Spinach mango salad with honey lime dressing
So here's a quick and simple salad that's light and fresh and as buoyantly colorful as this past week has been. While it may not exactly be seasonal, it tastes like this warm and vibrant spring week has felt. Sweet with a pleasant tang.
I wanted to stick this up early in the week as something to come back to, but I kept dragging my feet. While the justification of being too busy is true and valid, it wasn't really truth, I realized. The real issue was, I didn't have a story to attach. No pensive reflection stirred by the sumptuousness of mango or the bite of lime. Even knowing the whole purpose of this whole blog is really a catalog, I guess I'm attached to the journal aspect. It feels like cheating, or failing, not to be bursting with thought guided by ingredients.
This is in its way a little ironic, as I've been striving so hard to cultivate more mindfulness. It's been a slowly emerging, beautifully enlightening process, if but snail steps. And the most treasured part, embracing peaceful gratitude for each moment for just what it is. Why then so much hesitancy to share something with no purpose other than saying appreciatively, here is something rather nice?
On that note, I don't usually feel drawn to "here's what happened this week" kind of posts, but this week has been rather rainbow lovely. The most perfect moments were the simplest and the most vivid, in both the actual colors present and the still life style peace of them. They were composed of the kind of little things that relax you into breathing more deeply and seeing more wholly.
Little F and I shared the best "egg decorating" yet.
And on Thursday, my boys melted and swelled my heart with the most beautiful, quiet birthday day. After a perfect early morning run with a friend, the day opened with the sweetest card depicting our little family team.
We took the day off, which took concerted maneuverings on Dave's part, and we went to the mountains where for a little hike, picnic, and basking in the sun.
I can't pretend there's a connection between this salad and this week aside from brightness and color. Except for this: each is worth a little appreciation and a place in a catalog, literal or mental. The other somewhat ironic thing about working so concertedly on mindfulness is how heightened a certain distrust has been of enjoying the perfection of the moment. There's an inherent fear of being too happy. It only makes sense. Nothing lasts, good or bad. But time to let that go a little.
Today, I was immersed in imaginative play with little F when he suddenly flopped on his back in a way reminiscent of when he was a little baby. "Cover me, Mommy," he said sweetly, arms open and puppy eyes beseeching. Sometimes he likes me to do that--pretend flop on him like a blank, "covering" him. It won't last long, and as I bundled him up, reveling in that moment, I couldn't stop the nagging voice from saying so. But oh am I enjoying it now, in spite of nagging busybody "just you wait" warnings in my head. So I'm sticking the moment here in this post--which has (surprise) taken on tangents it didn't need to. So I can take heart that I'm doing my best to remember, and get back to being with gratitude.
Have a very bright and happy weekend!
Spinach mango salad with honey lime dressing
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1-2 tablespoons honey to taste
- 2 teaspoons white miso paste
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cups spinach
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced and then sliced across to make 1" long pieces
- 1-2 ripe mangos, diced
- 1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
- 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks or shred
- 2-3 thinly sliced green onion (both green and white parts)
- ⅓ cup chopped roasted peanuts
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- In a small bowl, whisk the first six ingredients (oil through salt and pepper) until thoroughly combined.
- Mix all remaining ingredients in a large salad bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat just before serving.