Paleo Collard Greens with Bacon

I planted a winter vegetable garden and I have more collard greens than my morning smoothies would ever need, so I've been making them in the evenings too.  If it's possible to OD on leafy greens (I'm growing spinach, beet greens, and kale as well) I'll let you know, because surely it will happen to me.

Having a garden is pretty awesome, you can go out and harvest them on demand, so if you live in an area than can handle a winter garden, plant yourself some greens!  They're super hardy and relatively low maintenance, so fear not if you find your green thumb missing.

This is by far my favorite way to prepare greens if you're cooking them.  It works with beet or dandelion greens too - or any bitter greens for that matter.

Winter Salad

In the midst of a post-holiday detox (as much I'd like to tell you I didn't eat more than half of the mini gluten free ginger molasses cupcakes I baked recently, let's not kid ourselves), I'd like to offer some fresh winter flavors that won't make you feel like you're underwater when trying to do some moderate exercise.

Nature gives us something fantastic right as cold and flu season rolls around in the form of a super dose of vitamin C.  Time to put that citrus to good use, and I don't mean just for mimosas.  This salad blends peppery arugula, sweet cranberries, tangy tangerines and the crunch of pecans, all topped with a drizzle of homemade vinaigrette.  

Chopped arugula, dried cranberries, pecans, tangerines and the most delicious vinaigrette ever:  

1 tbs white wine or champagne vinegar

½ cup fresh lemon juice (approx 2 lemons, meyer work great!)

¼ cup grapeseed oil

⅓ cup olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp fine ground pepper

¼ tsp Coleman’s mustard