Blueberry Salad

I had some blueberries that lasted longer than expected (that means I didn't wolf them down within 2 hours of purchase), so I decided to make a salad dressing with them, and some ground cashews. It was a mighty purty salad if I do say so myself. I ground up about 2-3 TBS of cashews, threw in 1/4 cup of blueberries, 2 TBS balsalmic vinegar, 1 TBS rice vinegar, and 1 TBS oil, and blended up with an immersion blender. It was a thick dressing that solidified in the fridge, so I loosened it up with some hot water to get a pourable consistency. This is over baby arugula, which wasn't as peppery as the adult arugula I'm accustomed to.




Another green snack I've been into lately is Trader Joe's organic brocolli heads dipped into Trader Joe's Goddess dressing. Its a tahini-garlic dressing I could probably easily make myself but am too lazy. It's so savory-licious. Its a very strong, very addictive flavor. I like that kind of funky raw broccoli taste. Tragically, I just googled the calcium absorption from raw vs. cooked brocolli, and it nearly doubles when cooked. Bummer! I thought I was onto something, calcium-wise. Well, tahini is still my friend, at 128 mg per 2 TBS. Why the sudden obsession with calcium? Well, I have to take a medicine to control stomach acid*, which interferes with calcium absorption. I'm not sure if that only counts for calcium carbonate, which you need stomach acid to break down, and you can still absorb calcium citrate, or if by some mysterious means it prevents absorption of both types.

Some people have the misconception that all vegans eat is salad.  Or, almost more annoyingly, that everything we eat is healthy.  Seriously, I can bring in a stir fry dish loaded with oil, sugar and salt, and people will comment on how "healthy" my lunch is because it has vegetables and no meat in it.  If you suffer from this reputation despite your best efforts to explain that 1/4 cup of oil in a dish is not healthy, you can eat salad in secret and pretend like you never eat salad when people ask.

*note to all people who will be thinking "you don't need medicine from 'the man', have my shaman exile the evil stomach spirit for you", I've tried the aloe juice, and the marshmallow, and enzymatic supplements and pro-biotic supplements, etc., etc.