Do I have lettuce in my hair?

I am recovering from a bit of a gluttonous weekend filled with food and drink paid for by my department.  It was recruitment weekend and the building was filled with eager soon-to-be graduate students.  The air reeked of naiveté.  Many beers on Friday night, followed (all too quickly) by a lavish brunch on Saturday helped me recover.  And then I spent Sunday recovering from the recovering.  It really is a rough life I lead.

Saturday we took the recruits into the California Academy of the Sciences in Golden Gate Park, which is always lovely.

Today I woke up starving for vegetables.  That is, of course, until my body started yelling for bibimbap around 10:30 am... which was a desire I promptly succumbed to.  When dinner rolled around... after my nap (my gosh, she is lazy)... I couldn't stand the thought of eating anything but raw, unadulterated vegetables.  I threw together this salad of sorts with a bunch of fresh produce I purchased a few days ago, and it really didn't need much of anything else because all of the different vegetables (and fruits) gave this pairing everything it needed.  A friend of mine over at A Kitchen Endeavor has posted a few things recently using mangos in salads, so I knew that that was going to be the destiny of the mangos in my fridge, and boy am I glad I did it.

The other star here is the sweet potato that I cooked with some taco seasoning (by the way, if I could only have one spice mix... it would be this one).  It had some zip from the radish and garlic and was mellowed nicely by the creamy avocado.  This salad was beyond delicious and SO healthy.

Classy Mexican Salad

Materials:

• 1 sweet potato, peeled and finely diced
• olive oil
• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
• 1/2 cup corn kernels
• 1 bunch radishes, greens removed and diced
• 1 mango, diced
• 1 avocado, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• lemon juice
• salt
• pepper
• mixed greens, whatever kind you prefer

Methods:

1. Heat up the olive oil over medium heat in a sauté pan.
2. Add the sweet potato and taco seasoning.
3. Allow to cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the corn kernels and cook for an additional 5 minutes, until the sweet potato is soft and slightly browned.
5. In the meantime, combine the radishes, mango, avocado, and garlic with a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of lemon juice, and a dash of salt and pepper.
6. Plate the fresh mixed greens, followed by a generous helping of the warm sweet potato, and top it off with the mango/avocado/radish mixture.
7. Enjoy!

 This was the perfect meal to have while watching the Bachelor and unwinding from a busy weekend :-).