Strawberry Fields Forever

Finally summer knocked on German doors this weekend, and we inaugurated the best time of the year with a grill party (to celebrate a good friend´s birthday).

The thermometer showed 32 degrees Celsius, a heat the central European country is not used to.

 Almost each guest, on top of a present, brought a summer dish along. Mine was a fresh salad I like making when the temperature is burning…It was pretty much a success! And that´s why I would like to share the recipe with you .

Strawberry-Goat Cheese Salad

My salad, ready to be served :)

For this salad I mostly used fresh ingredients bought directly from farmers. Not only it is fun to go to a strawberry field and pick your own strawberries for instance, but it also helps local businesses to stay in the market. Often we go for cheaper, mass produced products in order to save a couple of cents, but this way we endanger local production and we eventually digest a great amount of chemicals.

Here is the beautiful strawberry field I drove to in order to pick up the best strawberries I saw this season.

"Pick them Yourself" Strawberry Fields close to the Main River in Germany

Ingredients

Dressing:

§    Olive Oil (1/4 cup)

§    Walnut Oil (1/4 cup)

§    Honey (2 big Tablespoons)

§    Pepper (to taste)

§    Salt (to taste)

§    Dill (1 Tablespoon)

§    Balsamic Vinegar Cream (2 Tablespoons)

Pls note that these amounts can be varied according to taste, some might want more oil, others more honey etc..

Salad:

§  (1/4 cup) Green lettuce and/or fresh baby spinach leaves (I prefer those to be honest, but I didn´t find any)

§    Creamy Goat Cheese (80g) - alternatively you can use Camembert if you don`t like Goat Cheese.

§    Honey (2 big Tablespoons)

§    Walnuts (1 cup) - if you use Camembert take almonds instead

§    Strawberries (500g)

.

Preparation

Dressing:

That´s easy :) You just have to mix all the dressing ingredients, except for the balsamic vinegar cream, in one cup and keep this aside ;)

Spread the dressing on top of the salad right before serving

Salad:

§  Wash Lettuce/Baby Spinach and place on a big, flat serving plate

§    Cut Goat Cheese in  little cubes (note; this might be tricky as the cheese is very creamy, don’t worry

    if your cubes are not perfect, they don’t have to be :) ) and place those on top of the strawberries

§    Chop Walnuts and spread around the salad

§    Walnuts (1 cup) - if you use Camembert take almonds instead

§  Top with the Balsamic Vinegar Cream

§  

So that was it, easy right? And it only takes about 10 minutes!

Note: I am aware that some of you might be living in countries where strawberries for instance are not locally produced, but that´s not a problem. In this case I would advice buying them from an organic store. But if it´s strictly necessary well, you can go to the closest Walmart ;)

Guten Appetit, have fun and enjoy your evening! 

NUTRITION: Organic; yay or nay? A brief personal thought

In the past few years I noticed an increase in products with a green "Bio" labels printed on them, in literally all Grocery´s stores I have visited, even at lower priced supermarkets such as Lidl or Aldi. 

At the beginning I thought this was pretty much about money-making, strategically well thought, expensively marketed products and I never really gave it a deeper thought. 

Recently though, as I started meditating more (you should definitely try meditating too! It´s such a great way to keep a positive aura, and keep the stress away from you:) ), I started to change my nutritional habits (less sugar, less trans fats, more proteins and healthy carbs) and decided to start taking care of my health. I am not "old" yet, but it is never too early to start. 

Attention to labelling increased during the past years, more and more companies now print exact labels in regards to ingredients and nutritional facts (e.g.: Carbs per 100g, Kcal etc). Regulations have been changing in Europe and North America, making it a must to list certain ingredients. 

The buyers´awareness of health has also been increasing, I see more and more people looking for healthier food around me and in stores. 
I believe I belong to this group of buyers. I want to see less chemicals in what I eat, I don´t want to eat a fully injected, pumped up apple - That´s why I, in a lot of cases but not exclusively, turn to Organic Food if possible. 

But what is organic food exactly and is it really a ? There have been lots of arguments as to whether organic food is better than non organic or not. Well, I believe it is and here are my top 3 reasons for this.

First of all, the regulations in regards to chemical usage in fertilizers is stricter, maybe you can´t completely avoid chemicals, but you can certainly choose to reduce them by carefully selecting what you eat!

Secondly, artificial food additives are a no go in organic food, this is already good enough of a point for me.

Thirdly, if you are a meat lover (I am not, but I know many who are!) you should definitely go for organic meat rather than non organic, at least in my opinion, as the animals are  grown differently and also fed differently. If you decide to kill animals to satisfy your appetite (ok, I do eventually eat meat too, trying to go down to no meat though...so this point refers to me as well) at least make sure that they are treated and killed with some remains of dignity, I think they do have sensitive souls too (even though a running chicken might not look like such a sensitive creature at first, I still try to keep my thoughts equal for all animals, no offence to anyone..). 

If you are convinced and want to take Organic to a further level, then go for small local producers of organic food, at least for some of your groceries. It might end up being slightly more expensive (if you don´t have that extra dollar, then just never mind, just go for non organic healthy stuff:) ) but at least you will be supporting the local economy in a way or the other. You might not change the world, but it is still a good deed isn´t it? 

Want to know more? Follow this link :)

http://www.organicconsumers.org/