Resolution #23: Reinstate salad-eating regimen.

I made a pretty lengthy list of New Year's resolutions this year, and by golly, I'm going to try to keep them. Yes. I'm feeling super positive.

Two of my overall goals for this year, which I hope my resolutions will help accomplish:
1. Be healthier.
2. Be greener. (But more on this one later.)

I don't know about other food bloggers, but I personally have always had a challenging time eating healthy while satisfying my love of food. How does everyone else do it? It amazes me sometimes. Maybe I just have no willpower. See, when I cook, it's always gotta be "the real stuff," I say. I pass on the margarine and reach for butter, I opt for the full-fat cream cheese, and I could never, ever bring myself to substitute in Splenda for sugar.

I just can't do substitutes like that. I can't! Don't make me.

What I can do, however, is try to eat more of the "real stuff" I like that's actually somewhat good for me.

Which brings me to New Year's Resolution #23: Reinstate my salad-eating regimen.

A couple years ago, I used to make and eat salad for lunch at least 4 days a week. Not only that -- it was the SAME salad every day: roasted chicken breast, blue cheese, walnuts, cranberries, and granny smith apples over a mesclun lettuce blend with balsamic vinaigrette.

Man, I loved that salad. What am I talking about -- I still love it.

Anyway, I kept that up for several months and it was GREAT. I didn't get the least bit tired of it, until one day, when I forgot the apples. And all of a sudden, I didn't feel like eating that salad anymore. It was strange, and a little sad. It was almost like that scene in Forrest Gump when Forrest all of a sudden decides he wants to stop runnin'.

And I fell off my healthy lunch regimen and haven't seemed to pick it up again.

So, this year, I'm going to try to eat salad at least four times a week. And it's not going to be a burden. Nope. Because they're fun to create!

Asian Sesame Salad


Ok, I have a confession to make. I pretty much stole this salad from Panera Bread. It's roasted lemon herb chicken breast, sliced almonds, sugar snap peas, cilantro, green onion, sesame seeds, mandarin oranges (which I added later) over mesclun and romaine lettuce with Asian sesame dressing. And I topped it with noodle crisps I picked up from a local Chinese dive.

Cilantro Lime Salad


Baja chipotle chicken breast, diced tomato, corn, avocado, cilantro, green onion over mesclun and romaine lettuce with creamy cilantro dressing. I added tortilla strips (I have to put in a little carby crunch) and a squirt of lime juice. You could also add monterey jack or cojita cheese.

Both dressings I got from Fresh and Easy, but I know Trader Joe's also makes a really tasty cilantro lime dressing.

Kinda relevant: For more lunch ideas, LA Times just ran an article that has a ton. Well, 40. Compared to my measly two, that's a ton.

Snack bonanza!

Lately, mostly due to lack of time to cook a full meal for myself on weekdays, I've been snacking myself into oblivion. Here are three recent favorites, to satisfy three separate cravings:

Pretzel Crisps (savory):


This buffalo wing-flavored snack might as well be laced with crack. I can't get enough of them. They're as addictive and light as potato chips, but are crunchier, taste way better and are better for you. Look how gloriously thin they are:


I bought the buffalo wing and garlic flavors at my local Sprouts, to justify my passing the sample tray about a dozen times to snatch up more and more of these. They really should not leave those things unattended.

Trader Joe's also has its own version -- and they're everything-flavored. Though, they carry them kind of sporadically, so don't get mad at me if you can't find them.

Isabella's Cookies (sweet):


These were a random impulse buy while waiting to purchase my lunch at Ivy's Cafe in Tustin (simple, healthy, yet somehow super delicious sandwiches/salads). I like these cookies because they (1) taste homemade (which they are) and (2) come in unusual flavors. The above is "The Paddy" -- mint chips and semisweet chocolate chips. And below:


"The Muffy" -- a tribute to a muffin top (undoubtedly adding to my "muffin top"), this cookie is studded with dried blueberries, white chocolate chips, and milk-chocolate covered blueberries. I've also tried "Chocolate Haze," which has whole hazelnuts and dark chocolate chunks. I'm still trying to find "The Shortcake," an homage to strawberry shortcake.

The Pure Bar (healthy):

Although it's not common, I'd imagine, I suppose it's possible to have a healthy craving. The Pure Bar is all-vegan raw food -- organic, nothing cooked, no preservatives, and all that jazz. Now, I am usually not into these super healthy meal-replacement bar dealios. In fact, I find many of them quite awful, especially when I have to think for longer than 15 seconds about how the vegan peanut butter and chocolate bar I'm chewing tastes even remotely like peanut butter and chocolate.

Maybe that's why The Pure Bar is not only tolerable, it's astonishingly delicious: It doesn't really try to emulate any flavor. It just is.

Example: The wild blueberry bar, my favorite, just tastes like dried blueberries, complemented with little bits of walnuts -- enough to satisfy, but rare enough to invoke a fond appreciation for each walnut encounter as I slowly make my way through. Same thing goes for the apple cinnamon.

While I tend to stay away from the ones promoting themselves as chocolate, the chocolate chip trail mix bars offer an interesting alternative: cacao nibs. It's not as indulgent as a good, rich bar of dark chocolate, but it's definitely still "the real thing," and a suitable substitute if you're trying to be healthy.

But like many good things, The Pure Bar does not come cheap, and so far I've only been able to find it at Whole Foods.

As my snack preferences change as often as my cravings do, only time will tell what my tastebuds have yet to discover in the tasty world of munchies!