Donna in Hollywoodland

Salads !

Since I wrote in my last two entries about all the junk I ate over the weekend, I thought I would fix the situation and talk... Salads !

I usually like to buy a box of Earthbound Farms the Organic Herb Blend, along with a box of Epic Roots Mache (also known as lambs lettuce).
The organic Herb blend has yummy herbs like Dill. And the Mache is a cute little flowery looking lettuce with a sweet nutty flavor.

I mix them together in a bowl ... and then I usually top it with Fresh Gourmet Organic croutons.

Then for variety ::
Chopped yellow bell pepper or red bell peppers ... orange bell peppers
if the store has them
Organic low-salt kidney beans or garbanzo beans...I saw that S&W foods
is starting to make Organic kidney beans and garbanzo beans. I even sent them a nice email about how happy I was about their organic beans.

Then I will add either chopped broccoli or cauliflower, or sometimes alittle of both.
On the side of the plate, I will place either organic carrots or celery sticks, or sliced cucumber or zucchini.

Every once in a while I will live dangerously and use Tomatoes, but mainly small baby tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. They seem to be somewhat sweeter.
I like tomatoes - but they don't like me.
Tomatoes are the one thing that will give me such bad heartburn that I feel like I am in an antacid commercial with the buttons of my shirt burning off.
Friends even look at me funny when I peel the tomato slice off my sandwich
in restaurants - but that the way it has to be.

Just this week, at Mayfair Market in Los Feliz - they had package of little organic Heirloom Tomatoes .
Pretty little red tomatoes with white strips.
Purple Tomatoes and Yellow Tomatoes (both very yummy).
Funny bell-shaped tomatoes.
And there were green tomatoes of different shapes and sizes. I couldn't figure out what to do with these, so I left them until last, and they went soggy before I had a chance to experiment.
As for the tomatoes that I did eat, since they were very sweet, they didn't seem to bother me much.

Even less often will I use cheese. If I am over at Whole Foods, and I happen upon a Feta Cheese or Blue Cheese, then I will pick some up.
I try to limit my cheese because of all the hormones and antibiotics they put in it.
But I had a long talk with the person in the Cheese section of Whole Foods not to long ago. She told me it is very difficult to get Organic Cheese - they only have it once in a while. All of the cheeses at Whole Foods are Natural cheese, meaning that they do not use growth hormones or antibiotics on the cows that produce the cheese.
Sometimes when I am at Whole Foods, I will ask "Any organic cheese today?" Once or twice they have had some.

Very, very rarely will I buy Cheese at the Supermarket - if so, then I read the teeny tiny print to try to see if it was produced outside of the United States because most other countries do not use antibiotics.
If all of that works out, and there is cheese in the salad, thats usually when I used the Garbanzo beans.

After all those goodies are in place, I will add a type of fish.
Sometimes when I am in a rush, I will just add canned tuna or canned salmon.
But lately, I have been cooking salmon, shark, or halibut. Once they are cooled down, I flake them and add to the salad.

For dressing:
Organic Olive Oil, Organic Balsamic Vinegar, and Organic Garlic powder
or Marie's Dressing
or Newman's Own Salad Dressing.
The Whole Foods Private Label 365 also makes some good salad dressings.

As far as all the fixings go, I try not to skimp. I'll always buy organic if its available. And weird varieties and types that I haven't eaten before.
I figure when I do that, it helps cancel out all the times I eat at a restaurant and
decide to eat the greasiest thing on the menu.
Its very important to have both vegetables and fish in your diet.

Labels: food, health, shopping, store