Purple Kale Slaw

This salad is refreshing and very simple to make. It's stellar ingredients offer your body a powerful combination of nutrients and delicious taste.

Ingredients:

1/2 bundle purple kale

1 small head of napa cabbage

2 handfuls of baby spinach

1 large yellow bell pepper

Dressing:

1 1/2 lemons

1 T brown rice vinegar

1 T sesame oil

salt and pepper to taste

Health Benefits:

Kale and cabbage are part of the cruciferous family of vegetables. These vegetables are known as super-veggies and are great for cancer prevention, cardiovascular disease and high in vitamin A and C. Most health agencies recommend that you eat several servings of these vegetables a week.

Sprouted Lentil Salad

This is a refreshing and filling salad. The combination of flavors is unique and the colors are very pretty to look at. It's also a good dish for making ahead of time for a party because the dish enhances it's flavor over time.

Ingredients:

1 generous handful of baby arugula

1 cup yellow lentils

1 medium cucumber

1 green pepper

1 large green apple

the juice of 3 limes

Dressing:

1 T peanut oil

2 tsp mustard seeds

2 tsp ground cumin or cumin seeds

1 T dried curry leaves

Soak the yellow lentils in a large bowl filled with water several inches above the lentils for a couple hours or overnight.

Dice the cucumber, green pepper and finely dice the green apple. Combine all the ingredients in a large serving bowl and stir gently so the lime juice covers all the pieces.

Put the peanut oil in a wok and bring to a medium high heat. Add all the elements of the dressing and stir until the mustard seeds start to pop. Turn off the heat and pour over the salad. Stir the salad so the dressing mixes in thoroughly and serve or refrigerate for later.

Health Benefits:

This dish is rich in fiber and will help with weight loss. Because the salad is mostly raw, the food is loaded with nutrients and could help boost your energy.

Food Matters

Last week I rented this documentary entitled, Food Matters from my local movie spot. My mom was in town, she had a head cold and I was tired and we had about enough energy for a movie. Both of us went kinda' vegan at the same time about 3.5 years ago. We've found that if we don't cultivate our understanding of food, the body and nutrition through books, movies, trips, yoga, hikes or other means then we tend to get slack about our health. So on this weary evening, my mother and I decided that renting a movie called Food Matters, sounded like a good plan.

The documentary hits upon topics like western medicine, pharmacology, medical insurance, the importance of vitamins and whole foods in promoting health and shares many other insightful thoughts along the way. I enjoyed hearing more about these issues and feel renewed in my journey. It's a worthy hour and a half of one's day.