I found this bagged salad mix recently that contains romaine, tango, green and red oak lettuce, Lolla Rosa, Green Leaf, Butter Lettuce (who knew), Mizuna, Tatsoi, swiss chard, spinach, frisee, radicchio, and yes, arugula... which of course is augmented frequently with a few extra leaves from my garden. (Did you know you can even eat the flowers and seeds?) It's a wonderful mix, not a single fragment of iceberg lettuce anywhere in sight, not for miles around. I had *NO* idea that salad was actually TASTY. Otherwise, I'd have had a lot more of it these past years!!
So I looked up common salad types and found this.
I cannot say that I agree with everything on there... I've noticed that I have naturally gravitated towards fresher, yummier, more "raw" stuff than I do crap. I go out to lunch from work a lot, but that's more social than it is a real desire for the crap I consume and sometimes I even ditch the burger and fries for a salad and baked potato (Wendy's is good that way). But even Wendy's salads aren't nearly as good as the ones I make. One thing I absolutely will not budge on, though, is meat. I throw salami on my salads for the extra fat and salt, as well as a bit of extra protein. I also throw on some slices of avocado and very little tomato. Sometimes fruit works, but as I've mentioned to numerous peeps, fruit is generally bad for me, so I don't eat a lot of it anyway unless it's in a muffin or small quantities. I do nuts from time to time but don't really like them all that much... other than brazil nuts, anyway. And cheddar cheese - exactly for the fat content - is awesome on my salads, as is the peppercorn ranch dressing!!
My only point other than to ramble during the last few minutes of my lunch break is that everybody is different. I hate coffee and love tea, and some people can't live without coffee and think tea tastes like leafy water (it is, by the way, so my insult of coffee tasting like the sludge at the bottom of a lake is better than yours).
I used to take some perverse pride in my tastes - I wasn't a typical woman who ate salad to lose weight or anything like that. I pigged out on hot dogs and chips and soda whenever the mood struck me and never gained an ounce. Granted, the years are starting to hit me - but that's an oddball one if you ask me. Considering I've been FAR less active than I used to be, I think I'm in damned good shape for someone of my age. My foot issues from four years ago have kept me sitting around more and more over the years and only now am I starting to perk up again from its finally-getting-there recovery. If it weren't for an every-other-day mountain dew and a 4-5 days per week average of Wendy's and Taco Bell, my sitting around probably wouldn't have turned into the weight gain it has. Likewise, if my activity level hadn't dropped a few years back, the Wendy's and TB probably wouldn't have found a place to settle into, either. My metabolism is still there. I'm just being very mean to it.
Anywho, all that aside... I felt funny at first, eating salad, because it was like I was giving in to "healthy" eating habits. No way!! I don't eat what I don't like... at least, not typically. This stuff is freakin' AWESOME. It truly is. In fact I'm drooling on myself right now, wishing I'd bought another bag over the weekend, and I'll probably snag a few extra arugula leaves on my way back to work... straight from my garden, as a "treat."
Speaking of headed out, it's time... I've gotta get back!! :D
~me!
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