I need some salad ideas!!!

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sreich04
sreich04 Posts: 11 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am not much of a salad person, but I think I could get more into them if I had some appealing new ideas! Could anyone recommend some good salad recipes? Preferably ones using low calorie dressings, a source of protein, and ones that don't take very long to make. Thanks in advance! :flowerforyou:
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  • easfahl
    easfahl Posts: 567 Member
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    My fav go-to salad is a big pile of green leaf lettuce and fresh spinach leaves, grilled chicken, diced roma tomatoes, dried cranberries, feta crumbles, and balsamic vinegar. Not vinegarette, just the balsamic vinegar. This one is super-easy, has lots of proteins and various veggies, with a little bit of sweet in the cranberries.

    Curious to hear other people's favs...
  • wildkatt7
    wildkatt7 Posts: 163 Member
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    I add sunflower seeds (seedless ones) to mine... protein and difference
  • surfrgrl1
    surfrgrl1 Posts: 1,464 Member
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    My fav go-to salad is a big pile of green leaf lettuce and fresh spinach leaves, grilled chicken, diced roma tomatoes, dried cranberries, feta crumbles, and balsamic vinegar. Not vinegarette, just the balsamic vinegar. This one is super-easy, has lots of proteins and various veggies, with a little bit of sweet in the cranberries.

    Curious to hear other people's favs...

    That sounds like my new fave!!
  • tonialeem
    tonialeem Posts: 42
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    I'm a big fan of adding beans,,,,rinse and drain a can of black beans at the begining of the week and add them randomly to my salads or dinner. protein and fiber

    Lettuce of choice, 1/4 cup corn, tomato, cucumber, black beans and blasamic vinaigrette
  • lkempe4
    lkempe4 Posts: 6
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    I love just putting chopped cucumbers, roma tomatoes, and red onions marinated with some white balsalmic vinegar and a touch of olive oil! You can top off spinach and chicken with it or put some on a sandwich!
  • Leilaniyoza
    Leilaniyoza Posts: 5
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    my fav ingredients are croutons and ranch dressing and i've stayed away from both for months. the Wishbone Salad Spritzer dressings are really helpful to keep track of calories. add healthy things that will help to fill you up - nuts, dried fruit, lowfat shredded cheeses. for some reason something crunchy in the salad seems to help me. and the trade off for me is eating them at my desk for lunch when i know i want to be "bad" for dinner. kind of my reward. i buy the different bags of lettuce and split them up when i open it - that way i already have some to-go bags ready to take for work lunches. i know not a "recipe" per se.... ;-)
  • Kksd605
    Kksd605 Posts: 74 Member
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    Walden Farms makes a 0 cal, 0 Fat, 0 Carb salad dressing line. My favorite is the Balsamic Vinegrette.
  • GregT44
    GregT44 Posts: 28
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    I'm a big fan of adding beans,,,,rinse and drain a can of black beans at the begining of the week and add them randomly to my salads or dinner. protein and fiber

    Lettuce of choice, 1/4 cup corn, tomato, cucumber, black beans and blasamic vinaigrette

    I add chic peas. Have to try the black beans.
  • enigmarm
    enigmarm Posts: 12 Member
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    I like making my own glazed walnuts. They're very easy to make. They taste delicious as a snack, but also very good in a salad. Especially if it's done with a raspberry vinaigrette type dressing.

    I'm also a huge fan of adding raisins or cranberries to salads.
  • kimmerz810
    kimmerz810 Posts: 6
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    I love gyros so I will make a disassembled gyro salad! Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, 1 TBSP of black olives sliced, and grilled chicken!! Then I'll use tzatziki sauce as dressing, its really low cal because its made from yogurt. The one I bought the other day was only 45 calories for 2 TBSP! Then I'll add some reduced fat feta and it is SO good!

    Maybe also try a mexican salad? Use turkey chili or grilled chicken as the meat, add some reducaed fat cheddar, and use low fat sour cream (or nonfat plain Greek Yogurt) and salsa as your dressing! Then throw in as many veggies as you like (cucumbers, diced tomatoes, onions, etc)
  • courtclerkkris
    courtclerkkris Posts: 173 Member
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    It's the little things in life that make us happy. And I have found that peas on my salad make me happy. You know the frozen kind that have been thawed....yummmo!

    Edamame is fantastic too on a salad!
  • Jeff92se
    Jeff92se Posts: 3,369 Member
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    Nice ideas.

    I've found adding a chopped apple really helps the appeal. I'm also not a fan of salads but eat them 4-5 times a week for lunch. Or a chopped pear.

    Steak salads are NIIICCCEEE.
  • Italianyc84
    Italianyc84 Posts: 192 Member
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    I'm SUPER into this right now...I take a ripe avocado and roughly mash it (I like a few chunks in it still, or sometimes I'll only mash part of it and cut the rest up and add it to the salad itself), mix in some non-fat plain yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper. That becomes my dressing. It's pretty thick (you can always thin it out with more yogurt I guess, but I like it this way), you can use your (clean!) hands to really massage it into the lettuce (I prefer mixed greens, kale or spinach). This goes REALLY well with salmon or tuna (canned or fresh), grilled chicken, sometimes I'll just use beans.

    I like to add sunflower seeds, sliced bell pepper, some capers if I use salmon or tuna. Sometimes I'll add some feta (I like the fat free feta from trader joe's).

    It has a lot of fat because of the avocado and sunflower seeds, but at least it's GOOD fat. Usually I only use half an avocado.
  • cbear017
    cbear017 Posts: 345 Member
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    I created this salad a few months ago and it's now my go-to meal when I can't think of anything else to make. I love it and the hardest part is cooking the salmon.

    For a single serving:

    1 atlantic salmon fillet (cooked)
    2 cups of arugula or a sassy baby mix (not my words, but what's written on the pkg)
    5 small strawberries, quartered
    red onion slices (wash it beforehand to de-intensify the flavour)
    1 tbsp of soft ripened goat cheese
    2 tbsp of Renee's Balsamic Vinagrette mixed with 1 tsp of Cilantro paste (fresh in tube)

    It has approx. 560 calories and 35 g of protein. PM me if you want the exact breakdown.
  • CMmrsfloyd
    CMmrsfloyd Posts: 2,383 Member
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    My current favorite is to dice up a tomato, half a cucumber, a serving of baby carrots, add in some reduced fat feta cheese (I usually do 1.5 servings of Athenos reduced fat feta - I just love me some cheese LOL) and dress with fat free italian dressing (4 tbsp, which is 2 servings - only 30 cal total for the dressing b/c of the type I use - b/c the dressing flavor is the most important part). I also like to add in some mccormick salad toppins for crunch (usually 3 tbsp which is about 80 cal). All together the amounts of things that I normally put in comes to 285 calories. Sometimes I'll cut up a small chicken breast which brings the total to about 395 calories. It's a nice sized bowl of deliciousness. I'm just not into lettuce much right now. LOL
  • Alexa712
    Alexa712 Posts: 62 Member
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    bump
  • Yakisoba
    Yakisoba Posts: 719 Member
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    I'm a salad junkie. =D

    Spinach
    Arugula
    Egg
    Olive
    Avocado
    Tofu
    Red Onion
    Cucumber
    Chickpeas
    Black beans
    Corn
    Salt, pepper, oil
  • sreich04
    sreich04 Posts: 11 Member
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    Wow, these are some fabulous ideas! I really appreciate all of the great suggestions :happy:
  • sreich04
    sreich04 Posts: 11 Member
    Options
    I love gyros so I will make a disassembled gyro salad! Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, 1 TBSP of black olives sliced, and grilled chicken!! Then I'll use tzatziki sauce as dressing, its really low cal because its made from yogurt. The one I bought the other day was only 45 calories for 2 TBSP! Then I'll add some reduced fat feta and it is SO good!

    Maybe also try a mexican salad? Use turkey chili or grilled chicken as the meat, add some reducaed fat cheddar, and use low fat sour cream (or nonfat plain Greek Yogurt) and salsa as your dressing! Then throw in as many veggies as you like (cucumbers, diced tomatoes, onions, etc)

    I LOVE gyros too!!! What a great idea... it's kind of a spin on a Greek salad, but with the tzatziki sauce instead, which to me sounds much tastier! What brand of tzatzki dressing did you find for only 45 cals per serving??
  • sreich04
    sreich04 Posts: 11 Member
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    I'm SUPER into this right now...I take a ripe avocado and roughly mash it (I like a few chunks in it still, or sometimes I'll only mash part of it and cut the rest up and add it to the salad itself), mix in some non-fat plain yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper. That becomes my dressing. It's pretty thick (you can always thin it out with more yogurt I guess, but I like it this way), you can use your (clean!) hands to really massage it into the lettuce (I prefer mixed greens, kale or spinach). This goes REALLY well with salmon or tuna (canned or fresh), grilled chicken, sometimes I'll just use beans.

    I like to add sunflower seeds, sliced bell pepper, some capers if I use salmon or tuna. Sometimes I'll add some feta (I like the fat free feta from trader joe's).

    It has a lot of fat because of the avocado and sunflower seeds, but at least it's GOOD fat. Usually I only use half an avocado.

    I am a huge fan of avocadoes! If only there were a swimming pool full of guacamole... haha, maybe I'm crazy but it would be pure heaven. Am I the only one that thinks this?! Too bad they are so calorically rich. Never thought to make an avocado dressing though, sounds delish! Thanks for the idea :smile:

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