A Golden Moment

As you know, I have an ever-lovin' quest for healthy work lunches going on.  Sometimes, I fail miserably. Sometimes though, I am SUPER WOMAN again, and make a dish that I consider healthy, beautiful, and praise-worthy.  Ok, praise from my three favorite people...me, myself and I.  This was just such a night.  As you know, I am an omnivore, but I am totally fascinated by what those inventive and talented vegan and vegetarian bloggers are up to.  I recently saw the lovely Gena's post about building a meal-sized salad. I was so totally impressed by the variety, beauty and tasteful-looking salads, that I set about to create my own!  First, I set about a-roasting a lovely acorn squash.

After an hour at 400 degrees, and a slight cool-down, time to cut it up and break into all that golden sweet delicious-ness.

On to the salad. Into my incredibly large suitable for work lunchbox went arugula, spinach, grape tomatoes grated sweet Matanuska Valley carrots, scallions, the squash, and a sprinkle of heathly nuts, seeds and raisins over the top. It's starting to look like lunch up in here!

But then I thought...OH NO!  What to dress this finery with? Well, I rationalized, the arugula is rather bitter, the squash rather sweet, I'm going to need a really assertive dressing for this puppy.  Then, I remembered Caroline over at  The Broccoli Hut and her love of cottage cheese.  Wait a minute, I love cottage cheese! Oh, AND I happen to have a tiny jar of minced basil perfect for turning into dressings and such!  Ha!

So in the processer a few tablespoons of each went, along with salt, garlic powder, pepper and a handful of spinach for additional goodness and color, and there you go! A green goddess-y type herbalicious dressing for my meal-sized salad.

Am I tired? Why yes, yes I am. Was it worth creating this all from scratch on a weeknight, just to have a decently healthy and filling lunch at work tomorrow? You betcha, as my Minnesota friends might say. 

What did you push yourself to do that you knew was going to be worth it? What was your payoff/reward/feeling of goodness?

Eat well, my friends, and I will tell you how the whole thing tasted once combined. I have a feeling it's gonna be good!