Holiday Party Detox Salad

Good Evening Friends!

I first want to begin by mentioning the heaviness I feel in my heart in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting tragedy. As a mental health professional who works with children, this has hit extremely close to home. I would like to find a way to process this but I am truly and utterly at a loss. As I pray for the families and all those effected, I can only hope that this tragedy can be a call to arms to speak out about mental illness and remove it’s stigma in society. This is also a reminder not to take a single day or a single person in your life for granted. It can be so easy to be angry and hold grudges rather than being honest about how you feel. Speak up, work it out, hug and say “I love you.”

The holiday season is most definitely upon us! There’s lights everywhere, daily e-mails filled with shopping coupons, and the cookies and candy are all around.

 

We are in a stretch of weekday and weekends of eating, drinking, and being oh so very merry! Last night was my brother and his girlfriend’s “Classy Christmas Party” in their new home. There was lots of yummy foods from shrimp cocktail, gluten-free meatballs and sausages in marinara (thanks, Mom!), scallops wrapped in bacon, and even a few veggies:

Yummy food and great friends, combined with a few large goblets of Christmas Sangria and a pair of painfully high black patent-leather heels left this girl in rough shape this morning.

(Easily the least flattering photo of mine to grace this blog, but I had to paint the picture for you)

Also this with the elf-hostess/birthday girl herself:

 

Any-who, there was a major need to repair my body and give it some much needed nutrients this morning. I started off my drinking a warm mug of lemon water with honey. That is honestly my go-to-save-my-liver beverage. Breakfast was some scrambled eggs, steamed spinach, and oats…nothing spectacular just enough to get some nutrients in my body. I have a theory that, when hungover, it is the second-meal of my day that really brings me back from feeling like death. The first is just for survival, the second for revival 🙂

This salad was my revival!!

A delicious mix of kale, mushrooms, shredded carrots and beets, with avocado’s on the side. I cannot take sole credit for this recipe. It is based off of Life Alive Restaurant’s The Lover warm meal. If you’re in Massachusetts (specifically Cambridge, Salem, or Lowell) and you love veggies, check this place out! The food is fresh, affordable, and seriously good for you. I had it two weeks ago and have been craving it ever since; I knew making it at home was worth a try.

I began by steam-cooking my mushrooms and kale with a little bit of Bragg’s Liquid Amino’s and a little ginger powder.

 

 

This was the base of my salad. On top I shredded one carrot and one small beet. I sliced half an avocado. To dress the salad, I used the juice of half a lime to add some acidity to balance the saltiness from the Bragg’s.

Holiday Party Detox Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups kale, torn

8 mushrooms, quartered

1 large carrot, peeled and shredded

1 small beet, peeled and shredded

1/2 avocado, sliced

2 T Bragg’s liquid amino’s

1/2 t ginger powder

Directions:

1) Steam-cook kale and mushrooms in a small pan with Bragg’s and and ginger.

2) Shred carrot and beet.

3) Slice avocado and arrange around salad. Squeeze fresh lime juice over avocado and shredded veggies.

4) Allow to sit for a few minute and marinate.

5) Enjoy 🙂

 

This salad was salty, sweet, hearty and very filling! In full disclosure,  I enjoyed with with a nice big sweet potato on the side 🙂 I am hoping to remake it later this week and maybe even bring it around for a future Christmas gathering! Definitely try this and leave me a message of any variations you try.

Tell me: your most reliable hangover cure and healthy detox meal…feel free to link!

xoxo

Em