Greens with Wild Rice, Pomegranate seeds, Feta & Walnuts

Keep in mind what I write about Native people is based on my own personal experiences and in no way reflects all Native people. There is always diversity in every community and within families and not all Native tribes eat the same food items. Cree/Ojibwa people are not an agricultural culture so growing and eating vegetables that we see today in grocery stores is not apart of our traditional societies but neither are deep fried, processed foods, as well as refined flour and sugary foods we eat.

When I was teaching in Canada on a Blackfoot reserve I used to buy my lunch at the school but the school lunches were often deep fried and were mainly carbs/starches, and processed meat, and rarely was there a vegetable on the plate. I gained a lot of weight and I was tired by 2pm. When I got home from work I would nap for 1/2 an hour before making supper. Then one semester I ended up teaching CALM-20 its a Health and Career life management class. I knew I was not eating properly I was eating all the wrong foods, I was tired, I had no energy and I was gaining a great deal of weight. Its one thing to know this and still eat in an unhealthy way but its another thing to teach it, I felt like a hypocrite.

I decided I needed a change and I started eating more vegetables both raw and cooked. I tapped into my culinary knowledge that I had ignored and started to make my own sauces and salad dressings. I also started to bring my leftovers from supper or I would make a large salad for lunch. On average I was bringing a salad for lunch 3 days a week. The students and many of my Blackfoot co-workers loved to see what I was going to eat for lunch. The students often commented on my healthy lunches and especially the salads.

I would like to make this salad in this summer when the saskatoons are ripe and replace the feta with goat cheese because wild rice, freshly picked saskatoons and goat cheese with balsamic dressing sounds awesome!

I ate four bowls of this salad for supper!

 Greens with Wild Rice, Pomegranate seeds, Feta & Walnuts 

Pomegranate seeds

chopped walnuts 

wild rice

feta cheese 

Romaine lettuce and some mixed greens

1. Prep ingredients for salad by cooking wild rice. I used half a cup of wild rice and cooked it to package directions and then allow time for the rice to cool. You could cook the wild rice in advance. Next I chopped the romaine lettuce into small bite size pieces and then took a couple of handfuls of mixed greens from a package, and washed and spun dry all the greens. If you bought a whole pomegranate then de-seed the pomegranate. 
2. Place greens in a large bowl and then layer the rest of the ingredients on top of the greens and enjoy. I recommend you use one of your favorite balsamic dressing recipes.  

I used a balsamic dressing and I wanted to post the salad dressing but I made it in hurry, I wanted to make a balsamic syrup but I was inpatient and I ended up mixing the balsamic vinegar with dijon mustard and olive oil, nothing was measured but it turned out great. I will post the recipe soon!