuna, chicken or clams

Carb:

Sweet potato

Beans

Raisins

My homemade dressing:

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar (sometimes Apple Cider Vinegar or whatever vinegar I have)

Mustard

Crushed garlic

Other items I like to add:

Avocado pear when in season

Roasted garlic (they roast well on George Foreman grill)