wise craft

play with your food

My new favorite lunch, now that I am post-apocalyptic, is one that was made for me by my sister-in-law Jen while we were together in Colorado. So good! This salad is a keeper for me. When I'm trying to eat a smarter diet, lunch seems to be the trickiest meal for me because I don't like to cook anything for just myself. (but if you came over I'd cook for us, I promise.) I'm also not that crazy about leftovers.

Enter the kale and avocado salad. This salad is about as simple as it gets. Its straightforward, quick to assemble, and uses whatever ingredients you may have in house as an additive to change it up. The day I snapped these photos, I had only a few things to add, like cremini mushrooms, shredded parmesan, and some radishes (I remembered those after the photos). One key to how satisfying this meal is for me smooshing the avocado all over the kale leaves. I know, it sounds odd but here me out.

Avocado and Kale Salad

A bunch of kale leaves, stems removed, all rinsed well and dried

Additions- You choose your favorite.

    shredded chicken

    hard-boiled egg

    any veggies you like

    nuts

    shredded or crumbled cheese

    mushrooms

    beans

    etc.

 

Tear up the kale leaves in your bowl. Add in all the additions. Then rub, smoosh, and work the avocado into the salad with your hands, making sure you distribute it evenly through the salad. Your hands are definitely the best tools for this. Messy? Yes. But worth it.

Last step is to squeeze fresh lemon juice over the entire salad.

This salad keeps me satisfied until dinner, which is a miracle in itself because the window of 2:00-4:00 is a time of major weakness for me.

Let me know if you try it! Enjoy!

 

postcard from colorado

Happy New Year everyone! We spent last week in Colorado, hanging out with family, taking a lot of naps, and staying offline as much as possible due to sketchy internet connections (a good thing, in this case). Christmas was a completely, blissfullyl, lovely, blurry moment of fun and relaxation. There were too many spritz cookies consumed (both the "A" batch and the slightly burned, but still good, "B" batch), and I went on an epic eggnog latte bender that can't be fully explained in mere words (Katie, I really needed you to stop me!!). What is it with me and the steep dieting cliff I fall off of during the holidays?? Every year. Its like Apocalyptic eating, can I coin a new term?

Apocalyptic eating: a term used to describe uncontrolled, unstoppable eating binges, consuming foods like macaroni and cheese, bread, cookies, 400 calorie drinks, etc, things the person unconditionally loves, yet usually is able to maintain a certain amount of distance from and self-control over. Usually occurs just before the beginning of a new year, at which point it all abruptly ends and the person goes back to a more normal diet.

Anyway, I'm cleaning my diet up drastically, but more on that later this week. If you are too, I've got a few tricks that you may like.

I am excited for a new year ahead. Plum giddy, in fact. I love that a new year always starts when the weather is cold, and, in the case of Seattle, mostly rainy. I usually do a lot of house cleaning at the beginning of a calendar year, I don't really know why (Apocalyptic cleaning, perhaps??) The beginning of January makes me feel like nesting, purging, redoing, changing batteries in smoke detectors, checking expiration dates, things like that, but in a quieter manner. By quieter, I mean all that happening while there's a big pot of homemade soup on the stove, simmering. Something we can all settle into later in the evening, when its too yucky to be outside and the house feels warm and cozy.

xo,

Blair

P.S.- I posted the images above on Instagram while we were in Colorado. If you follow me on twitter you can see Instagram images whenever I post them. I'm addicted to the spur of the moment feel of it!