I love my life salad – served with a glass of green juice and happy thoughts

Hi salad lovers,

After I made the Asian Miso Orange Salad Dressing, I needed a salad to try it out on.  I wanted a crunch but not a green salad.  And then I got very creative and decided to use a cookie cutter to shape my salad.  As I had already made brown rice, I thought hey why not stack them together.  My hubby was at a hockey game and I was in full control of my kitchen creativity.

As my kids are adults, it has been a while since I used cookie cutters.  Wonderful memories of baking cookies with my kids were dancing in my mind and I thought this is a great new way to connect with my new food choices in a beautiful way.  Originally I was going to use a circle but when I saw the heart shape, I knew this salad was going to be special.  This salad really sums up my life!

I Love My Life Salad

• Bottom layer
  • Salad Greens
• Middle layer
  • Brown rice
    • 1 cup cooked and cooled brown rice
• Top layer
  • Broccoli Crunch Salad
    • 1 cup Broccoli slaw
    • 1/2 cup Grated carrots
    • 2 radishes – chopped
    • 2 tbsp of finely chopped red onion
  • Dressing
    • 1/4 cup Asian Miso Orange Salad Dressing

Directions

1. Make the brown rice first and allow to cool down (you still want it a bit warm but not hot).
2. Make the Asian Miso Orange Dressing (if you have not already made it).
3. Make the Broccoli Crunch Salad.
4. Add the broccoli slaw, carrots, radishes and onion to a bowl.  Combine.
5. Pour Asian Miso Orange Salad Dressing on the salad ingredients in the bowl.  Combine.
6. Let the Broccoli Crunch sit for ten minutes for the flavours to combine.
7. This is when you try to remember where you stored your cookie cutter, cleaning them and recalling memories of when you last used them.  If on the other hand you never owned any cookie cutters, I suggest you work in advance of this step and ask a friend to borrow one of their cookie cutters. You want a metal one with strong deep sides with no handle.  It needs to be open on the top and bottom.
8. Now the fun begins.
9. Select a plate that you will be serving to each person.  You will be making this for each person or just yourself as I did.
10. Make a tight bed of salad greens in the middle of the plate.
11. Place your cookie cutter in the middle of the salad greens and fill with brown rice.  Tightly pack the rice so it holds it shape when you slide up the cookie cutter.
12. Slide the cookie cutter up so that it is just touching the rice.  Fill with the Broccoli Crunch Salad.  Pack tightly but don’t press too hard or your rice will lose its shape.
13. Remove the cookie cutter.
14. You will likely have to clean up a few ends that stick out on the top of your shape to get a defined shape.  Don’t stress to much about perfection – this is a fun food exercise.
15. You are ready to serve yourself or make three more plates by repeating steps 10-14.
16. Store the remaining rice and Broccoli Crunch in separate glass containers and store in the fridge.

I served this up with a nice wine glass filled with my Green Juice.

As I sat down to this dinner, I was full of smiles, gratefulness and reflection.  My life is amazing and I love it.

May you find what makes you smile.

To loving life,

Jo, your 9CupChallenge Partner