Salad for Breakfast.

I have one goal: to balance my blood sugar levels. [People who have tried 811 diet, comment below as to how you deal with this, because I literally have felt knees wobble when eating 10 bananas and dates.]

I made this and realized that only two utensils are necessary for a perfect salad!! 1) A pair of tongs and 2) a big bowl, not a flat plate. If you can mix everything together and break down the leaves a bit, your salad meshes flavours perfectly.

Summer Salad aka. YUMMO BOWL.

-strawberries

-blackberries

-spiralized zucchini

-grated carrot

-organic spring mix

-epic Lebanese EVOO

-sea salt

-lemon juice

-sunflower seeds

-Corn sliced right off the cob

AND MY FAVE NEW FRUIT. Texture cityyyy.

I bought one the other day, giddy, and beside myself with EXCITEMENT, I cradled it like a dragon egg, all the way home. LOOK HOW PRETTY.

FIRST TIME EATING DURIAN. EPIC.

I LOVE DURIAN, I've loved it even before I had the chance to try it, I didn't care that it would smell, didn't care that it might have a sweet onion taste, just seeing a picture of Ani Phyo relaxing on a beach eating it has made me crave this for years, AND FINALLY, yesterday my Malaysian friend brought a fresh one from the grocery store and cracked it open.

I'm in love.

Here's a picture.

I couldn't contain my excitement hence all my blurry pictures. Smoothie recipe to follow, with cinnamon and cacao.

EPIC JUICE DAY.

The weather is AWESOME in Toronto today, which calls for a hydrating, luscious, divine, magnificent...pre-mother's day juice.

I have to say, I have been taking amazing care of my mom lately...she's probably reading this now and agreeing. We created a health routine that involved regularizing juicing, and smoothie-making, plus massive salads throughout the day. Obviously, not far from the regular Mediterranean diet, raw is the focus, especially being wheat and dairy free, AND MOM, YOU'RE DOING AN EPIC JOB, if I do say so myself.

I am going to take a picture of the juices we make, today we juiced and made 2 L of beet, apple, kale, celery, cucumber, and carrot juice, it was so beautiful---a giant glass pitcher of fuschia coloured juice with orange foam on top, and it tasted heavenly!

Pics to come!

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU.

YAYYY STAR WARS SALSA.

Ingredients:
yellow bell pepper
red bell pepper
braggs apple cider vinegar
lemon juice
grated lemon rind
fresh mint from my backyard
tomatoes, diced
green onions, diced

MIX, AND SERVE.

Ballin' Salads.

Firstly, salads should NEVER be boring, ever. I have a few tips to tell that will ensure your salad never remain boring. The key words I think of when choosing TOPPINGS to my salad are COLOUR, TEXTURE, FLAVOUR. Pretty simple, right? You want to maximize your utility of each category.

COLOUR: Think rainbow using fruits + veggies, these are just for toppings.

Red: bell pepper, blood orange, grapefruit, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, beets, swiss chard (stem), cherries, pomegranates, strawberries

Orange: orange (OBVI), carrots, cantaloupe, pumpkin, sweet potato, papaya, mangoes, peach,

Yellow: pineapple, korean sweet potato, yellow beets (BEAUTIFUL!), pickled radish (korean).

Green: Brocolli, cabbage types, green onions, leeks, cilantro, parsley, sprouts, avocado!

Blue: blueberries, raisins, grapes, purple figs, purple potato.

Purple: purple cabbage, plums, blackberries

You get the idea with colour, go WILD. Continuing on to TEXTURE, my favourite category, my favourite thing to do is to use different ways of cutting up veggies/fruits.

TEXTURE: Grate, Straight-slice, Mandolin-slice, food process, peel, spiralize and use scissors!

You may wonder how you could eat the veggies I've listed raw in a salad, as chunks of sweet potato seem slightly off-putting but, when you grate veggies you get an epic assortment of texture in your salad. Grate the carrots, the potato, then food process on the thinnest blade all cabbage types, you'll be surprised at how much more edible your bowl will become.

dried unsweetened coconut

sprouted chickpea hummus

babah ganouj (eggplant dip)

guacamole

artichoke hearts

pickles

red onions finely chopped

garlic grated/minced

grated lemon rind, orange rind

FLAVOUR: 2-step process for flavour.

I used to never enjoy the taste of onions or garlic, and honestly I still don't so much now, but whenever I use them in my salads I feel as if they excite and bring out everything else. [LFRV's, if you're reading this ignore the flavouring part.]

STEP 1-Take a big bowl and put your salad base in (kale, romaine, arugula, watercress, spinach, etc.) Dress appropriately with a citrus juice + oil + salt. I usually use himalayan or pink salt + grapefruit/lemon juice and EVOO. Mix that up, and let it sit while you prepare your toppings.

STEP 2-Take your sprouts, your grated veggies, your fruit assortment, and your crunchy/smooth topping and put on the side. Add all of them together and decorate over top of the preset salad base.

EQN SHEET:

colour + texture + flavour = epic toppings

citrus + oil + vinegar/salt = dressing

salad base + toppings = EPICNESS.

Raw in Miami

I tried to update with my new phone in Miami, but it never worked out properly :( I'm still learning how to use it.

BASICALLY, I was going to make a point of saying how easy it is to be raw in miami. This was without even visiting Coconut Grove, which many people suggested to me. I don't know why but for some reason I pictured carts of fruit on the beach, and it wasn't exactly like that.

At first I was scared I'd starve, but the first thing we found in the street behind our hotel was a fruit shop, tons of fruit, and smoothies to go which I took advantage of.

I went to the same place to eat every day for lunch and sometimes dinner because honestly, their salads were THE BEST. They were so simple, and cheap, but the greens they used (surprisingly this was at a hamburger joint called: Damn Good Burger) were super dark and tough and I always found a clover or two in it!! It was just avocado, greens, and red onion--which I never eat but it did add a great touch. On Mondays the salad is $1.....I bought 12. DON'T JUDGE...It was between me and my mom and dad haha. The people ended up recognizing us by the end, and I think were not used to having people just buy the salad plain. http://www.dgbmiami.com/

One night we ate on Ocean drive, as well as one breakfast, and they had a great fruit platter, as well as quite possibly the most delicious salad I've eaten. It had shredded coconut, mango chunks, pistachios, cherry tomatoes, ginger sesame dressing on the side, and dark spinach.

One night we walked down Lincoln Mall Road, which was so beautiful, an open mall concept with cafe trattorias along side the cobble stone pathway. There was a farmer's market with tons of coconuts, mangos, papayas, melons, and avocados. You can imagine my excitement...

SO all in all, great place to go, obviously the scenery is so beautiful food is the last thing on your mind. Next time I go for sure I will check out Coconut Grove.

Have you ever been to miami? What's your favourite place?

DELISH RAW STUDY SNACKS.

Um. THANK YOU MOM.

She made these for my friend and I. BOMBTASTIC.

generous 1/2 cup of coconut unsweetened

1/4 cup sesame

1T coconut oil

1T lemon juice

1 full cup of medjool dates packed (Seeds removed, obvi.)

grated lemon rind as desired.