Healthy Easter

I'm famous for my fancy salads in my family. Whenever there is a potluck meal it is just a given that I will bring salad. Today was no exception. Often I make sweet salads with fruit in them, but I was feeling more savory today, so today I focused on asparagus (my favorite Spring treat), olives and avocados.

The recipe below is approximate as I tend to just throw things together and then taste.

Savory Spring Salad

(all ingredients were organic:)
4-6 cups mixed greens
2 small tomatoes, seeded and chopped
8 stalks of asparagus, blanched and chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved (reserve juice)
1/4 cup green onions chopped fine
5 medium carrots cut into thin circles
1 medium avocado, diced (do this right before serving so it doesn't turn brown)

Dressing (I did not measure this stuff-- it was just to taste, so amounts are approximate):

1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 T maple syrup
1/8 cup juice from olives
1/4 tsp salt
splash of grapefruit juice
freshly ground black peppper

Toss all ingredients lightly and serve

I noticed that the left over salad was most of the non-lettuce ingredients-- all the heavy stuff sunk to the bottom of the bowl, so don't over toss this!

I also made Elana's gluten and dairy free chocolate pie filling (amazing!). I put it in a gluten free pie crust I had bought, but next time I'll try making her crust too.

We had ham and salmon, rice with mushrooms, rolls (not for me!), and fruit salad too. I was impressed that my in-law's church had gluten-free communion wafers-- I was picturing going up for communion and having to hold the bread for the rest of the service because even a bite of gluten gives me an asthma attack!

I admit normally I wouldn't have bought asparagus, as I like to wait until local asparagus is in season, but this was a treat-- I did make sure to at least get domestic asparagus-- hopefully it was trucked from California rather than flown.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it-- to those who don't: enjoy the start of Spring and it's new beginnings-- perhaps the new growth of Spring can inspire us all to better ourselves and care for our bodies as we should.