Last weekend we visited one of the farmer’s markets in downtown Austin.  Two items we gladly came home with were some jalapeno turnips and a bundle of beautifully striped carrots.  They were so pretty that I wanted to keep them as fresh as possible and not lose their color through any cooking.  The following recipe resulted…and forgive me for the name; it wasn’t my idea.

I decided to post about this salad today and when I asked Jason what I should name it — without any hesitation he shouted out “Rootie Toot Tootie!”  He’s a child of sorts most of the time, and it made me laugh.  Of course I said, “haha, no!”  But then afterward, when mulling over a good name…I just kept repeating rootie toot tootie to msyelf.  Alas…I gave up on that one.  So here you have it.

Ingredients

• 1 medium rutabaga
• 4 small turnips
• 5-6 small carrots
• 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp. EV olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp. fresh or dried parsley

Process

1. Start by preparing all of your vegetables.  Because these are eaten w/o being cooked you want them to be pretty thin.  Clean your rutabaga, turnips, and carrots by rinsing them and then peeling their outermost layer with a vegetable peeler.
2. Continue with your vegetable peeler — use it to create long ribbons for each vegetable — keeping them separated.
3. In a medium sized bowl whisk the white wine vinegar, dijon mustard and salt.  Add the ribbons of rutabaga and carrot — toss well and allow them to sit for around 10-15 minutes.
4. When time is up add the turnip, and green onions.  Toss and allow to sit another 5 minutes.
5. Drizzle in olive oil, and toss with parsley.
6. Serve!

On another note — today is DAY 7 of my 21DSD.  The cravings for sugar of course are still coming around.  They’re definitely not as common, but not completely gone.  In reality the cravings that I continue to have are not fully sugar cravings — they’re mostly mental cravings for comfort.  It is coming along.  Most importantly, it is serving its purpose of getting me back on track to where I want to be.

I have already been looking far ahead — what will I do when the 21 days are up?  For anyone who has completed a 21DSD — what did you do afterward?  In my opinion, I would hate to have busted my sugar cravings just to bring them back again.  There’s not point in that.  Hopefully after the 3 weeks I will want to continue moving in a positive direction and not feel the need for any sort of “celebration.”  As Jason and I have mentioned — having fruit in the first place is celebration enough.  We are completing this 21DSD with ZERO fruit.  If I can complete this and then bring fruit back — who needs more of a celebration than that?