I’ve been trying to make healthy changes for myself and for my family, and one thing I’ve decided to try is to have a salad each day, preferably at lunch because that’s the meal that I make the most bad decisions about. It seems that I’m usually busy mid-day and end up eating fast food or making poor choices at home and snacking or just eating unhealthy stuff. I thought that making a pledge to have a salad each day would motivate me to make better choices at lunch time. Before you say it…I know that salads are not always a healthy choice, but it’s better than what I have been doing. And I’m trying to be somewhat smart about my salad choices. I’m not a huge fan of lots of dressing, so I cut a few calories by just drizzling a very little bit of dressing on my salads. This week I succeeded with my plan and had seven days of salad – which made for great, tasty lunches. Michael teased me that my salads never look the same. That’s because I like to keep things mixed up so I don’t get bored with this quest.
Here’s some pictures from my Seven Days of Salad for the past week. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I was having a crazy busy week getting ready for a festival at my children’s school, so I ate out A LOT this week. The salads were delicious, but my budget can’t keep up with that. I’m hoping to have some time this week to make up some home made dressings and come up with some new salad concoctions to share with you!
Seven Days of Salad ::
Monday: Asian Sesame Chicken Salad from Panera (I could eat this up every single day…it’s a real salad treat)
Tuesday: This is my favorite go-to salad to make at home. I used some farm fresh salad from our CSA, added just a bit of toasted almond slivers, a tiny bit of goat cheese and drizzled just enough Marzetti Balsamic on top to give it flavor without drowning it. Sweet and simple.
Wednesday: This was a crazy busy day, so we hit the salad bar at Kroger. This is Henry’s favorite new “fast food” for lunch. This one of my favorite upsides of trying to have salad every single day….that my kids are getting on board with it. My lunch choice has definitely impacted Henry, he’s been happy to eat salad with me! Ever since I was in high school my favorite Kroger salad bar concoction has included ham, sunflower seeds and Ranch dressing. I don’t eat Ranch on a lot of salads, but I love it with this combo! Since high school I’ve added some more veg with the ham and sunflower seeds.
Thursday: Another salad at home, with farm fresh lettuce, strawberry slices, goat cheese, toasted almonds and Marzetti Strawberry & Poppyseed Dressing.
Friday: This was the day before the big Fall Festival at our school, so me and my fellow co-chair Amy Q. from the blog “In a Galaxy Far Away” went to Main Bite for salad (and beer) as a treat before the work began. I had the Harvest Salad and it was quite tasty!
Saturday: This was a busy and sad day for us. We had the kids school festival and a visitation for Michael’s Godfather, who was an amazing man. I needed a quick and easy salad for lunch so I threw one together at home. It had Romaine & some salad mix from our CSA with apple slices, toasted almonds, Goat Cheese and homemade Sweet Vinaigrette. YUM!
Sunday: I felt like I deserved a treat after all the work for the festival, so I took Ella and Henry to Findlay Market and we grabbed lunch from Pho Lang Thang. Henry and I shared a Noodle Salad with Tofu. It was delicious! Not a traditional salad, but there were some tasty veggies in there!
Do you have a favorite salad recipe? Please leave a link in the comments, I’m always looking for new ideas! And for more salad inspiration visit Family Friendly Cincinnati’s “Super Salads in Cincinnati & NKY” we have a full list of great places to grab a salad in our region. And if you have an eye on my cool napkins, here’s a tutorial for making them! See you next week with a whole new list of salads!
