Salads For Days

In an effort to eat more healthy foods and lose some weight, I have committed to #DailyVeggies, making sure I have at least one serving of vegetables every day. Since I detest most cooked vegetables, this means that a meal-sized salad is my best veggie option. Therefore, #SaladaDay has become my usual lunch. Of course, salads don't have to be boring or bland - not at all! There are many variations and possibilities when it comes to salads. I thought I would share some of my favorites with you, and please feel free to share your ideas with me! I'm always looking for more ideas!

Basic chicken salad: romaine lettuce mix, grilled chicken, corn, bacon bits, cheese, and a light drizzle of thousand island .

Taco salad: mixed lettuce, taco seasoned beef, queso blanco sauce, salsa, sour cream, and cheese. No dressing needed!

Deconstructed sandwich salads: basically the ingredients of a sandwich, placed on top of a salad. This one was lettuce and radicchio mix, chopped steak strips, half an avocado, lowfat provolone cheese, and Green Goddess dressing.

Extra protein salads: for those days when you need more protein, adding navy beans, hummus, and boiled eggs to the salad gives it both flavor and protein kick.

Tuna salad: these days you can get flavored tuna packets in a variety of flavors. I don't usually like tuna, but the ranch flavor is really good! Here's lettuce mix, ranch-flavored tuna, navy beans, peas, cheese, and Green Goddess dressing.

Think outside the box: salad doesn't always have to start with a leafy green base. Try other combinations like beans, tomatoes, avocado, eggs, different cheeses, or other vegetables that strike your fancy. I'd like to hear what ideas you come up with!

Strawberry Cucumber Spinach Salad

This salad is relatively easy to make, even on the truck (though preferably not while the truck is moving, since bumpy roads and sharp knives don't play well together). The easiest thing about this salad is that it basically makes its own dressing. Cool, right? Look how bright and springy this salad looks!

Ingredients:
1 small cucumber
8-10 strawberries
Fresh parsley or basil
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
Fresh spinach

Peel and dice cucumber and dice strawberries. Place in a plastic zipper baggie and add a few torn leaves of parsley or basil. Add the 4 liquid ingredients, seal the baggie, and gently move the ingredients around to combine them. Prepare two plates of fresh spinach, de-stemmed and torn into bite size pieces, and divide and pour the strawberry mixture over the spinach. Enjoy!

Creamy Lowfat Avocado Dressing

Romaine salad mix, egg, ham, cheese, and avocado dressing 

I have a confession to make. I love ranch dressing. I put it on everything: salads, sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs, mac n cheese, pizza...you name it, I've probably tried it with ranch. But right now I'm trying to drop a few pounds before an event next week, so I'm doing a Salad A Day challenge as well as cutting out bread and sweets and drinking a lot of water. Let me tell you, it's difficult to do while on the road! So I decided to come up with a lowfat dressing for my daily salad, so that the ranch doesn't undo all the work I'm doing. Here's the delicious result!

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
1/2 cup lowfat sour cream
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup 1% milk
A few leaves cilantro, finely chopped
1 garlic clove or garlic powder to taste
Seasonings as desired

Thoroughly mash the avocado. Mix all ingredients together, using a food processor or blender if available; if not, whip as well as possible. Use more milk or water to thin dressing if necessary. Serve with salad or wraps and enjoy!

Sweet Corn Salad

I first made this for a cookout with my wonderful in-laws. We were grilling chicken and roasting potatoes, so I wantedsomething cool and summery, though outside the usual monotonous lettuce salad. After looking on Pinterest for hours, I combined several aspects of different recipes and came up with this concoction.

I mixed everything but the avocado the day before and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight, then added the avocado a few hours before serving. Fortunately, the lime juice helps keep the avocados from browning for a little while; unfortunately, by the second day they were starting to show brown spots, so I wouldn't advise keeping leftovers past the second day. This is definitely a salad to serve a larger group of people, so if it's just you, try halving the recipe.

A note on the corn: you want the corn to retain a little crunch, not be mushy. If you're using fresh corn on the cob, grill or boil it for a few minutes. If you're using bagged frozen corn, steam it for half the time in the directions on the bag.

Salad Ingredients:
2 bags frozen sweet corn or 3-4 ears of corn
2 roma tomatoes or 1 box cherry tomatoes
Cilantro
1 avocado

Dressing ingredients:
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
Garlic and herb seasoning, Mrs. Dash, salt and pepper, or seasoning to taste

Start by lightly cooking the corn as discussed above, and remove from cob if applicable. Dice the tomatoes, cilantro, and avocado, mix together with the corn in a large bowl. Mix together the dressing ingredients in a separate cup, add to salad in small quantities and stir till desired taste is reached. Serve immediately or up to 24 hours later if chilled.