Appetizers / Soups / Salads

This is the basic salad I eat quite often. All it is, is lettuce, dressing spray, and the crunchies and chewies I like to add to make it more interesting. I can happily eat this salad as is, but often I will throw in other ingredients depending on what I have on hand and then track them separately.Like tomatoes, I only buy tomatoes when they are in good condition and reasonably affordable, which isn’t often anymore, but when I do have one I just slice it up on top of my salad. Same goes with meat, beans, cheese, peas and other vegetables. This salad is very flexible and changes with the seasons, and now I don’t have to track the dressing and crunchies separately. I like to add a ¼ cup of beans to up the fiber and potassium in my diet. Often I’ll have this with a sandwich, but if I don’t want the bread one day I will just toss the cheese or meat in the salad instead.I’m using honey mustard flavored spray dressing right now, but any flavor works just as well. Also instead of using spray dressing you can use regular dressing. A great tip on using regular dressing is to keep it off the salad and instead serve a little bit on the side and dip your fork in the dressing then spear your salad. That way you still get the taste without over-loading on the calories.I use any green leafy lettuce, the darker and fresher the better. Red or Green leaf, Romane, Spring Mix and in a pinch even bag lettuce but mostly not. Yuck. I’d rather find some other vegetable for lunch.I wash my lettuce carefully then spin it. I highly recommend a salad spinner for anyone who uses lettuce a lot. Once you have washed the leaves and torn them into bite size pieces you spin off the excess water. I then pour the water out of the bottom of the spinner bowl and replace the basket of lettuce and the lid and store it in my fridge. It lasts much longer like that for me than putting it in a lidded bowl. It keeps it hydrated and crisp and not sitting around in water. Once that is done I have clean lettuce handy and ready to use in salads and sandwiches for several days.I also assemble my salads fresh each day because when you mix up a salad and store it all mixed together it tends to spoil quicker.