Spinach Salad with Strawberries

I bought a flat of strawberries at Costco -- which I really hate to do, because I never finish them all before they go bad. After making a small batch of chocolate covered strawberries (hey, it's still fruit!), I had plenty left over.

I made a delicious spinach and strawberry salad to go with dinner last night. I topped it with the following dressing:

1/2 cup Olive Oil
1/4 cup Red Raspberry Vinegar
1/3 cup Sugar
1 TBSP Poppy Seeds
Dash of paprika

Place all ingredients into a dressing shaker, and shake until blended. The dressing is pretty sweet, so modify the amount of sugar to taste. The salad was just tossed baby spinach and sliced strawberries -- everyone loved it.

I also read up on Tray Freezing at a new favorite blog, Make and Takes. I'm definetly going to do that with rest of the strawberries (if any outlast the dressing). It's so much easier than freezer jam, it takes practically no time, and I'll actually do it.

Vegetables, Again

I did a very poor job working more vegetables into my diet. I think I'll give it a try for another week.

I had been doing a great job of writing down everything that I ate. I was writing everything in my 'virtual' notebook on Google Docs. Then I found a website -- The Fat Secret -- where I started to record what I ate. I really like the website, but I was having a really hard time recording things like "a bite of Frosty" or "a drink of my husband's soda". Again, the perfectionist in me wanted to do it perfectly, but couldn't, so I stopped. I've taken a few days break from recording what I eat, but I'm going to pick that up again, just using the virtual notebook again. I don't count calories this way, but I'm trying to work more on why I'm eating than how much I'm eating.

Yuck! Well, maybe not.

We ate dinner at my in-laws tonight. My mother-in-law served asparagus, as she frequently does. For the first time, I cut some up for the boys. I thought, "Just because I don't like the green stuff, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be able to try it." And they loved it -- just like they love green beans and broccoli and peas.

Then, I thought that I had said that I would never make them eat anything that I wouldn't put in my mouth. In the spirit of that and eating more vegetables, I tried the asparagus. And I liked it. It's not that I had never eaten it before, I just hadn't tried it since middle school. I remember something much mushier -- like the canned spinach my mom made me eat once.

I'm actually kind of excited about it. I now have another vegetable to add to my diet arsenal.