Image By Sarah Bodri

For over two years I’ve been taking baby steps and big jumps toward simplifying my life. A couple of time I’ve touched on simplifying my diet as well, but have never really made a strong effort. That’s about to change.

The over all plan is to find myself eating mostly raw foods — vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, etc — as often as I feel the need to do so through out the day. Then to supplement that with 2-3 larger cooked meals per week. Anything that comes in a package (including cereal) will be removed from the house entirely with the exception of a few forms of easy to eat on-the-go type foods — wholesome granola bars, dried fruits, etc. Someday, I’d like to even make that stuff at home. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So, my first little baby step is to deal with Lunch. It’s a good place to start because it hardly affects my daughter, will buy me some free time during the middle of the work day, and will drastically reduce one of the sore spots in my budget. So here’s the plan.

I will bring my lunch to work four days a week. It will consist of only raw foods or of leftovers from dinners that week. On the fifth day, I’m free to go out with a friend and I should do so without worry about cost, or time, or calories and just enjoy myself.

This little baby step should give me a good step toward weight loss and hunger detection and will also server as a good taste for which raw foods work well and how to prepare them for “on the go” consumption.

Wish me luck, or, better yet, join me and encourage me. Picnic lunch dates could be a lot of fun.

I call this a salad because it’s vegetables covered in a dressing. But, that’s about as far as the definition carries. It’s a very colorful dish, especially since the beet juice will dye all the other vegetables a pinkish/purplish color.

Ingredients

1 medium sized beet
1 medium sized turnip
2 large carrots
6 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp butter
water
goat cheese, parmesan,  or romano cheese
salt
pepper

Directions

Boil at least 2 quarts of heavily salted water.

Peel the vegetables. Then slice thinly (1/8″ or so). Consistency in thickness is important for consistency in cooking time. Use a mandolin if you have one.

Place butter in a pan over medium heat. Mince the garlic and add it to the pan. When the garlic begins to brown, add 1/4c of water, reduce hear to simmer, and add salt and pepper to taste. This is your “dressing”.

Once your water is boiling, toss the vegetables in and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain the water (or save it for a vegetable broth) and return the vegetables to the pan. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and mix well.

Serve with sprinkled cheese on top. Choose a cheese that will suit the rest of the meal. If you can’t decide, go with goat cheese.

Variations

Depending on what you’re serving these vegetables with you can (and should) add fresh or dried herbs to taste. Place them in the dressing along with the water. Sage, basil, oregano, dill, and rosemary would all work well in this dish.