Salads

What do you mean by toppings?
My salads have ingredients - often its just a mix of grated carrot/Beetroot, tomato, Red pepper, cucumber celery, alfalfa sprouts, sprouted mung beans/chick peas etc, smushed avo, some cheese and ACV on cos lettuce. I have that with whatever protein were eating..

Roast vegies are good in salad, with spinach, some cheese (like feta), nuts for crunch, drizzle of balsamic/evoo

Mixing grain through salad can be nice - quinoa with mixed leaves, then whatever other vegies you want.

I try and use ingredients that will add "dressing" - avo, soft boiled eggs, cheese etc. Yoghurt based dressings are quite nice and add a bit of creaminess without lots of fat.

I just make a simple lettuce, tomato, carrot salad with grilled chicken. I use like maybe 2 small spoonful of ranch dressing. Sunflower seeds

Wow, a lot,of fancy salad eaters here. I love salad as my go to staple every day because I keep it simple.
A mix of iceberg.....yes the dreaded iceberg lettuce along with some fancy lettuces you buy in a bag. I just mix some in with
the iceberg to get a nice blend. Adds a lot of bulk and is filling with minimal calories. Add some chopped onion, maybe shredded
carrots a bit of red cabbage. I can make a big bowl of this and use it for a few days. I add to it as needed to change it up
a bit with leftovers like grilled chicken, some pieces of steak, pepperoni, cheese or broccoli . I just don't do fancy sprouts, seeds, or other
stuff.
The dressing will make,or break you. You can have a great low cal salad and blow it with hundreds of calories worth of dressing.
Any of the creamy or high oil dressings usually will be high in cals. Might as well order a pizza.
I stick with red wine vinegar with a little bit of oil. Add seasonings to taste and I actually add sweet and low to my dressing to
offset the vinegar taste.
I have salad every day for lunch at work and have not yet tired of it. I still look forward to it.

I also go with Bolthouse Farms dressing. All the flavors are great and low cal.

cross2bear wrote: »

I love a big mixed green salad with taco meat and low fat sour cream as dressing. I could eat that every day - I love the crunch, the different textures and temperatures (cold lettuce, warm taco meat) and of course the taste. I like it spicy and the greens and sour cream temper that heat. No cheese, no croutons, no guac (yuck).

Taco salad is one of our go to dinners. I do have some cheese though. It's around 650 calories.

Your second question was "budget-friendly" - making your own is the best on that, plus you control all the contents. When I go commercial, Bolthouse and Litehouse are pretty good.

Your first question, on toppings: "anything goes!" If you like it, try it ...

I made up a batch of red cabbage-carrot slaw tonight to go with grilled "bbq" chicken. Cabbage, carrots, celery, red onion buzzed through the food processor. Lightly dressed with a greek-yogurt-based homemade dressing. This was a very colorful dish and set off the chicken really well.

This being the start of summertime "grill-and-salads" season here, I'm on the hunt for a broad variety of healthy, flavorful and economical salads.

I make about 75% of the dressings we use. Not only just a spectrum of herby vinaigrettes (multiple types of vinegars and citrus for the acid, plus balsamic), but ranch, blue cheese, green goddess and catalina (so far).

For the creamy dressing types, I often use yogurt as a replacement for mayo - mostly greek style, but also good, plain "regular" - but always whole milk and not low- or non-fat, with also sour cream/creme freche and/or buttermilk in the mix as needed. I happened to have Stoneyfield Plain Whole Milk Greek on-hand this week and used in the slaw. I buy yogurts by the quart for uses from smoothies to dressings to marinades (plus just eatin'). Many years ago, I also made my own yogurt but can't be bothered now; that would take even more expense out of the equation with homemade.

I have a second head of red cabbage that I'm going to experiment with making an Asian-style slaw with appropriate dressing (citrus, sesame, ginger, etc. - TBD - I'm studying recipes); probably Tuesday.

My daughter is encouraging me to experiment with berry vinaigrettes - I haven't done much in that vein yet.

Don't just think a salad is a "side" - it can be the meal, and you can make them pretty hearty and wild, not just a "greens and veggies" dish. And still stay on the healthy track of course, LOL.

Good luck.

I eat a large, mixing bowl size, salad every day for lunch. Since my diet is based around a large quantity of veggies and fruit, salads are an easy way to get veggies in, with minimal fuss I'm also a frugal shopper and get most of my salad fixings at Aldi.

Today's salad (which I'm eating right now lol)-
-spring mix
-spinach
-red bell pepper
-tomato
-black olives
-refried beans (warmed)
-hot sauce
-Kraft fat free catalina dressing (only 50 calories for 2tbsp)
-chili cheese fritos

=266 grams of veggies/464 calories