Salad Challenge Day 7

Sunday was the final installment of my Salad Challenge, and I pulled it off, despite Dilly Deli’s always enticing Michael Roy sandwich. Instead, I ordered the Rayzor salad and added a grilled portobello mushroom:

Nekkid!

Dressed.

I either misread the menu or they decided to give me a little extra somethin’ by sprinkling shredded cheese on top. Basic yellow fromage does nothing for me, though, so I happily picked the little pieces off. I should have photographed the resulting pile, which looked quite silly.

So, thus ends the challenge. Six of my seven salads fit the bill. Three were absolutely delicious, three were serviceable, and one I will not make again. I’m glad I did the experiment, and I may try it again in a couple of weeks – after play rehearsals are over. When I have more time to do prep work, I know the results will be more interesting. However, my overall goal of cleaning up my eating habits was mostly achieved, so that’s the good news. I do plan to carry that over into the rest of the summer.

Thanks for watching and for playing along at home!

Salad Challenge Day 6

I broke my own rules today, but I'm OK with it. Let me rewind.

I won two tickets to yesterday's Wine, Women and Shoes event: "From Manolo to Merlot: Fashion Show, Luncheon & Shopping." (Have I before properly expressed my deep love for TashaDoesTulsa?) Like a truly hip, swinging twentysomething, I brought my mom. For several hours, we sampled different wines, tried on shoes, mingled and had a ball. We also shopped a little to benefit the YWCA. I'll be picking up a tasty bottle of cabernet sauvignon next week, and Mom and I both when home with even T-shirts and amazing shoes. I have another big event to go to Sunday, and somehow I ended up buying two new dresses, so I wore one today:

I love this dress! I won't annoyingly rub in exactly the amazing deal I got on this vintage-inspired Calvin Klein beauty, but it was pretty impressive. I also bought the shoes on sale at Macy's, and the "sash" is the last batik scarf I made with a brooch my grandmother gave me in the center.

Grey caught me all windblown. :)

Anyway, as a last-minute addition, I was not able to request a special-diet meal in advance, so when I saw the menu was a salad topped with chicken, I just asked that mine be brought out meatless. Normally I don't mind raising a bit of a fuss, but in a room full of people who paid $75 for their tickets and I feel like the kid who sneaks in, I decided to be grateful for what I got. Since I'm not actually a full-time vegan, I have chosen adaptability over pickiness in this instance. Here was the lunch salad:

The picture was not actually taken inside a cave, I promise. It was just dark in there, and I used my camera phone. It was Bibb lettuce, cherry tomatoes, black beans, corn, avocado, pepperjack cheese, and these delicious tortilla strips. There was chipotle ranch to go on top. I only used a very small amount, but it had a wonderful bite. I want to thank the waitstaff for getting me my chicken-less order quickly even though it was a last-minute request!

OK, Sunday is the last day. Look for more fancy-dress photos in addition to a final salad that will meet my own rules. :)

Salad Challenge Day 3

My company has started a new wellness program. To be honest, I’m not sure anyone knows what it is going to be, but to kick it off, folks from one of the local hospitals are on-site today and next Wednesday to do health screenings. I got one done today, even though I knew I’d be stabbed poked with a needle. It was only a finger prick, though, and I was brave. There were no tears, no hyperventilation, and no amusing stories to tell about getting whiplash from passing out. The news is excellent: all my stats are normal! This was my first cholesterol test, and my total is 126 with my HDL being 58 (ideal numbers are <> 55 for women, respectively). As a totally-vegetarian-and-mostly-vegan eater, I assumed my cholesterol would be low, so I’m glad to see I was right. I’m gonna live!

Speaking of my eating habits, here is today’s response to my salad challenge:

Sorry, no n00dz this time. I dressed this puppy as I assembled it. Before you is a mostly local salad, containing lettuce (green and red leaf), broccoli and maitake mushrooms all from the farmers market. Last night, I sautéed the broccoli and mushrooms in garlic and olive oil. I also threw together my favorite dressing: juice from one small lime, about 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard, and a few healthy dashes of cumin. This dressing is incredibly flavorful, thanks to the nearly overwhelming mustard I bought this last time. Oh, and I also washed and cut up the lettuce. Today, I heated the sautéed goodies in the microwave for 30 seconds and put everything together on the plate. Quick, easy and delicious. It’s even better topped with a roasted portobello mushroom instead of the maitakes, though the latter are quite tasty, too.

Ah, the goodness of local produce.

Once again, I had fruit salad at tea, so I won’t bore you with more pictures of the same. Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to a salad involving two somethings I’m using for the first time. Here’s a hint . . . one component is one of Rick Bayless’s favorites.

See you on the flipside of Hump Day!

Salad Challenge Day 2

For some reason, I woke up with an upset stomach, so I attempted to quiet things by only making half my usual breakfast. I made a good-sized smoothie but forewent my usual toast with cashew butter. As a result, my stomach got angry with my further starting around 8 a.m. I don’t know how I fended off stomach-eating-itself hunger until 11:30, but I did. Since Monday was another busy night, I got my salad on at Jason’s Deli today. Here’s the delicious beast:

Nekkid again. ;)

Dressed and tossed.

This delicious monstrosity features nearly everything a salad could ever need: lettuce, baby spinach, red and yellow bell peppers, baby carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, red onion, sunflower seeds, a dollop of hummus on the side, and the thing that makes any salad something to moan about: artichoke hearts. And lots of them. The whole thing was crowned by balsamic vinegar and enjoyed with two organic flatbread crackers (of which one is pictured). Yum! Seriously, this thing must have weighed two pounds. I did prefer this combination of salad toppings more when I was still using the Italian dressing, but it contains a milk product (I assume parmesan cheese), so I now opt for the balsamic, which is good, but it lacks some bite. I, however, lacked no bites today and instead ate every bit of this baby I could scrape from the plastic container. Scrumptious!

I did not have time to prepare a lunch today because, between work and rehearsal, I scarfed down the mock chicken salad sandwich I posted yesterday and made a tangy fruit salad. And guess what was my teatime snack today . . . yep!

This time, the mixture is two Granny Smith apples, a container of fresh pineapple (chopped by Whole Foods), a pint of strawberries, slightly more than half a bag of green grapes, and the juices of half a large lemon and a whole small lime. I like my fruit salad a bit sour, as you can probably tell, and I never add sweetener. Fruit is naturally sweet; I never understood the need to top a mix like this with sugar or honey.

So another successful day in my Salad Challenge. Did you participate today?

Salad Challenge Day 1

I am a creature of habit. I follow a highly regimented eating schedule, largely to avoid blood-sugar crashes and the nasty migraines and crankiness that accompany them. Any given work day, I eat at the following times:

· 6:30 a.m. – breakfast (usually toast with nut butter and a fruit smoothie)
· 7:30 a.m. – tea with honey
· 10 a.m. – coffee (black)
· 12:00 p.m. – lunch
· Between 3:30 and 4 p.m. – tea with honey
· Between 6 and 6:30 p.m. – dinner

Today has been a whole different story. I signed up for a wellness check this morning at 8 a.m., for which I had to fast two hours in advance. So, I packed up my smoothie, a slice of bread and my homemade cashew butter to eat afterward. However, the city got caught in a crazy storm, which caused a power outage at work starting at 7:45 a.m. Needless to say, my wellness screening was cancelled. I finally remembered that I could eat at 8:30, so I drank my smoothie and then smeared cashew butter on my untoasted bread. The power went on and off for a while, finally choosing the latter for a while around 10:30. We were all told to take an early lunch until noon. A coworker and I headed to Panera, where I drank a massive large coffee (black) and ate 3/4 of a whole grain bagel (plain, no cream cheese) at about 11 a.m. So when noon rolled around, I was definitely not ready for lunch, which meant I didn’t enjoy my first salad of the week until 2:30. Sheesh.

Anyway, here is my first entry into my Salad Challenge:

Nekkid. (tee hee!)

Dressed.

It’s going to be a crazy week, so I will admit that I did not make this salad. It is one of Whole Foods’ salad shakers. However, the ingredients are all-natural and fit the bill. The salad contains brown rice, edamame, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, almonds and their no-oil carrot ginger dressing (carrots, mirin, agave, tamari, rice vinegar, mustard and ginger). The verdict: it’s tasty, though not particularly filling. I intended to serve it atop spinach I washed, spun and tore up previously, but they were pretty nasty by the time I got them out of the Ziploc. Given my particular non-love for spinach, it’s probably tastier without the greens, though the added iron and magnesium would have been nice. The dressing is great without oil; I love the ginger zing.

Here's some bonus salad pr0n:

OK, so there's really nothing salad-like about chicken salad. Mine is, of course, of the vegan variety. This post was apparently sponsored by Whole Foods.

(Not really. I paid for all of these items. Or rather, my love did, since it was his week to buy.)

Verdict on this one: tasty, though not life-altering. I'm not sure I've ever eaten actual chicken salad, so I have no basis for comparison. I will tell you that, last week, when my taste buds weren't working properly, nothing tasted as amazing as this sandwich. Today, I would not go that far, but I still enjoyed it.

Did you enjoy a nutritious salad today?

Salad Challenge starts tomorrow

If you're joining me in my 7-day Salad Challenge, tomorrow is the start. I loaded up with farmers market goodies yesterday, and today we will take our weekly Whole Foods trip. I will be sharing my concoctions throughout the week. Please feel free to do the same!

See you on the flip side of Sunday.

Salad Challenge

My eating has been weird lately. I’ll eat one incredibly healthy, balanced meal and follow it up with an emergency chocolate milkshake or half a jar of French onion dip. As a result, I’ve been a bit sluggish lately, and I’ve been more headache-prone, so it’s time to remedy the situation. In two weeks, I’m going to enter into a salad challenge. The idea was inspired by last night’s dinner, when I sautéed some sugar snap peas in garlic and a little olive oil and added them to spinach and radishes, topping it all with jalapeno hummus and lime juice. The result was delicious, healthy, local produce eaten in a way that is totally different from anything else I’ve made before.

Here are the rules for my salad challenge:

• Must eat at least one salad each day for seven days. Imaginary brownie broccoli points go for two salads in any given day.
• Salads can be of any healthy variety: veggies, fruits, grains and beans.
• Pasta can be one component, but it must be overwhelmed by produce.
• Only one cooked vegetable is allowed per salad (i.e. stir fry is not a salad).
• Salads must be somewhat different each day, but they can incorporate several of the same elements.
• No eggs, dairy or meat (duh) allowed.

This is me throwing down the gauntlet. I am waiting two weeks to start because I won’t be in town this weekend for the farmers market, and I’d much, much prefer to incorporate as much local stuff as possible.

So now I turn to my friends and readers for help: What is your favorite salad? What adventurous component should I try? I’m a picky eater, but I’d love to get some new ideas. Also, if you’d like to take part with me, let me know! Feel free to make up your own rules according to your dietary needs and preferences. The challenge starts Monday, June 7!

Photos of the Day #9 and #10

This is yesterday's photo of the day:

It has started to get unreasonably dark when I leave work at 5 p.m. This photo was taken yesterday, when I left 20 minutes early. The sky has been moody for days now. It makes me feel almost imprisoned by the lethargy, so the fence and power lines seemed fitting.

Here's today's photo:

I finally broke down and bought a pair of tights. The truth? I love them! They are warm and cozy. They aren't itchy and cutting into my skin like I expected. Now I have to buy another pair in brown and maybe some wacky colors, too. Oh my!

Photos of the Day #7 and #8

This is yesterday's Photo of the Day:

That's my very animated mother getting her hair shampooed by Jeffrey Cook, the greatest stylist in the world. We've been his clients for about four years now, and I couldn't love him more. He opened his own salon earlier this year. The salon has the best lighting ever. I need to start taking my jewelry over there to take photos.

Here's today's photo:

I love the way my office's roof looks when it's raining outside. There are interesting shadows and textures formed by the lighting, the shape of the building, and the coating of water. It makes me feel cozier looking outside at it.

Photo of the Day #6

Here is yesterday's photo of the day.

It was taken at the Grateful Bean Cafe in Oklahoma City, which is housed in the old Kaiser's Ice Cream Parlor. Mom and I both ordered ice cream treats -- that's a chocolate ice cream soda he's working on -- and boy were they delicious! I liked this shot of him making my drink with the chrome soda fountain in front.

I'll have tons more pictures tomorrow as I do the big Oklahoma City update. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Photos of the Day #4 and #5

Here is yesterday's photo of the day:
I was feeling goofy and wanted to do a self portrait of some kind at my desk. Somehow, that evolved into me taking a picture of myself while reading my own blog. Ooo! So many levels. :P Behind me, you can see my black Klean Kanteen. I love that little dude.

And today's photo:That's the view out my window at work. Well, that's the view from my furthest-right window. I have three. The others mostly overlook the building. This is the one I look through the most. Keep in mind I'm quite short, so I really only see the parking lot when I stand up. Generally, it's just the sky and top of the buildings.

I hope to take more exciting pictures this weekend. Tomorrow, Mom and I are hitting The Girlie Show in Oklahoma City. I can't wait!

Photo of the day #3

This is yesterday's photo of the day:

The larger image is a bit blurry, but I think that works with the subject. It was so windy and strange yesterday when I walked the dog after work. It was another hint of weather to come -- the cold, blustery kind that threatened to steal Piglet away. This view is from the west side of the Arkansas River, where my apartment complex is. I love stepping out my door, walking a few yards, and standing at the bank of a body of water across which lies downtown Tulsa. The Arkansas isn't exactly the nation's prettiest -- or cleanest -- river, but when the sun hits right, it feels vibrant and momentarily breathtaking. Tulsa might not be on my good side at the moment, but there is plenty of beauty hiding in it if you know where to look.

Gotta keep it presidential

To celebrate the Election Eve, Grey and I went to see W. I liked the movie a great deal, and in general I would call it an even-handed portrayal of our lame-duck president. It didn't glorify him, but it didn't damn him either. The portrait you get is of a misguided young man who wants to please his father and do right by his faith and belief, but he lacks the direction and motivation to do so on his own. He overcomes his own demons -- specifically alcohol and drug abuse -- to succeed, but he still cannot escape other aspects of his personality and those of the people he surrounds himself with. Whether you love Bush or hate him, you'll come out of the film with a more interesting idea of him. I have never been a Bush supporter; I supported Gore in 2000 and Kerry (as a third choice) in 2004. Still, W. made me have a little more compassion for both Presidents Bush, even if I still vehemently disagree with their politics.

Now Election Day is upon us. Grey and I will cast our ballots during our lunch hour. This is the second presidential election for which I'm old enough to vote, but this will be the first one I've done in person. In 2004, I was a junior in college in California, so I voted absentee. I'm looking forward to completing my arrows (warning: PDF) and making my voice heard (even if I know many will not go my way).

In conclusion, I will now share with you my photos of the day for yesterday and today.

Sully is not interested in politics ever since Kucinich dropped out. He was the only one who spoke out for animal rights. On an unrelated note, this picture also answers the age-old question, Does the dog match the carpet? Wait, that is the question, right? ;)

Here's today's election-inspired photo. It's a reminder that you hold the fate of this country in your hands. Go out there and vote!

Challenge: do something every day

Starting today, my good friend JD of JDStar's Handwoven Bracelets is challenging herself to weave something every day for a whole year. You can read JD's blog -- and see pictures of her weaving -- right here. She invited her blog readers to take part by picking something to do every day, and I've decided to start today with her. My challenge: take a picture for the next 365 days. It can be of anything: an item for my Etsy store, a family photo, something pretty in nature, or whatever else strikes my fancy. I just have to do it every day. I will try to post the pictures every day, too, but if I have to lump a few together, that will be OK. What will today's subject be? You'll find out soon.

Wanna join the challenge? I'd love to know what you will choose to do. Please leave me a comment letting me know.