Everyone (secretly) loves healthy food...because the body (intuitively) craves it

I went to Girl's Night this week.  The instruction was to bring a festive food (wine, cheese, or a delicious baked good) that began with the letter of your first name.  As my friends replied with sweet and indulgent holiday treats, I started to worry.  We were planning to meet at 7pm and I knew I would be hungry for food, not (just) candy and desserts.  So I opted to bring an Arugula Salad (A for Adair!), for balance.

I had planned to do something homemade but ran out of time, having packed my schedule a little too tight.  So I stopped by Trader Joe's and found everything I needed to assemble a delectable salad.

Ingredients

• 1 bag wild arugula
• 1/2 package pre-cooked lentils
• 1 package pre-cooked baby beets, sliced
• 4oz feta cheese, crumbled (I buy the 8oz block of feta because it costs less per oz than the 6oz container of pre-crumbled feta)
• 1 cup walnuts
• Balsamic vinaigrette dressing, to taste

Instructions

1. Combine arugula, lentils, beets, feta and walnuts to large bowl.
2. Add dressing, to taste.  I like to start with a small amount of dressing, toss the salad, taste the salad, and then add more as needed.  This way, I never end up with an over-dressed salad.

Back to Girl's Night.  As expected, the table was spread with caramel corn, peanut brittle, chocolate cookies, gluten-free rice crackers with apple-glazed goat cheese and other carbohydrate-loaded sweets.  When I added my healthy salad to the collection of goodies on the table, not only did it look delicious, but it disappeared within 10 minutes!

My conclusion: even though we talk about indulging in (and may fantasize about) eating sweets and candy, everyone intuitively craves healthy food!