Eating Healthy and Local! :)

Whoot! The other day for lunch, I made a salad worth talking about. It was the first time I made a salad without any of the typical ingredients. There wasn't any lettuce, cabbage, spinach, or other type of leafy base. And no, it wasn't a pasta salad, potato salad, or even a fruit salad. It was an EPIC vegetable SALAD made with the seasons!

I was at the Davis Farmer's Market at Central Park last wednesday and went to purchase from one of my favorite vegetable vendors (Jenn at Good Humus). I wanted to make a salad and asked for any vegetable leafy base, but she said they weren't in season! Instead she recommended a crazy salad that I never would have anticipated... beets and corn! What the heck?!?! I was terrified at the thought of 1: making a salad w/o lettuce or spinach and 2: eating beets!?!?! To be honest, I sometimes forget what beets are because I almost never eat them. But I ended up getting a medley of vegetables including those recommended beets and corn. THEN I made the salad... I was so super excited and proud that I wanted to post it here AND include a picture.

Nutrition Focus

"Health is the greatest commodity you can ever have." - Dr. Joseph Mercola

As you may or may not know, one thing I am immensely interested is health. Basically, it comes from the simple rhetorical question: without your health, what do you have? Health is by far the most overlooked and most simple aspect to living well. Even people who love health and advocate positive health habits can occasionally overlook its importance. Case and point would be the fact that I am writing about this past the time I should be sleeping and therefore ignoring my own advice about sleeping adequately!

I'm definitely with all of you... a work in progress. I strive to learn more and more about proper health in regards to food/drink, exercise, and sleep so that I can begin to become more healthy. My ultimate goal is to have at least 50-60 healthy fully functioning years of my life. At that age, I want to be able to physically keep up with people in their 20s and 30s (like myself now!). I have been reading about health and nutrition for a while now but haven't started a regimen to implement what I have learned. To be completely honest, I'm writing this post to help develop more and more leverage on myself to start following the information I read and my own advice. :) It is also my hope that it might inspire you to check some of this information out and begin your own health program (or at least increase your knowledge about that stuff).

My Favorite Meal EVER! :)

After studying nutrition and reading 100s of articles in the last year about foods, I have uncovered my favorite meal. Those of you who know me well may have heard me talk about it before... I may have even made it with you! It is an EPIC salad.

I can't stand it when people either have really lame salads or don't eat salads at all.  Lettuce, shredded white cheese, and croutons with caesar dressing doesn't make a salad! There is a preconceived notion out there that salads don't taste good and that it is a chore to consume them. I think that is the major cause for the lameness of most people when it comes to salad. They simply haven't been enlightened of the possibilities of a salad! They are so amazing because you basically get a bowl and put whatever you want to eat in it! I'm starting to salivate just thinking about it. So I'll jump into my ingredients...