Mentally Alert Salad

That would be something else, a mentally alert salad. Make you think twice before sticking a fork into your greens. Funny it doesn't work that way with a hamburger . . . except for some folks who are more mentally alert to their food origins than the rest of us.

For the last, I'd say, two months, since watching Forks Over Knives, I've been following my cravings, mainly [for those with a morbid interest in those things] fried fish. I discovered Halibut is flavorful; generic fish is not. I can now safely predict that the more deeply I am moved by the arguments for a whole food plant based diet, the more I envy those whose lives have been transformed by adhering to its strict limits, the more severe my food cravings for other types of food become and the more abrupt their onset. It is completely predictable. I was just beginning to settle down after F. O. K. when I watched 40 minutes of Dr. Neal Barnard describing which substances in dairy products tend to keep one eating them . . .

The also predictable result of relentlessly pursuing these cravings, instead of occasional aberrations from a moderately healthy diet, has been a lack of mental acuity. Some foods make me dopey. Just not as alert. Slow and lazy brain cells. I start worrying about early onset Alzheimers.

Amazingly I started to realize, after this latest binge, that I was craving fruits and vegetables and whole grains and even legumes. So I made this salad, ate it with a beautiful red, ripe pear [don't ask me about the variety--I'm not that alert] and a slice of whole wheat toast. A wonderful meal and a rousing experience. I could feel my mind and body transforming with just one lunch.

Mentally Alert Salad

1/4 of a cabbage, thinly sliced and chopped [optionally you could grate it. That would be great.]
1/2 onion, diced
2 fat organic carrots, grated
one can pickled beets, sliced [the beets, not the can]
one can of beans [in this case, red beans]

Salad dressing*

That's it. Simple and delicious. I don't even know why I'm charging for this recipe. Oh, yeah, I'm not.

Walking to work there was definitely more of a spring in my step and a smile on my face.

* I have this idea for a salad dressing based on pickled beets, but I haven't worked it out yet.