This post has been brought over from a former blog I once wrote. Enjoy!

I aim to enjoy at least one green salad everyday. Not just a little "side salad," but a huge center of the plate celebration of greens, rainbow colored veggies, and protein. Salad as the main meal, once a day. For me it is life changing. 

Right now our garden is bursting with romaine and butter crunch lettuce. What fun to go out each day and gather our mid-day meal (well, the base of it anyway). Once brought inside, the greens are washed, spun dry, and chopped. From there, our options are endless! I love to be creative when composing the daily salad, drawing from what has looked good at the market or farm that week, any leftovers that may be in the fridge (more on this in a  moment), and color variety. I'm always looking for plenty of color to ensure the greatest variety of nutrients. 

My not-so-secret weapon in creating a hearty salad is to beef it up with something interesting from the refrigerator, a scoop or two of a yummy leftover from the night before. It may sound like a strange idea at first, but stick with me here... it works.

Leftover ideas for topping salads:

• fried rice
• chili (the thicker the better)
• curry noodles
• stir-fry veggies
• roasted potatoes
• cooked grain such as quinoa or wheatberries
• tabouli
• pad thai
• bean/veggie burger broken up into small pieces
• falafel
• stuffed grape leaves
• baked tofu

My dressing of choice for salad is usually a simple drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This duo works just fine in combination with any of my leftover toppings.

I tend to keep the focus more plant-based on the average day, but roasted salmon, thinly sliced venison steak, or fresh local goat cheese are all nice additions too. Those sort of things tend to fall in the normal salad topping ideas for most people, and today I'm trying to get us to really look at last night's dinner as an addition to our green salads. 

Is this something you already do? A huge salad a day with a scoop of leftovers? Please feel free to share your favorite ideas!

In addition to a scoop of yummy leftovers and a rainbow of veggies, I also like to add fresh nuts and cooked beans. Beans especially are incredibly filling for me - but don't think you can sprinkle a tablespoon on top and call it a worthwhile serving. I top my daily salad with anywhere from a half to a full cup of cooked beans... yum yum.

Today I'd like to share a recipe with you that has been popular in my classes, created to be a stand alone salad or side dish - but it also makes a wonderful green salad topping. I hope you enjoy it!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Orange Cilantro Glaze

Serves 4-6

Preheat oven to 400°F  

Ingredients:

• 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (1 inch dice)
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted on the stove top

Glaze ingredients:

• 1/4 cup orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:

1. Place peeled, chopped potatoes in single layer on large, heavy baking sheet. Drizzle melted coconut oil over potatoes, toss gently with spoon or spatula to coat. Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt and black pepper. Bake for 20 minutes. 
2. Meanwhile, combine dressing ingredients in bowl and whisk together. (Or shake it all up in a screw top glass jar.)
3. Remove from the oven, sprinkle chopped garlic and turn potatoes carefully. Place back in oven for 10-20 more minutes. This will depend on the size you cut the potatoes and your oven. I like to let let them get nice and brown/caramelized. 
4. I like to serve this dish at room temperature, so cool the potatoes right on the tray for a little while. Then place them in a bowl, drizzle the glaze over, stir and serve.

Print - Roasted Sweet Potatoes w/ Orange Cilantro Glaze

I hope I get a chance to finish writing down a few thoughts from the day. A storm is brewing and I'm not sure if the power will stay on. I saw my first sign for native strawberries today, these are not them. We had to make a class on time so we couldn't stop. Soon.

We're planting strawberries too, but they won't produce much of anything this year.

Tomorrow morning I'll be making some more almond milk but I need to remember to skip the vanilla. Not a tasty idea when making vegan creamy sauces. 

Oh my the humidity yesterday and today. Storms are rolling in now to cool things off.  

But Sunday was so perfect which was great because my cousin threw a wonderful party for her mom's special birthday. I loved the portrait of Aunt Kathy that everyone could write messages on... taken in Tahoe, her favorite place on earth. 

My clothing is filthy these days, in the best kind of way. Garden dirt... oh, it's been wonderful. The last two hot and muggy days though have reminded me that I must return to rising early so I can work for an hour or two before the heat comes. Seeing as I've been a shady gardener for the last six years, I seem to have forgotten just how steamy it gets out there!

These garden markers are so useful, what a perfect solution. 

I have a feeling there will be an awful lot of reporting from this place over the next several months. Which really isn't too bad of a place to be.

I really love the days when we can all  be home to have lunch together. I'm painfully aware of how good right now is, but also that at 14 (and a half), it's fleeting. Everyday is a gift. 

The campus bookstore has the best Apple tech support I have ever received - and with the school year over it was relatively quiet and low key today. All of my questions were answered and hopefully a plan to successfully restore my seemingly missing 11,000 (plus) photo library is in place. (Don't I sound so calm??) The guy that helped me had a t-shirt that read "relax, we can fix this." Seriously, that is my kind of place.

Finding quick, on the go vegan eats was the icing on the cake! Falafel with tahini sauce and veggies for me, hummus and veggies for her. And the sweetest old man I've ever encountered made them for us. Next time I'm getting the Grape Leaves Pocket. Such yum. 

We returned home to the screen porch, cold drinks, and the promise of cooling rain. 

A few photos from the week. 

I can't believe how many blueberries are on our bushes, I'm so glad we went with the older ones. This weekend we'll finish building their (huge) cage because those berries are about to become super tasty for the birds and deer.

Today I'm putting the last of the "big planting" in the ground. We'll try our hand at succession crops through the season. Planting lettuce throughout the summer in the shade of taller plants, etc. We'll see how it goes. 

I had a pretty big epiphany this week as a result of the journaling I've been doing in 30 Day Vegan. It feels so good to finally have the answer to something that's been on my mind for months.

Lately I've been feeling quiet and introspective, but I'm here. We have a long weekend coming up and I'm looking forward to some down time and not looking at the clock. Sounds good to me... be back soon. 

The house has reached that (almost) summertime point of cool darkness. There is a tree outside Emily's bedroom that needs to come down, disease combined with its leaning severely over her bed. Taking it down will brighten things up. Which also means it will heat things up. Weather has been too crazy the last couple of years to have a looming tree so close to her sleeping self. I've actually had her sleep in a different bedroom, away from the tree, a couple of times since we've been here. Perhaps a little post traumatic stress... who knows.

I do normally wait until after the height of pollen season to clean the windows, but they are really calling to me! If I just continue to stay busy in the garden perhaps I won't notice. Let's call that my plan. 

I told him I missed Sukha, and he quietly told me "I know, when you stop missing Sukha I'll be worried." He gets me. We've been together 20 years this spring, more than half my life. 

The screen porch is being used so very much, especially in the evenings. Owls and coyotes can be heard in the not too far off distance. The porch isn't big, maybe 6x9? Last night we decided a couple of simple patchwork quilts would make it just perfect for cool evenings. Maybe flannel backed. Alicia's new quilt is such a dream, but I'm thinking this style may be more realistic for me right now. With proper binding, I'd really like to perfect that.  

Off to get the laundry on the line and two skirts I've been working on finished. 

I'm having such a productive morning. We said goodbye to my parents as they headed back to Florida (although they technically live in Maine, it's complicated). Our visit was good, I think we all hoped it would be better, but if there is one thing life has taught our family over the last five months it's that rolling with the punches is a must and truly, you never know what is coming up around the bend. Every day is a gift, friends. That much is true.

A portrait of Sukha now sits on my desk and three lilac bushes await their new home in the back field. Adam and I sat on the grass in the backyard for over an hour while my mom and Emily sat on the covered front porch. I think it was pretty sweet bliss all around. The menu for the day consisted of the many leftovers from a gathering the night before. My dad is the oldest of nine children, it was great to have seven of his siblings here Saturday night. I think it was just what we all needed. 

I'm so excited that 30 Day Vegan starts on Monday! (Actually, the class site opens tomorrow afternoon with a welcome video and the first week's recipe collection. The workshop officially begins on Monday.) There is still time to sign up, and if you'd like a $5 discount then please head on over to Renee's blog where she talks about our working relationship, shares a lovely review of sorts about the workshop, and gives you a special discount code to use at checkout. Fun! (Thanks Renee!)

We made Renee's lotion and it is quite heavenly. Emily, who does not like things to be "fussy," was so pleased with how easily the lotion came together. She's gifting a tin to a soccer friend who is amazed by the things that can happen in a homeschool day. "You made lotion today and played softball!?" She told Emily she wants to shadow our homeschool someday. 

We've been slowly building our home apothecary as part of our herbal home study course and now have pretty much all that is needed for a variety of projects right here on our shelves. It makes it so much easier to create the things we need. Next up, toothpaste. 

I meant to get this post up last night, but sitting sideline at a soccer game proved stressful and instead I came home to a glass of merlot and a little debriefing with my guy. I am not cut out for this culture at all which is funny because I really have no problem with sports competition. I think it can be an incredibly solid life skill to know how to give your all at something you are passionate about, to accept defeat when someone else's all was better than yours on a particular day, and to respectfully rejoice when you do indeed achieve victory. I'm fine with this, and well coached kids demonstrate this quite well. It's the poorly coached kids and parents who seem to be living out their own deflated athletic dreams on the sidelines that ruin it for the whole class. I'll never understand it, and I really need to figure out a way to inspire more kindness in the stands. 

I was a little worried about the lack of rain, with the winter being so dry, and April bringing more of the same. We began thinking about the need for a rain collection system. Then last week the rains came, and they continue still today (though we still feel the need for a rain collection system). The gardens are beginning to burst, as cool as it may be for the middle of May. Everywhere you look, there is green.

We heard coyotes the other night, my aunt (who lives just through the woods) heard them too. This prompted a little reading up on coyotes in our area. Last summer we saw a coyote while out hiking in the northwestern corner of our state, but this close to home is pretty wild. 

We had a wonderful dinner here last night with my parents and aunt and uncle. On the menu was grilled venison steaks, roasted maple-ginger glazed salmon, shrimp cocktail, green salad, tomato mozzarella salad, and of course... crash hot potatoes. For dessert, a huge fruit salad with honey for drizzling (if desired). Sometimes I get too fancy with dessert when company comes, fresh fruit was the perfect ending. 

Tonight we are making a big green salad and topping it with leftover (eater's choice) 'proteins' from last night. Though after I finish typing here I'm going to go put on a pot of jacob's cattle beans to offer as well. I love a scoop of beans on a tossed salad. To me, that is just about the perfect meal. 

It is so cool and rainy here today that soup sounds like a good idea too. Maybe salad and soup... we'll see. 

The plan was to keep busy this weekend, and that is just what we did. Busy in a good do what we love sort of way. 

Your words of kindness and understanding have been a healing balm to us all. Thank you so very much for taking the time to think of us, to think of Sukha. It's hard, you know?

You know.

But we stick together, we visit the new puppy of a friend, we make something old and tired new again, and we dig in the dirt. Maybe it's all done a bit slowly... but I think it's better that way. Company is coming this week and we are so happy to have that to look forward to. Things will be busy so I'll be back when I can, soon.

I just wanted to pop in quickly this morning and say thank you. You're the best. 

May you always be able to find a sunbeam now, my girl.

Rest in peace, Sukha. xoxo

Woke up to rain falling. Pancakes were in order for breakfast. I'm so glad I planted more lettuce last night. The forecast didn't say anything about heavy rain, just steady rain. Perfect for freshly planted things. And our blueberries, they certainly need the rain too and given that they are planted in the back field it makes watering a little tricky. We have a system rigged up but rainfall is so much better. April was such a dry month here. 

With the rain falling outside, stewed lentils with bacon seemed like the perfect lunch. Sukha hasn't been feeling well for a few days. She stopped eating her regular food three days ago, and hasn't been interested in fancied up versions of her food either (a little broth mixed in). She's quite old, I know this. I also know I've never had a connection with an animal like the one I have with her. She's my rescue dog in every sense of the word. I don't know how much longer we have together... but I do know this morning I made her a meal of cooked lentils and raw venison and she ate that right up. Now she is resting. 

Tonight I made her more of the same, but with added spinach and carrots. She loved it. 

Now they are out back playing catch. Practice was cancelled this week but they can't seem to sit still. I'm cozy here inside, studying. My words for this summer have been declared sewing, gardening, and reading... I really need to add studying to that list. Lots and lots of studying. Best get back to it.