Let Us Wrap Lunch in Lettuce

July 19th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (Comments Off on Let Us Wrap Lunch in Lettuce)

Whenever my mother sees the palms of my hands, she always asks me if I’ve been eating too many carrots.  I then look down at my hands and can’t see anything wrong, they look perfectly normal to me.

But then on a recent trip to Florida to visit a friend, said friend also noticed my orange-ish skin – except she asked me what was all over my hands after I finished slathering up the kids with sunscreen.

Orange Skin Too Many Carrots

What the heck are you people talking about?  I still don’t see it!  My hands just look nicely tanned!  And why are the palms of your hands so PINK?

Lettuce Procreate

June 6th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (2 Comments)

Lettuce plants and kids have a lot in common.

Lettuce Gets Morning Sunshines

Some days they’re so cute you can’t help but nuzzle your face right into them, and then other days you’re tempted to just bite their little heads right off.

How’s your lettuce container garden coming along?  (It’s still not too late to start one, you know.)  Mine is one month old and has been relocated from full sun in the backyard to part shade on the railing of the front porch.  It now only gets a wee bit o’ sunshine the in the early AM hours and then lollygags about in the shade for the rest of the day – asking for something to eat and then begging me to play Old Maid when I’m done folding the laundry.

Grow Your Own

May 17th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (9 Comments)

Last year we devoted an entire bed in our garden to growing spinach, moving in other vegetable plants when all the spinach we’d planted had been harvested.  I absolutely loved growing my own spinach, and I especially loved the ease at which I could bolt out the back door, snag a couple of leaves from the ground and shove it into a wrap, salad or sandwich and then straight into my mouth.  Local and organic?  These are a few of my favorite things.

Salad For Breakfast

February 5th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Weight Loss - (17 Comments)

I think it was mid-December when I started looking for an alternative to my typical oatmeal/grain-based breakfast.  Not because I stopped digging oats mind you, but because somewhere toward the end of last year I came to understand that sugar is just no good and I wanted to start eating less of it.

Now before you get annoyed with me and that blasphemous statement, I’m not saying that I’ve stopped eating sugar or bread completely or don’t enjoy sweets.  I’m just not eating sugar (or as the case may be, foods that your body eventually converts to sugar – i.e., grains like rice, pasta, bread) on a daily basis like I have for oh, I don’t know – 31 years?

A dear reader named Kenzie left a comment the other day asking me to do a post about how I make my salads and what I put in them. Turns out I just so happen to have “Big Giant Salad” on the dinner menu tonight! Here’s how I make a salad that will knock your (and maybe even someone else’s!) socks off.

Step 1: Start with a beautiful head of lettuce. Something OTHER than iceberg for crying out loud please. Red leaf is typically my head of choice, but green leaf or romaine work nicely.  Don’t be afraid to throw in spinach, arugula, dandelion or other mixed field greens too if you’ve got ’em.