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Friday Fare, Health

Lox Salad With Creamy Lemon Dressing

February 20, 2015

I am so excited to introduce you all to my wonderful lox salad dressing! I got the inspiration for this salad from Christal of Nutritionist In The Kitch, who posted a fabulous massage kale and lox nicoise salad recipe. I wanted to make a salad that would be ideal for colder winter days with plenty of warm ingredients yet still healthy and delicious.

Also, for those of you who don’t know what lox is, lox is just salmon that has been cured in a salt-sugar rub or brine. ‘Authentic’ lox is made from the belly of the salmon. I don’t know if what I bought was ‘authentic’ lox but it was delicious and more than did the trick for me 🙂

What Makes This Lox Salad Special?

I have wanted to make a salad utilizing this creamy lemon dressing for a while, so I thought ‘why not make a lox salad to go with it?’. Admittedly, I used garlic instead of shallots but the dressing definitely didn’t suffer as a result.

I had a bunch of vegetables in my fridge that I wanted to use, and a few other ingredients I had eaten in a salad at Boudin that I wanted to incorporate into this lox salad. The result was an incredibly filling and delicious salad full of healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, protein and fiber. This is definitely a lower carbohydrate recipe as the main source of carbohydrates come from the roasted sweet potatoes, mmm.

How To Make My Lox Salad

Lox Winter Salad

Alice Williams
A delicious and warming winter salad with lox.
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Ingredients
  

  • 50 g lox
  • Romaine lettuce or salad mix
  • Half a medium sweet potato
  • 5 spears asparagus
  • 1 tbsp capers
  • 1 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes
  • 5 olives
  • Optional: dried rosemary
  • Dressing makes 1 cups worth
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice approx 1 and a half small lemons
  • 2 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp honey
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Let's make the dressing first: in a food processor, combine together all of the ingredients and blend until smooth and then put aside for now.
  • Preheat the oven to 450 degrees farenheit.
  • Get your sweet potato and chop into cube sized pieces. Put on a baking tray and drizzle some olive oil on top, add salt, pepper and some dried rosemary (optional).
  • At the same time, prepare another baking pan and put the asparagus on it and also drizzle some olive oil and add some salt and pepper.
  • Here is the tricky part: time co-ordination!
  • Let the asparagus roast for approximately 10-15 minutes.
  • Let the sweet potato bake for 12 minutes, toss it and then continue baking for another 12 minutes.
  • While that is roasting, assemble the romaine lettuce (I like to finely shred mine) or salad leaves and toss with some of the dressing. I will use around 1-2tbsp depending on the size of the salad.
  • Add the capers, sun-dried tomato, olives into the salad.
  • Once the sweet potato and asparagus are done, toss them into the salad.
  • Finally, add the lox on top and ENJOY!

Notes

If the salad is a bit too much on the salty side, omit either the olives or the capers.
Adapted from Nutritionist in the Kitch
Lox Salad With Creamy Lemon Dressing
Lox Salad With Creamy Lemon Dressing

Oh geez, my mouth is seriously watering remembering how good this lox salad was. I ran out of lox (meh) but I think I will recreate this salad with chicken for lunch tomorrow … or maybe I will just buy more lox hehehe.

Have you ever had lox before?

Don’t forget to let me know if you tried it and what you thought of this recipe! I need someone to talk to about it haha.

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for always supporting me! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.

Friday Fare, Health, Healthy on the cheap, Products I love

My Favorite Carbohydrates

February 17, 2015

Contrary to what you may read or hear, carbohydrates (and especially complex carbohydrates) are good for you and essential for your well-being. A while ago, I wrote a piece about carbohydrates and why you should not cut them out of your diet. Click here to read the blog post to get up to date on why you should not go on a low-carbohydrate diet. I realize that there are many reasons people go on a low-carbohydrate diet, but they tend to have specific reasons for doing so. For the majority of people, it is not necessary to cut out carbohydrates to lose weight and fat.

Newsflash: Carbohydrates aren’t evil

I eat a variety of carbohydrates daily, which range from leafy green vegetables (yes, vegetables are a form of carbohydrates!) to delicious sourdough breads. I wanted to compile a list of my favorite carbohydrates which I think can help introduce some variety in your diet and encourage you to try new foods.

My Favorite Carbohydrates 

My Favorite Carbohydrates

 1. Marble Rye Bread

How I enjoy it: Try adding some smashed avocado on top in place of butter (like this).

2. Garbanzo beans (or chickpea’s as is said in the UK)
How I enjoy it: I make a veggie burger with them (like this)!

3. Bananas
How I enjoy it: On their own, with nut butter or in a fruit salad.

4. Sesame Rye Crackers
How I enjoy it: Usually with some smashed avocado I have to admit. I love avocado!!

5. Quinoa
How I enjoy it: Fabulous for stir-fries! Try cracking an egg over some cooked quinoa to make ‘fried rice’ 🙂

6. Brown Rice
How I enjoy it: I love having brown rice in warm salads and adding it to soup for a heartier meal.

7. Sourdough Bread
How I enjoy it: Same as the marble rye bread honestly!

[Tweet “7 Healthy and Delicious Carbohydrates”]

Another notable carbohydrate I love is oatmeal. I make overnight oats (here is a fun kombucha overnight oats recipe) or healthy pancakes with them (four ingredient recipe here).

What is your favorite carbohydrate and how do you eat it?

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for always supporting me! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.

Health, Healthy on the cheap

Yalla Mediterranean

February 1, 2015

Last weekend I was invited to try out a new Mediterranean restaurant called Yalla Mediterranea. I was supposed to go with my friend Lauren (from LaurenLivesHealthy.com) but unfortunately she was ill and could not make it 🙁 Despite the fact that I would be trying it out alone, I could not turn down an offer to try out a new restaurant (especially with Mediterranean type food, mmm). Let me just preface this whole post right now by saying that it was SO worth it.

review of Yalla Mediterranean

Yalla Mediterranean describes itself as a fast-casual restaurant that offers fresh, healthy and flavorful Mediterranean fare. Walking into Yalla Mediterranean is like walking into someone’s garden … quite literally as there are small lemon trees in the center of the restaurant and a herb garden on the wall! I loved the atmosphere; you could tell this was a place that served wholesome and healthy food that cared about using quality ingredients. The menu is set up so that you first select a type of meal (pita wrap, salad or ‘Yalla’ plate), then a protein (which is grilled right in front of you) and finally (but not least) three delicious sides.

review of Yalla Mediterranean

review of Yalla Mediterranean

review of Yalla Mediterranean

What Did I Eat?

Look at how cool that grill is! Basically, the meat is placed upon the grill and it cooks as it rotates down the grill. It takes all of 2-5 minutes. I was so impressed that Yalla offered wild Alaskan salmon as a protein choice, and for under $10. This place is so affordable and seriously so delicious. I chose the Yalla plate (which consists of you choosing rice with either lentils or grilled vegetables) with kefta (a lamb and beef meatball) with arugala and beet salad, Greek potato salad and Greek eggplant salad.

Honestly Fitness Verdict?

 What did I think? DELICIOUS. I have never had a beet salad before which tasted this good, and the kefta was grilled to perfection. Everything was so fresh and flavorful!

review of Yalla Mediterranean

review of Yalla Mediterranean

 Can’t Forget About Dessert!

And guess what I had for dessert? I had Greek frozen yogurt with honey and baklava AND a chocolate pita cookie!!! My God, my tastebuds were in heaven. The cookie was gluten-free as it was made out of almond flour and had a great chewy texture to it. The frozen yogurt was out of this world; truly a genius combination of foods.

Come to San Francisco Already!

Right now, they only have a location in Pleasant Hill but will be opening up new stores around the Bay. I have been told that a Yalla location will be opening up in Daly City (right next to ME) in April or May. I cannot wait and will be there all the time … like no joke. It is healthy AND affordable. Just typical that I will be moving out to Salt Lake City in June. I hope Yalla open up a location there soon!!

I hope this post gives you a nudge into trying out Yalla Mediterranean. And if you do, let me know what you think! The cool thing about Yalla is that they are open to new ideas and are forward thinking (they have a 1 bin policy and have made it so that everything in the store is compostable).

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for always supporting me! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.