Outside of the Box: Salads with Whole Grains
I love teaching cooking classes. It’s the best of both worlds. I love food. So talking about food, good real food, cooking food, and then feeding an eager crowd – score! Today, I showed a lively group how amazing salads can be.
On the menu:
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Wheat Berry Spinach Salad (A bed of spinach leaves, wheat berries, red bell peppers, Feta cheese, sliced almonds). By adding the wheat berries, red bell pepper, and almonds the salad is naturally crunchy so replacing the desire for highly caloric, nutrient deprived croutons.
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Chopped salad (Bed of romaine lettuce, tricolor quinoa, blanched asparagus, cucumbers, mushrooms, red onion, grape tomatoes, black olives, and mozzarella cheese). All the fresh vegetables give this salad a crunch and adding the quinoa gives it a boost of plant based protein.
The consensus among the group, the made from scratch lemon vinaigrette and honey mustard dressing elevated the wow factor. I loved hearing them ooh and aah with each bite. I loved how by the end of class they were all thinking OUTSIDE of the Box: They were chatting about ways they could tweak the salads for their loved ones or how excited they were to share the salads with coworkers at their upcoming potluck. Just like that another group — Outside of the Box!
Doing what I love, loving what I do!
Eat your colors!
Happy folks!
Wheat Berry Spinach Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette recipe in Shop, Cook, Eat: Outside of the Box — page 98
Chopped salad with tons of fresh vegetables. Again, I say eat your colors! For an upcoming cookbook – TBD…
Chrisetta Mosley
I am a product – and now a survivor – of childhood obesity. As a child, my family always told me that my extra weight was merely baby fat and I’d eventually grow out of it. I never did. Instead, my childhood is filled with memories of not being able to ride a bike, flattening its training wheels from being over the recommended weight, and avoiding P.E. classes by any means necessary. For years, I wore my fatness like a wounded soldier wears a Purple Heart - with pride. I owned the look. I dressed it up. I worked the room. There wasn't a skinny girl who intimidated me. I made sure my hair was laid just right. Nails polished. Outfits coordinated to the tee. Accessories to compliment every outfit. But everyone has a breaking point, and mine came in the spring of 2004 when I tipped the scale at nearly 400 pounds 388 to be exact. I was MISERABLE trapped inside of that body. I no longer wore my Purple Heart with pride. Rather, I was ashamed and frightened. Ashamed that I had allowed food to become my everything – frightened I would die because of it. Drastic times called for drastic measures... Today, I’m bound and determined to live a better, healthier, active lifestyle. I realize I’m no longer a passenger in my life, I’m the driver. I’m overcoming my inhibitions and I’m slowly but surely saying farewell to my old childhood nemesis, obesity. For once and for all, Farewell Fatso!