Fresh

We've gone without freshness during the winter once in an attempt to try to stay "seasonal", but this winter we decided to go ahead full-bore with the salads.  (Though I must admit, that one salad-less winter made the first spring lettuce from our garden seem more miraculously wonderful than lettuce has ever been to me before.)  I always cringe a little knowing that the lettuce is coming from Arizona or California or somewhere, but what do you do?  I haven't figured that one out yet.  Feel free to send me hints.

THIS, though, this here is the real deal.  I pull some of these green babies out to eat them and they're probably still alive when my teeth crunch down on them.  That thought is half creepy, half cool.  Definitely wonderful in winter, when legitimately fresh food is hard to come by.

So, I'm just putting this out there for that lack of winter-time fresh greens -- this is our second winter with a sprouter, and it's such a nice thing both to eat and to watch.  I know you can sprout just with a mason jar, but I always failed miserably the few times I tried it, so this was a welcome gift a couple Christmases ago.

Anyway.  We've been trying valiantly to eat tons of salad lately, because our otherwise healthy diet* was still somehow missing quite ALL the veggies you hear you're supposed to be getting.  But salads can get boring quickly.  Here are some of the things we've tried putting on or in them during the winter, when I'm more limited because I refuse to buy tomatoes, and try to avoid all those summer-y items that I know aren't really growing in the local fields.  I occasionally do break down and get a cuke or a pepper though...

Raddichio, Fennel, Spinach, Celery
Radishes, Sprouts (of course!)
Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes
Green onions, Wild chives, Minced shallots
Broccoli, Grated carrots, Canned beets
Craisins, Raisins
Sunflower seeds, almonds
Croutons, Chow mein noodles
Feta cheese, Grated monterey jack, Cubed cheddar
Hard-boiled egg
Pepperoni, ham, turkey
And I keep meaning to try a Nicoise salad, with potatoes and tuna and green beans.

Craisins, mushrooms, green onions, and grated cheese go particularly well together (with Caesar dressing), as do broccoli, raisins, and sunflower seeds.  Beets are probably at the bottom of the list in terms of likeability on a salad, though we eat them just fine if served on their own.  I'm also going to tout the Asian Chicken Salad in the sidebar just ONE more time....

And this week's day-to-day menu:

Oatmeal, muesli, cereal, Cream of Wheat, butterscotch oatmeal and cranberry-banana muffins for breakfasts;

Black bean soup, corn chowder, mulligatawny, stir fry, pizza, and hopefully a leftovers night for our dinners.  And salads, lots of salads.

*I think I'll just have to post separately about this, but I'm sort of on a thing right now about how do we really know what's healthy?  I feel like nobody really knows and what they think they know will change next year anyway, so can't we just stop worrying about this already?  Are we locked into having to over-think everything we eat because there are so many choices?  Hmm.  Anyway, there's my caveat for our "healthy diet" as it's considered in 2011.