So I'm not a salad person. I mean NOT. I like sandwiches. Meat and cheese and sauce piled on bread. Lettuce? No thanks. Salad? No, really, I'll just have the croutons and the toppings… maybe on some bread.

Then I found myself in a horrible place. I discovered that I could no longer continue to eat the way I've been eating and remain sane, let alone physically healthy. Willingness and open-mindedness and courage and fear all at once propelled me towards a change in my life. Somehow I found Atkins. How that happened probably has something to do with divine intervention, but that's for another thread. And I digress.

After 17 days of following this new way of eating to the best of my ability each day, I discover that I've been eating… salads. And liking them. And actually craving them from time to time. And then I discovered butter lettuce and things got really, really good.

Those soft, smooth, green, little pillows on my plate, holding curls of shredded cheese, rare sirloin sliced impossibly thin, tender chunks of ham and turkey… how delightful. How tasty. They wrap themselves like a lover around tiny cheese cubes, holding on tight. In color, they are neither the dark green of spinach leaves nor the anemic green of iceberg lettuce; not quite emerald green, closer to spring green or grass green. And smooth. Did I mention smooth? Taste and texture… smooth. Butter lettuce is not stringy or bitter or boring. It is creamy and delicious; it doesn't stick to my teeth or get caught between them; it doesn't get soggy with olive oil, and it is as soft as can be.

So if you think that salad=iceberg lettuce, please, I’m begging you, find some butter lettuce, pile the plate high with the puffy little green clouds, add all the protein you want, and enjoy.

Ann

Ann -

LOVE YOUR POST! It read like a short romance novel and now I must try butter lettuce!!!!

You are making my mouth water! It reminds me of the Herbal Essence commercial, where the husband is jealous of the shampoo. Looks like I'm gonna haveto get me some buttured lettuce...."I'll have what she's having!"
Shelly

Ann, I too had a problem when I first started Atkin's and the eating of the dreaded lettuce leaves.

But you know....now if I go without them for a week, I am almost like a junkie. I crave salad and it's weird. Never in a thousand years would I have imagined my junkfood eating self would crave and actually eat salads. Ceasar salads sans the croutons please are my favorite, followed with a close second of the regular garden variety.

Before Atkin's I ate maybe 1 salad a year and that was if I was forced to. Now I have them if not once a day at least several times a week. Go figure.

I agree iceberg is horrid for salads. I am surprised rabbits would even touch that tasteless green stuff.

hehehe..cute post..

I found butter lettuce when the IGA opened it's doors this June. I love the stuff!!

lol...cin

You are a food poet. Bravo! May we all sink our teeth into rich tasty foods that are actually GOOD for us.

LOL! Glad you liked it.

Ann

Chapter 2: Ravished by Radicchio

Chapter 3
The romancing of Romaine



(Which btw is my favorite)

Chapter 3: Red Oak Leaf Lust

Chapter 4: Moonstruck by Mesclun Mix

Karen

Chapter 5: Dressing and Undressing: The Secret Life of Salad
Chapter 6: The Story of O-live Oil

OK, I'm having way too much fun with this. Stop me before I post something awful about spinach.

Ann

ROFL!!!!

Do it!

Spanking?

Karen

I'm shocked, shockd I tell you, at such a suggestion. As your penance you, yourself, must write the spinach-spanking title for Chapter 8. So there.

Chapter 7: Big Boy Bok Choy: A Man and His Salad

Fabulous post! Do post something on spinach!

I have a "recipe" for butter lettuce from my childhood. My Norweigan Grandma would serve this with the first butter lettuce of the season, we ate it separately as a sald course, and we each would have as many little heads as we could.

cut one head in half the long way(thru the core) ,plan on a head per person.

melt 1 tablespoon butter per half in a large skillet, let it foam up. Sprinkle the pan with lots of black pepper.

Add the lettuces and saute briefly - like a minute - over medium heat. The lettuce ahould just begin to wilt on the bottom and be warm, not hot.

Place warm side up and squeeze a bit of lemon juice over, add some salt - yum. We also sometimes would mix butter and lemon juice and pour over, very nice!