Quick and Easy Salad Meals

Simply choose something from each category and you can create a salad meal in minutes. The wide variety of combinations you can create will always give you something new at lunchtime.

Greens:

Choose the greens for your salad. There are a variety of pre-packaged salad greens in the grocery stores these days from spring mixes, romaine, arugula, baby spinach and more. You can choose these products and even make combinations of them for an interesting salad base.

You can also simply buy the fresh variety in heads by themselves and make your own combinations. This route is cheaper than the packaged variety but if time is short you can't beat the pre-packaged greens.

Vegetables and Fruit:

Choose a variety of vegetables and/or fruit to put in the salad with a rainbow of colors for the most nutrition. Some flavorful combinations are:

- cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, celery or

- red bell peppers, artichoke hearts, scallions or

- grape tomatoes, avocado, hearts of palm or

- shredded carrots, shredded cabbage, mandarin oranges or

- diced apples, blueberries, strawberries

Fillings:

Here are some suggestions for fillings that will make a salad a meal.

- cooked chicken (cubed) - either grilled, baked, or broiled or

- cooked seafood (cut into bite-sized pieces) - tuna, salmon, shrimp, crab, or lobster or

- cooked grains - brown rice, basmati rice, quinoa, buckwheat, or wild rice or

- cooked beans - black beans, garbanzo beans, butter beans, lima beans, kidney beans, azuki beans, cannellini beans, or edamame or

- cooked meat (cut into bite-sized pieces) - steak, ham, pork chops, or roast beef or

- eggs - chopped hard-boiled eggs, cooked omelet cut into pieces, or cooked scrambled eggs or

- cooked pasta - (the smaller varieties work best like rotini, elbow macaroni, couscous or farfalle)

Dressing:

Choose an all natural, organic and low-fat variety. Making your own dressing is always an option and you can control all the ingredients that way but if time is too short, there are so many varieties available today that you will always be able to find something delicious.

Toppers:

These simple topping accents will add an extra layer of flavor to salad meals. Use as many or as few as you like.

- croutons: plain or flavored varieties

- crumbled cooked bacon: use turkey bacon to cut down on fat or try the vegetarian variety

- nuts: use a sprinkling of chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans, almonds or pine nuts

- shelled seeds are also a good addition like: pumpkin seeds, sunflower kernels or sesame seeds

- baked tortilla chips: crumble them up and sprinkle over your salad

- shredded cheese: use a low-fat variety and sprinkle over the salad

Know about Italian food here.