Day 2: Vegetable

Salads: are they mostly vegetables or something else?  See if you can find the true vegetable(s) in this Fiesta Salad. 

This salad contains purple cabbage, romaine lettuce, diced tomatoes, sweet corn, black beans, avocado and cajun chicken, along with shredded jack/cheddar, mixed in a light ranch dressing.  Here are the results on vegetable or something else:
Purple Cabbage - is a hardy vegetable that grows especially well in fertile soils
Romaine Lettuce - it depends.  According to us (people), we classify it as a vegetable, but biologically it's the leaves of a fruit.  The flower of any plant is having an ovary.  A fertilized ovary is called a fruit (Biological definition) and we eat the leaves (or walls) of the lettuce fruit.
Tomato - technically is a fruit since the definition of fruit is determined by whether or not there are seeds!
Corn - is a grain and commonly misclassified as a vegetable!!!
Black Beans - truly a vegetable and high in protein :)
Avocado - In botany, fruit is the reproductive organ and/or seed bearing part of the plant. Hence, botanically speaking, there is no doubt that the avocado is a fruit and not a vegetable. It belongs to the berry type of fruits. Nevertheless, there are several true fruits that are used as vegetables in our day-to-day lives such as peas, tomatoes, chillies, peppers, cereal grains, etc.

Of course we all know that chicken, cheese and ranch dressing do not classify as vegetables.  Researching the ingredients of my salad today was a reminder that even though it was a healthy option, I am still deficient in my daily vegetable intake.  Have you eaten your daily dose of veggies today?