Help a Picky Eater Build a Salad

Walnuts and dried Cranberries are commonly paired with spinach and feta, I prefer dried cherries because they have less added sugar. You may like pecans instead. People often add grilled chicken to a spinach salad, but it's optional.

I like having a balsamic vinaigrette but it should work with just vinegar, if something is off try the vinaigrette instead because the creamier texture works well with the cheese.

I don't want to sway you from spinach because it's one of the better salad greens but I really enjoyed the texture soft of bibb lettuce in my salads. Maybe you could try that when you are ready for a new combination.

I have texture issues too! But my issue is any and all cooked vegetables.

My salads generally have:

Lettuce
Spinach
Carrots
Tomatoes
Onions
Cucumbers
Hard boiled eggs
Sunflower Seeds
Turkey breast

I generally don't use dressing, because sogginess

gramarye wrote: »

Thanks, y'all!

I have never even heard of bibb lettuce, lol. I know I don't love iceberg, and that I'm okay with romaine when used in a wrap. I'll have to look into it. (It is very cute in pictures. I realize that's a moot point in nutrition, but I like it. XD)

It is pretty cute, it's like a little baby head of lettuce and the leaves are really soft. It usually comes in a little box with the roots still attached.

Here's the nutrition on it
nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2474/2

Mine usually consist of some sort of greens mixed (spinach, spring mix, romainne) cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, sunflower seeds, and chicken. Now I love to chop my salad. To me it just tastes better. Use and dressing you like. If it is a taco or fajita salad. I use romainne and iceberg, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, corn, peppers, jalapenos, and salsa! YUMMY!

I eat allot of my salads with seedless grapes. Grapes make everything taste like grapes! I suggest you try this salad topping combo that even my picky Asian family likes: walnut, chopped red or black grapes, and goat cheese all over bed of leafy greens. I eat this most mornings and the health benefits so far is amazing!

My husband is a picky eater who hates all raw veggies except tomatoes (which he'll eat in salsas) and herbs (and spinach, since I sneak it into my pesto sauce). I tend to do grain and cooked veggie salads/salsas instead of lettuce-based salads. His favorite is a southwest-style with corn, black beans, tomatoes, green chile, sauteed onions, garlic, and spices. I'll use grains like quinoa in with pesto sauce with sauteed zucchini and carrots as a higher-protein substitute for a regular pasta salad.

I love potato salads too, but the husband won't eat cold potatoes for reasons I'll never understand. He likes egg salad, but I'm allergic to eggs so we don't eat it at home.

You really can't mess up salad. If you like it, put it in. If not, skip it.

I toss in leftover couscous or quinoa. Corn. Peas. Black beans. Chick peas. Hardboiled egg. Sunflower seeds. Flax. Apples. Grapes. It's all fair game.

My salads tend to be everything but the kitchen sink. I like to get a lot of flavor in there. I dont like vinegar dressings and rarely use the cream based dressings.

The base of my salads are usually mixed greens (I buy a big tub of it each week) and mixed sprouts (I sprout the seeds myself, a mix of alfalfa, clover, radish and brocolli seeds). I like a little protein and fat in my salads, so I usually add an ounce or two of chopped turkey and a 1/2 ounce of cheese, and sometimes a little avocado. Other add ins I like to rotate in are halved cherry tomatoes (halving them allows the juice to mix in with the salad), cucumber, green onion, raw asparagus, shredded flowering kale (this a new one for me), roasted beets, shredded raw brussel sprouts, finely chopped brocolli (I dont like big chunks, so I chop it real fine), shredded carrots, mini portobello mushrooms, raw garlic, red bell pepper, halved red seedless grapes, pepita seeds, raisins, pecans, walnuts, salsa, garlic salt, black pepper. I dont care for egg white in a salad, but sometimes if I have a hard boiled egg, I'll save the yolk and crumble it in a salad.

On the weekend I sometimes roast brussel sprouts, carrots, sweet potatoes, little red potatoes, butternut squash, etc., and keep them in the fridge to add to salads later in the week or add in sandwiches. They add a lot of flavor.

Learn to make a basic vinaigrette. Then you can experiment with flavours you enjoy. For instance, I find the balsamic too strong so I use lime juice and olive oil.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vinaigrette/Detail.aspx?evt19=1
I can't stand soggy salads, so the dressing goes on just before I eat it.

It sounds like you enjoy the more solid lettuces like Romaine. So you can try cabbage too, bok choy, anything dark and leafy.

If you are a fussy eater, start with a base lettuce/cabbage you know you like and slowly introduce more vegetables. If you don't like a vegetable prepared one way, prepare another. I've used a fine shredder for my carrot, and sliced radish very thin with my mandoline.

I add depending on what is in season; radishes, carrots, cucumber, chives, tomato slices, apple, bell peppers, sunflower seeds.