Salad!! Yes.....a salad. before you groan and complain and maybe gag(i.e. "Ew, salad?? Salads are gross! Why would you start off with making a SALAD? Salads are boring, rabbit food," etc etc....) hear me out!
When you hear/read the word "salad" a few things may come to mind. If you're from the Midwest like I am, the word "salad" can also refer to a combination of marshmallow fluff, canned fruit of some sort, and cottage cheese!! Definitely far from healthy! But "salad" usually brings to mind the boring "side salad" offered at many restaurants, which is usually made of iceberg, tomato, cucumber, and whatever dressing you choose. If you're at a "fancy" restaurant, it will come with limpy spring greens instead of iceberg, and maybe have feta or cheddar on top. Sometimes it has onions. Anyways, it's small, definitely boring, and does not have much flavor outside the dressing.
The key to making a good salad is this: use a variety of different ingredients that have different colors, textures, and flavors, use a flavorful meat or other protein(beans if you can have them), and top it off with a home-made dressing that has a lot of flavor as well. Once you make your own salad with fresh, tasty, crunchy ingredients you will definitely want to eat salad every day!!
Here is what I gathered/bought for my salad:
Rotisserie chicken(I NEVER buy this, but I was out of groceries, didn't have time to cook chicken, and it was too hot today to fire up the oven)
Romaine lettuce (Other options: Spinach, Boston Lettuce, Red Leaf Lettuce, Green Leaf lettuce, spring greens)
Radishes(about 5)
Green Onion
Green Pepper
Celery
Carrots
Cucumber(In the picture it is wrapped in a paper towel because I already started using it)
Kalamata olives(A handful)
Pickled Red Pepper(A Handful)
Dressing: Greek Dressing that I found on Pinterest. (Link: Greek Dressing So Good You Want to Drink It Straight)
This took me 30 minutes to prepare, but that included cleaning all of the ingredients, peeling them, and chopping them by hand. I am a very slow chopper because I am clumsy and have cut myself way too many times. If you are more confident in your knife skills this will go much faster for you.
Here is the finished product!
I used very little of the olives because they have a strong flavor. Same with the red pickled peppers. When I read the description, I somehow missed the word "Spicy." They aren't THAT spicy, but enough to be a surprise when I was expecting a sweet pepper. They are a perfect combination of sweet and spicy - I wish I could remember the name of them!
And there you have it. I will be posting many other types of food in the future, but I figured this is a good starter because it's actually really easy to put together, and a great first step in eating healthy! It's really filling, and full of nutrients and good fats. I have enough veggies and such leftover that I can make 3 more salads for lunches the rest of the week! Yay for multi-tasking meal prep!
Super Cool!
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