A Monday Morning Juice with Grapefruit, Banana, Orange and Ginger

I have the tendency to become overly excited as soon as the temperature rises above 10°C and the sun comes through for more than a couple hours. I know it's only the beginning of March but I already feel like spring. I want to get out my summer clothes and jump around in the springy, fresh air. I want to sit outside a café with a glass of chilled white wine, enjoying the warm sun. Unfortunately, there's still a gap in temperature between my dreams and reality which I don't want to accept (sometimes) and that's exactly the problem! I'm prepared for the coldest winter and arctic temperatures, I never get a cold, but at this time of the year, a stone's throw away from the end of the cold season, I tend to be too carefree and strain my immune system.

To avoid any deficit in vitamins, I start the week off with a powerful juice made of grapefruit, banana, blood orange and ginger. For two glasses of juice (400ml in all), I squeeze 1 pink grapefruit and 3 oranges. I add 1/8 teaspoon of grated ginger and half a banana, mashed smoothly with a fork. You can use a whole one but I didn't want its taste and sweetness to be too overpowering.

It's a true energy boost, like my January's Turmeric and Ginger Blood Orange Juice!

A Bittersweet Chicory Grapefruit Salad

My lunch looks like summer, bright pink and yellow, a glowing sunset on the table! I got my Mediterranean plates out to make the holiday feeling complete. This is a quick salad, it doesn't require many ingredients or much time. It's a variation on my Chicory Pear and Walnut Salad, but this time I combine the crunchy chicory with the bitter sweetness of pink grapefruit. It's lighter, more like spring. Full of vitamins, this mix refreshes the body and mind within seconds!

For a salad for 2 (as a side dish) I cut 2 chicories in half and then into thick slices. I mixed them with the juicy bite sized pieces of half a pink grapefruit, you can use more but I wanted more leaves than fruit on the plates. My dressing is also simple and quick to prepare, 3 small tablespoons of olive oil mixed with 2 small tablespoons of white Basamico vinegar, seasoned with salt and pepper. I drizzled it carefully over my salad, just enough to glaze the leaves and fruit. Too much of the dressing would cover the salad's sweet bitterness with sourness, they have to keep a balance.