Resolution: Salad days

How bout them apples? (photo via freestockphoto.biz)

The battle to eat healthy begins anew each January as swathes of eager, optimistic folks full of New Year’s resolve fill farmer’s markets and organic grocery departments. Even if, like me, resolutions aren’t for you, and you’ve resigned yourself to the fluctuating waistline of Oprah and occasional Pop-Tart consumption, eating more fresh and healthy food is always a worthy goal. Personally, I’m laying off the sauce in favour of the more mild peppermint tea after a few months of overindulgence, and trying to eat some tofu and spinach instead of microwaved rice noodles.

If cooking isn’t your favourite activity, make like Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and check out some of Halifax’s new vegan restaurants. In the North End, Envie Vegan Kitchen (5775 Charles Street) and the Wild Leek (2156 Windsor Street) offer tasty body and animal-friendly meals that will please the palates of plant-based vegan warriors and meat-lovers alike. If too many days of crappy, prepackaged Bangkok Curry noodles have left you craving nourishment, try a coconut curry bowl loaded with fresh veggies at natural food vanguard Heartwood (6250 Quinpool Road).

Fresh, seasonal and organic produce can be found throughout the HRM. There are a myriad of vendors at the Seaport Farmer’s Market on Marginal Road. The former Planet Organic grocery (6485 Quinpool Road) is now independently owned as Organic Earth in the West End and shops Homegrown Organic Foods and Local Source Market serve the North End. Annapolis Valley vendors Noggins Corner Farm Market have a small storefront at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, where you can pick up produce as the seasons change, from locally produced carrots and cider, to brussel sprouts and kale.

Vegetable selection can get a little bare-boned in Nova Scotian winter, but we’ll always have cabbage and turnips…