Salad Ideas???!
Question: I promised myself I would start eating healthier this new year and I plan to stick to it. One of the biggest problems I have is that I dont really like salad too much, but its so good for you. I was wondering if anyone has some salad ideas....somthing a little more exciting then the lettuce and tomato I usually throw together. And what kind of dressings are full of flavour, but low in fat and calories? any ideas would be awesome. Thanks so much.
Answers: I promised myself I would start eating healthier this new year and I plan to stick to it. One of the biggest problems I have is that I dont really like salad too much, but its so good for you. I was wondering if anyone has some salad ideas....somthing a little more exciting then the lettuce and tomato I usually throw together. And what kind of dressings are full of flavour, but low in fat and calories? any ideas would be awesome. Thanks so much.
Buffalo chicken salad - cook some bonless skinless chicken breast slice it up and toss it with a little melted butter and buffalo wing sauce, put over greens, add a little red onion, tomato, boiled egg and shredded cheese (2%), add a little FF ranch dressing
Taco Salad - brown some ground lean beef or turkey and add half a packet of taco seasoning- put over greems and add some fat free sour cream, tomato, shredded cheese and a little taco sauce
Mediterranean Salad - grilled chicken breast over greens with sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, red onion, artichokes and some balsamic vinegrette
Black and Blue salad - choose a lean cut of steak slice and put over greens with red onion and blue cheese and vinagrette dressing or ff ranch dressing
Seven layer salad - greens, sliced turkey and cheese, red onion, boiled eggs, peas, tomato
I try alldifferent kinds of combos, just experiment and have fun!
J`AI UN GRAND PENESE
carrots, lettuce, tomato, potato, and other vegestables.
Paul Newmans lite vinegarette dressing is great. How about salad roll ups with a little of the dressing?
You try vegetables instead of just salad.
Cook them and season them up.
or
Liquidise them for a soup
or
add things like sweet corn, peppers to your salad.
something good would include a variety of greens, and a few nuts (or seeds such as pumpkin or sunflower) and sections of fresh tangerines or small sweet oranges
use an oil based dressing but not too much
season with thyme, rosemary, dill, or a variety of the great herbs.
good luck to you and happy new year
Add to your tomato and lettuce salad some Fita cheese , olives and spread some oregano. Kind of Greek style salad.
salad with lemon juice sprinkled on it. Carrot, Muli etc can be added
Salads are not just lettuce and tomatoes, a great salad is brocolli, raisins, walnuts, onions, cherry tomatoes, mix with lowfat mayo or nonfat yogurt,or lowfat sour cream (omit onions if you don't like em).
theres all kinds of salad you can make you need to figure out what ya like the most like all throw green leaft lettus and tomoato and mushrooms carrotts sunflowers seeds shredded cheeze etc to gether and ranch dressing with lemon juice its what ever you like
try a vinegarette they are yummy and very low in calories and they also come in a variety of flavors like raspberry (yumm) also you can use the salad spritzers and they are only a calorie a squirt.
Salads do get boring. But add some other vegetables. Beets are good for you, a few nuts like sliced almonds, a tangy cheese like Feta, raisins, olives, chives, sunflower seeds, a few pieces of cooked pasta, artichoke hearts, radishes, canned chicken, or diced ham, a few croutons .... really, you can almost toss the kitchen sink in there. As for dressings, stay clear of the creamy ones. I like low calorie Italian.
My favorite salad is: Field greens ( by in the grocery store in the bag) feta cheese, glazed walnuts, fresh raspberries, and choose a low fat raspberry vinaigrette. MM MM... its delicious--- hope you like it......
I personaly love to take a regular bag of salad mix, and then add almonds, dried cranberries, and some chicken. You can buy the chicken in a can (I know it sounds gross, but it's really good in the salad) and throw it together with a little cheese if you prefer, I normally don't add the cheese though. Then I use raspberry vinaigrette dressing, it tastes amazing!
I never really used to be a salad person either... until I got married. lol
My husband eats salad like it's going out of style, so I started eating it with him, and realized what I was doing wrong. Firstly, don't use iceberg lettuce... it is the most un-nutritious for you and has very little taste. I really like Romaine lettuce, still has the same crunch and healthier for you. If you are wanting to get the full nutrients, you can even cut up some spinach leaves and put it in with the Romaine (very nutritious, but I just don't like the taste of the spinach leaves, when you add them with the romaine you dont even know its there)
Another thing I was doing wrong was the same old tomato and lettuce thing you are doing. Discover peppers! I love my salad with yellow, orange, green and red bell peppers. It makes your salad so fun and colorful! They taste really great too. Cut up some Mozzarella into cubes and throw them in, some onions, cucumber... Use grape tomatoes instead of the other ones... you don't have to cut them up and they're really fun! lol So yeah, get playful with it... some people even like salad with fruit! Throw some apples, grapes, chicken, feta cheese and walnuts together with your lettuce and onions, and some honey and lime dressing. Delicious.
The dressings that I really like that are very healthy for you are the simplest ones! My favorite is just lemon juice and olive oil mixed together... thats it. lol It's so easy to make and probably the healthiest for you. Another one that my family likes is about a half a cup of olive oil, about 4 - 5 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and about a tablespoon or 2 of honey. It's sooo good, sweet and tangy at the same time. If you're more of a buy the bottle kind of person, try out the Raspberry Walnut Vinegarette from Ken's I think. It's a lite dressing so it's healthy and tastes really great. Always remember... creamier dressing = fattier dressing.
Yeah, I just looked at how much I wrote, and I probably sound like such a nerd lol... Anyway, salad is really good for you and if you can make it fun, why not?
Grate a carrot and mix a spoonful of fat free dressing through......so yum.
I usually mix lettuce baby spinach, sometimes add feta cheese, sundried tomatoes and hazel/cashew nuts.
For low calorie salads though avoid nuts and cheese, try the carrots, tomato, sweetcorn, spinach, lettuce with turkey slices.
Don't know where you live, but if you are anywhere around the east, goto Cheeseburger in Paradise--they have the best salads.
Other than that, at this time of the year there are recipe's for diets and salads all over the Internet, try foodnetwork.com (Healthy Appetite is really good), also Veria has some good things.
I like to get the bag salads and then keep little containers of pre-cut additions, apples drenched with lime, cooked chicken or turkey, sliced olives, thawed frozen corn, carrots, cucumber, etc. Drop the croutons, try seeds, nuts, or Wahhabi peas instead.
Dressings should be mainly olive oil and citrus juice or vinegars with different spices--I think those are the best..I like sweet dressings so I am using Splenda, brown Splenda, maple syrup, or honey for sweetening--in small amounts.
If you are starting a low carb diet this will change everything, then you will be looking at amping up the protein and fiber and even Bleu Cheese dressing will not be off limits. um mm, now I am hungry.
Hey ok I'm doing low carb and I've already lost 18 pounds in a month (I still ate cookies maybe 2x a week too!) and taco salads are good and also anything u would put on a sandwich is good like ham turkey cheese cucumbers bannana peppers bell peppers just whatever u like ya know also another good one is grilled chicken real bacon bits sliced baby tomatoes and a touch of ranch mmmmm oh but my favorite is canadian bacon pepperoni mushrooms onions olives and mozzeralla cheese on a huge bed of lettuce with either italian or ranch also I don't buy that prewashed ready salad cuz its washed in chemicals to preserve it and it makes me sick and it has to be horrible for you anywho goodluck on your adventures