I eat salad for lunch almost daily. That started back in 2012 when a nutritionist told me lettuce was basically all I could eat because of my heart issues. She tossed out five pages of my favorite foods I’d brought to show her as all too high in salt, fat and sugar.
Eating salad every day can get boring fast, lettuce is little more than water in a green form, after all. So, over the years, I’ve come up with some ways to make my lunch salad more than just lettuce with olive oil and vinegar.
The chief hacks I use:
- Save protein from dinner. The first picture here shows all the items I take out of my refrigerator to make a lunch salad. In there somewhere is leftover chicken breast from a dinner. Also in there, leftover chopped tomatoes, low-salt olives and lettuce from a taco night.
- Grow your own. Also visible are tomatoes from my garden. Garden-grown tomatoes are so much better than store-bought ones. Grow them, and other veggies, you can add to your salad.
- Buy ingredients wisely. Other staples for my salad are fat-free feta cheese crumbles, artichoke hearts and roasted peppers, all bought at a supermakret. Read labales before buying, salt content varies widely for the artichoke hearts and peppers depending on the brand. And don’t use a lot of each, again for salt concerns.
- Take your time. Preparing a big salad takes time, I spend about 20-30 minutes to make mine each day. Don’t let that scare you, put in the time and reap the reward.
- Shop sales. Also in my collection are a bag of sun-dried tomatoes I found on sale, and an English cucumber, also a sale purchase. Also watch for sales and clearances, and compare prices from store to store.
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