G-Free Salads

I’ve made some great salads lately, and thought I’d share them with you.

They’re both from Elizabeth Hasselback’s Deliciously G-Free cookbook, although neither of them have any sources of gluten in them to begin with. (A major pet-peeve of mine is ‘GF’ labeling of items that never had gluten anyway. Truth in advertising, people.)

I whipped up the Hot Winter Salad with Kale one night and served it with roasted chicken. Excellent flavor! Even Andrew liked it, and he’s not a fan of beans. Or avocado. Or kale, really. I loved that it was hot, and the sweetness of the beans and red pepper really stood out.

I also made her Ruby Red Salad and packed two portions in containers to bring with me for lunches this week. I like beets and had some in the fridge, and I also love fennel, and it’s the perfect time for pomegranate. Clearly, I had to make this recipe.

Another huge winner! It calls for a homemade dressing that features basil, but you could really use just about anything on this. I loved the sweetness of the pomegranate arils, the crunchy fennel and herby dressing. So good!

I’m ONE DAY away from the end of my first rotation this semester, and I couldn’t be more excited. One down, two to go!

(I WILL write a blog post about my time at ECMC this past month. I even have photos. Lots of good stuff coming to the blog–and elsewhere–soon!)

at last, the beets are gone

More smoothies this morning!

A “sweet melon mint” for my sweetie, which was cantaloupe and (obviously) mint, with a bit of honey and some ice. It was so random that I’d have both those ingredients on-hand at once (I HATE cantaloupe so I rarely buy it), so I just had to give it a try right now.

I took a slurp and thought it was pretty good, too.

Because all of our bananas are way past ripe (perfect for smoothie!), I had some sourdough toast with peanut butter this morning as a pre-run breakfast. And coffee. Gotta have coffee.

After my run I used up the LAST of the beet puree in a “Beet-iful Beet” smoothie. I used about 1.75 ounces (2 tbsp) puree, 3/4 C plain lowfat yogurt, 1 tbsp honey and some cinnamon. Still pretty beet-y, but it went down well. It will certainly fill me up until lunch! This won’t be the last time I use beets, but I doubt I’ll be doing many more smoothies with them. I don’t think I’ve tried roasted beets, and the beet pancakes I made once were pretty tasty as well.

I’m having leftover salmon, orzo salad and marinated tomatoes for lunch! I MIGHT sneak a bite or two of the last piece of chocolate cake, but I’ve resolved to throw it away after today. I’m SO CLOSE to my goal and I just want to get there!

seeing purple

I made another beet smoothie today. No, I don’t really like beets, but we had the puree in the freezer, so I feel like I’m doing the responsible thing and using them up. I hate wasting food. The thought of throwing food away makes me ill. I blame my father.

This time I tried the Garden Ginger Salad version. It called for a MUCH larger amount of beets, and celery juice. Instead of attempting to make celery juice by blending stalks and then straining out the solids (too much work!), I chose to throw it all in the blender. Perhaps a bad decision… Between the celery “stuff” and the additional beets, the apple and ginger didn’t do much to help the flavor! If yesterday’s beet/applesauce smoothie was too sweet, this one was just the opposite! I ended up adding 2 tbsp of honey, which helped. A little. I think the added celery solids pumped up the volume, so this ended up making two large drinks instead of one.

Each smoothie, with the addition of 1 tbsp of honey each, only came to 150 calories. Not bad for a little snack. Do I relish the thought of the other smoothie waiting for me in the freezer? Not really… I think beets are an OK additive for smoothies, not so much as the star of the show!

And be sure to wear an apron when making smoothies, or anything, really, with beets! I was glad I did!

On the docket for today:

-co-op photos

-errands in East Aurora (all food-related–FUN!)

-computer work at home

-salmon for dinner!

Yay for days I run a lot (three with Hadrian, then four by myself)! I’m eyeing a piece of Abigail’s leftover killer chocolate mousse birthday cake!