Salad

I like putting quinoa and roasted sweet potato on my salads... roasted corn is good. If Im' lazy I will just throw chick peas on there, if not I will take the time to make little turkey burgers or meatballs or something to put on there for protein. And I like to do a creamy tahini lemon dressing. Or a vinegar based dressing. TBH I really don't care for typical lettuce, tomato, cucumber type salads.

I like bell peppers, onions, and sunflower seeds

I had a Cubano inspired salad for lunch today - mixed greens plus some shopped romaine for the crunch, coarse chopped pickles, bacon, black forest ham, pepper-jack, and some dijon mixed into some balsamic vinaigrette.

A couple of days ago, I had a salad with the same base greens as today, with apple, bacon, brie, and sweet onion dressing from Lite House.

Both were quite yummy!

Shred pretty much any veggie that's good raw to use as a salad/slaw base: Carrots, jicama, zucchini, etc. Make a salad with just-barely-steamed then cooled broccoli or cauliflower. The classic thin-sliced cucumber salad is good with vinagrette or plain Greek yogurt (vs. the old-school sour cream or mayo), plus salt/pepper and herbs of choice to season, and I like some finely-minced garlic and thin-sliced sweet or green onions in there. Chunks of cooked Winter squash (not overcooked) are good in salad, too.

On many salads, consider an Asian-esque vinaigrette dressing (rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, garlic, any other seasonings you like). Salsa or cottage cheese can also be used as a dressing, or herbed/seasoned/salted plain Greek yogurt. Prepared mustard plus vinegar/oil and any other seasonings is a good dressing, IMO especially for broccoli/cauliflower.

As a crunchy topping, toasted nuts, seeds (pumpkin/pepita, sunflower, whatever).

Quite often, if I'm using nuts, seeds or cheese in a salad (any of which provide fat to aid absorption of vitamins in the veggies), I'll dress with just vinegar (plus seasonings), rather than vinegar and oil.

Roasted veggies of all sorts, cooled, are good in salads. Or lightly-steamed asparagus. Or raw edible-pod peas, or blanched regular green peas. (Even frozen peas are OK, heated then cooled).

Make a bean salad with canned beans - doesn't have to be the standard 3-bean thing, can be red beans Southwest-style (sweet corn, sweet onions, maybe crumbled queso fresco, tomatoes, sweet or hot peppers); or I like kidney beans with sweet peppers, onions, vinaigrette dressing (especially if made with malt vinegar), and cut-up bits of smoked provolone or string cheese. Small amounts of feta cheese add a lot to a salad, too.

Experiment: What's the worst that could happen? One sub-ideal salad is not a disaster.

Not all healthy but here are some places to get ideas:
https://www.eatingwell.com/search?q=salad
https://www.allrecipes.com/search/?q=salad

I love salads, my favourite is the Halloumi Caesar from Ed's Diner but if I'm at home and want a quick easy lunch, I really finely chop tomatoes, onions, avocado and crab sticks and mix it with a sprinkle of garlic granules and then either light mayo or balsamic vinegar depending what mood I'm in. Sounds and looks a bit gross but the combo is just yum!

Are you on TikTok? Katcancook has AWESOME salad ideas that are filling and out-of-the-box. She has a whole series she calls Hungry Lady Salads and every one I’ve tried has been delicious. Her insta is kat_can_cook if you don’t have TikTok.

Hearts of palm is always easy to add - you can get them in cans. Same with artichoke hearts but those can be pretty hit or miss.

Most weekends I try to cut up and roast small cubes of sweet potatoes or butternut squash and store them in Rubbermaid containers and add those to salads. Butternut squash is incredibly hard to cut up, but it's a nice to have. I usually season it with some basics, but also throw in cinnamon and it's quite good 2-3 days later.

I sometimes use tomatoes to serve as the "dressing". Another option is fried egg where the yolk serves as the "dressing." (Most store-bought dressings aren't in my diet, and I also don't generally like them, and I am not a fan of balsamic).

Not sure if this was mentioned already, but I've been on a bit of a radish kick lately so I'll slice them up very thin and add those as well.

And for me, no meal is complete without some fresh garlic (often in addition to the garlic powder I'll use in cooking the sweet potatoes/squash).

Nuts and seeds can be good toppers to add a bit of a crunch. I usually go down the bulk section in the supermarket and pick 2 or 3 that look enticing to me at the time.

For lunch I add strawberries, grapes, nuts and top with lowfat raspberry vinaigrette dressing. For dinner I like to add a little cottage cheese, french dressing and shredded cheese.

I had an amazing salad in a restaurant that I like to replicate: rocket, smoked sundried tomato (non-smoked works if your can't get smoked), shavings of parmesan, and sunflower and pumpkin seeds- toasted in tamari for full effect.