I'm craving celery: Warm chicken salad with hemp oil ginger mustard vinaigrette

I've been trying to eat *mostly* local during this seeming-to-never-end winter (and fyi: winter is due to end at Mar 20 2008, 05:48 UT - phew).

Throughout my life...my nearly 41 years...I have experienced strange cravings for celery. The stranger thing about my current craving is that I've been eating celery regularly for at least 3 years. I like celery but I don't love it - but I love it if I have a craving ;)

So celery was a food item I only incorporated into my regular diet with reluctance before moving to a mostly fresh produce lifestyle completely about 3 years ago after fits and spurts of healthy food phases throughout my late 20s/early 30s. I am now very fond of celery but still don't love it.

Now...for me, eating any item regularly means that it is in my fridge (but not necessarily consumed daily) about 50% of the time.

A bunch of celery, for me and my teenage daughter, lasts about 2 weeks or maybe a bit less. She is not crazy about celery but will eat it...especially when it is hidden in blenderized sauces ;). I wait for at least 2 weeks before buying another bunch of celery and throughout this winter it has been less often due to the locavore diet I am trying to pursue. I also think that the regular rotation of our diet is important for digestive purposes i.e. not only ecological purposes.

So what's with this current craving I'm having for celery?

Methinks it is because my body is crying out for the abundance of fresh produce about to 'spring' from our land...and by fresh I mean LOCAL. Fresh is something that is within days of being harvested. Root vegetables and apples are the closest thing to 'fresh' that is available to us Ontarians at the moment.

So tonight I offer you my California grown organic celery with local hydroponic fresh greens chicken salad.

The hemp oil vinaigrette is quite yummy and I've been putting it on my salads for a few months now - but again, not all the time. I take breaks from all foods regularly so that my body is not constantly processing a limited number of food items. I happen to think that the abundance of a few type of foods in the current modern diet is a large part of the health issues that are arising in our modern world. I am not alone in that thinking either.

I was gonna call this salad: "I've fallen on the ice again so leftovers are a godsend" salad but I thought the celery craving aspect was a worthier title. I am mostly fully recovered from the fall. Nothing broke except maybe a little of my spirit. But, the spirit mends too. Sometimes much more quickly than our bodies.

Warm chicken salad with hemp oil ginger mustard vinaigrette
2/3 cup reheated previously cooked organic long grain brown rice $4.45/kg USA Karma
2/3 cup reheated previously cooked pieces of diced organic chicken $16.09/kg ON Beretta
1 medium raw organic carrot $2.09/kg ON Karma
2 stalks organic celery$2.90/bunch CA Karma
1 cup raw organic baby arugula$2.55/bunch ON Karma
2 tbsp raw organic sunflower seeds$22.66/kg ON Karma
2 tbsp hemp oil ginger mustard vinaigrette (see below for recipe)
hot chili pepper/hot cayenne and sea salt and pepper to taste

Hemp oil ginger mustard vinaigrette (this is for a 1 cup batch which can be kept in the refridgerator)
1/2 cup hemp oil $15.00/L MB Manitoba Harvest
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (Filsinger's ) $2.90/L ON Karma
1/2 tsp organic yellow mustard seed ? ? Karma
1/2 tsp organic ginger $36.17/kg ? Karma
1/2 tsp sea salt $1.06/kg ? Karma

and P.S. I took the below pic yesterday at Karma. 33 locally produced items in the fruits and vegetables section of the store on March 14th, 2008. That number will climb very shortly.....YEAH!!

18 Minute Prep: Green Curry Steamed Scallops, Broccoli with fresh pineapple and baby arugula

This meal took about 18 minutes to prepare.

Why is 18 minutes important? Because that makes this recipe qualify for the Alice's Restaurant 21st century movement (recipes that can be prepped in 18 minutes or so which happens to be the length of the song of the same name).


I usually eat pineapple by itself with turmeric but once in awhile I like to mix fresh uncooked pineapple into a lightly cooked curry.

I used a gluten free green thai curry paste in lieu of fresh ingredients (January in Toronto Canada, 'nuf said).

I purchased all items from Karma food co-op except where noted (Karma does not supply these products).

nova scotia bay scallops(steamed about 15 minutes) 9 per person, I bought a few pounds of these fresh at Loblaw's at a sale last month and froze a few servings for myself

organic broccoli (steamed about 10 minutes) 1/2-3/4 cup per person...from this farm in California.....sigh...cost me a fortune too but there were not a lot of green local options at the co-op this week

I prepared and mixed the following from room temperature (while above was steaming).

pineapple 1/2 - 3/4 cup per person chopped into chunks (I always use fresh and peel it as I use it)
green thai curry paste 1/2 - 3/4 tsp per person or to taste
bonito flakes 1 tbsp per person or to taste
hemp oil 1 tbsp per person
turmeric 1/2 - 1 tsp per person

I also used the steamer to soften the rice paper sheets (purchased in Toronto's Chinatown).

I would use three sheets per person next time per person since two made them very bulky.

Add 1 cup baby arugula (Ontario grown!) and cayenne to garnish.