Poll: Salads!. …Last poll from me today, I promise. 
I thought this might help some of the newcomers get creative ideas for shakin’ up plain old lettuce and veggies.
What are your favorite salads and/or salad toppings?
What kind of dressing do you like?
Do you usually eat your salad as an entire meal, or with something else?
big salads. So many choices!!
Mixed salad greens
Spinach
Reduced fat cheeses
feta, chedder, mozzarella
Garbanzo beans
Black beans
Corn
Salsa
Tuna
Turkey
Ham
Chicken breast
Hard boiled eggs
Slivered almonds
Pecans
Walnuts
Pine nuts
Cucumbers
Plum tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes
Radishes
Balsamic vinegar and olive oil
Fat free ranch dressing
BBQ sauce
Fat free blue cheese dressing
Wing Sauce
a fav of mine….. has been lettuce + lime juice + TJ’s thai chili cashews. (add chicken or the thai chili tuna for a bigger meal)
another fav has been lettuce + tomatoes + onions + chicken + lime juice + avocado
I prefer spinach over lettuce,. but when I eat a lettuce salad I like it with toasted walnuts, goat cheese, pear and vinaigrette.
That sounds delicious..
I love. all kinds of salads.
In my fridge right now, I have two big tupperware containers of lentil salad (black lentils, red onion, fat free feta, and balsamic vinegar mixed with a little Walden Farms ranch)
and a container of “ham” salad (minced turkey ham, pickle relish, and Lite mayo – 155 calories, 6.6g fat, 14g protein per serving)
I like to mix sweet/savory, and hot/cold on my salads. For instance, adding warm grilled asparagus with cold tomatoes, or sweet berries with onions and snap peas.
I’m also a big fan of fruit salads, but have to be careful with portion control on those. Those calories add up FAST.
Sunflower seeds(not in the shell of course!). very good on top instead of croutons.
I also love feta cheese, bosch pears, turkey, egg, chopped turkey bacon, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, red onions, red peppers, kalmata olives…
Now I’m hungry
Bah. Not even answering my own questions…
I have really taken to the Walden Farms line of dressings. I enjoy plain oil and vinegar as well, or just lemon juice. I’m a big fan of eating salads dry and just using the ingredients as the dressing (like cottage cheese)
The entire inspiration for this poll came from me logging my enormous lunch salad and seeing only 160 calories. It’s amazing how much food you can get for so little calories. So I’ll add an open-faced ‘ham’ salad sandwich to my lunch, I think. Usually I eat salads as an entire meal, but I guess I didn’t have enough fat/protein on this one.
Penzey’s also has amazing bases for. salad dressing to which you add vinegar and oil. Of course that’s what I use! Just thought I’d mention it for your next trip there
I saw those!!. I know, I am DYING to go back and try them. I think my friend wanted me to buy them so she could try them as well. I may have to make a bottle of dressing for her, too.
i like this poll!. I love cucumbers and some feta cheese on my salad. I love the crunch of the cucumber and the taste of the feta. mmmm.
I use to do light dressing until I realize I was just eating low calorie crap. I do either just red wine vinegar now or some olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar. Natural is the way to go!
I can never eat salad as my entire meal.. I would die without some carb cause it’s just that good. I usually eat a little side of brown rice with it if I’m eating salad for dinner.
agree on the light dressings, Bunny.. I didn’t start enjoying my salads until I quit eating the light dressings.
oh crap. I forgot cucumber, it’s one of my salad staples.
Me. I usually start with cabbage and lettuce or just spinach
toppings I like:
artichoke
peppers
onions
mushrooms
tomatos
black beans
feta
salsa
chicken
hard boiled eggs
I don’t know, I’m not super creative when it comes to my salads
oooh i love artichoke. in salads! and hard boiled eggs, I forgot about that, I love eggs in salad! great protein choice..
pizza salad!. I haven’t had it for a while, but I like a nice bed of spinach with black olives, vegetarian pepperoni, shredded lowfat mozzarella, red bell peppers, artichokes and red onion – all the things I love to put on pizza. I’m not a fan of dressings, but I’m sure a drizzle of olive oil mixed with some Italian seasoning would be good with it. This salad is definitely whole-meal worthy.
For Thanksgiving, I made a simple salad with spinach, radishes, tangerines, walnuts and blue cheese crumbles. For the dressing, I just squeezed some tangerine juice onto the spinach. The radishes gave the whole thing a spicy kick. I’ve been sort of dreaming of this salad lately. We had it as a dinner salad, but if you threw some protein on it (plain grilled chicken would probably be good) it could definitely stand on its own as a whole meal.
YUM. I think I am going to try my own version of this!
Spinach with feta, almonds, dried cranberries. and chicken
I’m not a huge fan of salads. I also will switch out the cranberries for some mandarin oranges.
Favorite is…..
is that from the Cooking Light recipe? §.
could be…. I’ve posted the basis before.
The dressing is the same recipe as the one you use, with the chick peas?
the spinach/red pepper/white bean salad? §.
This one. http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=434634
that’s it. I love that recipe! §.
My everyday go to is:. Romaine lettuce
sliced mushrooms
grilled eggplant
artichoke hearts
chick peas
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
ff italian dressing
I usually have it with a cup of soup or 1/2 a sandwich.
A salad I like. mix leafy salad greens with dry cole slaw (carrots, red and green cabbage). The cole slaw gives it a crunch. No or low fat dressing and a few raisins help. Purple onions if you like them. If the cabbage is sharp a package of Splenda over it helps.
i love salad as a meal, but i also tend. to make it as a side sometimes.
My favorite side salad is: romaine leaves with a lemon oil dressing topped with sliced raw mushrooms and some shaved parmesan.
the salad i make the most for meals goes something like this: whatever greens I choose, usually mesclun, topped with chopped grilled veggies (zucchini, mushrooms, onions, red bell peppers) then some chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and some goat cheese. I then top this with some chopped grilled veggie burger and serve tossed in my lemon mustard vinaigrette.
This salad is sooo good and filling and healthy. It’s one of my favorite dinners.
spinach & mixed greens, goat cheese, red onions. grape tomatoes, avocado, mushrooms, kalamata olives, and Annie’s Shitake and Sesame Vinegarette. I’ll throw some chicken in there if I have it.
And of course my modified salmon caeser, which basically means I throw a bunch of veggies on the salmon caesar I buy from the restaurant in my office building. The dressing is probably killer, but I eat it anyway because it’s so freaking good and I love it.
sarikakaajal@gmail.com. where do u work
Good Poll. My favorite salads are ones with a ton of different stuff in them. I don’t really like iceberg lettuce, so anything but that. I love spinach. My favorite salad topping are a variety of textures all combined – some favorites are beans, dry roasted edamame, carrots, cauliflower, craisins, anything really. I am not picky at all.
But I don’t like salad dressing!
I usually eat my salads as an entire meal if there’s a good protein in it like chicken or salmon or beans. If not, then I will eat something else with it (like soup or yogurt).
Still in the getting-to-know-you phase. in my relationship with salad.
The veggies, I have really started to enjoy, salads, still not so much. But I have not written them off yet. I am really trying to find a salad I enjoy. Thanks for the great post, all the answers were really helpful.
Two of my favs from a local eatery. Greens with Roasted Hazelnut w/Prosciutto, Apples & Pecorino Cheese
Greens with Grilled Portobello Salad with Roasted Tomato & Asparagus