BORING Salad!

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AmyBinthe603
AmyBinthe603 Posts: 16 Member
My lunch salad is so boring... Any ideas what I can add to them without adding sodium? I'm fine with adding natural sources of sodium, like from vegetables, but I need to say goodbye to my Kalamata olives and feta cheese!
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  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
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    Leaves - baby spinach, watercress, rocket (arugula), little gem.
    Protein - chicken, boiled egg, ham, fish, prawns, beans, cheese (cottage, grated cheddar, blue, feta)
    Crunchies - bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, grated carrot, fennel.
    Fancy stuff - artichokes, capers, olives, seeds.

    Pick a few from each of those groups and you'll never be bored.
  • susanrule16100
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    Dried Cranberries or Goji berries; awesome in yoghurt too!
  • SunofaBeach14
    SunofaBeach14 Posts: 4,899 Member
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    Why are you cutting down on sodium from olives and feta cheese?

    Are you under specific physician's orders to do so or are you just trying to be "healthier?"

    If the latter, read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/health/panel-finds-no-benefit-in-sharply-restricting-sodium.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    The low sodium diet seems to be going the way of the low fat diet.
  • BeachGingerOnTheRocks
    BeachGingerOnTheRocks Posts: 3,927 Member
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    Why are you cutting down on sodium from olives and feta cheese?

    Are you under specific physician's orders to do so or are you just trying to be "healthier?"

    If the latter, read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/health/panel-finds-no-benefit-in-sharply-restricting-sodium.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    The low sodium diet seems to be going the way of the low fat diet.

    This is true. I have a friend on here who reduced her sodium, and she ended up light-headed and dizzy frequently. Too little is as bad as too much.

    But if you have high blood pressure, that is a different matter entirely. Point is, don't restrict unless you know you need to restrict.
  • cardbucfan
    cardbucfan Posts: 10,427 Member
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    I eat a lot of salad for lunch. I will have the "sweet salad" with lettuce, berries, ham or turkey and goat cheese with just a little balsamic vinegar. There's the "savory one" with lettuce, veggies, feta, leftover meat from dinner the night before. The spinach one with spinach, hard boiled eggs, chicken, craisins or strawberries. The taco one with lettuce, either roast pork or chicken, avocados, black beans, salsa and cheddar cheese.

    Agree with the above posters on the salt thing but it's still good to mix things up. Boredom leads me astray,
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    My lunch salad is so boring... Any ideas what I can add to them without adding sodium? I'm fine with adding natural sources of sodium, like from vegetables, but I need to say goodbye to my Kalamata olives and feta cheese!

    So give us a clue, what's in your lunch salad. Huge range of options around, but in the absence of knowing what's boring about it the suggestions are merely random noise.

    Notwithstanding that, I make up a basic salad with peppery salad leaves, couple of celery sticks, radish, mushroom, tomato, coleslaw, handful of seeds and then make up the bulk with something from; sliced ham, sliced beef, mackerel, feta and olives, sliced cheese.

    I've done Avocado and chicken a few times as well
  • Sunbrooke
    Sunbrooke Posts: 632 Member
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    You can make your own low sodium farmers cheese. It has a texture similar to goat cheese, but drier. Just almost boil milk that isn't ultra-pasteurized and add vinegar or lemon juice, wait about 15 mins, and strain. You can add your own herbs and stuff. Lots of recipes and directions will pop up if you google it.
  • AmyBinthe603
    AmyBinthe603 Posts: 16 Member
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    Not trying to go real low sodium, just trying to bring it down a bit. I have been eating too much and have been over the MFP limit. My reason for lowering it is to see if it helps with retaining water (especially once a month...) and also want to see if it makes a difference in my blood pressure for which I take meds for. I know that losing weight, which I'm doing, will help with my blood pressure - but I also wanted to see if I drop it to under 2000mg a day will help too. So I'm trying to cut out the biggest culprits in my diet. And between four little kalamata olives and one ounce of feta, that raises my sodium for the day up 700mg!
  • AmyBinthe603
    AmyBinthe603 Posts: 16 Member
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    My current salad consists of lettuce, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, a protein (usually Tuna or Chicken) and a balsamic vinaigrette. I was just readying about Red Raspberries - Low calories and loaded with vitamins and potassium.. and sun dried tomatoes and dried cranberries! Thank you! I will add those and I will totally try to make that cheese! I've added stuff to my grocery list :)
  • LaurenDanielle014
    LaurenDanielle014 Posts: 88 Member
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    my lunch for today is baby spinach, 1 tblspoon of Feta Cheese (35 cal) and 1 Tblspoon of Maries Yogurt Rasberry Vinagrete Dressing (25 cal) all clean and low sodium! and so good/refreshing. sometimes I add strawberries and blueberries.
  • JustineMarie21
    JustineMarie21 Posts: 438 Member
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    http://mommyondemand.com/healthy-copycat-applebees-oriental-chicken-salad/

    I Only made the dressing in the recipe. I poured it on a greek salad with pieces of baked chicken.
  • arios952013
    arios952013 Posts: 201 Member
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    This is a good one - something different:

    Romaine lettuce leaves (or whatever you like)
    Lime Juice
    Cilantro
    Green Onions,
    Mango cubed
    Black Beans
    Garlic
    Avocado
    Frozen corn - brought to room temp (optional)

    Mix all ingredients in a bowl minus the romaine lettuce. Let sit for 15 minutes or so. Place mixture on Lettuce leaves.
  • trisH_7183
    trisH_7183 Posts: 1,486 Member
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    Measure 1 Tsp of olive oil,2 Tbl rice vinegar,add garlic,Italian seasoning,black pepper for dressing.
    To your green salad,try shredded cabbage,carrot,zucchini,broccoli,cauliflower,green onion,hard boiled egg,green or other colored peppers,
    Frozen green peas,beans of choice (drained), few nuts like walnuts or almonds.a shake of Parmesan.

    I choose by what I have in the fridge.Love to use left over chicken.You can change it up lots
    Of different ways. Pat in Ohio
  • Sunbrooke
    Sunbrooke Posts: 632 Member
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    You are right. Sodium can add up fast. Most deli meats are 20% of the avg daily allowance. The low sodium starkest tuna is 4% if you want something convenient, or There's cut up hard boiled egg. I cook chicken or turkey breast when it is on sale, slice it up, and freeze it in single serving portions in press and seal. When I'm making my husband a salad for lunch, I can just take one if the little pouches out and stick in in his lunch bag. He says it defrosts in time.
  • mjsmamma
    mjsmamma Posts: 137 Member
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    lettuce+dried cranberries, goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, and balsamic vinagrette
    spinach+mandarin oranges, diced red bell pepper, snow peas, slivered almonds, vinagrette of ginger, mango, lime, garlic a little oil
    roast vegetable 'salad' roast your favorite veggies, the serve room temp. with a little olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning
  • KPMP1992
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    Mix one can tuna (drained) with 1 tbsp low-cal mayo, one celery stick (diced), 1/2 apple (chopped), 1 tbsp dried cranberries...scoop onto a bed of lettuce. Delicious!
  • youtubeworkouter
    youtubeworkouter Posts: 19 Member
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    I just added allrecipes.com app to my phone today. They give you nutrional information for every recipe. There are so many recipes on that app/site. Try one. Yummy.
  • 33Freya
    33Freya Posts: 468 Member
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    Berries!!! Berries make everything better.
  • julietlimanovember
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    Home made cheese suggestion:
    Labne is a hung cheese made from yoghurt. Tip a tub of yoghurt into a muslin cloth (or a clean Chux cloth work well, too) and draw up the corners, like you're hanging plum pudding at Christmas. Suspend over a container in the refrigerator for a couple of days. (I put mine in a cloth, loop the cloth around a chopstick with a rubber band, place the chopstick across the top of a 2 litre plastic jug). The whey drains out over a couple of days - empty the jug every now and then. You are left with a soft, tasty cheese that is spreadable (on crackers/bread/veg sticks) or blob-able in your salad. Ramp up the flavour by mixing in crushed garlic, grated lemon rind, chopped herbs, minced chilli - mix your flavours into the yoghurt before you hang it, or fold through when you are about to eat it. Yum!

    Our dinner salad last night (for two): 2 cups peppery rocket leaves, 4 diced roma tomatoes, one small red onion, halved and finely sliced, one red capsicum sliced, one lebanese cucumber diced, one cup cooked freekeh, 300g tofu with tempeh (this is in the dairy cabinet of my supermarket - way tastier than plain tofu. If you haven't tried it, I would recommend tempeh for taste and texture). Tossed this all together with 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil and 2 tablespoons light soy sauce. Should have finely sliced a couple of little red chilis in there too, but forgot to go out to the garden to pick them! It was sort of like Japanese tabbouli, or a crunchy, cold stir fry - definitely Asian-style flavour, which was great for a change.
  • julietlimanovember
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    mmm, mjmamma's one beginning spinach, mandarine oranges will be getting a spin at our place :smile: