Post-Holiday Alkalizing Avocado Salad Dressing

I hope you have all been enjoying your solstice/Christmas/holidays! This is the time of year when there are so many delicious treats to savour and share with family and friends. I can't eat any of those delectables anymore (thanks a lot, Bayer), but I certainly cherish my memories of holidays past and the celebratory foods that went with them.

One issue that can pop up during or after the holidays is excess acidity in the body. Sugar, flour, alcohol, coffee/tea, meat, and dairy (basically all the good stuff) are all acidic, and consuming these things too often or in too great a quantity can create health stress.

(I know a lot of people have denounced the benefits of eating an alkaline-heavy diet, but I absolutely experience ill effects when I consume too many acidic foods without enough alkaline foods to balance them off. So I'm going to thumb my nose at those people and proceed...)

Due to the ill effects of fluoroquinolone poisoning, I'm on a steady diet of salads, which is one way to keep your digestive system on the alkaline side while also keeping blood sugar levels in check. But I have to say, I was getting extremely tired of my standard olive oil/lemon juice/apple cider vinegar dressing.

I'm not an imaginative (or a particularly talented) cook, so I was really happy when I figured out a new and super easy alkaline salad dressing recipe. I thought I would share in case you'd like to employ it as you come out of the blissful haze of holiday indulgences! I don't measure the ingredients, and I don't use a food processor to make it - why clean a food processor when you can use a whisk?

Alkalizing Avocado Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

One ripe avocado

Extra virgin olive oil

Filtered/non-chlorinated water 

Garlic powder

Optional additions: cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, lemon or lime juice, salt and pepper

Peel the avocado and mash it up in a bowl with a whisk. Add in a bit of olive oil (start with a couple tablespoons) and a splash of water. Keep mashing and mixing with the whisk and add more olive oil and water until it's a creamy consistency. Add some garlic powder (start with about 1/4 teaspoon and add more to taste). You can also add cumin or even a bit of cayenne pepper if you'd like some heat. A bit of lemon or lime juice could also be added. 

You can add sour cream or yogurt to this dressing to make it really creamy, but that would also make it much less alkaline (sort of defeating the purpose) because dairy products are acidic. 

And voila! So easy. Put this dressing on a lettuce salad with other alkaline vegetables, and you have an uber alkalizing meal. Wash it down with filtered water and lemon or lime juice to up the alkalizing ante.

It's hard to get back into the swing of healthy eating after a period of celebrating with food, but this extremely easy and delicious salad dressing should help you ease your way back in!

Saturn and Pluto come together with the Sun, Ceres, and Mercury around January 12, indicating a bit of a "getting serious" theme as we embark on the 2020s. With dwarf planet Ceres in Capricorn so strongly influential, we're particularly required to take charge (Capricorn) of the ways in which we're nourishing our bodies with food and drink (Ceres). The many challenges and artificial pace of the modern-day work world (Capricorn) often infringe on our ability to nourish and nurture our bodies (Ceres) in the ways that would most benefit them. We often draw on stimulants like caffeine, sugar, and processed foods to get through. As challenging as it is, we have to buck this trend to stay in strong health, and a quick and easy alkalizing salad (complete with alkalizing dressing!) is one thing to throw into heavy rotation in your diet. 

We all have to fight for our health under the current planetary conditions, and here is one little recipe to put in your arsenal!

Happy 2020 and Happy New Decade, readers!