A Salad April Actually Likes

actually_lets_not_call_it_a_salad.txt

Ingredients

1 whole sweet potato
1 cup dry brown rice
1 can black beans
2 cups kale
1 avocado
1/2 big tomato
1 cup marinated artichoke hearts (can or jar)
1/2 lemon, juiced
olive oil

Directions

The sweet potato and rice take about the same time to prepare (and the longest), so I recommend getting those started first.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 
2. Cook rice according to instructions. (Mine recommended combining 2 cups of water + 1 cup rice in a 3-quart pan,
   bringing to a boil, and letting cook covered for 40 minutes or until all water is gone (it actually took about 35 minutes for me).)
3. Wash, peel, and cut sweet potato into cubes. (Faster alternative: buy cut up or even pre-cooked sweet potato)
4. Toss sweet potato cubes and 1 tbsp olive oil in a bowl, along with any seasonings you like (garlic, onion powder, pepper might be good)
5. Place sweet potato cubes on a baking pan that's lined with foil. 
6. Assuming the oven is preheated by now, bake the sweet potato cubes for 30 minutes, flipping over halfway through (the flipping is
   easier said than done and not absolutely required).
7. In a skillet, heat 1 tbsp olive oil on low medium heat.
8. Add kale to the skillet and cook until soft (~5-8 minutes), stirring occasionally.
9. Once the kale is done, coat it with half of the lemon juice.
10. Keep the skillet hot, add more oil and add the marinated artichoke hearts. Heat until warm (about 5 minutes).
11. Prepare the can of black beans (microwave for 1 minutes 30 seconds or heat on a stove until warm).
12. Cut up tomato and avocado into cubes. Squeeze the rest of the lemon juice on the avocado.
13. Combine rice, beans, kale, sweet potato cubes, avocado, and tomato in a large bowl.
14. ENJOY YOUR HEALTHY AND COMPASSIONATE CREATION! :D

Variations
* replace kale with spinach or some other leafy green
* replace black beans with any other kind of beans or even marinated tofu
* replace rice with quinoa
* replace sweet potato with butternut squash or regular potato
* add more veggies
* add nuts of some sort
* make it seem even less like a salad by putting it in a whole wheat wrap or tortilla