Mustard Greens ... Keyword: MUSTARD.

Hello hello, again!  It has been quite a day.  I finally decided to put my blog on Facebook, which means all of my friends and family (as well as random people I haven't spoken to since elementary school) can see what I am up to now.  It was a bit of a scary step, but I am glad I did it.  I have had a good response so far and the support means more than I can say.  I just figured that I have nothing to hide.  This is me.  This is who I am.  This is the path that I am on at this point in my life.  Love it or leave it, right?  As Dr. Suess once said, "Those who matter don't mind and those who mind do not matter."  :)  So, I am out there ... wide open ... and it is actually quite freeing.


Okay, enough about all that.  Let's get down to food business.  So, I started my morning with another green smoothie.  This morning I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk, frozen peaches, frozen pineapple, and mustard greens.  See, I was trying to rotate my greens as discussed in yesterday's post and move away from all that spinach.  What I did not account for is that each green actually tastes different and the name of each green might actually say something about that taste.  My first sip of my smoothie was delicious.  I am loving the peachy taste right now.  After the second sip, I realized there was a bit of a bite.  I thought, "Hmmm... that's interesting.  Those mustard greens must have a slight spicy taste to them."  I actually liked it as it seemed to perfectly compliment the sweetness of the peaches and pineapple.  I continued to drink as I drove down the highway on my way to work.  Suddenly my mouth felt like it was on fire!  Whew!  That's one way to wake up in the morning if you've dropped caffeine like me!  All I could think was, "Duh ... they are called MUSTARD greens.  What did you think they would taste like, cupcakes?"  I had to laugh at myself.  Now, I had put a lot of greens in this morning, which likely caused it to be so hot.  I am thinking that if I used just a little bit of mustard greens mixed with arugula or spinach that it might just be a perfect smoothie.  I will continue to play around with it a bit.  Looks like I will have to since I have two freaking heads of mustard greens in the fridge.  Whoops.  Now I am also wondering what dandelion greens will taste like ...


We had a potluck at lunch today as part of a going away party for two of my co-workers.  I both love and hate potlucks.  I love variety and the ability to taste a bunch of different things.  At restaurants, I would much rather order a bunch of appetizers with friends than have to choose a single meal.  So, potlucks are good for this.  What I do not like is how the mix of foods feels in my stomach.  I also do not like having to politely decline to try certain things brought by friends and people I care about.  Plus, I always worry that no one will like what I bring.  It is the anxious people-pleaser in me.  What can I say?  Today, I brought a spinach salad with strawberries, blueberries, sunflower seeds. olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.  Not really original seeing as how I eat this salad like three times a week.  But, it went over well with my staff.  I decided to bring my own salad just for me because I have a ton of greens in my fridge that I don't want to go bad and I wasn't sure there would be anything I could eat given my whole food goals.  It turned out that one of my sweet co-workers made vegan tabbouleh and vegan wheat berry salad (pictured below ... yes, I was that weirdo snapping photos of the food while there was a party going on, thank you very much).

tabbouleh

Wheat berry salad

These two dishes were so yummy!  I have got to get the recipes from her.  When I do, I will share them here for sure!  


So, I tasted each of these salads and also ate the one I brought.  I adapted the recipe for my salad from the Fitness Magazine website.


PB&G Salad


Ingredients:

• 2 cups mixed greens
• 2 tablespoons raisins or golden raisins 
• 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons warm water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation Instructions:

•  Put greens in a bowl.
• Sprinkle with raisins.
• Add salt and pepper.
• Whisk peanut butter and warm water together and toss with salad.

I made my own natural peanut butter from scratch using none other than my VitaMix.  The recipe is simple.  Put peanuts in VitaMix and blend.  That's it, folks.  Much better than the crap peanut butter I used to buy with all sorts of oils, fat, chemicals, and sugar added!

This salad was okay, but the whole time I was eating it I kept thinking that it was missing something.  It needed something salty or tangy or something.  I wonder if adding soy sauce or vinegar would have done the trick?  I will have to experiment.  It was so close to being really good, but something is just missing.  Let me know if you have any ideas, please!  

On to the favorite thing I have eaten all day (and possibly all week) ... drumroll please ... raw sushi grade ahi tuna!  See, I have been having mad cravings for sushi, but I didn't want to eat the white rice (read: processed goo).  As I walking through the market yesterday, I saw this glorious display of fresh raw tuna.  I bought myself a chunk realizing I could get the same taste of sushi without all the added nonsense.  Plus, according to www.MarksDailyApple.com, sashimi is an excellent source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and other nutrients including selenium, niacin, phosphorous, magnesium and vitamins B6 and B12.  At 31 calories and 0.3 grams of fat per ounce, you can't go wrong.  I mixed up some wasabi, low sodium soy sauce, and pickled ginger (all purchased at the market), and had myself a little feast when I got home from work!

Dinner consisted of leftover vegetable soup from last night and two slices of sprouted grain bread with the cashew cheese I made yesterday.  Holy moly that cashew cheese is SO freaking good!  I am pretty sure I will need to make that all the time now.  So good.  So so good.  


Well, that is all I have for this fine Wednesday night.  I am excited to continue to watch as my page views keep climbing.  I want to pull a Sally Fields and say, "They like me!  They really like me!"  All kidding aside, I am thrilled about what this has turned into, and I appreciate each of you for being here more than I can say!  Until tomorrow ...  keep up the great work!