Eat Your Greens: Rainbow Kale Salad
This year was Dusty and I's first time hosting Easter, or any holiday for that matter! Our families are always asking for us to cook up some of our healthy plant-based meals that we always talk about and post on Instagram, and we have been really making an effort recently to start entertaining and sharing more with friends and loved ones. That's a huge reason why we decided to create our personal websites—as a space devoted to helping others achieve a healthier lifestyle!
We decided to go with some really simple dishes that we typically eat on any given week night. Most of our meals tend to be pretty quick and easy and leave you feeling full and nourished instead of sluggish and weighed down.
We always love to have a big colorful salad before our dinner, so I thought I'd start by posting that! Raw fruits and veggies are always a great way to start your meal, by helping your to fill up on the most nutritious and easily digestible foods first.
It can be hard to find the perfect salad dressing at the grocery story. Some things to watch for are:
Too much saturated fat and trans fat
Unfamiliar ingredients/chemicals
Low fat/fat free replaced with higher amounts of sodium and/or sugars
A salad dressing brand that I love, and would highly recommend is Bragg. My favorites are the Healthy Vinaigrette and the Ginger & Sesame. Bragg is best-known for their Apple Cider Vinegar, which has TONS of health benefits (future post in the works)! I'll usually put one of these dressings on my salads. Most Bragg products can be found at HyVee and Whole Foods, among others.
You can also make your own dressing using any of the following, or combine all three:
Extra-virgin olive oil (also called EVOO —in case you're like me and have seen it in a recipe and had no clue what it was!)
Vinegar
Lemon
I always love to top off my salad with cracked sea salt (future post in the works) and cracked pepper, and maybe even some crushed red pepper to excite the taste buds! :)
I know that a lot of people have different salad dressing preferences, so to keep this particular salad "user friendly," I simply squeezed half a lemon on top and added sea salt and pepper and massaged it all in to allow the kale to soften up a bit.
I can never have a salad without some color in it, so I added in:
carrots julienned
purple cabbage sliced
grape tomatoes sliced
yellow bell pepper diced
The options are endless, and like I said, it's a great way to get in your greens before a big hearty meal!
Stay tuned for more quick meal fixes, nutrition facts, exercises, DIYs, and so much more! And don't forget, I want to hear from you! Send me comments, suggestions, and requests for future content and blog posts!
Designed for Your Lifestyle,
Erin
