Back to Basics...

Ok so it's been awhile, I know! But I have good reason for being away, I was getting prepared for my culmination in New York City just last weekend. Yep, I've culminated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and am now a certified Holistic Health Counselor.I'm very pleased, to say the least.

Over this past weekend my boyfriend Grigori and I and some of my closest friends met up for drinks at a restaurant on the Westside. It was a family owned restaurant on Wilshire that has been in the Los Angeles for 3 or 4 generations.

G and I got a little hungry while we were waiting for our friends, so we ordered some salads. Mixed greens salads to be specific. And I don't know about you, but when I see the words "mixed green" I think of dark leafy greens, like spinach, dandelion, kale, butter, arugula, etc. Or I at least imagine, or rather visualize various greens on my plate, and maybe some cucumbers and a cherry tomato or two. Some leafy salad greens of nutritional value.

Basically I EXPECT a salad that is some variation of the above. But did we get that? No.

We got a plate full of shredded lettuce, maybe a piece of cabbage or two, but mostly lettuce, white ICEBERG lettuce with sliced black olives, and a scatter of tomato chunks.

We were in shock! And to my surprise and pride, Gregory quickly questioned, "this is mixed greens salad?" Just his question alone made all my time, money, energy and effort to study at the best nutrition school in the world all worth it! He's been paying attention to what I have been preparing at home for him. He's told me recently that he can no longer eat "white" salad after all the mixed greens he has been eating..But for him to question it, showed me that he really knew what a mixed greens salad was, and that's what he was wanting to eat!

So why was I disgusted and excited at the same time?
Well I was disgusted because I felt what they served us was an insult. When you ask for a tequila, you don't expect them to serve you a beer...they both maybe alcohol, pero don't get it twisted, they are not the same thing! Especially with salads, Dios mio, we practically live in like the salad capital of the world here in Los Angeles. And on the Westside no less. There I expect the best leafy greens money can by, considering that the Westside is supposed to be the hub of healthy, organic, and sustainable living.

Por el amor de Dios, that salad was like elementary school salad, not fit for human consumption. By the way, iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value. All it does for you is give you gas.

I was excited because leafy green(vegetables) are basics for your diet. The most nutritious of all the vegetables one can eat. They contain so many phytonutrients, minerals, and other essential nutrients that they are one of the best things you could eat! Or juice, I love to juice 'em. They help with your digestion, are good for the blood, the immune system, the brain, the heart, I can go on and on...

So for Grigori to order that salad, (and even though he didn't get what he expected) he wanted a nutritious salad. Now he wouldn't ever say that, but I know that's what he meant!

Live a good life!