Youth Salad

The hubs went with his man-pals to the Blazer game last night, leaving me to forage for dinner on my own.


When the kids are not with us during the week, and he is out for the evening, I’ve been known to eat the worst, malnutritious, embarrassing kind of dinner. Like a huge bag of peanut M&M’s, Red Vines, popcorn, or nacho Doritos. Yes. It’s true and I hate to admit it, but for as much as I preach about eating healthy non-processed foods, I have my secret guilty pleasures. When no one is looking, I can pig out like nobody’s business.

And it’s not pretty.

But when I tossed the Twizzler’s into my cart last night at the grocery store, I did an unusual thing. I practiced self restraint. I actually put them back with the other shiny plastic looking confections in the candy aisle and bought a fillet of salmon, some organic strawberries, and an avocado.

When I got home, I whipped up a dinner that is supposed to be good for my skin, my brain and my heart. Supposedly antioxidants and omega fatty acids will keep me young and relatively good looking. And since I’m chicken when it comes to imagining Botox injections, and I love to eat, I figured I’d much rather use food as a beauty treatment.

I baked the salmon on a cookie sheet lined with foil after drizzling it with olive oil and sprinkling on a little Himalayan sea salt and cracked pepper. The salad was fast, fabulous and simple to make. The trick was using a whole avocado, several big, ripe juicy strawberries, and just a little bit of greens. The unusual ratio of fruit and avocado to greens made it more yummy than usual.  I suppose you could try spinach instead of regular lettuce if you prefer.

Youth Salad (for One)
• 1 cup mixed spring greens
• 5 large sliced strawberries
• 1 avocado diced
• A big handful of toasted chopped hazelnuts (or whatever kind you have in the cupboard)
• A dollop of dressing (I just used olive oil and balsamic vinegar)
• A small pinch of Himalayan sea salt

Slice, dice, toss and you are ready to eat.