The Year of the Conciliatory Salad

Hello, my name is Leora, and I'm a salad addict.

Literally (and yes, I do know what that word means.)

Before you start thinking I'll eat any manky old salad from a bag to feed my addiction, let me clarify. I'm more like a champagne-o than a wino. (An ironic metaphor, since I can't stand alcohol of any kind.) If your idea of salad is wilted lettuce and pale tomatoes with ranch dressing, or the occasional Caesar, you probably think I'm nuts. You'd have to be, to eat that every day. The key to great salad is great ingredients. 

I really am physically addicted to salad, just like Gollum and his precious ring. Failing to eat salad on a daily basis gives me nightmares. I have a stomach that hates about ninety percent of the food we eat in North America. When I don't cater to it, my stomach takes its revenge by growling and burning and cramping and sending evil messages to my brain all night long. Hence the nightmares.

Through trial and error with diet, (and a pigheaded refusal to take prescription drugs for the rest of my life) I've managed to broker an uneasy peace with my stomach. We are like North and South Korea, and I'm pretty sure I'm South, because my stomach is definitely a dictatorship. As long as I stick to my part, the truce holds. What my dictatorial stomach demands is a daily influx of raw produce, including at least three cups of greens. I am no expert, but I think this has partly to do with the fiber, and even more to do with the enzymes found in live food. Of course, there is also a long list of foods I can't eat, but frankly, I'm too full of salad to miss them.

And that's how I arrived at the Year of the Conciliatory Salad. My goal (I'm not calling it a resolution because that has never worked out too well for me in the past) is to keep the peace within my body by creating and eating a different salad every day in 2013. This could be crazy, or impossible, but it will definitely be tasty. 

I started this journey on the first of January, taking photos and a few notes. But I'm thinking I need a little more organization, so I'm going to try blogging my salad journey. I was going to start on the last day of January and post a whole month's salads, but it turns out I'm moving that day, so here come the first 27 entries.