Be My (GF) Valentine

Chocolate is my favorite part of Valentine’s Day. I can’t resist showing you another picture of this yummy chocolate pop. This time with a snazzy pink background.

Looks fancy, doesn’t it? But if you saw the pink silk up close, you’d notice there are bite and claw marks on it from kids and cats. Telling you takes the romance right out of it, I know. But that’s what kids and cats do, my friend. True story.

I’m not here just to make semi depressing comments about my domestic life. No. This post is about salad. Strange, I know. I really should be talking about chocolate. But bear with me.

You may know the sob story about my picky family and the fact that my husband only eats 2 vegetables. It makes me sad because I think under different circumstances I could totally be a vegetarian. Or perhaps more likely, an omnivore who enjoys eating truckloads of veggies. But that is not in the cards for me. Nor is sleep. As far as sleep goes, I’m screwed, but I have discovered the secret to enjoying vegetables again.

Lunch! Salads!

I have The Fairy Food Mother to thank for this epiphany. Her awesome post called Spectacular Salads really opened my eyes to what a salad could be. In a very manageable way, she breaks down how to add color, protein, and deliciousness to your salad. And she also includes an easy and yummy salad dressing recipe. Bonus!

For all you foodies out there, this realization of mine may seem kind of silly. A great big, “duh” factor. But to me, a strict recipe follower, this post taught me how to be creative with salads and not feel like I need to eat a burger afterwards. Before coming across this post, I hardly ever ate salads as meals, at least not at home. My idea of a homemade salad was mixed greens with lemon, olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt. Not shabby for a side dish, but not at all lunch.

What I love about my new salad making abilities, is that I can use whatever I have on hand. Often I see great looking recipes for salads, like this one, and think, oh I can make that. But then I don’t because I’m missing too many ingredients. Not anymore!

Before you go thinking I roasted heart shaped sweet potatoes just for this post, you should know that I was attempting to get Bunky to eat what used to be her favorite food as a baby. There are many pictures of her with orange colored mush smeared all over her grinning face, but alas, she has not eaten them since. The hearts were a no-go for her, but went right in my salad along with…

• mixed greens
• grated cucumber and carrot – easier than chopping!
• goat cheese
• avocado
• sunflower seeds
• slices of tart apple (in this case, honey crisp)

But you can throw in anything you’d like, cheese, olives, beans, nuts, hard-boiled eggs, fresh or dried fruit, leftover chicken or salmon.

My only advice would be to think about whether you want your salad to lean towards sweet or savory. Because to me, the idea of using, say, goat cheese, strawberries and olives kind of grossed me out. I would keep olives for a savory salad, and use more neutral things in a sweet one. But that’s just me. You can do whatever you want, which is really the beauty of it.

Go forth and eat veggies. But don’t forget the chocolate. It is Valentine’s Day, after all.

I’m happy to have shared this post at the Gluten-Free Friday’s link up party hosted by Vegetarian Mamma. Click the link to find more great GF recipes!

It’s also posted on One Creative Weekend, hosted by One Creative Mommy, and Simply Sugar and Gluten Free’s Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays. * Please note, that the recipes on these two link-ups will NOT all be gluten free, so be sure to read carefully.

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