A Blog Dedicated to Health, Food and a Dash of Sarcasm

I’ve decided that I’m probably going to separate out my salad posts. So instead of 3 or 4 different salads in one post, I’ll post one at a time. This will give me the opportunity to talk about how came up with the idea for the central flavors of the salad, other construction tips, tricks or whatever. Plus, it might make the posts less stressful to write and/or get through. More to the point…

I think if there’s one cuisine or combination of flavors that I love the most, that I can come back to time-and-time again, it’s Mediterranean. Especially for salads, the vegetables that are readily accepted and interwoven into Mediterranean flavors are incredible! Even with some of the changes that I’ve been making to my diet (oh wait, lifestyle? Can lifestyle describe what I eat? “According to my lifestyle, I eat primarily vegetables” hmm, maybe) – still, Mediterranean foods can work with any diet. I don’t think anyone would disagree with using robust flavors, lots of vegetables, legumes, and healthy fats!

So this is a streamlined Mediterranean Salad with Artichoke, Olives and Poached Chicken. I’ve been experimenting lately with poaching (almost like boiling your poultry to cook it, it seems), and I’ve been pretty impressed with some of the results. This chicken was poached in a mixture of low sodium broth, Italian herb-seasoned red wine vinegar and lemon juice with added herbs, salt and pepper.

It turned out perfectly juicy and very subtly flavored. More so, it worked well with the rest of my salad, which had spinach, zucchini, cucumbers, red bell pepper, red onion, marinated artichoke, kalamata olives, steamed asparagus and mushroom in it. I made some extra dressing (though I could’ve easily gone without) out of a combination of red wine vinegar, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and italian herb mix.

Molto bene:

The “news” that I have to share is really just that I’ve still been losing on my new nutrition/training plan. Although the workouts this time around are SO.MUCH.HARDER., I’m still pushing through. My favorite new exercise is to do variations on the plie squat

– plie squats with a kettlebell (Video with Miz! She’s a Kenyon alumna, so you know I have to love her)

-plie squats with heels up (on your toes), also known as Ballerina Plie Squat

-tempo plie squats and plie squat jumps ala Cathe Friedrich (couldn’t find link, but it’s basically doing them at a faster pace for about 10 reps, then pausing, and again for another 2 sets. And a plie squat jump is the same as a squat jump, just in the plie stance)

-David Kirsch’s “Platypus Walk” (note: JANELLE!! It’s 7-almond guy!)

Despite the fact that he looks like a goofball in this picture, he's actually kind of a hardass in his book (If I remember correctly)

Gah! Love em all! Buttkickers, to be sure.