Salads...

Salads

During the summertime we tend to steer towards light, crisp, and fresh meals to help us deal with the heat. Salads are such a great vessel for all things summer and healthy.

The salad in the picture above has a mix of greens underneath including turnip greens, arugula, spring greens, and more.  It has piled on top of it carrots, turkey, tomatoes, broccoli, blue cheese, cucumbers, bacon, and green onions.  I topped it off with a new salad dressing i discovered by the refrigerated dressings.  It's a blue cheese yogurt salad dressing made with Kefir yogurt. Mmmmmm.....It was a delicious salad.

Salads can hold so many wonderful things, from various cheeses to dried fruits, to fresh fruits and meats.  They are a great way to get in fruits and vegetables as well as you're greens.  But I give a word of caution, salads are not always a healthy choice, especially while eating out.  Through this adventure I have been to countless restaurants and discovered a lot of the salads I come across have more calories in them than said restaurants burgers.  I get so flabbergasted when I see a salad is over 1500 calories.  

So if you are out and about and fixin to order a salad pay attention to the ingredients and especially the type of dressing your going to order, look up the nutritional information if you can.  

At home it is important to plan your salad ahead of time and grab those measuring cups because it is so easy to overload on the calories.

Some of my favorite combinations are:

Strawberries with chicken walnuts and blue cheese with balsamic

Fresh pears with blue cheese and balsamic

Chef salads with egg ham/turkey and lots of veggies

Tuna with tomato and olives with Onions

The options are endless!!