Garden Salad- A complete meal!

We got creative the other night! Part of eating vegan is using plants for all your nutrition- otherwise referred to as the "plant based diet." To achieve proper nutrition, you need to be cognizant of nutrient sources (I have a book I use: Idiot's Guide to Plant Based Nutrition), probably keep track of what you're bringing in to ensure that you're getting all the nutrients you need, and as a failsafe; eat every color veggie out there all the time, and ensure that your meals are more than 50% greens and/or fresh veggies. This is a simple concept, but can be somewhat difficult in this convenience food era of American society; you're gonna have to chop some veggies!!

My other favorite book taught me, in a very blunt fashion, that I should be spending about 15 minutes a day chopping veggies. There's no reason why I can't (I have time..), and by doing this I'm making sure that what I'm eating is the freshest and best option available to me from the store- fresher than pre-chopped veggies, for sure! This book also taught me that a chopped veggie doesn't lose nutrients any quicker than a non-chopped one- and you're more likely to use a vegetable if it's already chopped for you! So- when you're preparing something with a new veggie, chop the whole thing up, save what you're not using, and use it later! Veggies (chopped or not) do start to lose their nutrients after 4 or 5 days, so be sure to eat them up quickly!!

So, going off the advice of the book mentioned above, I had a bunch of chopped veggies at my disposal. When contemplating dinner, I pulled all my prepared vegetables out of the fridge and onto the counter to see what I could build... and this was the result:

Garden Salad with a baked sweet potato (and a glass of merlot, of course!) on the side

And here's how I made it!


Easy Garden Salad
Prep time: 10-20 minutes (chopped vs. not yet chopped)
Cook time: None!
Serves: 2


Ingredients:
3-4 cups of dark green, leafy stuff (I used spinach, spring mix, and fresh kale) {vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein}
1 cup of "crumbles" or other meat replacement (I used our Apple Sage Sausage crumbles) {protein, fiber, healthy fats}
1/2 cup of fresh chickpeas {protein, fiber, minerals}
1/4 cup pecan pieces {protein, fiber, healthy fats}
1/8 cup (=2 Tbsp) Panera Poppyseed Dressing
A generous sprinkle of Bragg's Nutritional Yeast {B vitamins, fiber, yumminess}
As many veggies as you can find! {vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein} I used:
-red, green, and yellow peppers
-tomatoes
-avocado
You could add:
-onion
-carrots
-celery
-ginger zest
-etc, etc- use your imagination (and what you have in your fridge!)

Directions:
Couldn't be easier- mix it all together and serve! Here are some step by step pics I took:

All chopped up and ready to go!

There you go.. Simple, beautiful, and nutritious! I added the sweet potato to our meal for added satiety and nutrients {vitamins, protein, fiber} with a teaspoon or so of Earth Balance Soy Garden butter- an excellent vegan butter! 

This was one of my favorite meals so far, and definitely the easiest!! 

Happy Eating!

<3

Courtney