Raw Broccoli Salad

A lot of people ask me what type of raw recipes I make and what I regularly eat.

I thought I’d post a picture and rough recipe of one of my favorite dinner meals: broccoli salad. This is just something I kind of made up and played around with different ingredients. I really like the beautiful colors in this salad, it’s almost more fun to look at than eat (almost).

Here’s are the ingredients, I don’t know the exact proportions since I usually go by taste:

  • Broccoli — about 8oz, chopped small.
  • Orange or yellow bell pepper, about one half, chopped small.
  • Two handfuls of spinach, chopped.
  • Black olives, vary depending on how much you prefer. I’m a glutton, so I usually go overboard on these. =]
  • One Roma tomato, diced.
  • Basil, dried or fresh to taste.
  • Juice of one half lemon.
  • Two tablespoons olive oil.
  • Garlic to taste.
  • Two tablespoons hemp seed (optional)
  • Salt to taste.

That’s it! Mix and enjoy. =]

The Importance of Contradicting Yourself

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” —Walt Whitman

Sometimes I make a big, giant fool of myself. I say one thing and do another. I support a certain idea at one time, then discredit it later. At certain times, I would even go so far as to call myself a hypocrite.

It’s not something I do intentionally, but it’s something that happens when you regularly immerse yourself in different contexts. When you live in a continual paradigm shift, things tend to change quickly. What I believe one day, I may not believe the next. What I thought was true, I may find to be irrevocably false.

I’m not really that concerned with contradicting myself. Maybe some people will judge me for it, and that’s okay. That’s just what happens when you embrace a life of radical growth. What you believe is subject to change and even the principles you live by can dramatically shift.

For some people, that’s unnerving… living in constant flux. The Buddhists say that living with complete honesty is like this: “above, not a tile to cover the head; below, not an inch of ground on which to stand.”

Even the earth we stand on is not stationary. As the saying goes “the only constant is change.” Some people embrace it, and even seek it out. Others try to pretend that it doesn’t exist, and cling to every transitory facet of their lives.

I prefer to embrace truth, however it may unfold. I won’t deny what I think to be right simply because I used to believe something else.

So if I contradict myself, very well, I’ve done my job. If my life is a contradiction, so be it.

When I am 100% agreeable, I will be a fixed pattern, predictable, sure, and thoroughly dead. For now, I prefer to be full of contradictions, messy, and most importantly: alive.

photo courtesy of wysz