Month of Salads // Green Onion Balsamic Salad

Howdy!  One of the new series I'm especially excited about this month is month of salads!  I'm trying to eat healthier and eat more green stuff, so salads have begun to pop up in my diet quite a bit.  Thus, I'm going to try and regularly document the salads I've made. 

This first one has a yummy balsamic dressing over a bed of lettuce, arugula, and spinach. 

Serves 1

Ingredients:

Handful of lettuce

Small handfuls of lettuce and arugula

1/4 c. sliced green onions

1 T sunflower seeds (toasted or raw)

Dressing:

2 T balsamic vinegar

2 T agave nectar or honey

1 T fresh lime juice

1/4 c. plus 2 T olive oil

Coarse salt

Freshly ground pepper

What to do:

After washing, tear lettuce into small-ish pieces and put in a bowl with arugula and spinach.  Sprinkle sunflower seeds and onions over salad.  Set aside. 

In another bowl, combine the dressing.  Whisk vinegar, agave, and lime juice together in a bowl.  Slowly whisk in the olive oil, and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Drizzle over the salad.  Please do not drizzle all of it on, as it is meant for a larger portion of lettuce.  You can always save it for another salad!

The dressing recipe is from Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook: My Father's Daughter.  You can find it here for relatively cheap. 

I hope you enjoy eating healthier!  xo, Ella

Apple Lime Smoothie // New Series

Good morning!  Today I wanted to share a recipe with you and announce a new series here on the blog.  I've been making smoothies for breakfast recently and I decided to write down the recipes and share them here on the blog.

The first smoothie is Apple Lime.  I like my smoothies healthy: I like some veggies along with the fruit.  This smoothie has kale in it.  If you can't find kale, then just throw in a handful of spinach.  I promise you, you can't taste the kale.  Also, kale is a superfood, so you're getting lots of good stuff in something that tastes good!  Okay, so now that you know my little secret, let's make a smoothie!

Serves 1

Ingredients:

3/4 c. yogurt

1 banana

1 leaf of kale, rib removed (I used black kale)

1 apple

1 teaspoon lime juice

Several ice cubes

Grated lime peel for garnish

What to do:

Place all the ingredients in the blender and blend on high until smooth.  If you like your smoothies cold, throw in the ice.  Otherwise, leave them out.  Ice will make the smoothie a little more watery, but as the smoothie is rather thick before the ice, that's not a problem.  Pour into a glass, grate a little lime zest on top, and stick a straw in it!

I hope you enjoy it!  xo, Ella