Salad

[mjh]

In a drastic attempt to begin eating healthy again, I decided that a fresh salad may be the main healthy thing my diet currently lacks. Out of curiosity, since salad tends to be rather plain, what do you put in the salad to add some flavor?

I want to try and avoid all of the various dressings, due to them being rather high in fat, but still want something to add. Raisins? Grapes?

Come on AT, help a young man out!

 

[EGGO]

Depends. There's almonds, beans (lots of flavor in that), shrimp (same in that), black olives (so much flavor in that), onions, broccoli, spinach, soybeans. There's actually a ton of taste in that already, I don't like/want any dressing in it.

 

[mjh]

Thanks for the recommendations, EGGO! I completely didn't think of adding almonds or beans to the salad, and can occasionally use shrimp or something like that.

Will add some chicken to the salad tomorrow evening.

 

[DrVos]

I usually keep some basic salad ingredients at work to build my salads. Usually, it'll be whatever salad mix i found on sale at the store, Newman's Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing, sliced almonds, and pre-grilled chicken. I find that this dressing in particular has a lot of flavor with a minimal amount of calories/fat. On top of that, I usually add whatever I feel like bringing from home...extra carrots, broccoli, hard boiled eggs, alfafa sprouts, sliced beef from the night before, etc.

 

[Red Dawn]

Cilantro, Red Bell Pepper, Sun Dried Tomato, crushed Peanuts (just a small amount) sometimes a little Feta Cheese, Scallions and a dash of McCormicks Grill Mates Roasted Garlic and Herb for flavor.

 

[GoatMonkey]

I prefer syrup.

 

[TecHNooB]

Lots and lots of ranch dressing >=]

 

[jman19]

I usually get lettuce/spinach as the base, with broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, garbanzos, walnuts and tofu. I'll probably mix it up a bit the next time I go and maybe sub something out for some onions, I dunno.

 

[clamum]

Lettuce and any combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, mushrooms, carrots, celery, broccoli, green peppers. Salads are awesome.

 

[1EZduzit]

Hey, I just noticed this forum, great idea!

Things I've been know to put in my salad:

Cottage cheese
Tomato
Cucumbers
Carrots
Onion
Olives
Chopped Broccoli, celery, or green peppers
Spinach and/or other home grown lettuce
Bacon Bits
Sunflower seeds
Hard Boiled Egg
Tuna
Chicken
Pheasant

For dressing I prefer either the home mixed buttermilk/ranch dressing (weight watchers) or Dorothy Lynch. I water both of them down (especially the Dorothy Lynch) to spread the flavor out better and of course for less calories.

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Cilantro, Red Bell Pepper, Sun Dried Tomato, crushed Peanuts (just a small amount) sometimes a little Feta Cheese, Scallions and a dash of McCormicks Grill Mates Roasted Garlic and Herb for flavor.

I like that Grill Mates idea. I'll have to try that out, thanks Red!

 

[XZeroII]

cheeseburger

 

[GenHoth]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
cheeseburger

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2653

 

[Aztech]

I love those marinated artichokes...hmmm....and beets for taste and color. I've tried so many salad dressings, and hardly any are good. Especially the Kraft, Wishbone, and others that come in the squeeze bottles. I've been trying the more expensive stuff that you find in the produce section lately, either in Jars or glass bottles, some organic and some not, but they taste better. I still prefer my mom's lemon, salt, oil and vinegar dressing over all of those though.

Also, Broccoli is probably one of the healthiest items on the salad bar. Anti-oxidant goodness FTW!

Also, the creamy salad dressings in large quantities probably negate the health benefits of a salad. Probably more calories than a burger and fries!

 

[skace]

I don't eat salad, instead of trying to go that route, I work on adding vegetables to every meal instead of other things. Like instead of a bun on a burger, I'll eat some green beans. It worked better for me.

 

[ni4ni]

Lettuce has so little nutritional value. If there is spinich available, I definately use it!

 

[ubercaffeinated]

i put the usually trappings in. i also LOVE salmon. also like nattou, though that's an acquired taste for many.

 

[Chaotic42]

My salads usually have:

-A little iceberg lettuce
-A fair amount of the dark salad mix
-Lots of spinach
-Tons of black olives
-Bell peppers
-Broccoli
-Cucumbers
-Mushrooms
-Bacon bits
-Crunchy noodles

I usually don't eat any dressing on my salads, but if I have to, I like Caesar.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: ni4ni
Lettuce has so little nutritional value. If there is spinich available, I definately use it!

That's true of iceberg lettuce, but other lettuce varieties have better nutritional content. Try some romaine.