Spinach Salad with Sweet & Sour Curry Dressing

Spinach really gets a bad rep.  It can taste slimy or dirty if it's not prepared properly, and one bad experience can turn you away from it for good.  However, when you get it fresh, it is fabulous.  Spinach is high in fiber, vitamin A and vitamin K (which is key to a healthy nervous system and bones).  It really is one of the best foods you can put in your body.

This month for Blogger Night with Melissa from They Call Me Hypo we took on spinach to give you two amazing recipes that will help you incorporate this super food into your diet.  Her stuffed summer squash is creamy and rich, while still being low in fat.  My salad is something that you can make in advance and eat everyday for lunch, and I promise you'll want to!  It is sweat and sour with just a bite of spice.  It plays of the earthy flavor of the spinach and the grease of the turkey bacon.  Enjoy!

Spinach Salad w/ Sweet & Sour Curry Dressing:

Salad:

2 bunches of spinach, washed thoroughly

6 hard boiled eggs, sliced (you can just use the egg whites if you want to lower the cholesterol)

12 slices of turkey bacon, cooked to extra crispy and then crushed into bits

Dressing:

2/3 cup sugar substitute (approx. 24 packets)

1/2 cup salad oil

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

3 Tbl lemon juice

1 Tbl minced garlic

4 tsp chili sauce

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp curry powder

dash of tobasco (you may omit if you want less spice)

To prepare the salad, put all ingredients for the dressing into a jar and shake until well blended.  Add the spinach, eggs and bacon to a bowl.  Add the amount of dressing you desire.  I find that I always have leftover dressing.  You can take this to work as a lunch.  Since I'm only one person I usually eat this salad for the whole week!  It's simple, it's delicious, it's cheap.  Enjoy!

Get up, Get Out and Smell the Tulips

Having grown up in Washington I feel there is a certain expectation to get out and do something when the weather is nice.  So this weekend, instead of cowering from the sun, I stepped out and embraced it.  For while most of the time it is grey and drearily oppressive, when it is nice out, it is amazing.  It's our best kept secret.

I headed down to the water and met a friend and her daughter.  We got on our walking shoes and walked along the water.  

We chased each other and laughed.  

We stopped and smelled the tulips.

We took funny pictures with statues.

We enjoyed the moment. 

This is what I have been missing in my life.  The feeling of being totally exhausted because you have be moving all day.  The memories of having that perfect day in the sun.  I fell asleep that night with a smile on my face.

Discouraged and Determined

I have had a lot of time to think the last few weeks.  Between being sick and just being lazy I have found that my mind has wandered to some dark and dreary places.  Some days I leap out of bed, filled with light and determination, like the clouds that are constantly threatening me have finally lifted.  Other days it takes all the energy that I have not to sink deep under the covers and wait for the day to be over.  I have been touting this idea of getting healthier and yet I haven’t done what I need to do to truly change things.  I have allowed myself to become complacent in my own life and accepted that this is all there is.  I know that is not true.  I was able to conquer these feelings before.  I was able to get up, get moving, pay attention to what I was doing.  I will strive to recapture that.

I will note everything that I put into my body.  I will stop making myself feel like crap, by filling my body with crap.  I will record, everyday, what I am eating, so that it will be harder to spiral out of control.  I will make sure that I am taking in only what I need to keep going, not the amount I need to hide behind.

I will move.  I will get up off the couch.  Every day I am going to get up.  No more laying around, waiting for life to pass me by.  No more waiting for my life to just pass me by.  I will get up and move.  I will ride my bike to work instead of driving the 10mins to campus.  I will remove the blankets from my couch so I am forced to sit up if I want to watch anything.  I will sift through the piles of junk that have accumulated, both in my space and in my head.  I will open the curtains and let the light in instead of cowering in the dark.

I will hold myself accountable.  It has been almost a year since I began writing this blog and I haven’t gotten any closer to my goal.  I will weigh myself.  I will record what the scale says.  I will not make excuses.  I have the power to change this and I will not hold back.  It is one thing to talk about living healthy and making a change, it is quite another to do it.  So I will hold myself accountable and track my progress through weight and measurement.  I may fail.  I’m terrified of failing.  However, if I don’t try, I will never succeed. 

I just ask for your support and understanding as I pull up my big girl panties and step out into the abyss.  I promise I will try.  I will try.