Avocado kale salad is even popular with children

4 large avocados
7 large bunches of lacinato kale
salt
oil and balsamic and/or red wine vinegar


Rip the kale stems out by hand and tear into bite size pieces.  Massage with salt oil and vinegar for several minutes, until soft.  Add avocado and mix.  Taste and adjust salt and vinegar if needed.

Simple and fresh food is best for you, forget all the studies

Sometimes it's best not to make yourself insane reading all the yammering about studies.  Fresh vegetables and some yummy salmon with olive oil and balsamic.

Cooking calamari at home - more fun with mezcal

Though I love calamari, I've never made it myself.  It turned out to be easy and cheap (from Santa Monica Seafood).  It's already clean, so it was as simple as slicing and sticking it in the pan with olive oil, garlic and a "glug" or two of mezcal.  I had it with an arugula tomato salad dressed in balsamic.

Your chance to eat a whole pile!

It comes every day.  For me it was baby lettuces with extra radiccio olive oil vinegar and red pepper flakes.

Bitter foods are good for you

I crave arugula and radicchio, and lucky for me they're really good for you.  They even reduce sugar cravings!

The photo is salad greens topped with radicchio in oil and white wine vinegar, fried onions, and a filet mignon with ricotta salata crumbled on top.

Sprouted Kamut

Tried foods I don't normally buy this week: sprouted kamut, yellow bell pepper and heirloom zucchini. The kamut went in a daikon salad with lemon and oil, chili powder and parsley. The delicious flavorful zucchini at the same price as the other squash went in an egg bake with the rest of the huge pepper and some broccoli.

How I Tried to Eat Clean in New Orleans

Here are two pictures of shrimp salads I enjoyed in New Orleans. The fresh Louisiana shrimp are tasty and a little smaller, quite different from the shrimp we get here in CA. For lack of a better way to describe it, their flavor is very "shrimpy." What I mean is that each bite is packed with rich shrimp flavor, no wateriness or muddiness.

To be honest, I overdid it on shrimp while in New Orleans! Bubba Gump's on Decatur in the French Quarter, supposed to be a shrimp lovers' paradise, was disappointing. Their shrimp were not cleaned very well at all (gross) and weren't as tasty. Were they not using real Louisiana shrimp?

The bottom pic is a shrimp Caesar salad from Lucy's Retired Surfers' place on Tchoupitoulas and Girod in the Arts District. There was plenty of dressing but it wasn't super salty, and the shrimp was seasoned quite well in the Creole style. Their service wasn't really up to what I would consider Southern standards, but it was basically a sports bar. Other places in New Orleans ended up having wonderful service and I will write about them too. I will try to "recreate" this dish with some Tony's Creole seasoning I bought there, maybe using a recipe for creamy dressing from the current issue of Clean Eating magazine.

The top picture is a shrimp wedge salad from the Green Goddess in the Exchange Alley in the French Quarter. It had hearts of palm, radishes, and cucumber slices as well as romaine lettuce and a milder dressing. The food there was fabulous but it took them three hours to get us our food, a mistake that our hosts assured us was rare.