salad night

so one of our goals in moving here and starting over, was to eat better. 

Like we did before there was stress and drama and a second baby. 

More like we did when we looked more like ourselves. 

More like we believe we should. 

As we move back to those ideals we believe in, like more local produce, less meat, more home cooked, less processed and packaged,  more thoughtful planning, less fried and fatty take out... we present salad night.

Far and away the sweet potatoes make this salad. It's best to make these as a side dish the night before and prepare enough for the leftovers to go into the salad. We took the concept from the recipe for Lemon and Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes in the Eat Clean cookbook. But since we didn't have over half of the ingredients we made up our own. So remember, make these as a side dish the night before then cut up the cold leftovers into the salad.

Orange and Nutmeg Sweet Potatoes

3 sweet potatoes (scrubbed and trimmed of fibres)

1.5 cups orange juice

⅓ cup agave nectar

1.5 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 tsp orange zest

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

.5 teaspoon sea salt

• Preheat oven to 375° F
• Prepare a large baking dish by rubbing with oil
• Place sweet potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. bring to a boil. reduce heat and let simmer until just tender. Don't overcook! You want them firm enough to cut.
• Drain sweet potatoes and set aside. Let cool and cut into rounds ¼ inch thick. Lay in prepared baking dish in a single layer.
• In saucepan, place orange juice, agave, nutmeg, and orange zest and salt. Simmer for several minutes before adding olive oil. Continue simmering until liquid is a syrup. Pour warm syrup over the sweet potatoes.
• Bake for 20 minutes.

So now, for the salad. 

Use any kind of lettuce you like best. We used a mix of romaine and green leaf lettuce. We added goats milk feta, onions, carrots, celery, chickpeas (canned) and chicken (which was steamed and panfried in a bit of coconut oil and seasoned with just salt and pepper). Cut up the sweet potatoes and throw them in. 

We used the simplest of dressings... just mix 3T of apple cider vingear (raw and unfiltered is best) with 3T of extra virgin olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic (minced) and ¹⁄₈t of dijon mustard. salt and pepper to taste. You can toss the whole thing in the dressing now if you like, or serve without dressing and let everyone dish their own. This is best if you know there will be leftovers. 

Simple, easy, fresh and super healthy. Definitely a headliner in our new, good-for-you weekly menu.