Salad Days
When you're a chubby kid, it seems you can never ditch that image...ever. 40 years later you look in the mirror and you see a chubby adult when in reality you're normal sized, even a bit thin! By the time I reached my 20's I was svelte and streamlined. The scale told me, my friends told me, but the mirror told a different story.
I remember going to the laundromat and pulling out my clothes to place in the dryer. I was shaking out a pair of pants and I took a good look at them and wondered how someone else's jeans had wound up in my machine. They were clearly too small for me. But wait, they were mine! Shocking! This revelation didn't change anything so I've taken to talking to myself as one would a deranged woman who was having hallucinations. “No honey, you're seeing things that aren't real. You must believe me when I tell you that you are slim!”
The one upside of this strange delusion is that if I do happen to gain 5 lbs. I immediately put the brakes on and cut out baked goods, pasta, candy...all the things that make life worthwhile. About 10 years ago I'd hit a high weight, maybe having gained 7 whole lbs. I feared I was on the slow climb back up to chubbyland/ unhappy childhoodland/ eatalldayandnightland. I joined a group of dieters who met 3 times a week to talk about their problems and cheer each other on. They proposed a very specific daily menu that involved weighing and measuring everything you consumed, and of course there was no sugar allowed and no snacking. The diet relied heavily on plant consumption, and there's nothing wrong with that, except when you only allow yourself 2 cups of lettuce for lunch you will inevitably pack that lettuce into the cup measure so tightly that when you fluff it all up in a bowl it's enough for six. I did this for 2 whole years until faced with gelato in Italy on my birthday. I was traveling with a friend who kept saying “But Maudie, it's your birthday!” I had the gelato (so incredibly good) then, and now even make my own. I still will eat a salad here and there, usually containing bacon, cheese, turkey, croutons, avocado...a 'chubby' salad. This is my favorite dressing, high in fat and so very good!
Cashew Butter Dressing
1/3 cup creamy cashew butter (organic is best)
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon finely minced ginger root
Juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup water
A pinch of salt
Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix with a whisk until everything is incorporated and the dressing is creamy. If you want it thinner, add a bit more water. Use this for your simple greens. Butter lettuce torn up and a dollop of this stuff is all you need, or live dangerously like I do with lots of bacon thrown in. Pay no attention to the mirror.