Hello, my friends! I’m going to share with you five reasons you aren’t enjoying your salads.. and how to change that! 

I’m going to teach you how to start amping up your salad game and how to start changing the way you think about them. In addition to all of the game-changing tips I’ll be sharing with you, I’ll also be sharing with you some of my favorite salad dressing recipes that you can easily make at home that are so delicious. You’ll never see or taste salads in the same way again!

Why would you listen to me talk about salad -.what do I know?! I’ve been a raw vegan for over 18 years now, and I’ve eaten many different salads in this time. That’s an understatement! I’ve eaten salads pretty much every night for this entire 18-year period. I consider myself a master when it comes to making fresh rainbow salads and also when it comes to making homemade salad dressings that are chemical-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, oil-free, and more. 

I’m all about creating more health and wellness, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and it starts with what we are putting into our bodies. I naturally reversed my type-2 diabetes by changing my diet - changing what I put into my body has transformed my life. It’s why I’m here, and it’s why I have dedicated my life to teaching you this important information. I love this lifestyle, and I’m sharing this message because I have personally experienced and seen the impact it can have, not only in my life, but also in the lives of many others.

I realize that many of you probably aren’t vegan, raw, or even vegetarian. That’s great! My content is for everyone, and I hope that seeing how good these salads look will inspire you to try eating at least one raw vegan meal a day, because there are so many benefits to having daily fruits and vegetables in your diet.

Most “salads” you might see in a restaurant are not salads. They are side dishes or appetizers.

These are not what I am referring to when I talk about salads.

I’m going to teach you how I make my salads, and what I consider a real salad to be. So before we go any further, we need to rewire how you think about salads.

Usually when I tell people that I’m a raw vegan, they assume I eat rabbit food.

Raw food is not rabbit food.

Fruits and vegetables can be incredibly colorful, rich, satisfying, and abundant.

It’s how you combine and use them that makes the biggest difference.

There’s much unlearning that needs to happen when you first start eating healthier.

You have to begin to think differently and deprogram yourself from all these stigmas or things you’ve been told about food, wellness, and nutrition up until this point. 

This lifestyle is about abundance.

It’s about nature’s bounty.

It’s about sustainability.

It’s about color.

It’s about life.

If you want to feel alive, why would you eat something that’s dead?

This lifestyle is LIFE-GIVING.

Fruits and vegetables are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet and most people simply do not eat enough quantity to gain benefits from them. Fruits and vegetables are not snacks or side-dishes. They are meant to be the main course.

So let’s start having FUN with salads. Here are my top tips on how you can make your salads more delicious, satisfying, and nourishing:

1.  PORTION SIZES 

   When most people think about a salad, they think of those tiny iceberg lettuce plates with one slice of tomato that they get as a side dish at restaurants. When I talk about salads, I’m talking about a HUGE bowl of fresh, dark, leafy greens with all kinds of colorful veggies, zoodles, herbs, cut fruits, accompanied with homemade salad dressings in abundance. I’m a saucy lady, so sometimes my dressings look like a separate side soup. I’m talking about a BIG bowl of salad - something that can actually be considered a full meal.

   Most people don’t eat salads in enough quantity to get full, which is why they don’t think of them as meals. But, you can get very satiated from salads, and it’s a wonderful feeling because it’s guilt-free, and it doesn’t physically weigh you down. You finish the meal energized and ready to keep going strong. Also remember that greens are so important for us to consume daily and are filled with minerals, phytonutrients, biophotons, and more. These are healing, powerful, and essential for the body. The primary response I get from people who are starting to eat raw is they believe that when you start eating raw vegan, you must be starving all the time, or that it’s unbelievably boring, or that it’s not sustainable long-term - this is far from true. When you eat salads in the proper quantity to get enough calories from them, they become an incredible meal.

2. VARIETY 

   Most people’s idea of a salad is lettuce and tomatoes, maybe with one other item added sometimes. When I’m eating a salad, I’m thinking about all of the different seasonal fruits and veggies I can add into the salad to make it as flavorful as possible. Add in all of the colors of the rainbow! Add cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, oranges, herbs, bell peppers, onions, and more. It should be like a rainbow explosion of goodness in your mouth. Salads aren’t meant to be bland, they are meant to be beautiful bowls of goodness that you can’t wait to enjoy every night. There are two points I want to bring up here in terms of variety:

   1. Focus on eating seasonally, because when you eat seasonally, there’s a whole world of new foods available for you to try that will keep salads fun and exciting for you.

   2. Consider that there are so many different types of salads you can have fun making at home. A salad doesn’t always have to be leafy greens with a dressing. You can have fun with fruit salads, veggie noodle dishes, veggie combo dishes, and more.

3. ORGANIC Buy organic whenever possible. Some people might disagree with me on this but organic produce tastes richer, and it’s not loaded with as many chemicals as non-organic produce, plus it has more nutrients. A study that was done not too long ago shared that organic fruits and veggies have seven times the amount of nutrients that non-organic produce does. 
4. LOCALLY GROWN OR SELF GROWN Get connected with your food. Start growing your own produce. If you can’t grow your own food, then buy from your local farmers, CSAs, or farmer’s markets. Growing your own food and getting to pick it or pull it from the ground is a spiritual experience that connects you further to your food. It becomes more than just a meal - it’s pure nourishment! One of the reasons I moved to where I am today is so that I could start growing my own food. The word “alignment” has been a very important word for me the past four years, because growing my own food is in alignment with my belief system, and it’s the embodiment of who I am and the woman I want to become. You will appreciate your food more and feel much more connected to it when you are the one growing it or know exactly where it comes from.
5. DRESSINGS 

   It’s ALL about the sauce! The dressing is EVERYTHING! If you’re not enjoying your salads, it’s probably because you don’t have a good dressing on there that you really enjoy. Stop buying cheap store-bought dressings and start making your own. It makes such a huge difference, and it’s so easy and fun to do. There are so many combinations you can make, and it never gets boring. A few of my favorite salads and salad dressings are on my Youtube channel and on my app. You have to try my orange creamsicle dressing, my classic tahini dressing, my creamy citrus pistachio dressing, and the tzatziki sauce that you can use with everything!

   I have an app called the FullyRaw App, and it has more than 450 raw vegan recipes in it waiting for you to enjoy. There are tons of dressing recipes for you to try. It’s available on iTunes and Googleplay!