Kale Salad w Avocado & Hazelnuts

For those of you who know us, Chris (my husband) and I have always (well since we have both known each other) been interested in nutrition and healthy eating.  And for those of you who know Chris, the word "moderation" does not exist in his vocabulary.  When he does anything he has to give it 110%.  For him, there is no taking baby steps to accomplish anything.  He goes through what I have come to call "phases."  It is one of the qualities I do admire and love about him though.  To give you one example:  We both started taking Vitamins recently.  One of the vitamins we were taking consistently were Vitamin D.  As with the other vitamins we were taking them every day.  All of a sudden Chris started to feel dizzy after his work lunch-break walks.  Turning to Google, he discovered too much Vitamin D can make you dizzy.  See?  No moderation.  Silly boy!

Anyway, Chris' new "phase" is eating a gluten-free diet.  Ever since I have known him he has complained of feeling "foggy brained" (at least that is his excuse for not listening to me when I ask him to do anything).  He is not one to turn to medications for a quick fix to any of his problems but will change his diet instead.  Insert gluten-free diet.  Consequently, he purchased Primal Blueprint: Quick & Easy Meals by Mark Sisson & Jennifer Meier for gluten-free recipes.

One of the first recipes we tried was Kale Salad with Avocado and Hazelnuts.  YUMMMMMMM!  I am not sure about y'all but I get sick of eating the same thing over and over (and over) again.  This was a nice change up to my usual spinach salads.  The best part, it takes all of 15 minutes to prepare!

Ingredients include:

• Juice from half an orange (about 1/4 cup)
• Juice from half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
• 1/4 cup of hazelnut oil
• 1 bunch of kale
• 2 avocados, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup of hazelnuts, roughly chopped

(please excuse our messy table)

We went to the relatively new Giant Eagle Market District in Robinson Twp to get everything.  They did not have hazelnuts (at least not that we could find or a worker could tell us) so I used almonds instead.  Worked great though.  

Preparation:

• Whisk together the lemon and orange choice with the hazelnut oil (olive oil works just fine if you don't have hazelnut oil around).  This is your salad dressing. 
• Remove the chewy stems from the kale leaves then thinly slice the kale leaves.  
• Toss the the kale, avocados and dressing together into a bowl adding salt and pepper for taste. 
• Sprinkle hazelnuts (or almonds in my case) on top. 

...and Voila

picture really does not do it justice. 

The first time I made this I made it all at once.  Needless to say, the avocados turned brown around the 2nd day.  However, this past week I made enough for just my lunch the next day.  Instead of 2 avocados I used 1/2 of one and either saved the other half for the next day or Chris ate it.  Liked it much better that way.  The citrusy and nutty combination of the dressing was delightful.  And to be honest, I had no idea how much I loved avocados until now!  I highly recommend this for all you vegetarians out there as the nuts and avocado add a log of healthy fat and protein.  

I hope you give it a try.  If you like kale and avocados I promise you will not be disappointed.  

Happy Friday everyone!!!  

xoxo,

Alyson