Is this salad really 496 calories?

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  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    Shane324534645 wrote: »
    Sorry I'm new here and just starting out and the amount of food I put into this salad as one of my 3 500 calorie meals seems rather large can someone double check that this is indeed 496 calories?

    4 cups of fresh express double carrots- 30 calories (bag says 40 tho)
    12 raw cherry tomatoes- 36 calories
    100 grams of raw brocoli- 35 calories
    4 ounces of turkey breast- 140 calories
    100 grams of cucumber unpeeled- 15 calories
    Caesar house light 6 tbsp- 240 calories (I'm trying to cut back on this the most little by little

    All this comes to 496 calories (or 506 if you count the lettuce higher) and it seems like so much food after I made it all.

    Any comments would be appreciated if I messed up something, thanks!

    Looks right. Veggies have very little calories for a large amount of volume. If you are happy with the taste of the salad and calorie count and macro percentages, don't worry about the dressing. (If you did want to cut down on it, shaking the salad with the dressing helps..but the light dressing isn't too bad on calories. 6T of full fat caesar dressing is another story).
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    I had arugula salad last night and I used fresh lemon juice and a tablespoon of parmesan with some S&P and it was pretty great.
  • ElvenToad
    ElvenToad Posts: 644 Member
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    A great trick I learned is to use tongs to mix your dressing into your salad, it coats extremely well! I only add 20g dressing for 100g of Spinach and it's more than enough ;)

    Then I add shredded cheese and since the leaves are wet from the dressing it makes the cheese coat beautifully with the tongs too.
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
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    mom23mangos wrote: »
    crzycatlady1 wrote: »
    Shane324534645 wrote: »
    junodog1 wrote: »
    That looks correct. The dressing is a killer.

    Yeah, I will slowly ween myself off of it a half a tablespoon a salad probably.

    I'm a HUGE user of dressings/condiments and yeah-those can kill your calories :( Just experiment with lower calorie ones (I now use Kraft's fat free zesty Italian dressing on a lot of things and it's only 15 calories per 2tbsp!), and then for the ones you decide to keep (I will never, ever cut out my beloved Hidden Valley Ranch lol), just slowly start using less. I went from pouring it on, to now using a half or 1 serving, measured out :)

    I found a great ranch alternative. Use some Fage 0% Greek yogurt, Ranch seasoning packet and a little fat free milk. Voila! Low calorie, great tasting Ranch. Same for a nice creamy Italian. Yogurt + Italian seasoning + vinegar of choice.

    going to try this, thanks!
  • cross2bear
    cross2bear Posts: 1,106 Member
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    You can also use a lower calorie choice such as sour cream, mixed with some herbs and some garlic to approximate the flavour of caesar dressing.
  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
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    There are a ton of greek yogurt dressings that taste great and are much lower in calories. But yeah you can use a lot less if you cover and shake it up
  • kenyonhaff
    kenyonhaff Posts: 1,377 Member
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    Well, or find a lower fat dressing. I like a lot of the Ken's Steak House brand...including a really good Caesar dressing. But I understand that's not available everywhere.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    If the bag says the salad is 40 calories I would use that rather than the 30. 6 tablespoons of salad dressing would be like soup - are you sure you're not using a teaspoon or something? I can't even imagine. My salad is drowning in dressing when I use 2 tablespoons - but I guess it could be the thickness of the dressing too. I just use a balsamic.
  • nightengale7
    nightengale7 Posts: 563 Member
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    What everyone else said, it's your dressing that is killer. You are probably used to seeing the entire top of your salad coated in dressing, but like lots of others suggested, you need to learn to shake your salad if it has a lid or use tongs to mix it up to distribute the dressing. You should be able to use 1/2 of what you used in that salad and have just as much flavor down to the last bite. Good luck!
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
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    Try making your own dressings. Mine usually come out to about 50-75 calories per quarter cup. I use a lot of dressing recipes from this site...

    http://www.skinnytaste.com/
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
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    I haven't tried this but here is her Caesar Salad Dressing at 77 calories for 3 TBL.

    http://www.skinnytaste.com/skinny-caesar-dressing/
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Shane324534645 wrote: »
    Sorry I'm new here and just starting out and the amount of food I put into this salad as one of my 3 500 calorie meals seems rather large can someone double check that this is indeed 496 calories?

    4 cups of fresh express double carrots- 30 calories (bag says 40 tho)
    12 raw cherry tomatoes- 36 calories
    100 grams of raw brocoli- 35 calories
    4 ounces of turkey breast- 140 calories
    100 grams of cucumber unpeeled- 15 calories
    Caesar house light 6 tbsp- 240 calories (I'm trying to cut back on this the most little by little

    All this comes to 496 calories (or 506 if you count the lettuce higher) and it seems like so much food after I made it all.

    Any comments would be appreciated if I messed up something, thanks!

    So I'm assuming you're worried that you're underestimating calories because it is a high volume of food? Just because something is voluminous doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a ton of calories, particularly when you're talking about a lot of vegetables.

    6 Tbsp of dressing is a lot of dressing though...I'm usually good with 2 Tbsp.
  • DietPrada
    DietPrada Posts: 1,171 Member
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    Here's what I do with dressing. Put the base (lettuce etc) in a bowl, measure out say 30ml of dressing and mix it through with your hands, make sure you coat it all. Then add your meat and stuff. Easy, and you don't need buckets of it.
  • annacole94
    annacole94 Posts: 997 Member
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    I eat my dressing on the side - dip the fork, grab some salad. Each bite is tasty, but the amount of dressing is minimized.

    Ditto adding some lemon juice to Caesar to cut the calories without giving up the flavour.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
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    crzycatlady1 wrote: »
    Shane324534645 wrote: »
    junodog1 wrote: »
    That looks correct. The dressing is a killer.

    Yeah, I will slowly ween myself off of it a half a tablespoon a salad probably.

    I'm a HUGE user of dressings/condiments and yeah-those can kill your calories :( Just experiment with lower calorie ones (I now use Kraft's fat free zesty Italian dressing on a lot of things and it's only 15 calories per 2tbsp!), and then for the ones you decide to keep (I will never, ever cut out my beloved Hidden Valley Ranch lol), just slowly start using less. I went from pouring it on, to now using a half or 1 serving, measured out :)

    Be mindful of low fat dressings though because they can be quite high in sugar as they add more sugar for flavour to disguise less fat. Often better to have the calories and fat if your calories allow.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Put dressing on the side. Dip your fork in the dressing then take the salad. You get the taste but fewer calories.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
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    Shane324534645 wrote: »
    fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »
    Shane324534645 wrote: »
    Sorry I'm new here and just starting out and the amount of food I put into this salad as one of my 3 500 calorie meals seems rather large can someone double check that this is indeed 496 calories?

    4 cups of fresh express double carrots- 30 calories (bag says 40 tho)
    12 raw cherry tomatoes- 36 calories
    100 grams of raw brocoli- 35 calories
    4 ounces of turkey breast- 140 calories
    100 grams of cucumber unpeeled- 15 calories
    Caesar house light 6 tbsp- 240 calories (I'm trying to cut back on this the most little by little

    All this comes to 496 calories (or 506 if you count the lettuce higher) and it seems like so much food after I made it all.

    Any comments would be appreciated if I messed up something, thanks!

    SIX tablespoons of dressing???? Yikes. No wonder. I use ONE in my salad. The calories in your dressing alone are more than in my entire salad with dressing. You definitely need to stop the dressing bath.

    I must be doing something wrong because these 6 tbsp barely covered half of the salad, maybe I'm too use to smothering my salad and not caring about calories when I wasn't trying to lose weight. I'll try to cut it down to 3 tbsp which is still a lot on my next salad. How many cups are lettuce did you have for that one tbsp?

    My salad is usually the same - 1/2 of a 10oz bag such as Fresh Express Italian Blend. But I have used the entire bag, occasionally. I might use tad more with a whole bag, but really 1TB is usually all I use.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
    edited March 2017
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    Macy9336 wrote: »
    4 cups carrots is 32oz or two POUNDS of carrots...which should be 200 calories not 40 calories.

    Yeah I think that is the actual salad blend he is referring to ("Fresh Express".
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »
    Macy9336 wrote: »
    4 cups carrots is 32oz or two POUNDS of carrots...which should be 200 calories not 40 calories.

    Oh wow I missed the 4 cups of carrots! That is a LOT of carrots. I think that will turn you orange after a few days!

    It's not carrots, it's a bagged salad mix...

    doubleCarrotsLarge1.png

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