THE SALAD SAGA

                                   "A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be

                        lobster salad and Champagne, the only true feminine and becoming viands"
                                                                    - Lord Byron

Salad, the word alone is enough to make some peoples stomachs growl with hunger without even having to see one. Salad has long instilled images in our minds of starved-looking models chewing emotionlessly on leaves of lettuce or little rabbits nibbling unenthusiastically on vegetation while the rest of the world looks on wondering how either species survives on such vaporous fare.

But this is far from the truth… Salads are and can be a filling and deliciously healthy lunch and even dinner when they are made right…a.k.a..with a little thought and love!

I honesty think a salad is only boring if you fail to put some effort into it, (basically, if you’re lazy!)

Let's start with the main component, which is usually some kind of lettuce or leafy greens. At most deli’s its usually iceberg lettuce but this, in my opinion is one of the most tasteless lettuces, although not as nutrition-less as we’ve previously been led to believe! It does have a place in our diet, but for me, I prefer the taste of romaine, or spinach leaves , rocket lettuce/Arugula or a mix of all three, which is known as mixed greens!

Lettuce is not just a pretty base to a salad, as it also, more importantly packs quite a nutritional punch.  Lettuce leaves are

·      

      Storehouses of phytonutrients that have health promoting and disease preventing attributes. Its also full of vitamins and minerals, mainly 

•       Vitamin A  and beta carotenes ( which means healthy skin and great vision) ,
•          Vitamin K (which helps increase bone mass, and has also established a role in Alzheimers disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in the brain) as well as
•        Folates (important for a developing fetus) and
•       Vitamin C (which is a powerful anti-oxidant and helps prevent pro-inflammatory free radicals).

And so now that the making of your salad is off to a very nutritious start, its time to add some protein, which is what makes the difference between a salad leaving you feel like there’s still a big empty whole in your tummy, and the feeling of a full and happy tummy!

The choices are pretty simple;

-Chicken (Roasted/warm/grilled/or just cold)

- Tuna (canned/ or read seared tuna(insanely delicious but rather expensive)

- Beans (Kidney/Garbanzo/Black)

- Salmon (grilled/smoked)

Boiled Eggs and Nuts are additions to Salads that add that extra bit of protein while also adding flavor.

So we have our choice of lettuce, or choice of protein, and from there it’s time to get creative! Things you can add to Salads to make them filling and delicious are;

-Dried Fruits (Cranberries/ Raisins/Dates/apricots

-Fruit (Strawberries/Apples/Oranges/Avacado/Peaches etc.)

-Nuts of all sorts

-Bacon Bits (don’t make this a daily habit though)

-Crumbled and grated Cheeses (Feta/Goats/Mozzarella)

-Sundried/Sunblushed tomatoes

-Olives

-Green/Red/Yellow/Orange Peppers (roasted or raw)

-Mushrooms (grilled/raw)

-Roasted Beets

-Red Onions

Of course you can pick and choose according to your palate and what flavors you like together: Some common combinations include;

Mixed Greens, Walnuts, Pears and Goat cheese with Chicken  (aka Waldorf Salad)

Olives, Sundried tomatoes, Feta, Cucumber, Red Onions (Greek Salad)

Romaine and Endive lettuce, Bacon Bits, Chicken, Avacado, Chooped Boiled Eggs, Chopped Tomatoes (aka Cobb Salad)

Combinations are endless so don’t be afraid to try new things, as you never know what may end up being delish!

And as for Salad Dressings; Healthy dressings are usually light and either oil or vinegar based and try to make your own dressings as store prepared are often full of crappy additives and flavors you don’t want in your body;

I’d recommend a Little Olive Oil with Balsamic Vinegar

Or Olive Oil and Pesto can be a delicious combination (just make sure to check the pesto ingredients!)

And a touch of fresh lemon juice can add zest to a Salad as well!!

Here is the recipe to the Salad that my sisters makes so well! It’s sort of her own concoction and we don’t really know the measurements of how much goes in, but it is a hit in this house so I have to share!

Fiona’s Fabulously Fruity Chicken Salad

Breasts of Roasted Chicken

1 medium bag of baby spinach

1 small bag of rocket lettuce

2 Satsumas

1 large sweet apple chopped

Handful roasted nuts

Handful of raisins

Half an Avocado

5 chopped Sundried Tomatoes

Drizzling of Olive Oil

2 tablespoons of Pesto

Put all ingredients into a large salad bowl, excluding the Chicken, Olive oil and Pesto.

Mix well, then Add the olive oil and pesto. Mix it all up together before putting onto a dinner plate.  Put Roasted Chicken pieces on top. Easy as that! Eat and Enjoy!

Butter; Creamy Blocks Of Nutritional Gold.

Yes it’s true, your eyes are not deceiving you. Butter is actually good for your health. Not just good actually, great! Spreading some rich creamy butter on your morning slice of whole-wheat toast, or sautéing your evening vegetables in this golden goodness is actually a healthful practice and a step that will help bring your body back to balance.



But butter is a saturated fat and saturated fats raise bad cholesterol, which leads to heart disease, right?


Wrong. We can blame this malarkey on a researcher named Ancel keys who was the first to propose that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet played the major role in heart disease. But in fact numerous studies performed since his claim, have been unable to back up this theory. Turns out that during the first half of the last century as butter and other quality animal fat consumption decreased, the percentage of heart disease increased! So the saturated fat theory doesn’t really hold up in relation to heart disease now does it?


Weston A. Price, a dentist who travelled the world, studying the diets of primitive peoples, spent time researching their diets in lieu of finding the reasons for their robust health, excellent bone structure, and complete rarity of tooth decay and degenerative diseases. His findings throughout all the different cultures were very similar, and one similarity was the inclusion of quality animal fat in the diet including butter.


In an extract from his book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”, marking his studies, he says of butter;


“Isolated Swiss villagers placed a bowl of butter on their church altars, set a wick in it, and let it burn throughout the year as a sign of divinity in the butter. Arab groups also put a high value on butter, especially deep yellow-orange butter from livestock feeding on green grass in the spring and fall. American folk wisdom recognized that children raised on butter were robust and sturdy; but that children given skim milk during their growing years were pale and thin, with "pinched" faces.”


All these fakers, like margarine, which is nothing more than a tub of plastic, and other butter wannabe spreadables that claim to be good for your health and better than the real thing, are really one of the main culprits here in our societies degenerating health! They are chemically created from refined polyunsaturated oils, which turn rancid when heated, and become toxic to your body and considerably lessen your chances of living a healthy, robust life.


But butter, in its natural state, is the innocent victim in all this and its inclusion in our diets plays a key role in bringing our rapidly deteriorating health back from the brink of despair. When we buy butter from a quality source, (Organic or preferably raw, as pasteurization destroys a lot of nutrients) Its health benefits are numerous and although I’m sure it doesn’t take much convincing to have you choose butter over all its other inferior and toxic imposters, just remember these health benefits your also reaping, as you guiltlessly sink your teeth into that warm slice of homemade bread topped with melted butter;


• Vitamin A and Vitamin E both found in Butter, play a strong anti-oxidant role which prevents free-radical damage in the body that weakens arteries.


• Butter is a rich source of selenium , another important anti-oxidant.


• Vitamin A deficiency causes abnormalities of the heart in babies and butter is America’s best and easily absorbed source of Vitamin A.


• Vitamin A, E , Selenium and Cholesterol (yes cholesterol) are anti-oxidants and help prevent against cancer as well as heart disease.


• Something called “The Wulzen Factor” unique only to butter, and discovered by the Dutch researcher Wulzen, is proven to prevent degenerative arthritis--as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland. (unfortunately this factor is destroyed by pasteurization and so is only available in raw butter.)


• Butter is essential for proper functioning of the thyroid gland, due to being a highly absorbable source of iodine and Vitamin A.


• Butter has strong anti-fungal properties and has an important role to play in treating candida overgrowth.


• Butter contributes to weight loss efforts. No, it does not make you fat! (Fat does not make you fat, something I first discovered to my amazement only a few short years ago), as the short and medium chain fatty acids are not stored as adipose tissue but rather are used for quick energy. (The same cannot be said for polyunsaturated oils and olive oil which are in fact stored as fat tissue.) Butter is so rich in nutrients that it leaves a feeling of satisfaction and curbs cravings and bingeing!






And that’s only some Butterly Benefits :) !


So butter is an essential part of any healthful living diet. Butter is no longer to be feared, but embraced for the wonderful nutritious food that it is.

***And if i may, i might take this moment to say that Kerrygold Butter, available in most supermarkets around the states, is one of the best sources of Butter, as even though it is pasteurized, the cows are grass fed and roam happily and freely like cows should!!
How do i know this?? I grew up looking at those cows everyday of my young life in the green fields of my home county!! Yes KerryGold butter comes from Co.kerry Ireland! And it's absolutely positively delish!! ***


Here at ELAA, Butter is Body Beautiful Approved!!