Lettuce Salad with Walnut Dressing

Garden/Lettuce Salad

Good morning folks!  Well, it's morning in my part of the world!  Hope life is treating you fairly well....!  There was (is) a term called "appropriate age" to know and learn, as we grew up!  At least I thought and believed that way, until now!  In fact I (we) have been brought up that way, the appropriateness of knowing and learning things, have happened naturally, over the course of years!  Learnt many things, now know lot of things, and not every single thing I learnt or known is through personal experience, though!

This I am writing in context of my observation of my 10 year old kid, who is currently learning in school about "Drugs/addiction/prescription and non-prescription drugs/diabetes/asthma"!! She had a "Health" test,  (well, they have a subject as "Health", where they study all these) last week and she has a habit of studying out loud and reading it to me, which she thinks, she can understand better!

And she pop with a question, "Amma,(mom) what is the meaning of "high""!! I freaked out, but I am good in hiding a volcano inside and putting up a cool face!  So I just managed to put up the same cool face and said "Drugs are really harmful and dangerous substances and one must not even think in that direction, I am glad you are learning about these stuff in school"!!

No, I am not glad her knowing about these stuff at this age and still I did not give an direct answer for her question, "high"!  Being a conservative person and brought up in a similar atmosphere, I do strongly believe and feel that, kids at this age should not know all those stuff, its not required!

I have spoken to many parents and even my husband, feels that it's better to educate them on these stuff, so if they know that it's bad or harmful, they won't fall prey for the bad things!

But my theory or argument would be, just because you say it's harmful or dangerous, kids won't buy it, they may want to test it, experience it, they will get a curiosity in knowing about it further or may even want to try and see how it is....!  So why bother in telling them, that there is such a thing, existing out there!  They are young, tender, still not able to incorporate and understand each and every aspect of life and they are vulnerable.

We should leave them innocent, ignorant at this point!  I never knew in and out about drugs/prescription, non-prescription drugs etc, until I got married and until my husband mentioned about it, while watching a movie!  All I knew was it's a dangerous and harmful thing, which can ruin one's life!  But I did not know in detail about the "high"s or what ever.....! Neither I had curiosity about knowing it.  I never learnt anything about it in my school and all my generation guys would have the same experience!

Exposure!!!! Is it necessary??  Can we not leave our kids innocent,ignorant and push them more to play outside,  as parents spend more quality time with kids, by listening to them, giving them a chance to express anything and everything, playing with them, teaching them.......!?

Well, taking me as an example, what did I miss or left out or felt OMG I should have known this before or left behind, by not knowing all the stuff, as a kid!! It did not or has not affected me in any way, by not knowing stuff when I was a kid!

I feel more level headed and matured, I read a lot of stuff and have enlightened myself and gained lot of knowledge now, but still believe in our system, where there was restriction to exposure of many things and parents/society/school/teachers thought, a "appropriate age" will come and then we are fine to know the stuff!  I still believe and respect that thought and want kids to remain innocent and ignorant, until the "appropriate age"!!

Well, that was my thoughts!  Yeah, I said I am conservative but it does not mean that I don't explore new things!  I do, now that I can differentiate, compare, think, evaluate, analyze which is good and bad....!!   My husband loves Thai food, and I have my own choices and likings about that cuisine!  One of them is "Salad"!  You give me anytime, any day or every day, I can eat!!  That's how much I like!  I started to make Salads at home, which is actually fun, interesting and surprisingly kids and husband love it!  It's a great way to make your kids eat and love veggies and as well as fruits!

There are numerous ways of making Salad and Salad without a dressing it bit hard to eat, especially for kids, and it would be great and healthy if you can make home made dressings, it's simple and easy to make!

There is no specific recipe for a Salad or dressing, but I will share mine, which I often make.  You can be very creative, flexible with Salads and dressings.  Yesterday I had made lettuce and mixed veggies Salad, with Walnut dressing, so I hope you will also try to incorporate Salad in your day to day life and be healthy and keep your family healthy and happy!

There is no specific kind you need to stick with, it's your flavor and like of veggies/fruits/dry fruits and nuts you can use.  Yesterday I had only few choices of veggies, as you can see in the picture above, usually, I ALSO put, colored small peppers, fresh grapes, almonds, raisins, sprouts(moong sprouts)...! And as I said, if you do not have all or certain ingredients, you can substitute with what you have, like, if you do not have maple syrup you can use honey instead, or instead walnuts, use almonds!

Ingredients:

Lettuce (Small Romanian hearts(organic), 3, large portions enough for 4-6 people)
Carrots
Cucumbers
Corn
Apples

Dressing:

1/2 cup Walnuts
1/2 cup Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Vinegear
Garlic
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp Canola oil or Olive oil

Method:

Wash all the veggies before cutting, thoroughly!  Cut lettuce into small bite size pieces. Cut cucumbers,carrots,apples into small bite sizes, mix them all and put them in fridge, if you like it crisp and cold Salad.  I put only lettuce after cutting, in fridge and the rest of the veggies and fruits I leave them at room temperature!

Blend all the ingredients in the dressing to the desired consistency, if it is very thick, add little water and adjust the salt and pepper according to taste!

While serving, mix all the cut veggies and fruits and nuts, add dressing and mix well! Enjoy Lettuce Salad with walnut dressing!