what do you like on your salad?

I like green peppers, tomatoes, onion, pickles, green olives, black olives, mushrooms, shredded carrot, and cucumber with fat free italian dressing and just a shot of pepper, no salt.

I like mine simple....lettuce, a few baby carrots, a few slices of cucumber, bacon bits, and an egg. All with 2 tablespoons of fat free italian dressing. I have gotten into a routine of eating the same thing every day for lunch and I feel lost without my daily salad!!

Lately I've been making a salad I love. Lettuce, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, grilled chicken, and an ounce of pepper jack cheese. I use lite Italian dressing. Yum!

If you have a Trader Joe's near you I realy like the pre-packaged salad that has cranberry's, candied pecans, blue cheese and a rasberry vinegarette dressing, I usually add a little chicken if I'm craving protein. It will usually last me about 4 meals.

A couple other simple and easy salads are: red leaf lettuce, basil chopped, low fat mozerrella cheese cut into pieces and strawberries. I make my own dressing using equal parts of balsamic vinegar and EVOO with salt and pepper to season.

The other salad is spinach, chicken, mandarin oranges, sliced almonds and I love to use Feast From The East orange sesame dressing.

Emily,

I LOVE getting creative with my salads! Some of my favorites:
raw baby spinach
mandarine orange slices
halved grapes
sliced strawberries
diced apples
ham
cheese
boiled egg
chicken (broiled or grilled - not fried!!! yuck)
any veggie produce particularly home grown
artichoke hearts
crab meat
shrimp (the itty bitty baby ones, like what comes in a can)
craisins
slivered almonds (some people like walnuts - I don't)

other things that would be good if you like them (which I don't!)
blueberries
raspberries
walnuts (hehe)
bacon (turkey, light) cooked crunchy and crumbled rather than the jarred stuff
pepperoni
olives (green or black - I don't know which is better for you)

I could probably come up with more on either list... as long as I have a leafy green, I can make a salad!! Doesn't matter if it's a particular type of lettuce or raw spinach.

Here's a particular favorite of mine but you'll want to modify the dressing to a low-cal/low fat version:

Baby spinach bed
mandarin orange slices
almond slivers
sesame dressing (the sweet kind)

It's almost a dessert salad! YUM!!! But look at the nutrition you're getting!! :-)

Have fun and get creative! ;-)

Oh - balsamic vinegar and extra, extra virgin olive oil. Very tasty dressing, very easy to make at home.

tomatoes
feta cheese
chickpeas
avocado
chicken or turkey breast
hard boiled eggs
slivered almonds
sweet peppers

dressing is usually a mix of olive or canola oil with red, white or balsamic vinegar

I've been eating A LOT of salads lately - my two new salad obsessions are (unsalted) sunflower kernels and Bolthouse Farms yogurt dressing. Other faves include:

Black beans
Corn
Feta Cheese
Cheddar Cheese
Pepperjack Cheese
ok, really any kind of cheese
Cucumbers
Onion
Dried Cherries/Cranberries
Nuts
Homemade croutons
Green Peppers

Possibilities are endless!

romaine lettuce, black olives, cherry tomatos and a light italian dressing. I only eat it as a side salad though. It's not my whole meal. It's a nice filler without adding too many calories.

My favourite salad is a bed of baby arugula topped with some toasted walnuts, butternut squash that has been baked with a little maple syrup, a little fresh Parmesan cheese, and an apple cider vinaigrette.

I also like baby arugula with tomato, cucumber, mango, blueberry, and green onion with a blueberry vinaigrette.

i'm a spring greens salad mix kinda girl.

-blue cheese, sliced pears and a lite italian vinegarette

-feta, sliced chicken, cubed apples and the juice from half a lemon (with salt and pepper)

-dried blueberies, deli turkey, cucumber and litehouse blueberry pomagranate dressing

-black beans, 4 nacho doritos crushed, tomatos, colby jack shredded cheese and dorothy lynch dressing

-chili, chips cheese and sour cream over lettuce

-mandarin oranges, crasins, almonds and a raspberry-lime vinegarette

-spagetti squash, bacon, almonds with the juice from rotel as a spicy dressing

-sliced strawberrys, blanched onions, walnuts and hot bacon over spinach (using the bacon fat to wilt the spinach)

-chorizo, green peppers and jimaca over spinach with rice vinegar and sugar dressing

-shredded carrots, raisins and pecans with yogurt and cinnamon dressing

-green onion, pepperoni/salami, black olives, mushrooms, parmesan in marinara (for pizza salad)

-hard-boiled egg, sharp cheddar cheese and salsa as dressing

-grapes, sliced peaches, sunflower seeds using cottage cheese as dressing

you can make any combination work!

Any type of lettuce, then a half cup each of beans (any) and cooked brown rice, top with light italian or light poppyseed and caramelized onion dressing.

If I find that I have more hunger than allowed calories when dinner comes around, I'll halve the serving size of the entree and put it on top of a couple cups of lettuce. So far, I haven't found anything that didn't taste great when converted to salad. Last night, I made a polish sausage and potato casserole. I put half a cup of it on my lettuce, two tbsp of lite sour cream and it was awesome.