I must admit, there are some things I miss about New York and its plethora of food stores, which make living healthy a lot easier and more accessible.

…like raw crack. Addicted at first bite.

Fine & Raw chocolate. The light brown one is the best.

Organic, cold-pressed green juice and the occasional shot of ginger.

Sigh. A girl can dream.

But back to reality. Tonight I wanted more of the same—fresh salad followed by some sort of cooked vegetable on bread.

I consider this my go-to meal. It’s cheap, easy, has lots of variations and a consistent way to stay on track with eating healthy and not having to worry about portion control/calories/all that other stuff we shouldn’t have to think about if eating right.

No proper recipes here, just a step-by-step visual guide to getting a spinach tomato salad with black olives…

…and a zucchini tower:

The salad has only a handful of ingredients for 1 serving:

– spinach (rinsed and stemmed)

– 1/2 tomato (chopped)

– handful of olives

– juice of half a lemon

– 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

– salt & pepper

And done:

 

Now for the zucchini tower, all you need is:

– 1 zucchini (sliced horizontally into small disks)

– 1 tbsp oil

– 1/2 white onion (chopped)

– 1 carrot (chopped)

– salt & pepper

Put all that savory goodness atop your favorite bread (I used a sunflower seed bread that I grew to love when living in Germany ) and salad greens. Add a dollop of mustard or ketchup or any condiment of your liking and this tower just can’t lose.

Yummy! It’s light but filling enough to warrant a meal, but the bread is definitely necessary, otherwise the zucchini serves as a good side.

x Aylin