My theme song for today is Ruby Ibarra's A Thousand Cuts. I heard the song for the first time last week, when I watched PBS's Frontline documentary about Maria Ressa, a well-known journalist who is now a top target of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. I've always felt that everyone has a little God/Jesus in them, some more than others - Maria Ressa definitely belongs in the latter category. The documentary has received accolades across the spectrum and is well worth your time; and the song makes for great background music on days you feel the world is dragging you down.

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Now for my daily post.

I have poured my heart out in my posts over the last three days; so, in spite of the gravity of my theme song, I am posting something more light-hearted today: my newly discovered healthy snack.

For years (and counting), Durham's Sansui has been my daughter's and my favorite sushi restaurant - not just in the Triangle but across the country. Every time we eat at a Japanese restaurant, we compare it to Sansui in terms of quality and price; and, so far (except for when we were actually in Japan), Sansui remains on top. We like to go for lunch or the early bird special because of the reduced prices and the fact that miso soup and salad are included with our meal. My 10-year-old son loves the miso soup (it's not too salty), and my daughter and I love the carrot and ginger dressing on the salad. It's the same type of ginger dressing served at most Japanese restaurants, but somehow Sansui's just tastes better.

My family has made our own sushi and our own miso soup a couple times, but they don't match up to what we can get in an average Japanese restaurant. Recently we made our own ginger dressing; and, while it's chunkier and not as good as Sansui's, it's still good and, more importantly, easy to make.

Over Christmas, I made a batch of ginger dressing and added too much onion, causing me to double the recipe, which left me with two large containers of ginger dressing in the fridge. Nobody else was eating it, and I didn't want it to go to waste, so I started dipping long leaves of romaine lettuce into the dressing and eating it this way. It has made for a tasty and healthy daily snack, and I now find myself on the verge of making yet more ginger dressing so I can continue the habit. Not only does it incorporate greens (lettuce) into my daily diet, but the ginger dressing is mostly carrots, which I rarely eat.

So....

If you like ginger and can stomach carrots and lettuce, you should give this healthy snack a try. It's easy, and it's a lot better for you than French fries or potato chips.

Ingredients:

* Lettuce: Remove from bag, wash, and dip individual leaves into dressing :-)

*Ginger Dressing (I chop everything coarsely and then mix/puree with a blender): https://pickledplum.com/japanese-restaurant-style-ginger-dressing/

Meshiagare!

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