Slowly Turning Vegetarian…..???
You know by now, that when I have nothing to do, I fidget and wiggle and find anything that can keep me busy. After gardening for two hours, today, I decided to browse the internet, aimlessly. I came across an article, 7 heart healthy habits. It was very interesting. It basically sums up the seven things you need to do to keep your heart healthy and number one as you’ve guessed right, is exercise, because the heart is a muscle that needs to be worked regularly. All we need is 150 minutes, of cardiovascular exercise every week. That sounds simple, after all. a week has 10,080 minutes. What do we do for the rest of the time? The rest, you must know by now: eat your Fruits and Veggies, broaden you carb repertoire, prioritize your proteins (eat fish NOT BACON…).
Two of them really caught my attention, the first one: aim for colour: not the flying colours you aimed for, at school, but foods with the following colours. Red (eg strawberries, tomatoes and red beans); orange/yellow (carrots, sweet potatoes); purple/blue (blueberries, purple cabbage); green (lettuce, spinach, broccoli); white (white beans, onion, garlic); brown (sunflower seeds, hummus).
The second one: Assess your personality. Now, this one got me dumbfounded. What does my personality have to do with my heart??? It went on to list the following personality traits, Depressed. Anxious. Hostile. Angry. Impatient. Competitive. Uptight, each of which is associated with heart disease, and having more than one, puts you at a higher risk of heart disease. When I fidget and wiggle should I classify myself as anxious or impatient or both? So now, I am seriously thinking of joining Yoga or Tai Chi, as recommended in the article.
I decided not to dwell too much on personality traits, after all how long does it take to shed off a bad habit? I decided to focus on instant results and aim for colour instead. So today I’m sharing a salad with the following colours: red (red kidney beans, tomatoes, bell pepper), orange/yellow (carrots, bell pepper, corn), green (lettuce, celery, cilantro), white (white beans, onion, garlic), and brown (sunflower seeds, garbanzo). In the end I panicked. Am I slowly converting to vegetarian diet, without knowing? But I loved the salad and I hope you do too, and by the way, I still crave BACON!
Remember to assemble all ingredients before you start.
Assemble all ingredients for salad, as well.
Mix all salad ingredients in a jar, shake thoroughly to combine
Add a teaspoon oil to a pan over medium heat. Fry onions and sunflower seeds for 1-2 minutes, season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan, set aside to cool. (if you prefer not to fry onions and sunflower seeds, then omit this stage and just add them to the salad)
Combine white beans, garbanzo (chick peas), red kidney beans, corn kernels, tomatoes, celery and capsicums (bell peppers). Toss to mix.
Add romaine and coriander (cilantro)
then the onion-sun-flower-seed mixture.
Toss everything to mix, then stir in dressing. Serve chilled or just serve without chilling, if preferred.
I enjoyed eating it.
Hope you enjoy the colours, too!
Bean and Vegetable Salad
Preparation time: 30 minutes; Serves 4-6
Ingredients for Salad
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon roasted sunflower seeds
- 1 cup white beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup garbanzo bean (Chick Peas), rinsed and drained
- 1 cup red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup corn kernels drained
- 2-3 medium tomatoes (about 2-300g,7-10oz) seeded and julienned
- 1-2 celery stalks finely chopped
- ¼ cup each red, yellow and orange bell peppers (capsicum)
- 2-3 cups romaine lettuce shredded (or green beans, spinach, green lettuce etc)
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (coriander)
- Feta Cheese (Optional)
Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- I clove garlic crushed
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon herb or Dijon mustard
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Instructions
- Add the teaspoon oil to a pan over medium heat. Fry onions and sunflower seeds for 1-2 minutes, season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan, set aside to cool. (if you prefer not to fry onions and sunflower seeds, then omit this stage and just add them to the salad)
- Combine white beans, garbanzo (chick peas), red kidney beans, corn kernels, tomatoes, celery and capsicums (bell peppers). Toss to mix.
- Add romaine and coriander (cilantro), then the onion-sun-flower-seed mixture. Toss everything to mix.
- Dressing: mix all ingredients in a small jar and shake thoroughly to mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir dressing into salad. Check seasoning and serve chilled or just serve without chilling, if preferred. You can top with Feta cheese or any other cheese of your choice if preferred.
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Beautiful salad and great tips!
Thanks! Enjoy the week!
Liz
This looks perfect!!!
And tastes very good. Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful week!!!
So colorful- it looks delicious. I’ll be trying this this summer!
It is so easy to make especially if you use canned beans. Ready in minutes. thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!
I love this post! Such helpful information, and a great recipe together. What a pretty salad, too. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you so much for your kind words, I appreciate. Thanks for stopping here and have a wonderful week! Hope to see you more often!
This really looks good! I’m actually looking for a salad recipe and this will surely shortlisted 🙂 thank you for sharing! 😀
*surely be shortlisted
Looks good and tastes good, easy to make, ready in minutes and nutritious too. I enjoyed eating it. and I love that I can make it without too much stress. Have a fantastic week!
I think sometimes we can get a little obsessed about what we eat and don’t eat and really its all things in moderation, but i agree we need to exercise more. My dad is 83 and healthy except for his sight and i think one of the reasons is the fact that as a younger man he was very active and even now he takes a walk every day.
I eat everything in moderation, including bacon and beef but I also try to balance my diet. I agree with you that exercise is very important and moderation is key. Thank you for stopping here and thanks for joining the conversation. Have a pleasant day and a great week!
Thank you, you too.
This salad sounds and looks DELISH! Perfect for summer.
Hi Frances, we are in summer mode right now, The weather was good for some days so it was BBQ and salad for about four days. It was so good. Thanks for stopping by. Have a fantastic week!
Delicious! A heart friendly lifestyle is our priority too – bacon has been hard to give up, but crispy salmon skin is pretty darn good!
Now you are talking, I even forgot that fish can be fried crisp and will give you the illusion of eating something like bacon. thanks for stopping by and have a great day and a wonderful week!!!
Bacon can be one of my trip-ups every time! I wonder if there is such as thing as bacon flavored tofu? Still….the crunch would be missing……beautiful photos! Beautiful food. I too try to eat vegetarian at least three times a week and I quite like it. I love feta too, besides being good tasting, its such a nice contrast to all the vegetable and bean colours in this salad. Filing away for future!
Hi I am so happy to see you, especially since you are a BACON LOVER like me. I would love to eat a bacon flavoured Tofu, I guess we can just finely chop the bacon, fry it and stick it on the Tofu, I have seen them doing that with doughnuts especially in Vancouver. I love Feta too, please be my guest and file, That;s why we are blogging food. Have a wonderful evening and a fantastic week!
What a great looking salad – makes healthy eating seem very appealing!
And not just appealing but tasty too. Have a wonderful week. Thanks for stopping by!!!
Great Information! Looks delish!
Very delis. have a pleasant day!!
*smiles* … I suppose bacon now and again is not evil … but… yahhhhh on the veggies! That salad looks omg gurgly yummers. I think when you can make a meal colourful it always tastes better. (err…unless you are colouring it with food dyes….then nooooo lol)
And I see we got TWO samples of ingredient photos lol. (I will try not to be so nit picky about this anymore…whap me if I do).
Hey…with the strawberry shortbread tart thingy and this….you ARE going veggie-mania. woo wooo!
Bacon all the time is not evil, just make sure the portions are reasonable. The salad tasted really good on a serious note. I enjoyed munching it, and it’s 100% natural no additives, no food colours. Oh yes can you imagine the same plate of salad throughout the post? did you update your CV? I panicked and made sure the next day I ate meat the whole day. Thanks I LOL the whole evening. Take care and have a fantastic week!!!
For what it’s worth, I do believe with all my heart that bacon can be a part of a healthy lifestyle.
Thank you very much, now I know I’m perfectly normal. I love bacon, more than words can say. Welcome to the BACON CLUB. Thanks so much for stopping here and for telling me what I was waiting to hear. Have a pleasant day and a wonderful week!!!!
🙂
Never met a bean I didn’t like 😉 Mmmmmm!
Nice to know there are other out there who love beans. I love them too, and eat them quite bait. Thanks and have a wonderful week!
Its been so busy lately that I have much to little time for cooking. Just back from a weekend in the UK and thought I would pop straight over to your lovely blog for my fix of fabulous food 🙂 and I was not disappointed. What a great take on choosing healthy foods!
I see you are becoming a globe trotter, I love travelling except I can’t travel as much as I want right now, too busy trying to be a good Mummy. Thanks for making this blog your instant stop, I feel honoured. Trying to eat healthy lately, but still frying bacon as well. Welcome back and have a pleasant week. Will be popping over to see if there is anything new for my palate!
This salad looks stunning! Love all the colours!
I love the colours too and the salad, thanks for stopping by and have a good day!
My problem has always been eating the ingredients before I finish the dish’s for serving 🙂
I think many of us have the habit of tasting as we cook, how much I taste depends on what I’m cooking. Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!
It looks yummy, so many colours – nice pictures !
Healthy colours, they are called. Have a wonderful day. Thanks for leaving me a note!
Healthy colors ? Never heard of that before, can tell why though ! You’re welcome, you seem to interact with. See you later !
Every colour in food represents some chemical element in it. Green veggies lots of vitamins, orange sweet potato, vitamin A. You’ve heard of that, haven’t you. Have a pleasant week!