Friday, January 6, 2012

Aloha!! It's good to be back...

Oh my goodness..it feels like forever since I've written anything after those 25 days straight! My parents and I left the day after Christmas for Hawaii (absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!), got back at 1am Tuesday, and have been cleaning and rearranging since then. But, I felt like it was time to get back to it on the old blog after the break. And while I did miss cooking for that short time, it was exactly the break I needed! So, here we go loop-dee-loo!

I'm doing a 30 day trial of something called the "Paleo Diet." Basically, no grains at all, no artificial sugars, no dairy (except butter and very high quality cheese...still a little confused about this part, but I'm sure there's a scientific explanation somewhere), LOT'S of vegetables and animal protein. Some fruit, but limited (because of the chemical makeup of the sugars, or something like that), nuts are good too, but no legumes. It's a really interesting diet, because you can pretty much eat however much you want calorie wise (as in no calorie counting needed), but is taking some getting used to after a lifetime of whole grains being good, and four years of a mostly vegetarian lifestyle. All of a sudden I'm cookin' up meat! I'm enjoying it so far, and am looking forward to seeing how I feel at the end of it. The few people I know who have chosen to follow this have really slimmed down from it - not that I'm looking for a crazy change, because I was already living fairly healthfully. Mostly, I am interested to see simply how I feel at the end of the month and if there are any noticeable changes.

Don't worry roommates, I'll still post plenty of veggie meals for you :)

For the first post, it's a little salad I concocted yesterday for lunch, and it was DE-LISH!

Roasted Yam and Prosciutto Salad

  • 1 small/medium yam
  • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 TBS olive oil
  • several leaves of red leaf lettuce, washed and torn
  • about 2 cups chopped red and green cabbage
  • 4 thin slices of high-quality prosciutto*
  • less than 1/4 cup unsweetened dried cranberries
  • balsamic vinegar to taste
Preheat the oven to 400F. Wash the yam and wrap with a paper towel. Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes. Crush your garlic during this time. Remove yam from paper towel and place on sheet of aluminum foil. Poke some holes in the yam, sprinkle with the crushed garlic, and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap yam in aluminum foil and roast in oven at 400F for about 10 minutes. In the mean time, shred the strips of prosciutto and place in non-stick pan over medium heat on the stove for about 10 minutes, until slightly crisped. Place the shredded lettuce and cabbage in a bowl, ready to serve. When the yam is done, remove from oven and let cool slightly (just to touch). Cube the yam and top greens with cut up yam and prosciutto. Finally, top with a sprinkle of cranberries and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!

*Note: To make this vegetarian, simply omit the prosciutto and top with roasted nuts..pistachios would be excellent on this!

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