GSG Kale Salad! Mmmm!

Marilee emailed me and reminded me that I hadn't put up the Kale Salad recipe I did for Salad night. This recipe comes from the Green Smoothie Girl's Holiday Recipe Book. This is SO yummy!

Colorful Christmas Salad *
This salad presents well. It looks like Christmas, with vibrant greens and reds! Take this
to your next holiday party.
4 C kale and/or collards, cut into ribbons (LD's note: I just chop this up into little shreds w/my chef's knife)
1 C green cabbage, finely chopped
1 C red cabbage, finely chopped
2 lrg. tomatoes, chopped
1 C radishes, finely chopped or julienned
2 apples, shredded
1 large mango, finely chopped
seeds from ¾ of a pomegranate
2 avocados, diced
Note: To save time, I chop by hand only the kale, collards, mango, and avocado. The
cabbage, apples, and radishes I coarsely grate in my food processor. (LD's - this works great in the food processor)Mix all well. The Tangy Dill Dressing (below) is perfect for this salad.

Tangy Dill Dressing *
¼ C fresh lemon juice
¼ C fresh orange juice
½ C extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos
¼ C apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. honey
2 garlic cloves
1 Tbsp. dried (or ¼ C fresh) dill weed
Blend all ingredients in a high-power blender.

More Salads

These recipes are from Lara . . .

Grapefruit Salad

greens
grapefruit
pecans - saute in a pan with a couple tablespoons of honey and coconut oil
top with honey vinaigrette dressing

Dressing - Honey Vinaigrette

This is my standard dressing that I eat on my greens every day.

Blend:
1 cup olive oil (you can substitute half of this with water if you want a lighter dressing)
1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar (or any other type of vinegar, lime or lemon juice)
1/2 - 3/4 cup honey

Lemon Tahini Dressing

Blend:
1/4 - 1/2 cup water or raw olive oil (I usually use 1/2 cup water)
1/4 cup raw tahini
juice from one lemon
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I usually use 1/2 tsp)
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt (I usually use 1/2 ts

I think tahini is an acquired taste. You can also grind up your own sesame seeds instead of buying tahini.

Sunflower Seed Salad Dressing (Vegan Ranch)

We also use this like sour cream on veggie fajitas or dip our veggie pizza in it. If we're eating taco salad I mix in some salsa and it tastes just like the spicy ranch dressing from Costa Vida or Cafe Rio.

1 cup raw sunflower seeds (soaked in water for a couple hours and drained if you can but you don't need to soak them first)
1 cup water
4+ Tablespoons lemon juice
1 or 2 cloves of fresh garlic
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Salads!! They're Here!

The Salad night was WONDERFUL! We had a great time with Trenton (the chef in training) demo vinaigrette and we ate yummy salads. Woot!

And I have been promising everyone that I would get the salad recipes posted. . . Sorry on that everyone.

So here is the Salad that Darci Brown sent in. I will post the Kale Salad and dressing tomorrow.

Citrus summer Salad

Baby Spinach
Romaine Lettuce
Purple Leaf Lettuce
Red Onion Sliced Thin
GrapeFruit Sectioned and Skinned
Orange Sectioned and Skinned
Sliced almonds or Walnuts
Strawberries Sliced
Fresh blueberries


Dressing

Juice of one Orange
Juice of one Lemon
Juices of one Lime
1/2 cup of canola oil
1 Tablespoon of Raw honey
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tablespoon of Cilantro

Pour over Salad and toss. Not too much dressing.

**The amounts of ingredients in this salad just depend on your likes of the ingredients.
Depending on the flavor of the fruit in the dressing I adjust the amounts of ingredients in the dressing
also. These amounts are approximate

For Beginners

Well, DH just happened to mention in a talk at church that I'm doing something new with my diet. Thanks Dear! No pressure now to keep up with this new lifestyle.

Seriously, I have NO desire to go back to the Standard American Diet (SAD) because I feel so terrific now, I NEVER want to go back!!!

So for all those who are asking questions I'm going to start posting some beginner's help.

#1 - Cut out Sodas, caffeine. . .
#2 - Drink 1/2 - 1 Quart of Green Smoothie a day

What is a green Smoothie - it's probably the healthiest drink you'll ever have and it's so easy to make, this is how I do mine.

In my blender (Blend Tec) I put 2 cups of water and I smash in as much baby spinach into that 2 cups as I can just by hand. I blend that up. Then I add 2 TBS honey, 2 handfuls of frozen peaches, 1 handful of frozen strawberries, 1 banana. Set my BlendTec to XL Smoothie and let it whirl! I then pour this into 2 Quart size glass jars evenly and add enough water to bring both up to full. Now there's a quart for DH and a quart for me. And seriously our bodies appreciate the nourishment! When we're out of town we don't get these at all. We got home and made and drank our first GSmoothies and our bodies went AAHHHHH! That's is so good!

I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy. But it's true. Think about trying to eat all that spinach in just one meal. It would take forever for you to chew through all the spinach and eat like 2 peaches and a handful of strawberries! But the blender just did the biggest part of digestion for you! It's all liquified and all you have to do is drink the nutrition down!

So this is just a basic beginning. There is no hard fast rule for GSmoothies. Except that it needs some green stuff and fruit in it. So as a beginner start off with not so much green stuff. Spinach is good because it's a really mild flavored green, but you can substitute any leafy green, kale, chard, romaine, arugula, etc. . . Granted some are stronger tasting than others. So start with spinach and add others as you want to experiment. As for the fruit, Go for it! Apples, bananas, cherries, apricots, blueberries. One of my favorites is Apricots with blackberries! And your GSmoothie doesn't turn out green!! You don't need the honey in there either, but it helps sweeten it up a bit. Just DON'T put in White Sugar or an artificial sweetener. Go with RAW honey, or Grade B Maple Syrup. Just the sweetness from the fruit is best, but adding just a touch of a more natural sweetner is OK.

Hope that helps!! Feel free to post comments, suggestions, or questions.