healthy eating

In general, I'm a pretty healthy eater. I love vegetables....as in, when I was a child, I ate raw okra. I also ate raw potatoes with salt. I can eat any vegetable raw, even without ranch sauce to dip it in. mmmmm....

But, put a cantaloupe on my plate and I won't touch it. Matter-of-fact, I probably wouldn't let it get close enough to my plate to even smell the stuff. ewwwww....

Anyway, a few days ago, I was craving healthiness so I fixed this salad at 10:00 in the morning (I would have fixed it at 9:00, but that would just be strange). It consisted of 3 roma tomatoes, slices of red onion, and a huge hunk of fresh spinach. Since we're living in the apartment and trying to pare down on food supplies, I didn't have any ready-made Balsamic vinaigrette, so I made my own.

Here's the recipe (and it's a delicious one) courtesy of Emeril. The only liberty I took was to not add oil and to add a bit more pepper.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar, optional*
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• Mesclun salad mix or favorite greens, for accompaniment
• Assortment of salad ingredients, such as cherry tomatoes, chopped carrots, sliced red onion, chopped celery, diced cucumbers, walnuts
• Blue cheese, for garnish

Directions

Beat the vinegar in a bowl with the optional sugar, garlic, salt and pepper until sugar and salt dissolves. Then beat in the oil by droplets, whisking constantly. (Or place all the ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake to combine.) Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Toss a few tablespoons of the dressing with the salad mix and desired salad ingredients, top with blue cheese and serve immediately.

If not using dressing right away, cover and refrigerate, whisking or shaking again before use.

*If using a good quality balsamic vinegar you should not need the sugar, but if using a lesser quality you might want the sugar to round out the dressing. (I did add the sugar because my vinegar needed to be rounded....whatever that means)