Salad Prep Made Easy

Salads are one of the healthiest meals you can have. If you've been following me, you've probably seen me mention that I love them, a time or two -- or gazillion. It's true, I'm a huge fan of a bowl of greens loaded with veggies. But putting together a worthwhile mix takes time. And if you're short on time, like I often am, freshly making a salad, just doesn't always fit into the schedule. 

Each week I plan my meals ahead of time. If I have salad on the menu more than once, I find that prepping all the ingredients in advance helps save time and frustration. When I don't have everything prepped, the mere thought of freshly chopping lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, etc., is enough to make me second guess my meal choice.

I put together a photo tutorial of how easy it is to prep all of your ingredients. Check it out.

And ...

There are a couple of things I'd like to mention. One, if you don't have a salad spinner, I strongly encourage you to buy one. They make all the difference when storing lettuce in a plastic zip lock bag. If there's too much water inside the bag, the lettuce will go bad very quickly. The salad spinner knocks off all the excess water -- and I mean, all. I'm still amazed my how much water comes of lettuce that looks fairly dry to me.

The second thing I'd like to mention, is you should buy a large plastic storage container if you don't have one already. I find that storing all the ingredients in one container is so much easier. In the past, I have used two or three containers because I didn't have just one large sized one, and almost always, I'd forget about one of those containers and end up skipping some ingredients.

If you like salads or are looking to incorporate more salads into your diet, take my advice and prep in advance. It make take a little time to chop everything, but you'll only have to do in once. As soon as everything is placed inside the storage container, you pop it in the fridge and you're done. Now, anytime you want a salad, all you have to do is get a bowl and put it together.

Taco Salad Remix with Homemade Ranch

I love salads. I'm always experimenting with different combinations to add some flare to what otherwise could be a boring bowl of lettuce.

After a trip to Chipotle, I was inspired to create my own version of a taco salad. Now, this is definitely a remix -- it doesn't have any of the traditional ingredients like tortilla shell/chips or meat. It consists of brown rice, black beans and other toppings sitting on a huge bed of lettuce -- and it's delicious. What's really great about this salad is that it has no meat and is packed with 19.5g of protein.

It's topped with a creamy and light ranch dressing. I love ranch. But because it can be heavy and store bought dressings are full of preservatives, I've created my own. It is lighter than most store bought brands and it's free of artificial ingredients making it a better option to fix that ranch tooth.

Once you have all the ingredients, the salad is easy to put together. The recipe below is for one large serving. It's a meal -- you won't be hungry for hours. Check it out.

Ingredients:
5-6 cups romaine lettuce (or lettuce of your choosing)
1/4 cup black beans drained and rinsed
1/4 cup cooked brown rice
1 small tomato, diced
1-2 tablespoons green onion, chopped
1 oz shredded monterey jack cheese
chili powder
cilantro (optional)

Directions: Place lettuce in large bowl. Spread brown rice over lettuce. In a smaller bowl, place the drained and rinsed black beans and mix with a few shakes of chili powder, then add to larger bowl with the lettuce and rice. Top with cheese, green onions, tomatoes and cilantro.

Ranch Dressing:

Yields: 3/4 cup
Ingredients:
1/4 cup reduced fat buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
3 tablespoons green onions (white parts only)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Place all ingredients, except dill, in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Add dill and pulse for a few seconds -- just long enough to blend. Too much blending with the dill added will make it turn a light green color.

NUTRITION DATA:

Salad: 299 calories, 9.25g fat, 44g carbs, 19.5g protein, 8.5g fiber

Ranch: 1 tablespoon
42.5 calories, 3g fat, 0.2g carbs, 0.2g protein, 0.3g sugar

Recipe: Spinach Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

I'm a huge fan of salads. I swear, some days I think I could eat one for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm always experimenting with different ingredients to blend different flavors to keep things interesting.

It's often thought that salads are diet food and you can't possibly get full by eating a salad -- but quite the contrary. Unlike most other foods, you can eat huge amounts of lettuce and vegetables with almost no effect on weight gain.

Because salads are so simple, it's important to use fresh and high quality ingredients for the best taste. I came across this Lucini brand of extra virgin olive oil and love its rich taste. It's also first cold pressed, which means it's less processed than other oils and is a better quality.

This spinach salad is one of my favorites. I like the tanginess from the blue cheese against the sweetness of the raisins, all brought together with a homemade raspberry vinaigrette (which I recently put the finishing touches on). Check it out.

Ingredients:
2-3 handfuls organic spinach
1-2 tbsp blue cheese crumbles
1-2 tbsp raisins
5-6 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

Raspberry vinaigrette ingredients (yields about 3-4 servings):
3/4 cup raspberries (fresh or thawed frozen)
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (first cold press)
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 cup water

Mix all dressing ingredients in a blender and pulse until smooth. To assemble, place spinach on plate, drizzle a couple spoonfuls dressing onto spinach. Top salad with tomatoes, blue cheese and raisins.

Enjoy!

Are You Eating a Whopper Salad?

Pretend I'm yelling at you: "Salads are not healthy!"

Salads are one of the most common things people start to eat when they go on a "diet." (Going on a "diet" never works, but that's another blog post for another day.) But the eat-salad-and-lose-weight strategy is almost certain to backfire.

Yes, salads are full of raw vegetables that can be low in calories and full of fiber and micronutrients, but what determines whether a salad is healthy or not depends on what else you put on it.

Cheese. Bacon. Croutons. Eggs. Fruit. Nuts. Salad Dressing. These are all of the things that make a salad delicious, but also add tons of unnecessary calories.

Salad dressing is the most serious offender when it comes to ruining an otherwise healthy meal. Does anyone really use the suggested serving size? It's almost impossible to only use 2 tablespoons of ranch unless the salad can fit inside the palm of your hand.

Some salads are so loaded down with extra calories that you may as well eat a Whopper. Yes, that's right, a Whopper.

Check it out: A Whopper has 670 calories and 40 grams of fat. Believe it or not, adding enough toppings to a salad can yield similar stats.

Let's compare two lunch salads. One with all the fixings and one with fewer fixings.

Salad 1
3 cups of lettuce
3 ounces grilled chicken
1/2 chopped boiled egg
1/2 cup of cheese
4 Tbs croutons
1/4 cup cucumbers
1/4 cup tomatoes
1/2 cup broccoli
1/4 cup mushrooms
1/2 ounce cashews
1 /4 of whole avocado
4 Tbs regular ranch dressing


Total approximate calories: 855
Total approximate fat grams: 65


Salad 2
3 cups lettuce
3 ounces grilled chicken
1/4 cup cucumbers
1/4 cup tomatoes
1/2 cup broccoli
1/4 cup mushrooms
2 Tbs vinaigrette dressing


Total approximate calories: 210 calories
Total approximate fat grams: 8

It's obvious that Salad 2 is the better choice. Sure, you may not add every item listed under Salad 1 to your bowl, but you get the point. Too many extras can sabotage your good efforts.

When making a salad, try to add lots of vegetables, some protein -- like grilled chicken -- and use a vinaigrette dressing.

Vinaigrette dressings have fewer calories and fat than creamy dressings. An added bonus to the vinaigrette is that is spreads more evenly throughout the salad as compared to a thick creamy dressing.

Tiffiany Moore is a certified personal trainer and NANBF figure competitor. Read more at www.TrainerTiff.com. Questions or comments? E-mail trainertiff@hotmail.com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/trainertiff.