I love the peppery taste of the leaves and find that it adds a lot of flavor to an otherwise simple salad.
When I saw a 50/50 combination of organicgirl baby spinach and arugula on sale at the grocery store on Monday night, I scooped it up and planned to use the leafy greens as the base for a yummy salad.
organicgirl Arugula + Spinach
This afternoon that’s just what I did! 😀
Colorful Salad
My salad contained:
- organicgirl baby spinach and arugula
- roasted Brussels sprouts
- carrots
- green pepper
- grape tomatoes
- ½ c. Seapoint Farms edamame
- Kerry and Loni’s Bean Tastico salsa
The Goods
On the side I enjoyed a fresh peach and a blue raspberry Ring Pop, leftover from the bachelorette party fun!
Plump Peach
Fun fact about Ring Pops: In my advertising campaigns class in college we had to re-market a product currently on the market to a new niche. I re-marketed Ring Pops as wedding favors to young adult women.
Ring Popper
Everythaaaang
Once Sad, Now Glad
Enjoying the Ring Pop after lunch today made me think about childhood candy and the things I was and wasn’t allowed to eat growing up.
My parents never let me and my sister drink soda, unless we were at a special event (then we’d always order a kiddie cocktail)! At the time I was sad that I couldn’t offer my friends a can of soda when they’d come over to my house to hang out, and I was sad I couldn’t sip on a cold can of Dr. Pepper whenever I wanted.
Now I’m honestly glad I wasn’t allowed to drink soda. I never crave it and don’t think to order it in restaurants. I guess my parents were on to something…
What is something you weren’t allowed to eat or drink growing up? Do you still avoid it today?
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I actually really wasn’t forbidden to eat or drink anything growing up, which is probably part of the reason I grew up loving zebra cakes & diet pepsi. I don’t have any regrets about how I was brought up to eat or drink though, because it has just helped me solidify how I want to make sure my own kids grow up. And no, I don’t think it will include zebra cakes. 😉
zebra cakes = one of the best snacks ever! i’ve been wanting to recreate them for years…
oh my goodness, i used to not be allowed to eat ANY junk food! it made me want so much more though. although these days i understand WHY i wasn’t allowed to eat it, but i still indulge every now and then 🙂
I don’t think there wasn’t really anything I wasn’t allowed to eat. I was always allowed everything in moderation.
Yep– I’m the same way!! My parents were pretty vigilant about not keeping soda, candy, and junk in the house. My sister and I still make fun of them about it, but deep down I think we’re both glad and appreciative!
I was never allowed to have any hostess products. My mother instead baked up her own cupcakes, cookies etc. When I finally tried one around the age of 13 I was disgusted by how artificial it tasted, especially in comparison to my mother’s AMAZING baked goods.
I wish my mother would have forbidden something.. We were the house with every little debbie’s treat you can imagine along with most other junk foods. I will not do that to my kids. 🙂
That’s so funny, I wasn’t allowed to have soda either. Or much candy- Halloween candy pretty much lasted all year (that would be after my dad inspected all of the pieces to check for needle holes- remember that scare?!) haha!
Now I don’t drink soda @ all really- just on occasion. I really don’t enjoy it, and I end up feeling so stuffed after – from all of the carbination.
There wasn’t anything I was not allowed to have but gosh I miss the days of dunkaroos! 🙁 I would eat about 3 a day haha.
I’m kind of like you with stricter parents and now I appreciate it so much! Parents really do know what’s best for you!
We had pop in our house growing up (although, rarely). However, my parents would never let my sister and I order anything but water when eating out. I always wanted a lemonade, or something sugary, but water it was. Now I crave water constantly – my parents were smart ones!
We had no limits when we were younger in that my family ate lots of sugar and starches (not that we could pig out). That is why I am limiting my daughter because I don’t want her to crave all the junk. So far so good…she loves broccoli and asparagus!
this is going to sound really gross but the “cool snack” at school was to eat crushed, uncooked instant ramen w/the sauce packet sprinkled on top. (it’s really good!) but my mom would never let me eat it because it was sooo bad for you (the uncooked noodles, the high salt content)…as usual, she was right. i see that now…but when you’re 10 you just never understand! haha.
We were allowed to eat just about anything growing up — our house was THE house for friends to enjoy junk food. 🙂 That being said, we were extremely active in sports and were still fed balanced meals. And the four of us have grown up to be really interested in health! My kids WILL get to indulge, just not all the time. 🙂
I wasn’t forbidden to eat or drink anything in particular, but “fun” foods were usually only around on vacation. We rarely had oreos and chips and salsa in the house, but if we were at the beach, anything goes! Including sugary cereals. It made it more exciting since we never had that stuff at home.
I was never banned from eating anything… In fact, I was so picky that my parents WANTED me to eat more. Now, I’m glad that I developed healthy eating habits young. It’s so much easier to stick to!
When I was growing up, we were only allowed to get candy at the check-out line if we had survived a whole grocery shopping escapade without being bad, haha…Only having candy as a reward just made me want it more and I personally have a hard time saying no to candy to this day!
I think I was pretty much allowed to eat anything. My breakfasts usually consisted of Little Debbie Fudge Rounds or Fruity Pebbles because my parents both worked but we always had homecooked dinners at the dinner table. I think it all evened out in the end.
I LOVE arugula! Your salad looks great!
My parents didn’t let me eat gushers. They were convinced they would give me cavities. I don’t really eat them much now but once I went to college I tried a packet. I gotta say, they were pretty good!
I snagged ring pops for a friend’s bachelorette party 🙂 I was allowed soda, but usually just half a can. I’ve made a point to never drink it recently, but Hubby’s family is SUPER into it. Since we’re on vacation with them right now I’ve had at least a can a day… I”ll just make sure I don’t buy any when we get home!!
I loved ring pops as a kid too!!! The red was best!!!
I don’t really think that there was anything that my parents wouldnt let us eat. But I have two kids and I try to limit a lot of stuff, but everything in moderation. My kids can’t drink pop, eat breakfast cereal that has food dye, or eat regular mac-n-cheese with food dye. I try to avoid additives and food dye, but they do have treats! I can’t limit blue slurpees because I love them!
My parents were like yours – soda was not allowed for the most part, and candy was limited. Halloween, Christmas and Easter were always extra special to us kids because of the sugary candy!
The downside was that my Dad would keep “treats” in his closet, stuff like Fruit by the Foot, Dunkaroos, Pop Tarts, etc. that we’d get in our lunch boxes. I think not having access to that stuff if we wanted it, led to gorging on it when it was around. Also, my Mom and Dad rarely had cookies, ice cream, etc. in the house, so when that was available we’d all go bonkers and overeat.
My Mom is a doctor and we weren’t allowed to eat all sorts of things, but the food item I missed most was oddly enough cereal. My friends had all these cool cereals (Reeses Puffs, Rice Krispy Treats, Lucky Charms) at their homes, and when I went away to college and discovered Fruity Pebbles I was in heaven!
However, I started learning about food, nutrition, HFCS…etc. etc. and the unhealthy cereals were traded for the organic kinds that I hated as a kid, but now love as an adult!
My mom never kept soda in our house when I was growing up either. I agree with you– I was bummed about it at the time but now I’m thankful I don’t have a soda addiction!
I’m really happy I wasn’t raised in a soda household either; I simply can’t imagine it ever being a part of my diet.
Sugar cereals and fruit roll ups were out of the questions. Now I tend to go ape sh*t on my husband’s Lucky Charms (as in demolish them!)
i don’t remember not being allowed to eat many foods when i was a kid. but i also hated a lot of things, so maybe my parents just wanted me to eat whatever i was willing to!
i’m wondering though, did you parents ever tell you why you couldn’t drink soda? when i have kids, i don’t want them to drink soda, and i’ll raise them eating healthfully, but i also want to avoid the notion of good foods and bad foods so they will hopefully have a good relationship with food. so i’m just wondering how your parents went about it. thanks!
We were not allowed to have candy in the house. None it was fruit. This is probably why I have fruit in my house and rarely ever have candy!
I just came across your blog and am already addicted! I read through the most recent entries and already have a bunch of your eats I want to try for myself.
I’m training for my first half marathon and am trying to find a way to balance healthy and delicious food that my body needs without gaining weight. I lost 30 lbs earlier this year and really want to keep it off. One of my best diet tricks? Peanut butter. I had to limit myself to 2 tablespoons a day, but it satisfied my sweet tooth each and every time!
I do have one question, do you typically eat before your workouts in the morning? If so, what do you eat?
Oh, I grew up in the same situation! My parents never had soda at the house, but they would let me order it for special occasions (and i’d always go for the shirley temple!)….now I don’t crave it at all but don’t mind it in a mixed drink or as a chaser either 😉 I am a college student, after all!
hmmm well during the summer, we could always get something from the ice cream truck at the beach, but ONLY on fridays were we allowed something that was ice cream based, the rest of the days, it had to be ice pops etc…it made Fridays that much more exciting!
I use that same lettuce mix! I love it. And I was allowed pretty much anything as a kid, so it’s remarkable I turned out with the eating habits that I have!!
There wasn’t anything specific that I wasn’t allowed to have. I come from an overweight/obese stock. I’m so glad I found SparkPeople and found a way to lose over 90 pounds!
I was never allowed to eat any hostess products (thank you mom!) and still to this day the thought of them grosses me out!
Wow, I love it! Your meal looked awesome and so fun to see a ring pop. I am a huge fan of them. When I am craving a snicker or reeses; I would run and buy a bag of ring pops and enjoy one to cut the calories and leave the rest in my glove compartment to prepare for the next craving when it comes again.
I’m am so glad to read how grateful you are about not being allowed soda; especially now that you are at a mature age to understand the benefit(s) of it!
You were fortunate at how aware your parents were and how head strong they held on to not being like most parents who don’t dig deeper in what they are allowing themselves and their children to consume meals and beverages that are detrimental to their health.
I definitely intend to do the same and I have smiled at the thought of how my future children might not like it but when they finally have that eureka moment, they’ll see that the bigger picture was to protect them not deprive them. And they will love and appreciate it so much more than they could ever have learning of the benefits any other way. <3
Thank you for sharing 🙂